Research Challenges Concerning Employees Doing Enforced Remote Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15678/ZNUEK.2022.0996.0202Keywords:
enforced remote working, employee behaviour, managing remote workers, hybrid workingAbstract
Objective: To identify the research challenges faced by scientists and practitioners looking for effective solutions to address the behaviour of employees required to work remotely.
Research Design & Methods: Literature review and analysis, the results of surveys and thematic workshops with groups of managers.
Findings: A definition of enforced remote work and an indication of proposed research areas and methodological limitations.
Implications / Recommendations: The article adopts a thesis about the significant difference between the conditions affecting the way employees work: during remote work and during enforced (unplanned) remote work. In addition to the attempt to characterise and organise the conditions influencing the behaviour of employees doing enforced remote work, the article identifies practical challenges which managers managing remote employees face.
Contribution: The authors formulate future research challenges in the area of employee management tools used for enforced remote work and hybrid work, and in the search for a relationship between the conditions of such work and its effectiveness.
Downloads
References
Anderson A. J., Kaplan S. A., Vega R. P. (2015), The Impact of Telework on Emotional Experience: When, and for Whom, Does Telework Improve Daily Affective Well-being?, “European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology”, vol. 24(6), https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2014.966086.
Ayoko O. B., Ang A. A., Parry K. (2017), Organizational Crisis: Emotions and Contradictions in Managing Internal Stakeholders, “International Journal of Conflict Management”, vol. 28(5), https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-05-2016-0039.
Biron M., Veldhoven M. van (2016), When Control Becomes a Liability Rather than an Asset: Comparing Home and Office Days among Part-time Teleworkers, “Journal of Organizational Behavior”, vol. 37(8), https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2106.
Boell S. K., Cecez-Kecmanovic D., Campbell J. (2016), Telework Paradoxes and Practices: The Importance of the Nature of Work, “New Technology, Work and Employment”, vol. 31(2), https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12063.
Burrell D. N. (2020), Understanding the Talent Management Intricacies of Remote Cybersecurity Teams in Covid-19 Induced Telework Organizational Ecosystems, “Land Forces Academy Review”, vol. 25(3), https://doi.org/10.2478/raft-2020-0028.
Choudhury P., Crowston K., Dahlander L., Minervini M. S., Raghuram S. (2020), GitLab: Work Where You Want, When You Want, “Journal of Organization Design”, vol. 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-020-00087-8.
Choudhury P., Foroughi C., Larson B. (2020), Work-from-anywhere: The Productivity Effects of Geographic Flexibility, “Strategic Management Journal”, vol. 42(4), https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3251.
Çoban S. (2021), Gender and Telework: Work and Family Experiences of Teleworking Professional, Middle-class, Married Women with Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Turkey, “Gender, Work & Organization”, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12684.
Collins A. M., Hislop D., Cartwright S. (2016), Social Support in the Workplace between Teleworkers, Office-based Colleagues and Supervisors, “New Technology, Work and Employment”, vol. 31(2), https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12065.
Dolot A. (2020), Wpływ pandemii COVID-19 na pracę zdalną – perspektywa pracownika, “E-mentor”, vol. 1(83), https://doi.org/10.15219/em83.1456.
Eriksson E., Petrosian A. (2020), Remote Work-transitioning to Remote Work in Times of Crisis, UMEA School of Business, Economics and Statistics, UMEA University, http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1446999/FULLTEXT01.pdf (accessed: 21.02.2022).
Fonner K. L., Stache L. C. (2012), All in a Day’s Work, at Home: Teleworkers’ Management of Micro Role Transitions and the Work-home Boundary, “New Technology, Work and Employment”, vol. 27(3), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005X.2012.00290.x.
Hilbrecht M., Shaw S. M., Johnson L. C., Andrey J. (2008), “I’m Home for the Kids”: Contradictory Implications for Work-life Balance of Teleworking Mothers, “Gender, Work and Organization”, vol. 15(5), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00413.x.
Izdebski Z. W., Mazur J. (2021), Changes in Mental Well-being of Adult Poles in the Early Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic with Reference to Their Occupational Activity and Remote Work, “International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health”, vol. 34(2), https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01778.
Klerk J. J. de, Joubert M., Mosca H. F. (2021), Is Working from Home the New Workplace Panacea? Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Future World of Work, “SA Journal of Industrial Psychology”, vol. 47, https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1883.
Maltseva I., Shulgina Y., Kalimov O. (2020), Features of Social and Labour Monitoring in the Conditions of Transition to Remote Employment, “Economic Annals-XXI”, vol. 186(11–12), https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V186-16.
Narayanamurthy G., Tortorella G. (2021), Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Employee Performance Moderating Role of Industry 4.0 Base Technologies, “International Journal of Production Economics”, vol. 234(C), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108075.
Ozturk P., Avci C., Kaya C. (2021), The Effect of Remote Collaborative Work on Design Processes during the Pandemic, “Strategic Design Research Journal”, vol. 14(1), https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2021.141.10.
Perlow L. A., Kelly E. L. (2014), Toward a Model of Work Redesign for Better Work and Better Life, “Work and Occupations”, vol. 41(1), https://doi.org/10.11770700888413516473.
Prodanova J., Kocarev L. (2021), Employees’ Dedication to Working from Home in Times of COVID-19 Crisis, “Management Decision”, vol. 603, https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-09-2020-1256.
Putnam L. L., Myers K. K., Gailliard B. M. (2014), Examining the Tensions in Workplace Flexibility and Exploring Options for New Directions, “Human Relations”, vol. 67(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713495704.
Raišienė A. G., Rapuano V., Varkulevičiūtė K. (2021), Sensitive Men and Hardy Women: How Do Millennials, Xennials and Gen X Manage to Work from Home?, “Journal of Open Innovation Technology, Market, and Complexity”, vol. 7(2), https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7020106.
Solís M. S. (2016), Telework: Conditions that Have a Positive and Negative Impact on the Work-family Conflict, “Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración”, vol. 29(4), https://doi.org/10.1108/ARLA-10-2015-0289.
Stankevičienė A., Tamaševičius V., Diskienė D., Grakauskas Ž., Rudinskaja L. (2021), The Mediating Effect of Work-life Balance on the Relationship between Work Culture and Employee Well-being, “Journal of Business Economics and Management”, vol. 22(4), https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2021.14729.
Taylor J. C. Jr (2020), From the CEO: Remote Work and an Inequity Time Bomb, “HR News, Society for Human Resource Management”, https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/winter2020/pages/from-the-ceo-remote-work-and-an-inequity-time-bomb.aspx (accessed: 10.03.2022).
Vega R. P., Anderson A. J., Kaplan S. A. (2015), A Within-person Examination of the Effects of Telework, “Journal of Business and Psychology”, vol. 30, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-014-9359-4.
Wilkie D. (2017), Remote Workers Feel Productive but Also Guilty, “HR News, Society for Human Resource Management”, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/remote-workers-feel-guilty-.aspx (accessed: 9.03.2022).
Williams L. (2021), What’s Required for Remote Employees?, “Canadian HR Reporter”, vol. 34(4), https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/employment-law/whats-required-for-remote-employees/355826 (accessed: 11.12.2021).
Zdonek I., Podgórska M., Hysa B. (2017), The Competence for Project Team Members in the Conditions of Remote Working, “Foundations of Management”, vol. 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1515/fman-2017-0017.
