Introduction: Lack of time, management support, insufficient facilitates, workload balance, and culture are often reported as common barriers to physical activity (PA) participation in the workplace. In comparison, identifying facilitators of PA in the workplace are scarce. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to overcoming the barriers may also be unsuccessful within university settings where multidisciplinary workforce exists due to the heterogeneity nature of job roles. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the perceived barriers and facilitators of PA of university employees who were classified as active or inactive based on their job roles. Methods: Forty-one employees  participated in focus groups to discuss their perceived barriers and facilitators to PA in the workplace. Participants were categorised based on their PA levels as active and inactive prior analysing the semi-structured focus groups data via using thematic analysis. Results and Discussion: The results showed that a lack of time was reported by 80% of the participants as a barrier to PA, including 63% inactive and 17% of the active participants. This included 27% administrators’ staff, 23% academics, 19% senior management, and 11% professional service staff. Over 75% participants reported a lack of management support as one of the perceived barriers to their PA engagement in the workplace. Approximately 58% also reported workplace culture as a barrier to PA participation. Open access to a gym on campus was perceived to be the main facilitator to engaging in PA in the future. Similarly, increased management support for engaging in PA and having flexibility during working days were perceived as facilitators for PA engagement and a way to reduced sedentary behaviour in the workplace. Conclusions: These findings contribute to the limited literature in terms of evaluating obstacles and facilitators of university employees to encourage engagement with PA in the workplace. These findings can be applied to form PA, health, and wellbeing-related interventions specifically targeting these identified barriers that are experienced in the workplace and thereby potentially reducing absenteeism and increasing productivity. Participating in regular physical activity (PA) has been reported to aid in the prevention of many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, colon cancer, hypertension, and musculoskeletal disorders ,2,3,4. PResearch also suggested that workplaces supporting PA, health and wellbeing programmes observed benefit in various ways, including improved productivity, higher staff retention, greater loyalty, and reduced sickness absences . HoweverPromoting PA levels in the workplace is pertinent because employees spend approximately 60–70% of their waking hours in the workplace, with over 75% of this time spent being sedentary ,13,14. IFollowing an institutional ethical approval, participants were recruited via an opportunistic sample using those who had participated in earlier studies of a broader piece of research from a UK higher education institution (university workplace) ,33. FromActivity categorisation was based on previous studies where participants completed the International Physical Activity Long Form Questionnaire (IPAQ-LF), wore an ActiGraph for a whole week and were deemed active if they had met the WHO PA guidelines of achieving at least 150 min of MVPA . InactivCategorising participants into groups according to their PA levels was vital. It provided an opportunity to compare active and inactive employees to explore differences and reduced potential bias in responses provided. Analysing the perceptions from these two separate groups may provide a comprehensive insight into the actual barriers and facilitators that this population is facing that is not influenced by the experience of the other group. Participants were not informed specifically about their PA coding category for the purpose of this study.A qualitative method was applied, as this was deemed a suitable approach for understanding employees’ lived experiences and identifying perceived barriers and potential facilitators to PA. The adoption of focus groups was done specifically to aid comparing active and inactive individuals’ barriers to PA and support the sampling size. Utilising a focus group approach, as opposed to individual interviews, may have influenced a sense of camaraderie in the group. Previous research proposed that a focus group is an enjoyable experience and provide an opportunity for individuals to hear others’ perceptions regarding the same issue ,35. SevePrevious research also suggests that focus groups are appropriate in settings where power differences exist between participants and decision makers, mainly when daily use of language and culture of the under-researched population is of interest and requires exploring organised issues . This apA minimum of five employees participated in each focus group in accordance with previous literature . The usePrevious research suggested the importance of pilot studies in general but piloting in qualitative research is limited ,41,42. TThe semi-structured focus group data were analysed using thematic analysis (TA). The focus groups were transcribed verbatim, checked, and coded according to the framework by . TA aimsDuring the focus groups, the questions were introduced one by one to receive an adequate response from participants. The lead researcher moderated the conversation and used prompts for clarity or requests for further information when required as per previous research . Taking This section reports the results and discussion explicitly relating to the shared barriers and facilitators for active and inactive participants , followeRegarding the general barriers, 80% of the participants, including 63% inactive and 17% active groups, reported lack of time as a barrier to PA engagement. This includes around 27% of administration staff, 23% academic staff, 19% senior management, and 11% professional services staff. It is also worth noting that 67% of female employees who participated in this study reported lack of time being a barrier to their PA participation. Lack of time was the commonly reported barrier to PA participation between employees across job roles too, which could be due to their perceived or actual workload. The present findings support previous research regarding lack of time being a commonly reported barrier to PA engagement . MoreoveForty one percent of the participants suggested family as a barrier to their PA engagement. This included 29% of inactive and 12% active participants. In total, 15% of academics, 11% administrator staff, 10% professional services staff, and 5% senior management outlined family as barrier to PA engagement. This was particularly salient for female participants, with 70% reporting this as a significant barrier. The present findings support previous research suggesting that family burden, particularly childcare responsibilities, preventing them from engaging in PA ,54. Univ“I live an hour and a half away from work; I stay 2–3 nights away from home every week because I am away most of the week, so when I go home, I try to spend as much time with family/children as possible and most of that time is spent sitting because I am tired, and this affects my family/children too”(Administrator staff).This barrier may negatively impact employees PA engagement, health, or wellbeing and influence family and children’s lifestyle. For instance, family support is essential for an active and healthy lifestyle, and this is evident in the previous research suggesting that family/parental support found to be helping family/children meeting the PA and health behaviour guidelines, such as reduced screen time and vegetable consumption ,56. PrevRegarding the workplace barriers to PA, approximately 58% of the participants reported workplace culture as a barrier to PA participation. This included 26% of administrators, 18% professional services, 9% academics and 5% senior management staff. Thirty-seven percent of the inactive participants and 21% of the active participants reported this theme. Moreover, over 75% of the participants reported lack of management support as one of the perceived barriers to their PA engagement in the workplace. This was particularly salient in the inactive participants (67%) and female participants (63%). Additionally, 51% suggested that short lunch breaks and adequate flexibility were barriers to their PA Participation. This appeared to be particularly salient for administrator’ staff (25%) in comparison to 19% professional services, 5% senior management, and 2% academics. The present findings are similar to previous research suggesting that physical inactivity culture and lack of flexibility are barriers to PA engagement in a typical workplace . Univers“If flexibility was there, for example, we can stay until late or leave early to attend the exercise classes would be really appreciated”(Administrator staff).“Depends on your role whether you got that flexibility. The staff need to have flexibility. I think staff need a flexible approach”.“I would be able to take a long enough break to have a swimming session”(Senior lecturer).Of the 85% participants, 63% inactive and 22% active reported lack of resources as a barrier to PA participation in the workplace. Employees stated that changing facilities, including showers, were inadequate. Participants suggested that if staff had an active commute to work  then they would need appropriate facilities to then commence the working day, and without the facilities, it was a demotivator to participation. The number of staff and students at this university means there is a real need for appropriate facilities if PA is to be promoted. Overall, the lack of facilities appeared to be one of the common barriers across all participants. This may be one of the critical barriers preventing employees from choosing a healthy and active lifestyle in the workplace, as illustrated below. “I think the university of any size have decent sports and shower facilities. Our university with 25000+ students and around 2000 staff, and we have one shower at the City Centre campus. Surely something needs to be done about this, because look if there is no sports and exercise facilities and no showers, I mean yeah, it’s a real struggle. Yes, I exercise outside of the Uni because there are no facilities here or when I cycle or walk to work, I am soaked (sweating), and I need to have a shower. There is one shower, and that’s on the 3rd floor, and that really puts me off”.Whilst facilities have been identified as a barrier to PA engagement, the participants reported some specific facilitators linked to resources. This included having open access to a gym on campus, which may overcome employees’ barriers to PA. Staff would be more likely to be motivated, and this would lead them to engage in PA/exercise if access to resources were provided such as open access to gym onsite. This was reported by 33% of the administrators, 29% of professional services, 21% of academics, and 7% senior management. Additionally, over 65% of the total participants (53% inactive and 12% active) perceived that activities including dancing, yoga, walking, running, and competitive sports would facilitate their engagement in regular PA in the workplace. Some quotations from employees as examples are illustrated below: “We were under the impression that there would be a gym, but it never happened. Someone needs to be an entrepreneur and open a gym on campus, and I think it will do well. I joined a gym near my house, and it is another university’s gym, as we don’t have anything like it here, so university here needs to open a gym”(Associate professor).“The University invested a lot of money on Doug Ellis, but now everybody is relocating, and it’s a shame that nothing like that is brought down here (Edgbaston campus). Staff and students would really appreciate a gym with easy access near here (City Centre campus). I think a gym would make the university more attractive as well”(Administrator staff).“I am really confused like we have a brand-new building, but there isn’t a gym for staff or students, I mean, that is ridiculous. Other small colleges and universities have a gym, and why can’t we have it here on Campus”(Assistant lecturer).Previous research has discussed the efficacy of providing walking clubs, gym access, and activities ranging from dancing, yoga, counselling, and nutrition. The findings suggest that access to a gym and walking clubs effectively improved PA engagement in the workplace ,63. In aA shared recommendation from active and inactive groups suggested that participant universities need to consider a flexible policy and allow employees longer breaks or work from home to promote PA engagement as illustrated below: “I think you need more than 30 min break. We tend to be in academic services our hours are set like 9-5 and have 30 min lunch, and you can’t do PA in 30 min of break, this workplace is not flexible, and even if we had a flexible policy like working from home, sometimes this will help most staff go for a walk or do some sort of activity at home”.“If this university was flexible and allowing us to be away from the desk for longer or work from home at least two days a week, it would help many staff do more PA”(Administrator staff).p > 0.05), and surprisingly, sitting time was recorded higher on days when staff worked from home  compared to in office . Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic led around 88% of organisations globally implementing home-based working leading to an unprecedented transition into a sedentary working lifestyle [The need for flexibility was proposed by 46% of participants. This includes 33% of the inactive groups and 13% of active groups, with 37% female participants suggesting this need. In this study, not having sufficient flexibility was more of a barrier to females than males, and this is not only related to the workplace but also to the families. For instance, this was particularly relevant for female participants, with 70% reporting family as barriers to PA participation because of the perceived family commitments, including childcare responsibilities restricting them from being active. Previous research evaluated the impact of flexible working policies on employees, such as working from home and the subsequent impact on PA levels and sedentary behaviour . The resifestyle . TherefoIn total, 35% of participants in the active group, including 15% academics, 13% professional services, and 7% administrator’ staff, suggested that road safety was a barrier to their participation in PA. The current findings support previous research where road safety has been highlighted as one of the barriers to PA as individuals feared for their health and safety due to lack of cycling routes in the United Kingdom ,67.“I started cycling but there isn’t a safe route for cycles, and I wouldn’t start again until there is safe roads because I know how bad people drive”(Assistant lecturer).The aspects that would further facilitate PA in the workplace active group individuals included personal factors such as perceived enjoyment (45%) and adopting a positive attitude towards PA (25%). Some participants suggested that they are using weekends to exercise to compensate for their workplace weekly sedentary behaviour. This shows that employees can be self-motivated and have a positive attitude to PA when they have time and autonomy. As highlighted by self-determination theory, the three main requirements for human beings are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. One of the critical necessities for a human is autonomy, such as being self-directed or being in control . When in“I run, and I enjoy it and I been doing it for two and half years, and I am happy to continue doing it, but if I miss it, I miss it, and I miss it mentally”(Senior lecture).When an individual identifies being physically active as a favourable substitute for being sedentary, it is regarded as the counter conditioning process, which could lead to self-re-evaluation in self-re-appraisal, such as that their sedentary behaviour in the workplace is making them feel disappointed . This behaviour can lead to the maintenance stage of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), which may yield a healthy and active lifestyle . MoreoveThis group also suggested a range of barriers preventing them from engaging in PA. For instance, 90% of inactive participants including 37% administrator staff, 26% academics, 23% professional services and 4% senior management reported that they have an inactive commute to work and perceived this as a barrier to their PA participation. Overall, 73% of female employees reported an inactive commute to the workplace. Participants choosing inactive commute could be due to the distance, lack of education or lack of time, as reported being the key perceived barriers to PA engagement in this study. Educating or being aware of the health and wellbeing benefits related to active commute may lead people to choose an active or a combination of active commute to the workplace. Previous research compared active and inactive commuters and concluded that people who were aware of the associated benefits of active commutes reported positive effects on mood states, energy level, better health, and enhanced productivity compared to inactive commuters . Hence, “I commute to work in the car, and then I try to find a car park space near my office, so I don’t have to walk much”(senior management).Moreover, environment was reported as a barrier by 42% of the inactive participants, including 27% of females and 21% in professional services, 13% administrators, 5% academics, and 3% senior management staff. Workplace or community sectors providing opportunities for individuals to engage in PA are regarded as supportive environments, playing a positive role in encouraging active behaviour. However, an unsupportive environment, including fear for safety, is regarded as intermediated, leads to inactive behaviour, and is considered a barrier to PA participation. Recent research suggested that individuals working or residing in an environment in which PA is regarded as necessary are more likely to perceive fewer barriers to PA, hence engaging in regular PA compared to those in an environment where PA is not a social norm .“There are canals to run, and I been there with my students, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a male or female. It’s pretty intermediated, and there are security issues with the canals; it’s not a fantastic place to go there, especially alone”(Senior lecturer).Tiredness, busy lifestyle, costs, lack of like-minded people, and workplace pressure were also reported as perceived barriers to PA participation amongst this population. Tiredness was reported as a perceived barrier to PA by approximately 71%, including 37% of male and 34% of female employees. Being too tired to participate in PA was similarly observed within this population regardless of their gender. This could be due to workplace pressure, busy lifestyle, and participants not being surrounded by like-minded individuals such as colleagues and family/friends to encourage PA participation either within or outside of the workplace. The current findings align with previous research suggesting that sensitivity to work colleagues’ behaviour may well reflect a broader need to be perceived as a barrier to PA participation ,77.“I went for a walk with colleagues once and yeah there weren’t many likeminded people, and I didn’t go again”(lecturer).The cost of PA was also reported as a particular barrier for the inactive employees (62%), especially by females (69%), administrators (31%), and professional services (54%) compared to academics (31%) and senior management (15%). This could be due to their salary differences that academics and senior management typically tend to be on a larger scale than other job roles. Previous research has suggested an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and PA participation, as people from higher SES tend to be more physically active compared to the those of lower SES ,79,80. T“Yeah, the cost is a big one for me. I used to swim once a week, but I can’t anymore, and there aren’t like-minded people to go with, and my family isn’t here. I am tired after work as well, so yeah, I mean that affect my motivation to go all the way to another university and use their swimming pool”.Although the participant university has an affiliated membership for staff to use another university’s exercise facilities at a discounted rate, most of the employees appeared not to have engaged with this opportunity because of the cost.“Well, the cost is a big factor when I go to the swimming, although I have the associated thing in Aston pool it does bring the cost down but still it’s not cheap, and I don’t think I can subscribe to a long term because I don’t know if I can commit to it cost-wise as well as because of all the other reasons we just mentioned”(Lecture).The present findings align with previous research suggesting that people from lower SES reported lack of PA engagement . As detaApproximately 76% of participants in this group suggested that having autonomy would facilitate their PA engagement, and 67% suggested that having a protected time for exercising in the workplace would help them engage in PA behaviours. This was particularly salient for the administrative and professional services . Moreover, participants suggested that protected time would help them move away from their desks and be more active. This university had entry passes for the ‘Botanical Garden’, which might be used for 15–20 min of a day, but these could only be utilised if the staff are encouraged to move away from their desks.“It’s too tempted to sit at a desk and have lunch. It’s simple rather than get out at lunchtime and walk is too difficult. If there were a protective time to exercise, that would have been helpful; even having passed to the Botanical Garden for 15–20 min walking in a garden would actually help a lot. However, that time has to be protective so staff can freely move away from their desk without worrying”(Lecturer).“There should be some protective time during the day if staff wanted to do some exercise or something else that would help them refresh”(Senior management).This could be outlined by the SDT, which examines a range of phenomena that motivate people to act ,83. For “I don’t have that freedom to go and do some exercise when I want as we tend to be in academic services and our hours are kind of set you do kind of 9-5, so if there were some freedoms during my working hours I would exercise”.Staff recognising and suggesting ways that may help them change from sedentary to active behaviour demonstrates they are thinking about the change. Hence, they might be in the contemplation or preparation stage of the TTM and may need supportive interventions to help them move into the active phase of behaviour change. Moreover, as the SEM suggests, policies, rules, management, and overall working environment influence employees behaviour and attitudes towards their health and wellbeing . PreviouThis study found its strengths in obtaining insight into the barriers and facilitators of PA behaviours from university employees’ perspectives in according to their PA levels between job roles and genders. However, this study is not without limitations, including not exploring participants’ education levels, ethnicity, and age, which might have influenced their perceptions. Despite the limitations, the current findings provide meaningful and transferable results regarding the under-researched population’s barriers and facilitators to PA behaviour in the workplace.This study aimed to understand the barriers to and potential identified facilitators of PA from university employees’ perspectives. As indicated, individuals in management positions do not take time out for lunch, and lack of management support was stated as one of the main barriers between job roles and genders preventing staff from engaging in PA. This demonstrates the unhealthy behaviour led by the senior management that also shows the unhealthy workplace culture in the participants university in this study. The unhealthy culture may negatively impact employees’ PA behaviour, retention, productivity, sickness absence, job satisfaction, and long-term health and wellbeing. To facilitate PA engagement, a comprehensive approach is needed to accommodate PA in the workplace for different job roles and genders, starting from senior management. The outcome of this study suggests that future research must focus on comprehensive interventions to promote active lifestyle workplace culture. Future research must also focus on providing educational, motivational, and informative interventions concerning the importance of engaging in PA, its effect on health, wellbeing, and the alternative ways to engage in PA whilst at work.Having access to gym onsite, various activity classes such as walking, and sport-related competitions would be beneficial and may serve as a facilitator and contribute to employees’ PA behaviour. Additionally, management support and having flexibility in the workplace are considered key barriers, and having a protected time of 15–20 min for PA engagement may help employees engage in active workplace behaviour. This study identified generalisable and specific barriers and facilitators from university staff perception about PA engagement in the workplace. The findings contribute to the scarce literature in terms of evaluating barriers and facilitators in the workplace. The present findings can inform future practices such as PA, sedentary behaviour, health, and wellbeing-related interventions aiming to reach university employees and the broader working environment. The current findings provide meaningful and transferable results regarding university employees barriers and facilitators to PA behaviour in the workplace. These outcomes can be applied to design PA, sedentary behaviours, health, and wellbeing interventions for the under-research population in the workplace.


Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs) substantially impact the lives of patients, with complex associations between disease severity and self-perceived health status. In this regard, the Coping with Rheumatic Stressors (CORS) questionnaire was developed to measure how patients with RMDs cope with stressors such as pain, limitations or dependency. The CORS is not currently available in Spanish, and therefore the adaptation of this instrument is needed.First, to cross-culturally adapt the CORS into Spanish for Spain. Secondly, to test the conceptual equivalence of the translated version in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).A translation of the CORS into Spanish was performed adhering to the forward-backward procedure described by Beaton. Two translators produced independent forward translations of the item content, response options, and instructions of the CORS into Spanish. Both versions were harmonized in a consensual version. Another translator back-translated the synthesized version into Dutch. A scientific committee including all the translators, one methodologist and a rheumatologist, held a meeting and reached consensus on discrepancies to develop a final draft version of the Spanish CORS. Then, a field test with cognitive debriefing was conducted, involving a sample of 10 patients with axSpA.The translation process of the CORS was completed after the discussion of some discrepancies throughout the process. The first translation was done without major complications. Back-translation presented some discrepancies. These led to minor modifications in the wording in one response option and 15 questionnaire items. The scientific committee agreed upon a final version of the questionnaire. Cognitive debriefing, led to minor modifications; for example, three respondents indicated that one of the statements in the instructions was syntactically complex (“indique cuán a menudo usted ha llevado a cabo dicho comportamiento”) which led to its adjustment. The process indicated that the final CORS Spanish questionnaire was clear and understandable to all patients.The Spanish version of the CORS showed good cross-cultural validity and good face validity according to the field test. Before the Spanish CORS is implemented, further validation is in progress to test the psychometric properties of the instrument in patients with axSpA.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41687-023-00557-z. Rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) are a heterogeneous group of conditions that affect bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide  These di“Coping” refers to the cognitive and behavioral strategies an individual employs to manage the specific difficulties associated with daily life and their disease . Coping . [Among the RMDs, axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is one of the most relevant diseases associated with chronic stressors, as it may heavily affect functioning in young age through the impairment of spinal mobility and limitations in daily activities . This ne.  identifi. . NonetheThe Coping with Rheumatic Stressors (CORS) questionnaire assesses coping methods for the three main chronic stressors of rheumatic diseases—pain, limitations, and dependency. It was initially developed and validated in Dutch specifically in rheumatoid arthritis, before being validated in axSpA , 13. WhiThe purpose of the current study is first, to translate and cross-culturally adapt the CORS into Spanish for Spain and secondly, to assess the translated version in patients with axSpA.Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the CORS into Spanish for Spain followed current international recommendations according to the Beaton method . This waThe CORS is an arthritis specific 61-item self-reported questionnaire which assesses eight coping strategies directed at the most relevant stressors in inflammatory rheumatic diseases . It contThe version used for translation was the original Dutch CORS . Two bilThe scientific committee, including the two translators, convened an online consensus meeting. The informed and uninformed translations were compared, and a consensus version was created by harmonizing the two translations, after assessing and discussing the differences between the two versions. A written report outlined how the two translations were combined, documenting the issues resolved and specifying the conclusions reached.This initial Spanish translation of the CORS was back-translated into the original Dutch by another bilingual translator, native Dutch- speaker (GJ), who was unaware of the original form, contents or purpose of the questionnaire. A translation report was created along with the back translation into Dutch.The scientific committee evaluated the translation and back-translation reports for conceptual, experiential, idiomatic, and semantic comparability. This ensured that everything remained consistent in meaning while maintaining the essence of the Spanish culture. Then, a draft Spanish version of the CORS was created after the agreement of the differences of previous translations.The draft version of the CORS was evaluated in a sample of 10 native Spanish-speaker patients with axSpA. Patients from various age categories, gender and socioeconomic background, were included sequentially in a representative sample from the rheumatology outpatient clinic at the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid. Inclusion criteria involved a diagnosis of axSpA according to the rheumatologist and ability to communicate in Spanish. Patients were excluded if they had conditions that would have affected the evaluation of the questionnaire, such as dementia or illiteracy.Patients completed the CORS questionnaire, and were then invited to a one-to-one remote or on-site meeting for cognitive debriefing with a rheumatologist (DB). The purpose of the cognitive debriefing interviews was to assess how well the patients comprehended the questionnaire. In addition, they were inquired about the acceptability of the items to detect potential confusing expressions or items. Each respondent completed the CORS and was questioned about the items and responses. In order to ensure that the translated version was equivalent to the original questionnaire in a practical situation, the meaning of conflicting items was thoroughly evaluated. The goal of the exercise, as indicated to the respondents, was to test the questionnaire rather than have them evaluate themselves.The CORS was translated and cross-culturally adapted into Spanish for Spain , which generated discussion about the actual Spanish translation. One of the translators proposed “afrontar”, whereas the other proposed “lidiar”. After the assessment of the different options, it was agreed that the word that probably best reflects the conceptual meaning and is more used in Spanish would be “convivir”. Likewise, the title arose some doubts in the translators, since both the terms “coping” and “rheumatic stressors” do not present a clear direct translation in Spanish. Likewise, it was agreed that also the word “convivir” reflects the term “coping” while “estresores reumáticos” reflects “rheumatic stressors”; hence the title that was determined was “Convivir con estresores reumáticos”. Nevertheless, it was decided that the acronym of the title of the English version (i.e. CORS) would prevail. As another conflicting example, the structure “Ik probeer” (“I am trying to”) was translated both as “Intento que” or “Trato que”. A consensus was reached to maintain “Intento que” for the whole questionnaire, since it seemed more suitable in this context. Similar to that, all differences were resolved, and a preliminary draft Spanish translation was produced.A few discrepancies appeared in the back-translation. These led to minor modifications in the wording in one response option (“muchas veces” to “muy a menudo”) and 15 questionnaire items. As an example of these, “Ik ga de deur uit”, literally meaning “I go out by the door”, was initially translated as such ; however, it conceptually represents “I go away”, and it was adapted as such . Some statements required several iterations before reaching consensus; “Ik houd me voor dat sommige mensen er erger aan toe zijn” (“I keep in mind that some people are worse off”), was initially presented as “Me imagino que otras personas están peor que yo”; in the first iteration it was adapted “Me digo a mi mismo que otras personas lo tienen peor”. However, after reviewing these items in context, it was decided that “Pienso que otras personas están peor que yo” better reflected the equivalence of the term with a more adequate formulation. “Ik neem rust door te gaan zitten of liggen” (“I rest by sitting or lying down”), was initially translated as “Descanso yendo a sentarme o tumbarme”-which is the literal translation; however, all the members of the committee agreed that “Descanso sentándome o tumbándome” adapted better. After the discussion and adjustment of the different items, it was agreed that the back-translation presented semantic, experiential and conceptual equivalence with the original version.Ten patients with axSpA tested the final Spanish version of the CORS and were interviewed for cognitive debriefing. Concerning the characteristics of these participants, mean age (SD) was 38.9 (14.4) years; 7 patients were male, while 3 were female. Seven patients had university studies and 6 were actively working. Mean axSpA duration since diagnosis was 11 years; six patients had radiographic axSpA and four non-radiographic axSpA; 6 patients were on biological disease modifying antirheumatic drugs.Most patients found the questionnaire clear and confirmed the equivalence of all the items. Cognitive debriefing queries and final decisions from the expert committee can be seen in Table The CORS questionnaire was translated and culturally adapted into Spanish for Spain in accordance with the current international guidelines for this procedure , 16. TheThe development of coping mechanisms is crucial for an adequate management of RMDs. Coping mechanisms may be influenced by a patient's beliefs and understanding of their condition. It is therefore relevant to assess these mechanisms for a holistic management of the disease. While coping may seem like a personal characteristic, it is often shaped by external factors. Thus, most people develop customized coping mechanisms in response to specific circumstances, which can also influence their perception of the disease . ParticuAssessment of coping may be performed through patient-reported outcomes (PROs), which evaluate disease outcomes from the patient perspective . In patiThe lack of language availability of some instruments may hinder the assessment of PROs. For this matter, cross-cultural validation ensures an adequate reflection of the translation of an instrument as compared with the original version . Cross-cNevertheless, our study has some limitations. Ten participants were involved in the field test, and a higher number may have provided more insights in cognitive debriefing. However, the sample was representative in terms of gender, age and educational level of the population with axSpA. Although an optimal number for cognitive debriefing has not been defined, the field test of the health index for axSpA recently developed by Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) included a similar number of patients for a translation in 15 languages . Of noteThe CORS questionnaire was successfully translated into Spanish, demonstrating sufficient face and content validity for the assessment of coping in patients with axSpA. However, before putting this instrument to use in clinical practice, further steps toward full validation of its psychometric properties are required.Additional file 1. Questionnaire.


In recent years, both inside and outside France, scholars and policymakers have emphasized a small and declining French influence on European politics and the political direction of the European Union (EU). By contrast, in 2022, at the end of President Emmanuel Macron’s first term in office, the EU increasingly follows French preferences and ideas. We argue that this renewed French clout is due to the interplay of factors located at different levels of government: a centralized political system and careful preparation of policy objectives at the domestic level, together with a more balanced bilateral relationship with Germany and several exogenous shocks hitting the EU, enabled the French President to upload national policy priorities to the European level. We combine a longer-term perspective, which considers the formulation and pursuit of national strategies, with moments of crisis altering the EU’s status quo and leading member states to promote change. We demonstrate France’s influence on EU politics based on developments in three policy fields, namely fiscal policy, competition policy, and defense industrial policy. On 26 September 2017, France’s newly elected President, Emmanuel Macron, diagnosed the state of the European Union (EU). Speaking to an audience of students and policymakers at the Sorbonne University in Paris, he outlined a range of ambitious projects for how to reform and advance the EU. He called for a more “sovereign” Europe with a greater capacity to act both internally and in the world  amounting to a mere €30 billion. Macron’s idea for a “Buy European Act” in public procurement was quickly dismissed by European Commission officials. As for the proposal for a “common strategic culture,” it was met with little enthusiasm. Such developments seemed to vindicate scholars who emphasize a relatively small French influence on EU politics and an asymmetry in its relationship with Germany  member-state relations and moment of deep crisis for the EU. Bringing together elements of structure and agency, we demonstrate conditions and pathways for a (large) member state to significantly alter European politics. In doing so, we also show that France during the Macron Presidency was able to shape the EU’s political direction and outlook to an extent that previous French governments had not managed, and that most scholarly literature would not have expected.all EU policy fields to similar extents. Moreover, we do not equal President Macron’s political agency with ‘France’ or the fairly consistent French European preferences. Senior civil servants stress that most policy positions defended by Macron were not new but were rather inherited from previous French governments. For instance, the idea of “European sovereignty” featured prominently in presidential speeches over the past decades , President Macron enjoyed a large room for political maneuver, especially with respect to French initiatives for European policymaking and reform. In the first place, this is due to the French presidential system, which gives the head of State an extent of authority and competences far exceeding those in other European political systems Lequesne . The FreSeveral factors, which were specific to the 2017–2022 period, led the French system to fully enhance the President’s visibility and authority in European affairs. First, Macron’s political party, ‘La République en Marche’ (LREM), together with its allies, held an absolute majority in parliament. This secured political stability and the smooth adoption of legislation, at least with respect to EU politics. Second, Macron sought to “establish the European issue as the main cleavage for French politics”  resources. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, which fully hit Europe starting from February 2020, led to an unprecedented recession of the European economy, reintroduced border closures, and the interruption of supply chains into and inside the EU’s single market. Such crises call on policymakers to provide fast responses to pressing problems against the background of great uncertainty. When they reveal shortcomings in existing structures and policies, they can be the driver for institutional and policy change . This article seeks to identify and test explanatory factors for France’s (increasing) influence on EU politics. Accounting for the extent of French influence across –2022. ThIn all three EU policy fields, French governments in the past repeatedly had tried to upload traditional and rather constant French preferences, but they only had been partially successful, if at all. Beyond the similarity of having experienced significant change in recent years, our cases show some variation: first, fiscal policy is a field where ‘Northern’ member states like Germany are usually considered to determine the political agenda. Second, competition law is a supranational policy field where the European Commission exercises considerable authority. Defense policy, finally, is considered a “core state power” where member states have been reluctant to pool competences at the European level . The coalition agreement, captioning “A new departure for Europe”, referred to “Europe” no less than 298 times . Both instruments constitute a budgetary tool that is complementary to the regular MFF. At the insistence of Northern countries, NGEU, for the time being, is a temporary instrument that is supposed to expire in 2026. Its debts, however, will have to be paid back until 2058. Moreover, with its volume of €750 billion, NGEU comes close to the stabilization function that Macron had called for. For several member states, especially in Europe’s South and East, the allocated grants and loans represent numerous percentage points of their GDP and thus can be considered macroeconomically relevant. Finally, NGEU is a redistributive instrument in that those member states that had already been in a weak fiscal position before the pandemic benefit the most. In Macron’s words, NGEU enables “real financial transfers” between member states . Just weeks after the Commission’s decision, the French and German governments published a joint manifesto for an “industrial policy fit for the twenty-first century” where they envisioned a comprehensive set of competition policy reforms including an update of merger guidelines and even to give a “right of appeal to the European Council to override Commission decisions” . Most remarkably, the Covid-19 pandemic led the European Council  to “inviindustrial policy. An official from the Commission’s Directorate-General for defense industry, DG DEFIS, explained that “strategic autonomy is a French priority because around half of the EU’s defense industries are French” (Interview 18). Indeed, the French government essentially wants to create a protected defense market at the EU level to exclude third-country producers and ensure the competitive advantage of its own companies  equal member states. On the other hand, France taking decisions irrespective of what other member states were doing, was not an option either  member state exercises in the EU thus follows certain waves defined by important background conditions and events. In the same way as Germany’s supposed dominance in the EU, most notably during the Euro crisis, was context and policy-field specific, so did France profit from a number of exogenous crises. A German decade in the EU (2007–2017) might thus be followed by a French decade. At the same time, and irrespective of such contingency, this article demonstrates that political consistency, persistency, and strategy do pay off. We have shown how French political elites, sometimes over decades, had developed and prepared European initiatives before, under President Macron, they eventually managed to realize them.Two clarifications and two qualifications must be made. In terms of clarifications, Macron’s proposals and initiatives first and foremost were intended to advance France’s interests. French European politics remains national interest politics. This is neither surprising nor exceptional, since all member states promote national interests in and via the EU  country’s influence in the EU. Overall, during Macron’s second term, France’s role and potential appear more uncertain due to domestic and broader European developments.


When there is no immediate response after a proposal and normally the silence is longer than 0.2 s, the proposer would take subsequent actions to pursue a preferred response or mobilize at least an articulated one from the recipient. These actions modulate the prior deontic stance embedded in the original proposal into four trends as follows: (1) maintaining the prior deontic stance with a self-repair or by seeking confirmation; (2) making the prior deontic stance more tentative by making a revised other-attentiveness proposal, providing an account, pursuing with a tag question, or requesting with an intimate address term; (3) making the prior deontic stance more decisive by making a further arrangement , closing the local sequence, or providing a candidate unwillingness account ; and (4) canceling the prior deontic stance by doing a counter-like action. Additionally, these trends inherently embody a decisive-to-tentative gradient. This study would penetrate into the phenomena occurring in Mandarin mundane talk with the methodology of Conversation Analysis to uncover the underflow of deontic stance. Uhs, Ums, and Wells. The recipient's failure would be treated as having some problem in responding or as projecting a high probability of a dispreferred response since a preferred one will normally be produced immediately  the decision task and (b) the ensuing activity in a way that is mutually beneficial”  to investigate the occurrence of subsequent actions in proposal sequences.“The central domain of data with which conversation analysts are concerned is everyday, mundane conversations” , Liang and Li are friends and college students. Liang has promised to lend her library card to Li, and now they are making an arrangement to transfer the card.women” in line 39 with “wo:. e:, Liu he Shi.” , Liang proposes having a meal together and transferring the card passingly, thus reducing Li's cost. However, no verbal response is produced but occurs a noticeably long silence (1.0 s) in line 40 that may indicate a certain difficulty for Li. Then, in line 41, Liang self-repairs the pronoun “By seeking confirmation, the proposer displays his/her relatively low epistemic stance compared with the recipient  and his wife (Jiu) are discussing how to accomplish the wife's eye-brow shaping and their lunch arrangement with their child.In the talk before line 28 (data not shown), they have already talked about other arrangements but not fully agreed with each other. Then in lines 28–33, the husband makes another proposal, yet the wife does not respond immediately. Instead, a silence of 1.6 s in line 34 occurs. Through confirmation seeking in line 35 to check if his proposal's premise is valid or if the wife's eye-brow shaping is still on her “wish list,” the husband treats the silence as an interactional problem. Therefore, this action serves to make the husband see if the original proposal is appropriate, instead of modulating the prior deontic stance. In this regard, seeking confirmation does not impose the wife to accept the proposal, and the prior deontic stance is maintained.In summary, by doing self-repair or seeking confirmation, the proposer creates another opportunity for the recipient to provide a preferred response or at least an articulated one, thereby solving the discontinuity in the ongoing talk and maintaining the prior deontic stance.According to the data, the proposer produces four kinds of subsequent actions to make the prior deontic stance more tentative. These actions include making a revised other-attentiveness proposal, providing an account, pursuing with a tag question, and requesting with an intimate address term.Speakers could conduct a self-repair with “I-mean utterance” Maynard, : 74 to dIn example (3), Yao and Li are friends. They have both taken part in a Special Offer launched by a bank, which is supposed to return a certain amount of money to their phone bills in 15 days. However, they have not received any money after waiting for more than 15 days. Since Yao has called the head office of the bank, Li asks for more information about it. Then, Yao tells Li the solution given by a bank staff, which obviously cannot explain the delayed date or provide an exact date of returning the money (data not shown).In lines 176–178, Li complains about the delaying date and related issues since “part of how a complaint is formed is to provide for the recognizability of the offender's wrongdoings” characterize, etc.), either prospectively or retrospectively, other interlocutors' understandings or assessments of conduct-in-interaction in terms of its ‘possible' breach of relevance rules” , Wang and Han are classmates and friends. Wang is calling Han to talk about the driving license test. After Han confirms that the test will be arranged only if they are sure to have a score of 95 (a full score is 100) in the practice test, Wang expresses her worry about it (data not shown).After asking if Wang has reviewed what is related to the test in line 218, Han proposes in line 219 that they can have a look at the driving license school. In addition, immediately after, there occurs a silence of 0.5 s in line 220. What Han is doing after the silence is providing an account in line 221, which makes her proposal more convincible and more explicitly other-attentiveness, since Han mentions that they would better let the officers know their presence at the driving license school, which would probably indicate a positive attitude toward the test from the perspective of the officers. In doing so, the proposer attempts to make the original proposal easier to be accepted, which makes the prior deontic stance more tentative rather than more decisive.“A statement can become a question by the addition of a short A-not-A question form of certain verbs as a tag to that statement” , Xing and Ying are friends, and Xing is calling Ying to meet her at the hotel as they have planned since Ying has booked the hotel rooms for Xing and another friend. However, Ying is still at home right now when Xing and the other friend are already on the way to the hotel in a taxi. Then comes the following talk.xing bu xing?” in line 28. This tag question is meant to mobilize the addressee to make a preferred response or at least an articulated one. After the production of the other-initiated self-repair sequence  ” in line 28 in example (5), there are other tag questions or similar tags occurring in the data, which include “zen me yang (what do you think),” “ha (ok),” “ke yi wa (is that ok),” “shi bu shi (similar to ‘right'),” “a (right),” and “hao ba (ok)”. In addition, they all function to make the prior deontic stance more tentative and more or less downgrade the imposition displayed in the original proposal.Besides the employment of “As put forward by Sacks  in his lIn the following example, the speaker initiates a proposal in lines 06–08. When there is no verbal response in line 09, the proposer produces an intimate address term, which seems to transform the original proposal into a request to some extent, thus invoking the responsibility of a brother to accept the original proposal produced by his little sister. Therefore, the prior deontic stance has been decreased when the original proposal has been altered into one that needs the recipient's permission, rather than something that can be jointly decided by both sides.gege.” in line 10, which indicates their relationship in terms of the rights and responsibilities between them. Thus, the husband is supposed to indulge his wife by doing what his wife asks him to do. Then immediately in the next turn (line 12), the husband acknowledges that address term and grants what the wife pursues with “keyi.”, which indicates his higher deontic rights. Therefore, the intimate address term used by the wife transforms the action from proposing to requesting, making the original proposal sound like something that requires the husband's permission, thus giving the husband more rights to decide. In the meanwhile, the wife's prior deontic stance has been made more tentative.In example (6), the wife (Jing) is calling her husband (Quan) to propose going out and retrieving an archive right now in lines 06–07. The proposal is performed with an account in line 08 which includes a self-repair transforming a possible self-attentiveness account (abandoned as the cut-off in line 08 indicates) into an other-attentiveness account using a nonperson reference design, which could invoke the speaker and the recipient as the beneficiaries of the proposal (as they could both have a rest after retrieving the archive). After a long silence of 1.2 s in line 09, the wife produces an intimate address term “In conclusion, the proposer would make a revised other-attentiveness proposal to try to satisfy both participants. Also, by providing an account, the proposer can make the original proposal more justified, more convincing, and easier to be accepted by the recipient. Additionally, the proposer can also lower his/her prior deontic stance by pursuing with a tag question or can grant the recipient more deontic rights by requesting with an intimate address term. These subsequent actions all make the proposer's prior deontic stance more tentative, helping to pursue a preferred response or at least to mobilize an articulated one from the recipient.It is observed that the prior deontic stance can be made more decisive by making a further arrangement, closing the local sequence, and providing a candidate unwillingness account.People make arrangements to complete agreed decisions, such as a request, an offer, or a proposal. Thus, the whole sequence, e.g., a whole proposal sequence, is “achieved across a series of adjacency pairs, which are nonetheless being managed as a coordinated series that overarches its component pairs” , the husband (Wei) is calling his wife (Jiu) to ask if she wants to go out with him to get their car washed and to buy some fish food. The wife agrees but she has to put the baby to bed first. Then, the husband asks how long it will take. The wife does not give a direct answer. Instead, she tells her husband she is still feeding the baby right now, indicating that she cannot provide a precise time as the answer to his question. However, the husband still pursues by providing a candidate time and asks for his wife's confirmation in line 20, and then comes the following talk.wo chi le fan.”, there is a silence of 0.3 s in line 23. Then, the wife proposes that they can meet each other in approximately 20 min in line 24. The husband does not immediately respond to the proposal, since there is a silence of 0.4 s in line 25. Nevertheless, the wife continues to make a further new proposal about the meeting location, using an imperative ending with the particle “ha.” in line 26 to solicit the recipient's agreement or confirmation  and/or positive evaluations ” , the husband (Jun) is talking with his wife (Yun).ranhou” in line 96. Yet the silence (0.6 s) occurs right after the proposal in line 100. Then without receiving any agreement or rejection from his wife, the husband closes the local sequence with “°en.°” in a low voice in line 101, and it sounds like the husband is acknowledging the wife's acceptance (which obviously does not occur) of his original proposal, making it an established one without the wife's agreement. Therefore, the wife's rights to decide have been deprived at that moment. In addition, in doing so, the husband makes the prior deontic stance embedded in the original proposal more decisive, leaving no space for his wife to decide at that very moment.Jun proposes talking with Yun in the afternoon in line 99, after abandoning something in the middle of a telling in lines 96–97, as indicated by “First actions, such as requests and invitations, inherently prefer affiliative responses. When disaffiliative responses are produced, some remedial work will be performed, in that these responses will threaten or damage interpersonal relationships between participants. Also, accounts are frequently offered as a remedy for doing disaffiliative actions , a couple is discussing dinner arrangements.bu xiang chi?” is designed as a polar question, which projects a response of a particular lexical item like “yes” or “no,” or other equivalents or a type-conforming response  proposes eating hotpot with his wife (Jing). However, Jing does not give an immediate response, and a significantly long silence (3.2 s) occurs in line 23, which may be a harbinger of a dispreferred response. At this moment, the husband provides a candidate unwillingness account in line 24. Grammatically, the question “Raymond, , 2003. ITherefore, to make the recipient accept the original proposal, the proposer would make a further arrangement or close the local sequence to ignore the silence or the absence of an immediate response from the recipient, or would provide a candidate unwillingness account to impose the recipient to accept. Also, these actions make the prior deontic stance embedded in the original proposal more decisive.In a proposal sequence, when there is silence or the absence of an immediate response, the proposer may withdraw his/her proposal with a counter-like action, and at the same time, cancels his/her prior deontic stance. In interaction, the SPP of an adjacency pair is not always produced after the FPP , the husband (Wei) calls to tell his wife (Jiu) to meet in a while. After they have made the arrangement, the wife proposes eating dumplings at home in line 29.ao.” in line 31, which is not enough to indicate a full acceptance of a proposal. Then, in the same turn, the husband proposes discussing this issue when they meet. But the wife does not make an immediate response. Then, after a silence of 0.2 s in line 32, the husband withdraws his proposal with the employment of “sha dou xing.” in line 33 designed as an Extreme Case Formulation (Pomerantz, Receiving a silence of 0.9 s in line 30, the husband responds merely with an acknowledgment token “Thus, giving up his/her own deontic rights to decide by withdrawing the original proposal, the proposer actually transfers the rights as well as the obligations originally shared and fulfilled by both participants to the recipient.The above examples illustrate that the relatively long silence or the absence of an immediate response is ascribed by the proposer as a harbinger of either interactional problems or potential dispreferred responses. Generally, the proposer would take subsequent actions to address them. These actions serve to pursue a preferred response or mobilize at least an articulated one. In the meanwhile, the accomplishment of these actions modulates the prior deontic stance, and the underflow of the deontic stance displays a decisive-to-tentative gradient, which can be reflected in the following figure.yàobù-TCUs are found to be “a conversational practice which enables the proposer to tentatively make a proposal with minimal imposition on the recipient” (Yu and Hao, Additionally, the prior deontic stance shown on the left side of Sequentially, the proposer takes subsequent actions to address the absence of an immediate response. Interactionally, the consequence these actions bring about is the modulation of the prior deontic stance, which has something to do with face-saving or face-threatening. Also, “face,” including positive face and negative face, has been identified and elaborated as basic human desires and characteristics of all competent adults Goffman, . SpecifiBesides, it is worth mentioning that the relationship between a proposer and his/her recipient is not fixed but interactionally constructed. In addition, the recipient's response plays a vital role. The modulated deontic stance, whether tentative or decisive, needs to be acknowledged by the recipient in reaching an agreement as well as building social solidarity between the two interlocutors.The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


Remote working refers to a working model in which employees can pursue work tasks outside the organization due to the use of technology. Several research papers showed that different assumptions are linked to remote work because of the flexibility and autonomy granted to employees when working remotely or from home. This review consistently aims to describe remote work’s role in employees’ well-being and performance. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 20 peer-reviewed papers published from 2010 until 2021 were selected for this review. Findings showed various and mixed consequences on employees’ performance and well-being. Specifically, remote working affects employees’ perceptions about themselves and their workplaces and contributes to their physical and mental health, particularly regarding work-life balance. Managerial implications for remote working implementation will be discussed in the paper. According to Eurofound 2020  estimateWhile remote work (or work from home) was not introduced because of the pandemic, the healthcare emergency pushed enormously towards this shift. Therefore, adopting new forms of work organization based on flexibility and autonomy of the employees in terms of the places and times of work was a strategic need for organizations facing COVID-19 .There is no universally accepted definition of telework . InsteadSeveral assumptions are linked to remote work because of the flexibility and autonomy granted to employees when working from home. First, it is assumed that remote work may lower employees’ stress and burnout, and reduce work fatigue and work-home conflict, thus enhancing employees’ work engagement and job satisfaction which, in turn, increases job performance .On the other hand, there are other assumptions about the potential drawbacks of remote work at both individual and organizational levels. For example, employees working from home might face problems linked to poor ergonomic facilities, leading to muscular pain or even work accidents, or they might work longer than in the office due to the lack of a specific time frame for the end of work . More thOverall, current research defining what remote working is and its theoretical implications provide mixed results regarding the potential effects of this arrangement on organizational processes and employees’ well-being and productivity.At the same time, the last two years required organizations to massively use ICT-based solutions, which implied workplace-relevant changes in HR practices and organizational models, due to the higher flexibility required . SignifiRemote work is due to stay after the emergence of the pandemic, and organizational changes are far from being concluded . HoweverUndoubtedly, time, working conditions and organizational processes are linked to substantial differences in teleworkers’ performance and well-being. At the same time, it is essential to deepen the knowledge about which evidence is rising from the research about the risks and opportunities linked to teleworking and which conditions and settings shape the teleworkers’ satisfaction, well-being, safety, and performance .To sum up, the spread of papers describing the role of teleworking on employees generated a massive amount of knowledge, that is potentially helpful for managers and researchers to individuate good practices to make this new work arrangement sustainable for individuals and organizations. At the same time, findings on the effects and the applicability of remote working are still mixed. For these reasons, this paper aims to provide a systematic literature review of the risks and opportunities for employees’ stress and well-being when teleworking, as they emerged in papers published from 2010 to 2021.Following the PRISMA guidelines, we searched for English papers, peer-reviewed and published in a time range from 2010 until 2021. Regarding the exclusion criteria, publications different than research articles in peer-reviewed journals and conceptual papers on remote working were considered unrelated to this review.Databases and search engines, such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Web of Science, were employed for the search, which took place from May 2021 to June 2022, and applying the following combination of keywords: “remote working” or “telework” or “eworking” or “e-working” or “work from home” or “home-based tele-work” or “virtual working” or telecommuting or “smart working” or “agile working” or “agile work” or “smart work” or “teleworking” or “ework” or “e-work” or “home working” or “home work” or “home-based work” or “home based work” or “home-based working” or “home based working” “home-working” or “home-work” AND “Psychosocial risks” or “well-being” or “well-being” or “stress” or “technostress” or “tecnostress”The keywords covered two main topics: the definition of remote working and psychosocial dimensions. These were searched in the publication title or/and abstract or/and paper keywords.As shown in The details reported in Several studies showed that teleworkers experienced higher job satisfaction ,34, workSome studies reported positive effects of teleworking on perceived performance ,45,46. SCompared to the effects on individual beliefs, findings regarding employees’ perceptions of the workplace are more heterogeneous. In some studies, remote workers show a more sustainable idea of work demands , a highSeveral studies showed the preventive role of teleworking for employees’ health, reporting that being a remote worker decreases employee’s levels of stress ,44,46, nA protective role of teleworking emerged as well. Remote workers show higher positive affective well-being and higher happiness than their colleagues ,47, abovAt the same time, some studies highlighted risks for mental health occurring during teleworking, showing a direct link with stress, fatigue, and burnout symptoms e.g., ,55). Fur. Fur55])Studies about physical health are heterogeneous as well. Giménez-Nadal and colleagues  show thaThe findings show that remote working conditions influence employees’ quality of work and the pleasantness of the work experience in several ways. More specifically, teleworking shapes employees’ perceptions about themselves and their workplace and contributes to their physical and mental health, particularly with regards to work-life balance.A transversal theme that emerges from the findings is the impact of the frequency or intensity of telework during a regular work week. Although it could be hypothesized that the higher the amount of teleworking during the week, the stronger the effects on personal and work life (positive or negative), the selected papers suggest a more complex picture. Some papers underlined the positive effects of part-time teleworking, showing that employees may benefit from office-based and remote working, thus improving their professional skills and strengthening their relational bonds at work . At the Furthermore, the authors showed that low-intensity teleworkers might experience more severe difficulties and perceive their job more negatively than high-intensity telework colleagues. A possible reason for this difference, in contrast with works from Davidescu, is that part-time teleworkers may suffer from the demands occurring from both on-site work and telework. As reported, the intensity of teleworking impacts transversally all the dimensions that emerged in the results.This heterogeneous tendency mirrors the general findings, that turn out to be mixed and varied. Such variability may be due to the specific organizational contexts in which teleworking occurs and to the individual differences of the employees involved. However, few studies addressed the role of such dimensions when studying the effects of remote work arrangements. Among these, Grant  showed tSuch choices will depend, for example, on the type of organization implementing the new arrangements. Organizations will likely differ in the amount of autonomy and resources they can invest in promoting a strategic implementation of teleworking, depending on whether they are public or private, profit or non-profit, small, medium, or big. These dimensions will impact even middle managers’ roles and influence employees . The samIn a study on more than 400 organizations, Pèrez and colleagues  identifiThe amount of resources that organizations are willing to invest in teleworking conditions and effects will largely depend on their culture, which influences both strategical and human resources . It is known, indeed, that teleworking arrangements have higher chances of being successful when they fit the current organizational value systems . In thisOverall, despite being underrepresented in the current literature, the role of organizational strategies and cultures is highly promising for promoting employee health and well-being in teleworking conditions. While the pandemic created the urgency to switch to home working, organizations can now recalibrate how they manage remote working conditions. Such strategies may regard employee training, the use of tangible and intangible resources, and values.This work may be helpful for organizations and researchers, as it provides practical and research-related suggestions.First, findings showed that employees with different dispositions may respond differently to remote working conditions. Clearly, organizations cannot directly intervene in employees’ personal dispositions, such as stress sensitivity regarding employees’ individual conditions or skills. However, they can provide training opportunities to strengthen skills considered crucial to the personal management of teleworking arrangements, such as work-life integration and boundaries management. Interestingly, in one of the papers selected for this review, these skills emerged as constituting elements of teleworking . ManagerSecond, it is crucial for organizations to define a competitive but sustainable way to implement teleworking. For example, they could analyze how the organizational objectives can be pursued remotely, which job tasks can be completed out of the office and whether and how the employees are technically ready to do so. In other words, the “new normal” of teleworking may involve the effort to individuate the types of organizations better suit the use of teleworking and, within them, which employees  may benefit themselves and the organization for using such an arrangement. Among the dimensions to be analyzed, if adequately addressed, organizational values can catalyze the effects of strategical choices, by boosting employees’ sense of belonging and meaningfulness related to the task. Even in this case, research could provide a valuable contribution, for example by individuating which organizational dimensions inform remote working arrangements.Despite such suggestions, our work is not without limitations. Firstly, it was not possible to include COVID-related papers in the review, because the unprecedented conditions in which organizations operated during the peak of the pandemic were not comparable with the experiences before COVID, or within organizations that used this type of work arrangement even before the pandemic. Thus, we did not have the opportunity to include most studies published in the last two years, because of their strong focus on emergency-related workplace conditions. Secondly, our review did not include grey literature , thus potentially losing valuable content, although not published in peer review scientific journals.This review considered remote working published studies previously to the COVID pandemic. The paper’s purpose was to summarize the original assumptions related to remote working, as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with its practice. We have highlighted how even before the pandemic, remote working shaped the employees’ perceptions of themselves and of the workplace, of their health, and regards their work-life balance. However, our results showed a heterogeneous picture linked to remote working’s effect on employees’ well-being and productivity. This heterogeneity can be affected by the employees’ characteristics and the organizational environments’ characteristics in which it was implemented.We believe that our results can be double useful. First, future studies could analyze how our analysis categories evolved following COVID. In other words, how employee perceptions have changed following the pandemic.Finally, based on remote working related benefits and risks, organizations will be able to rethink remote working in a more conscious and calibrated perspective, considering the remote working specificities, and the individual and organizational factors that are essential for its sustainable and strategic use.