10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

The expansion of digital and hybrid work arrangements across African public sector institutions has intensified the need for conceptually grounded measures of remote work efficiency. Existing approaches frequently rely on outcome-based proxies such as performance or job satisfaction, leaving the underlying behavioral capacity insufficiently theorized. This study develops and validates the Remote Work Efficiency Measure (RWEM), a multidimensional construct capturing Task Discipline, Moral Commitment, Digital Adaptation, and Peer Collaboration within distributed work environments. Anchored in an integrative theory-generative mixed-methods design, the construct was derived from qualitative insights and refined through quantitative validation using survey data from public sector employees in The Gambia (N ≈ 113). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess reliability, validity, and structural relationships with productivity outcomes. Results indicate that RWEM operates as a differentiated behavioral system, with task discipline and digital adaptation showing positive effects on productivity, while moral commitment reflects a more complex relationship under constrained institutional conditions. The study contributes to emerging discussions on Africa’s Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) by conceptualizing remote work efficiency as a form of adaptive human capital capability rather than a direct performance outcome. It further positions RWEM as a scalable measurement framework for evaluating workforce readiness in digitally evolving public institutions.