Empowering HRM practices and the role of leadership in New Ways of Working: Lessons for hybrid working

Although in recent decades many organizations have experimented with New Ways of Working (NWW), until recently little was known about the role of leadership in NWW and the impact on individual and team performance. This contribution describes the findings of a dissertation research project. The assumption of the dissertation research project was that in addition to self-leadership by employees, empowering HRM practices (time-spatial flexibility, professional autonomy, and access to knowledge via ICT) and formal and shared leadership may play a role. In the first part, a conceptual model has been developed that shows the role of these empowering HRM practices and leadership behavior in employees' proactive work-behavior, using self-determination theory and psychological empowerment as theoretical lenses. Subsequently, three empirical studies provided evidence for the role of professional autonomy and access to knowledge through ICT (but not for time-spatial flexibility) in stimulating proactive work-behavior. The implementation of NWW was not directly related to shared leadership, but it was associated with team proactivity. In addition to stimulating shared leadership through transformational leadership, hierarchical leaders can empower their employees, thereby reinforcing proactive workmbehaviors. In view of the rise of hybrid working during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, these insights have further gained importance.