Objective. Hybrid and remote work arrangements have become more common in recent years. Those work arrangements have presented both bright and dark sides, posing diverse challenges for leaders who must now manage a more dispersed workforce through digital communication. Physical distance and the need to adapt leadership digitally require leaders to update their competencies and skills in this context, contributing to a committed, productive, and healthy workforce. Improvement of digitalized leadership competences for hybrid and remote work management might be a key to that purpose. Departing from the Leadership Competences for Telework model, in the present research, we analyze how improvements in leaders' competences for telework are related to improvements in the quality of working life of followers.
Methods. The study included data from 432 hybrid and remote workers, 52,2% male and 47.8% female, aged 19 to 68 years (M = 35.4, SD = 9.3). A longitudinal design was used, with repeated measures collected at two different time points (T1 and T2) separated by two to four months using an online survey. SPSS 29 was used for data analysis.
Results. Results show that positive changes in leadership competencies for telework between T1 and T2 were positively related to changes in employees' perceptions of autonomy and social support, as well as positive affect.
Conclusion. The findings suggest that when leaders enhance their competencies for managing telework, their team members experience a better teleworking experience, characterized by greater support, increased autonomy, and positive affect. Therefore, strengthening leaders' skills and competencies is essential to enhancing employees' quality of working life in telework settings.