POST PANDEMIC INSIGHTS ON ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL WORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbnegotia.2022.2.01Keywords:
telework, virtual leadership, communication, work-life balance, well-being, WHO-5, working time, flexibility, feedback, Covid-19 pandemicAbstract
The virtual work has been implemented in some areas more than others, and particularly in information and communication technology field several years before the pandemic. But, due to the lockdowns while the Covid-19 pandemic, imposed remote work was a new experience for many. This research examines, by the use of a survey, the benefits and the challenges of telework. The respondents confirmed those elements to specific degrees answering to the closed questions and mentioned their perspectives in the open questions. The study focuses on items concerning employees and employer while telecommuting, highlighting their work performance in terms of leading, communicating and accomplishing the tasks. Productivity, work-life balance, well-being, virtual leadership and communication, and the preference for future teleworking are some of the aspects detailed. The findings show correlations between those elements, the preference for continue virtual working is directly linked to work-life balance influenced by remote work productivity, time management efficiency, concentration capacity, and depending on safety and protection measures in the telework system.
Article history: Received 2 June 2022; Revised 15 June 2022; Accepted 22 June 2022; Available online 30 June 2022; Available print 30 August 2022.
JEL Classification: M10, M54, M15
References
Amichai-Hamburger, Y., (2009), Technology and Psychological well-being. Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511635373.007
Anderson, A. J., Kaplan, S. A., & Vega, R. P., (2015), The impact of telework on emotional experiance: When, and for whom, does telework improve daily affective well-being? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2014.966086
Antonacopoulou, E. P., & Georgiadou, A., (2020), Leading through social distancing; The future of work, corporations and leadership from home. Gender Work Organisation, 1-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12533
Batırlık, S. N., Gencer, Y. G., & Akkucuk, U., (2022), Global Virtual Team Leadership Scale (GVTLS) Development. Sustainability 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/
Burke, R. J., & El-Kot, G., (2009), Work intensity, work hours, satisfactions, and psychological wellbeing among Egyptian managers. Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 2(3), 218-231. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/17537980910981787
Casey, P. R., & Grzywacz, J. G., (2008), Employee Health and Well-Being: The Role of Flexibility and Work-Family Balance. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 11, 31-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10887150801963885
Chistruga-Sînchevici, I., (2021), Echilibrul dintre muncă și viața de familie: necesități ale părinților și rolul politicilor sociale. Chișinău: Institutul Naţional de Cercetări Economice.
Contreras, F., Baykal, E., & Abid, G., (2020), E-Leadership and Teleworking in Times of COVID-19 and Beyond: What We Know and Where Do We Go. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590271
Eurofound, (2021), Living, working and COVID-19 (Update April 2021): Mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. doi: https://doi.org/10.2806/76802
George, D., & Mallery, P., (2002), SPSS for Windows Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference.
Gross, R., (2018), Connecting the Links Between Leadership Styles and. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 26(2), 185-205. doi: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218495818500073
Hill, E. J., Ferris, M., & Märtinson, V., (2003), Does it matter where you work?
A comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00042-3
International Labour Office, (2020), Teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. A Practical Guide. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J., (1999), Virtual teams: The new way to work. Stragety & Leadership, 27(1), 14-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054625
Liu, C., Ready, D., Wang, X., McCarthy, A., & Kim, S., (2018), E-leadership: an empirical study of organizational leaders’ virtual communication adoption. Leadership &Organization Development Journal, 08. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2017-0297
Messenger, J. C., & Gschwind, L., (2016), Three generations of Telework: New ICTs and the (R)evolution from Home Office to Virtual Office. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31(3), 195-208. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12073
Nangoy, R., Mursitama, T.N., Setiadi, N.J., & Pradipto, O.D., (2020), Creating sustainable performance in the fourth industrial revolution era: The effect of employee’s work well-being on job performance. Management Science Letters, 10, 1037-1042. doi: https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.11.006
Nilles, J.M., (1997), Telework: Enabling Distributed Organizations, Information Systems Management. 7. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10580539708907069
Niță, D., (2020), Telemunca - adaptarea muncii la noile realități. Universitatea din Petroșani, Romania. Available at: https://ibn.idsi.md/ru/author_articles/54589?export=pdf
Penarroja, V., Orengo, V., & Zornoza, A., (2017), Reducing perceived social loafing in virtual teams: The effect of team feedback with guided reflexivity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(8), 424-435. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12449
Phillips, S., (2020), Working through the pandemic: Accelerating the transition to remote working. Business Information Review, 129-134. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0266382120953087
Radulescu, C.V., Ladaru, G.-R., Burlacu, S., Constantin, F., Ioanas, C., & Petre, I.L., (2021), Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Romanian Labor Market. Sustenability, 13(271). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010271
Raghuram, S., Hill, N.S., Gibbs, J.L., & Maruping, L.M., (2019), Virtual Work: Bridging Research Clusters. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2017.0020
Ratner, B., (2009), The correlation coefficient: Its values range between +1/−1, or do they? J Target Meas Anal Mark, 17, 139-142. doi:https://doi.org/10.1057/jt.2009.5
Şandor, S. D., (2013), Metode şi tehnici de cercetare în ştiinţele sociale. Bucuresti: Tritonic.
Song, Y., & Gao, J., (2019), Does Telework Stress Employees Out? A Study on Working at Home and Subjective Well-Being for Wage/Salary Workers. Journal of Happiness Studies. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00196-6
Sostero, M., Milasi, S., Hurley, J., Fernandez-Macias, E., & Bisello, M., (2020), Teleworkability and the COVID-19 crisis: a new digital divide? Labour market change. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/teleworkability-and-covid-19-crisis-new-digital-divide
Topp, C. W., Østergaard, S. D., Søndergaarda, S., & Bech, P., (2015), The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Psychother Psychosom, 84, 167-176. doi: https://doi.org/10.1159/000376585
Tremblay, D.-G., & Thomsin, L., (2012), Telework and mobile working: analysis of its benefits and drawbacks. International Journal of Work Innovation, 1(1), 100-113. doi: https://doi.org/10.1504/ijwi.2012.047995
Vagias, W. M., (2006), Likert-type scale response anchors. Clemson International Institute for Tourism & Research Development, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. Clemson University.
Wang, B., Liu, Y., Qian, J., & Parker, S. K., (2021), Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 70(1), 16-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12290
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Negotia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.