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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1576926
This article is part of the Research Topic Affective and Behavioral Dynamics in Human-Technology Interactions of Industry 5.0 View all articles
Well-being in Telework: A Systematic Review of Leadership Competencies
Provisionally accepted- IDOCAL. Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain
In the context of Industry 5.0, organizations are experiencing significant changes in work arrangements, particularly through telework settings. Leaders face new challenges in reducing virtual distance, which also affects employee well-being in remote contexts. This systematic literature review examines empirical evidence on leadership competencies that promote teleworkers' well-being and analyzes the mechanisms and conditions under which these relationships occur. We analyzed 31 empirical articles (23 quantitative and eight qualitative) published between 2000 and 2024 following PRISMA guidelines. The review focused on research examining leadership competencies in telework contexts and their relationship with different dimensions of well-being (hedonic, eudaimonic, and health-related).The review identified five key leadership competencies positively related to teleworkers' wellbeing. These include competencies for reducing operational distance (digital communication and goal management) and affinity distance (supervisor support, work-life facilitation, and participative leadership). Work-to-family enrichment, autonomy, and trust emerged as mediating mechanisms. Leaders' emotional intelligence, digital skills, and employees' work-life segmentation preferences were identified as relevant boundary conditions. Discussion: While traditional leadership competencies remain important, they require substantial adaptation to reduce virtual distance and promote well-being in telework environments. The findings reveal gaps in current research, particularly regarding longitudinal studies and team-level outcomes. The results provide guidelines for developing leadership training programs that emphasize leaders' support, effective digital communication, and balanced goal management in telework contexts while considering specific mechanisms and contextual variables.
Keywords: Telework, Leadership, competencies, Well-being, Systematic review
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bravo-Duarte, Tordera and Rodríguez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Núria Tordera, IDOCAL. Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain
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