Publicação
Managerial factors influencing long-term Work From Home adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises post-pandemic
| Resumo: | Due to governmental restrictions in response to the pandemic in 2020, work from home (WFH) was crucial to maintain business continuity and market competitiveness. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were especially affected by the pandemic as they were not as well equipped for WFH as larger companies due to a lack of resources or digital knowledge. Consequently, the pandemic shifted the labor market resulting in an increased demand for WFH, leading companies to be pressured into implementing WFH to stay competitive and attractive to employees. Nevertheless, the managers make the decision regarding employee requests for WFH and therefore play a crucial part in the adoption of WFH in enterprises. A systematic literature review is conducted to provide evidence-based factors that influence the longterm adoption of WFH post-pandemic from a managerial perspective. This dissertation applies a framework, guided by socio-technical systems theory and task-technology fit model, to examine the role of the individual, technological, organizational, and task characteristics on managers’ decisionmaking for long-term adoption of WFH. The findings of this research show that individual factors are weighted highest by managers for their decision-making. Those factors include their experiences with WFH and the corresponding trust toward employees, which are prerequisites for the implementation and shape the attitude of managers. Technological, organizational, and task characteristics are key enablers for WFH and are the building stock for its effective long-term adoption. Firstly, crucial technological factors include broadband connection, quality of communication and collaboration tools, and the perceived usefulness of the technology. Secondly, WFH policies, IT security, IT infrastructure, training, and employee performance are decisive organizational factors. Lastly, crucial task factors are the type of tasks being performed and the corresponding accessibility of information while working from home. If trust and positive experiences exist, the interviewed managers of SMEs indicated that they strive to introduce a hybrid model, in the long term, to cope with the changes in the labor market by staying competitive and attractive to qualified employees. Although key enabling factors form the basis for effective WFH, they are not fundamental enough for decision-making. |
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| Autores principais: | Röpke, Ann-Kathrin |
| Assunto: | Pandemic Design science research Managerial perspective Small and medium-sized enterprises Socio-technical systems Task-technology fit model Work from home |
| Ano: | 2023 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Resumo: | Due to governmental restrictions in response to the pandemic in 2020, work from home (WFH) was crucial to maintain business continuity and market competitiveness. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were especially affected by the pandemic as they were not as well equipped for WFH as larger companies due to a lack of resources or digital knowledge. Consequently, the pandemic shifted the labor market resulting in an increased demand for WFH, leading companies to be pressured into implementing WFH to stay competitive and attractive to employees. Nevertheless, the managers make the decision regarding employee requests for WFH and therefore play a crucial part in the adoption of WFH in enterprises. A systematic literature review is conducted to provide evidence-based factors that influence the longterm adoption of WFH post-pandemic from a managerial perspective. This dissertation applies a framework, guided by socio-technical systems theory and task-technology fit model, to examine the role of the individual, technological, organizational, and task characteristics on managers’ decisionmaking for long-term adoption of WFH. The findings of this research show that individual factors are weighted highest by managers for their decision-making. Those factors include their experiences with WFH and the corresponding trust toward employees, which are prerequisites for the implementation and shape the attitude of managers. Technological, organizational, and task characteristics are key enablers for WFH and are the building stock for its effective long-term adoption. Firstly, crucial technological factors include broadband connection, quality of communication and collaboration tools, and the perceived usefulness of the technology. Secondly, WFH policies, IT security, IT infrastructure, training, and employee performance are decisive organizational factors. Lastly, crucial task factors are the type of tasks being performed and the corresponding accessibility of information while working from home. If trust and positive experiences exist, the interviewed managers of SMEs indicated that they strive to introduce a hybrid model, in the long term, to cope with the changes in the labor market by staying competitive and attractive to qualified employees. Although key enabling factors form the basis for effective WFH, they are not fundamental enough for decision-making. |
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