Smart working: validation of a questionnaire in the Italian reality

Abstract

Background: The main objective of this research is to validate a smart working questionnaire in the Italian reality.

Methods: The questionnaire, reported in Annex I and composed of 29 questions, was created by the University "La Sapienza" of Rome in collaboration with the consultancy company "PASS Italia s.r.l." of Bari. To evaluate the internal consistency of the questionnaire, or the consistency between the items, the Cronbach alpha statistical indicator was used which measures the reproducibility over time and the homogeneity of the questions.

Results: In the present sample almost 89% say they are interested in smart working, predominantly in 66.70% of cases. Therefore 44.40% think that working in "smart" mode does not penalize the size of group work at all, while the rest of the staff is perfectly divided between those who claim the opposite and those who instead show doubts about it. With regard to the feasibility of "smart" programs in the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 11.10% of employees do not know whether working at a distance can compromise the proper performance of their work in any way. As regards the analysis of internal consistency, the Cronbach alpha indicator, calculated on the basis of the answers obtained, shows a value equal to 0.902.

Conclusions: Therefore the questionnaire is reliable in terms of internal consistency, that is, of the degree of correlation between the items, and of reproducibility over time.