Although Quality of Life (QoL) has been investigated, not many have included religion as part of it. As Malaysia prioritizes “Beliefs in God” as the first pillar of the country, this study examines the relationship between autonomy and workplace facilities in remote work context and employees' quality of life (QoL), with a specific focus on religiosity, as well as mental and physical wellbeing, underpin by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory A quantitative, cross-sectional survey approach was used, with data obtained from 77 remote-working employees at an educational institution in Malaysia. Spearman's rho correlation study found a positive relationship between workplace facilities and job autonomy across all three QoL categories. Job autonomy exhibited the largest relationships, notably with religiosity and mental well-being, indicating the importance of flexibility and control in remote work settings. Thus, organizations can improve remote working employees’ well-being by recognizing spiritual well-being as a relevant component of QoL and emphasizing the relevance of inclusive, ergonomic, and autonomy-supportive remote work environments
Abu-Raiya, H., Pargament, K. I., & Krause, N. (2016). Religion as problem, religion as solution: Religious buffers of the links between religious/spiritual struggles and well-being/mental health. Quality of Life Research, 25(5), 1265–1274.
Agarwal, S. (2024). The profound impact of virtual communication technologies on team collaboration in the contemporary work environment. International Journal of Embedded Systems & Emerging Technologies, 10(1), 45–60.
Akhter, S. (2019). Stress in the Muslim population: Can critical thinking, coping skills, and resilience help [Doctoral dissertation, Spalding University].
Allen, T. D., Golden, T. D., & Shockley, K. M. (2015). How effective is telecommuting? Assessing the status of our scientific findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(2), 40–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615593273
Apergis, E., Markoulakis, A., & Apergis, I. (2024). Spirituality, religiosity, stress, working from home and gender amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Management Research Review, 47(2), 298–326.
Aqtam, I., Ayed, A., & Zaben, K. (2023). Quality of life: Concept analysis. [Journal name not provided].
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands?resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
Balboni, T. A., VanderWeele, T. J., Doan-Soares, S. D., Long, K. N., Ferrell, B. R., Fitchett, G., ... & Koh, H. K. (2022). Spirituality in serious illness and health. JAMA, 328(2), 184–197.
Beckel, J. L. O., & Fisher, G. G. (2022). Telework and worker health and well-being: A review and recommendations for research and practice. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), 3879. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063879
Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., & Ying, Z. J. (2015). Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), 165–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju032
Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020). Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research, 116, 183–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.037
Chang, R. (2024). The impact of employees’ health and well-being on job performance. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 29, 372–378.
Davis, K. G., Kotowski, S. E., Daniel, D., Gerding, T., Naylor, J., & Syck, M. (2020). The home office: Ergonomic lessons from the “new normal.” Ergonomics in Design, 28(4), 4–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1064804620937907
De Vincenzi, C., Pansini, M., Ferrara, B., Buonomo, I., & Benevene, P. (2022). Consequences of COVID-19 on employees in remote working: Challenges, risks, and opportunities—An evidence-based literature review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(18), 11672. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811672
Doargajudhur, M., Hosanoo, Z., & Huzooree, G. (2024). Relationship between remote working and work outcomes of constantly connected BYOD knowledge workers. In Impact of teleworking and remote work on business: Productivity, retention, advancement, and bottom line (pp. 117–150). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-9652-8.ch006
Drewniak, Z., Go?dziewska-Nowicka, A., & S?upska, U. (2023). The influence of remote work on ergonomics and work satisfaction. Scientific Papers of Silesian University of Technology. Organization & Management, 178, 205–220.
EM, M. G., & Rajamannar, N. (2024). Spiritual practices in the workplace and its impact on quality of work life among IT employees with special reference to Ernamakulam District. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice, 30(5), 7808–7818.
Fitriyani, E. N. (2018). The influence of transformational leadership, work environment, and religiosity toward employee loyalty of IAIN Salatiga. Muqtasid: Jurnal Ekonomi dan Perbankan Syariah, 9(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.18326/muqtasid.v9i1.29-38
Franco, P. F., & D’Abundo, M. L. (2023). Turned on or off by telework? Perceptions of quality of life while working from home in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 8(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/12848
Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self?determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 331–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322
Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524–1541. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524
Hedge, A. (2016). Ergonomic workplace design for health, wellness, and productivity. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b19114
Heidarimoghadam, R., Mohammadfam, I., Babamiri, M., Soltanian, A. R., Khotanlou, H., & Sohrabi, M. S. (2022). What do the different ergonomic interventions accomplish in the workplace? A systematic review. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 28(1), 600–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2020.1814969
Johari, J., Yean Tan, F., & Tjik Zulkarnain, Z. I. (2018). Autonomy, workload, work-life balance and job performance among teachers. International Journal of Educational Management, 32(1), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2016-0226
Malaysia TalentCorp. (n.d.). Garis panduan aturan kerja fleksibel. Retrieved from https://www.talentcorp.com.my/resources/publications/garis-panduan-aturan-kerja-fleksibel
Oakman, J., Kinsman, N., Stuckey, R., Graham, M., & Weale, V. (2020). A rapid review of mental and physical health effects of working at home: How do we optimise health? BMC Public Health, 20, Article 1825. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09875-z
Ogbu, A. D., Ozowe, W., & Ikevuje, A. H. (2024). Remote work in the oil and gas sector: An organizational culture perspective. GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 20(1), 188–207. https://doi.org/10.30574/gscarr.2024.20.1.0180
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Surma, M. J., Nunes, R. J., Rook, C., & Loder, A. (2021). Assessing employee engagement in a post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem. Sustainability, 13(20), 11443. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011443
Theurer, C. P., Tumasjan, A., & Welpe, I. M. (2018). Contextual work design and employee innovative work behavior: When does autonomy matter? PLOS ONE, 13(10), e0204089. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204089
Wang, B., Liu, Y., Qian, J., & Parker, S. K. (2021). Achieving effective remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic: A work design perspective. Applied Psychology, 70(1), 16–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12290
Wang, X. (2024). Trends in sedentary behavior and its health impacts among office workers in Shanghai. Studies in Sports Science and Physical Education, 2(4), 6–12.
Zhang, W., Jex, S. M., Peng, Y., & Wang, D. (2017). Exploring the effects of job autonomy on engagement and creativity: The moderating role of performance pressure and learning goal orientation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32, 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9448-x
Zimmer, Z., Jagger, C., Chiu, C. T., Ofstedal, M. B., Rojo, F., & Saito, Y. (2016). Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review. SSM–Population Health, 2, 373–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.04.009
Yahya, M. W. Bin, Hassan, Z., Bandar, N. F. A., & Kasa, M. (2025). The Relationship between Autonomy and Workplace Facilities and Quality of Life in Remote Work Context. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 15(10), 529–542.
Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
