Remote Work and Work Flexibility on Employee’s Commitment in Small and Medium Size Enterprises: A Study in the Context of the Sociopolitical Crisis in Cameroon

Abstract

Small and medium size enterprises in Cameroon are gaining wide spread acceptance as viable drivers of economic growth. Organizational remote work therefore constitutes the cornerstone in human resource management to enhance organizational commitment as well as retain employees in Cameroonian organizations particularly during the time of the socio-political crisis. This paper examines the influence of remote work on employee commitment in SMEs during the socio-political crisis in Cameroon. In this research, a descriptive research design was used. This study targeted 150 small and medium size organisations in the North West and south west region of Cameroon. To analyze the collected data the descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used, the data collected were analyzed by means of the principal component analysis and the OLS method using SPSS version 20. This research established that remote work strategy and work flexibility positively affects the commitment of employees of SMEs in Cameroon with regard to the prevailing socio-political crisis. This study reveals that the effectiveness of flexible work schedules has a positive impact to commitment of employees during crisis. We thus suggested that managerial teams should employ optimal remote work and flexible work policy in the enterprises, in an attempt to create a satisfactory business climate.