Hybrid Work Practices and Employee Productivity of MSMEs in Abuja, Nigeria (Published)
This research analyzed the effect of hybrid working arrangements on productivity among employees working in MSMEs in Abuja Nigeria. For guiding principles, the theory of Socio-Technical Systems was strongly grounded in both aim and methodology, which mainly constituted descriptive cross-sectional survey and quantitative data collection respectively. A population of 411 returned usable valid questionnaires, amongst which data analyses were carried out by means of descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation analysis, and multilinear regression. Both remote working intensity and digital collaboration infrastructure were proved to be positively correlated and statistically significant with the employee productivity generated. The regression further showed that the variables ‘remote work intensity’ and ‘collaboration infrastructure’ had a positive significant effect on employee productivity at 5% significance level. Specifically, the strength of remote work intensity was uttermost in its account for 87.8% variation in employee productivity in hybrid work practices, followed by the effect exerted by digital collaboration infrastructure. On the contrary, although bivariate relationships showed a positive correlation between hybrid coordination and managerial support and productivity; the effect size was numerically insignificant; once the full model was carried out, hybrid coordination bore no effect (B = . 0101, p = . 678). The overall Math model was significantly significant at F(3, 407) = 973.343, while it explained 87.8% of the variations seen in employee productivity. Therefore, hybrid work enhancing productivity in MSMEs in Abuja strongly depends primarily on the adjustment of remote work intensity and the provision of strong digital collaboration platforms, while managerial support seems to play an impotent uncle in an indirect manner. The study recommends that MSME owners and managers prioritize the design of the hybrid work, the supportive digital collaboration environment, and the supervision system contextualization in facilitating prolonged productivity improvements.
Keywords: Employee Productivity, MSMEs., digital collaboration infrastructure, hybrid work practices, managerial support, remote work intensity