Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Articles
DOI: 10.14254/1795-6889.2021.17-2.3
Submitted: 2021-10-31
Published: 2021-10-31

Does telework work? Gauging challenges of telecommuting to adapt to a “new normal”

Klaipėda University
Mykolas Romeris University
Széchenyi István University
Telia Company
telework organisation management human resource management exploratory factor analysis

Abstract

The paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of organisation management while telecommuting. With exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we define the specific set of telework organising efficiency characteristics. We determined the number of factors with Kaiser Eigenvalues rule as well as Cattel's scree criterion. We conducted the study in Lithuania, the country with a low percentage of teleworkers until organisations have been urged to properly implement their performance to remote means after the COVID-19 quarantine was announced. This paper reveals that  the fundamental challenges of teleworking are the feedback issues related to working accomplishment, especially to the task and process overload, and individual self-organisation ability. Moreover, the flexibility of work organisation represents a unique characteristic of telework, and managers should cooperate more effectively with teleworkers to keep them motivated.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

  1. Allen, T.D., Golden, T.D., & Shockley, K.M. (2015). How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings, Psychological Science in the Public Science, 16(2), 40-68.
  2. Aroles, G., Granter, E., & de Vaujany, F.X. (2020). ‘Becoming mainstream’: the professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism, New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(1), 114-129.
  3. Baltijos tyrimai, 2020 Baltic Research, (2020). https://www.vz.lt/nekilnojamasis-turtas-statyba/2020/04/27/apklausa-jaunesni-darbuotojai-nori-grizti-dirbti-i-biura
  4. Bite, P., Konczosné Szombathelyi, M., & Vasa, L. (2020). The Concept of Labour Migration from the Perspective of Central and Eastern Europe. Economics and Sociology, 13(1), 197-216. doi: 10.14254/2071-789X.2020/13-1/13
  5. Bloom, N., Bunn, P., Mizen, P., Smietanka, P., & Thwaites, G. (2020). The impact of Covid‐19 on businesses’ expectations: evidence from the Decision Maker Panel, Bank of England, Quarterly Bulletin 2020 Q3.
  6. Bonacini, L., Gallo, G. & Scicchitano, S. (2021). Working from home and income inequality: risks of a ‘new normal’ with COVID-19. Journal of Population Economics, 34, 303–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00800-7.
  7. Botha, F., de New, J.P., de New, S.C., Ribar, D.C., & Salamanca, N. (2021). Implications of COVID-19 labour market shocks for inequality in financial wellbeing. Journal of Population Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00821-2
  8. Braja, M., & Gemzik-Salwach, A. (2020). Competitiveness of high-tech exports in the EU countries. Journal of International Studies, 13(1), 359-372. doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2020/13-1/23
  9. Brinzea, V.-M., Secara. C.G., 2017. The Telework, a Flexible Way to Work in a Changing Workplace. Scientific Bulletin - Economic Sciences / Buletin Stiintific - Seria Stiinte Economice, 16(3), 104–12.
  10. Chang, R., & Velasco, A. (2020). Economic Policy Incentives to Preserve Lives and Livelihoods, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series No. 27020. doi: 10.3386/w27020.
  11. Chesley, N. (2014). Information and communication technology use, work intensification and employee strain and distress, Work, Employment and Society, 28(4), 589-610.
  12. Cortés-Pérez, H.D., Escobar-Sierra, M., & Galindo-Monsalve, R. (2020). Influence of Lifestyle and Cultural Traits on the Willingness to Telework: A Case Study in the Aburrá Valley, Medellín, Colombia, Global Business Review, 1-17.
  13. Dunn, M. (2020). Making gigs work: digital platforms, job quality and worker motivations, New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(2), 232-249.
  14. Eikenberry, K., & Wayne T. (2018). The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership. Oakland, California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
  15. Even, A. (2020). The Evolution of Work: Best Practices for Avoiding Social and Organizational Isolation in Telework Employees https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3543122
  16. Faulconbridge, J., Jones, I., Marsden, G., & Anable, J. (2020). Work, ICT and travel in multinational corporations: the synthetic work mobility situation, New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(2), 195-214.
  17. Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. London: SAGE Publications.
  18. Gálvez, A., Martínez, M., & Pérez, C. (2011). Telework and Work-Life Balance: Some Dimensions for Organisational Change. Journal of Workplace Rights, 16, 273-297.
  19. Gottfredson, R. (2020). COVID-19 And Remote Work: What Is Required of Leaders and Employees? Leadership Excellence, 37(4), 9.
  20. Großer, B., & Baumöl, U. (2017). Why virtual teams work – State of the art. Procedia Computer Science, 121, 297-305. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.041
  21. Jędrzejowska-Schiffauer, I., & Schiffauer, P. (2017). New constraints on mobility in Europe: Policy response to European crises or constitutional ambiguity? Journal of International Studies, 10(3), 9-23.
  22. Kaasa, A. (2019). Determinants of individual-level social capital: Culture and personal values. Journal of International Studies, 12(1), 9-32. doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-1/1
  23. Kaiser, H.F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika 39, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291575
  24. Karamanis, K., & Gogos, C. (2020). The impact of flexible working at firm level. Evidence from Greek labor market. Journal of International Studies, 13(2), 9-24.
  25. Klopotek, M. (2017). The advantages and disadvantages of remote working from the perspective of young employees. Organisation and Management, 40(4), 39–49.
  26. Kraft, M.H.G. (2019). How to Lead with Digital Media Effectively? A Literature-Based Analysis of Media in an E-Leadership Context. Journal of Economic Development, Environment & People, 8(4), 42–53.
  27. Kristal, T. 2019. Computerization and the Decline of American Unions: Is Computerization Class-Biased? Work and Occupations, 46(4), 371-410.
  28. Lietuvos ekonomikos statistiniai rodikliai. Darbuotojų apdraustųjų skaičius, (2020). Statistical indicators of the Lithuania's economy. Number of Insured Employees, 2020. https://rekvizitai.vz.lt/statistika/apdraustieji-darbuotojai/
  29. Lopez, S.H., & Phillips, L.A. (2019). Unemployed: White-Collar Job Searching After the Great Recession. Work and Occupations, 46(4), 470-510.
  30. Mahler, J. (2012). The Telework Divide: Managerial and Personnel Challenges of Telework. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(4), 407-418.
  31. McCann, J., & Kohntopp, T. (2019). Virtual Leadership in Organizations: Potential Competitive Advantage? SAM Advanced Management Journal, 84(3).
  32. McDonald, P., Williams, P., & Mayes, R. (2020). Means of Control in the Organization of Digitally Intermediated Care Work, Work, Employment and Society, 1-9.
  33. McKibbin, W., & Roshen F. (2020). The Global Macroeconomic Impacts of COVID-19: Seven Scenarios, CAMA Working Paper No. 19/2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3547729
  34. Micko, M. (2020). Overcommunication: A Leadership Lesson from the Crisis. Carrier Management, 7(4), 55–56.
  35. Milani, F. (2021). COVID-19 outbreak, social response, and early economic effects: a global VAR analysis of cross-country interdependencies. Journal of Population Economics, 34, 223–252.
  36. Morrison-Smith, S., & Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and barriers in virtual teams: a literature review. SN Appl. Sci. 2, 1096. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-2801-5
  37. Nakrošienė, A., & Butkevičienė E. (2016). Nuotolinis darbas Lietuvoje: samprata, privalumai ir iššūkiai darbuotojams. Filosofija, Sociologija, 27(4), 364–72.
  38. Neeley, T. (2020). 15 Questions About Remote Work, Answered. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, March, 2–7.
  39. Nilles, J.M. (1975). Telecommunications and Organizational Decentralization. IEEE Transactions on Communications, COM-23(10), 1142-1147.
  40. Nunnally, J., & Bernstein, L. (2010). Psychometric theory. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Higher Education.
  41. Nyaanga, S.G. (2012). The Impact of Telecommuting Intensity on Employee Perception Outcomes: Job Satisfaction, Productivity, and Organizational Commitment. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Stevens Institute of Technology.
  42. Oliinyk, O., Bilan, Y., Mishchuk, H., Akimov, O. & Vasa, L. (2021). The Impact of Migration of Highly Skilled Workers on The Country’s Competitiveness and Economic Growth. Montenegrin Journal of Economics, 17(3), 7-19. doi: 10.14254/1800-5845/2021.17-3.1
  43. Peters, P., Wetzels, C., & Tijdens, K. (2008). Telework: Timesaving or Time-Consuming? An Investigation into Actual Working Hours. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 19(4), 421-442. doi:10.1177/02601079X08001900407
  44. Potjanajaruwit, P., & Girdwichai, L. (2019). Creative innovation of startup businesses in Thailand 4.0 era. Journal of International Studies, 12(3), 222-231. doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-3/18
  45. Raghuram, S.N. Hill, J.S., Gibbs, J.L., & Maruping, L.M. (2019). Virtual Work: Bridging Research Clusters. ANNALS, 13, 308–341. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2017.0020
  46. Raišienė, A.G., Rapuano, V., Varkulevičiūtė, K., & Stachová, K. (2020). Working from Home—Who Is Happy? A Survey of Lithuania’s Employees during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period. Sustainability, 12, 5332. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135332
  47. Reuschke, D., & Felstead, A. (2020). Changing workplace geographies in the COVID-19 crisis. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 208-212.
  48. Rofcanin, Y., & Anand, S. (2020). Human Relations virtual special issue: Flexible Work Practices and Work-Family Domain. Human Relations, 73(8), 1182-1185.
  49. Rose, S. (2019). Remote Work Is Sticking Around. Workforce Solutions Review, 10(4), 22–25.
  50. Sandberg, J. (2020). Best Practices for Managing Remote and Global Teams. International Educator, 1059-4221.
  51. Sewell, G., & Taskin, L. (2015). Out of Sight, Out of Mind in a New World of Work? Autonomy, Control, and Spatiotemporal Scaling in Telework, 36(11), 1507-1529.
  52. Snellman, C.L. (2014). Virtual Teams: Opportunities and Challenges for e-Leaders. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 110, 1251-1261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.972.
  53. Talwar, R. (2020). Future Insight. Training Journal, 6(April).
  54. Taskin, L., & Bridoux, F. (2010). Telework: a challenge to knowledge transfer inorganizations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(13), 2503-2520. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.516600
  55. Whiting, R., & Symon, G. (2019). Digi-Housekeeping: The Invisible Work of Flexibility. Work, Employment and Society, 34(6), 1079-1096.
  56. Williams, G. (2019). Management Millennialism: Designing the New Generation of Employee. Work, Employment and Society, 34(3), 371-387.
  57. Živčicová, E., Bulková, K., & Masárová, T. (2017). Comparison of the Selected Indicators of Work Life Balance in European Union Countries. Economics and Sociology, 10(1), 222-231. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2017/10-1/16

How to Cite

Raišienė, A. G., Rapuano, V., Dőry, T., & Varkulevičiūtė, K. (2021). Does telework work? Gauging challenges of telecommuting to adapt to a “new normal”. Human Technology, 17(2), 126–144. https://doi.org/10.14254/1795-6889.2021.17-2.3