Original title: An Integrative Multidimensional Conceptualization of Telework Behavior: A Systematic Review and Grounded Theory Approach
Sahar Babaei, Saeed Nosratabadi, Thabit Atobishi, Sahar Abu Bakir · September 2026
Working remotely has grown quickly, but we need a clear picture of what people actually do when teleworking. To figure this out, researchers analyzed 114 review articles to build a model of remote work behaviors. Their framework shows that telework behavior acts as the bridge connecting work conditions to final results for workers and companies. They found six main types of behavior: performance, communication, environmental, task, policy, and well-being actions. Various background factors shape these behaviors, while choices like work style, personal preferences, and culture change how they operate. These actions then influence job satisfaction, output, health, and work-life balance. Finally, the researchers suggested fourteen testable ideas to help organizations design better training, policies, and workplace interventions.
Imagine you're packing a suitcase for a trip where the weather, activities, and luggage restrictions keep changing. You have to decide what to bring, but the decision depends on factors you don't yet know, and each choice affects others. In this paper, telework behavior is like that suitcase: it isn't one decision but many small choices about communication, tasks, environment, well-being, policies, and performance. The antecedents (like personality or technology) are the trip details that influence packing, and the outcomes (like satisfaction or loneliness) are how the trip turns out.
For employees and managers navigating remote work, this framework provides a clear map of what telework behavior actually includes — from communication habits to managing work-life boundaries. Organizations can use these six dimensions to design better training, track the right outcomes, and avoid one-size-fits-all policies. It shifts the conversation from 'does telework work?' to 'which telework behaviors matter most?'
The propositions are advanced as testable claims rather than established findings, since they are derived from published review evidence and have not been empirically tested. The framework is a synthesis of existing reviews, not original empirical data, so its specific causal pathways need validation.
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An Integrative Multidimensional Conceptualization of Telework Behavior: A Systematic Review and Grounded Theory Approach — Sahar Babaei, Saeed Nosratabadi, Thabit Atobishi et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.