The Impact of Remote Working Environment on Academicians’ Performance in Public Higher Education Institutions

Remote working or working from home (WFH) refers to employees performing their tasks from home or any location outside the traditional office. WFH is mostly related to work environment (WE) which encompasses the surrounding of how well someone performs in their job. It is enabled by modern technology such as the Internet, mobile networks, and video conferencing tools. This concept, also known as telecommuting or remote work, allows for flexibility in work hours and locations, which can lead to significant changes in how employees interact with their work and employers. Among the sectors significantly affected is higher education, where academic staff have been required to adapt to remote work and online teaching, leading to a range of emotions from apprehension to optimism. Alongside this transition, the need to acquire new competencies and upskills has emerged, presenting additional challenges that must be addressed. Utilizing a quantitative research design, data were collected from 220 academicians from Politeknik Mukah and UiTM Mukah represented samples in this study. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 was employed to examine all collected data and test the hypotheses. The WFH and WE were analyzed for its impact on job performance using regression analysis. At the same time, Mean differences in working from home and work environment were analyzed using a t-test. Based on the result, it reveals there has positive impact of WFH on academicians’ job performance in a moderate relationship. Meanwhile WE also have positive impact on academicians’ job performance but a weak relationship. This finding will assist the Ministry of Education generally and higher academic institutions specifically in taking actions and restructure the mode of teaching among the academicians.

Work from home, Work environment, Academicians, SPSS, Job performance

1. Abun, D., Nicolas, M. T., Apollo, E. P., Magallanes, T., & Encarnacion, M. J. (01, 2021). Employees’ self-efficacy and work performance of employees as mediated by work environment. SSRN Electronic Journal, 10(7). Retrieved from https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Al-Naabi, I., & Al-Shukaili, N. (2024). Working from home in higher education: A systematic review. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.53761/vn71sq54. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Denzer, M., & Grunau, P. (30 08, 2023). The impacts of working from home on individual health and well-being. Eur J Health Econ. doi:10.1007/s10198-023-01620-8. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Hair JR., J., Black, W., Babin, B., & Anderson, R. (2010). Multivariate Data Analysis (Vol. (7th ed.)). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Educational International. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Kamaruddin, N. M., & Mohd Zin, M. L. (2024). Insight of academicians’ job performance: Do transformational leadership, pay satisfaction and work environment matter? International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.806204. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Lojaina, A., Azlinzuraini, A. & Khatijah, O. (2023). The Impact of Working from Home on Employees’ Productivity in Higher Education Organization. Journal of Business and Social Development Volume 11 Number 2, September 2023: 47-63 eISSN: 2600-9668. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Moe, M. M., (2025), The Impact of Remote Work on Employee Job Satisfaction in the Digital Age, Master Thesis, Graduate School of Business Siam University, Thailand. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Nik Min, N. M. F., Abdullah Thani, A. K., Ishak, M. A. H., & Sakarji, S. R. (2024). Impact of work from home on job performance of lecturers in suburban areas of Peninsular Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Rowley, Jenny. (2014). Designing and using research questionnaires. Management Research Review, 37(3), 308–330. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-02-2013-0027. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Salkind, N. (2014). Exploring Research (Vol. 8). Boston, Mass: Pearson Education Limited. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Susilo, D. (29 09, 2020). Revealing the Effect of Work-From-Home on Job Performance during the Covid-19 Crisis: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, 26, 23-40. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Thani, A. K. A., Min, N. M. F. N., Sakarji, S. R., & Ishak, M. A. H. (2022). The influence of working from home on job performance among academicians in Kelantan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(4), 16–33. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i4/12334. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Ursachi, G., Horodnic, I. A., & Zait, A. (2015). How Reliable are Measurement Scales? External Factors with Indirect Influence on Reliability Estimators. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, 679–686. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Vaibhav, S. (2026), The Impact of Work from Home Culture on Employee Productivity and Job Satisfaction, International Research Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences 14(1):1-10 DOI: 10.55083/irjeas. 2026.v14i01001. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Zhenjing, G., Chupradit, S., Ku, K. Y., Nassani, A. A., & Haffar, M. (2022). Impact of Employees' Workplace Environment on Employees' Performance: A Multi-Mediation Model. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.890400. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Training Teachers for the New Pathways: Empowering Change through Inclusive, Innovative, and Sustainable Teacher Education in Africa