Changes and challenges in telecommuting explained through multi-level perspective on socio technical transition

Abstract

COVID-19 was responsible for a global health crisis beginning in early 2020 that saw telecommuting become commonplace regardless of the size of the firm, the sector or country. It’s possible that even before pandemics, there were some differences in the practice of telecommuting among countries and sectors. These differences were impacted by factors such as the cultural context and labor policies at governmental and corporate levels. Telecommuting in the EU had only reached 5.4% in 2019 before the Covid-19 outbreak, making it a relatively new trend when compared to the technological potential it offers. 40 percent of EU workers are expected to telecommute in 2020, in the early stages of the outbreak, according to estimates. This research uses the theory of socio-technical transitions (MLP) to examine how and why telecommuting suddenly became the norm among managers and workers from a variety of different industries. At landscape level, an opening was provided by the Covid-19 epidemic that allowed telecommuting to break over the niche-regime barrier.