Hybrid Work and Employee Productivity: The Mediating Role of Workforce Agility in Indian Service Firms

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the connection between hybrid work arrangement structures and employee productivity within the Indian services industry, using the mediating variable of the flexible workforce. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the view that work design and digital collaboration shape how employees respond to change, the paper proposes that hybrid work influences productivity by strengthening workforce agility (adaptability, responsiveness, learning orientation, and proactive problem-solving). The study uses primary survey data collected from employees working in hybrid roles across Indian service organizations. The proposed mediation model is tested using regression/SEM-based mediation analysis with appropriate controls (e.g., age, tenure, role type, and level of hybrid intensity). Results - The paper proposes that hybrid work practices are expected to have a positive link with employee productivity and that workforce agility is expected to significantly mediate this link. That is, hybrid work practices are expected to provide greater productivity benefits when these practices help service firm employees remain flexible and work cooperatively and efficiently in both online and offline settings and adapt quickly and rapidly to varying demands from their clients and other assignments instead of just changing their workplace. Research constraints/significance - Since cross-sectional and self-reported research is being employed here, causal hypotheses might not hold and hence results might change when service sub-sectors are taken into consideration. Research contributions - This study provides one distinct mechanism-based explanation for hybrid work and offers future research studies an important platform to investigate hybrid work using longitudinal research approaches and objective measures and multiple datasets. Practice and consequences - Organizations must go past mere office day demographics and instead focus on crafting hybrid work arrangements deliberately so that service firm workforce agility is strengthened via obvious and distinct pathways like clear-cut goals, online feedback, and job autonomy, and offline team coordination. Improving agility might thus help service organizations capitalize more on flexibility and hence increase their employee productivity on a consistent basis. Originality and significance - By marking workforce agility as an important mediator or mechanism between hybrid work and employee productivity in Indian service organizations, here, theoretical, and practical contributions are provided by proposing an important explanation of when and why hybrid work practices bring better productivity benefits to organizations at large.