Remote working in Italian SMEs during COVID-19. Learning challenges of a new work organization

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze how remote working has been carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italian SMEs, representing at the same time an organizational challenge and an excellent opportunity for individual and organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach This paper involved 60 Italian SMEs of various sectors and 330 employees: 217 clerks (average age 42) and 113 managers (average age 48) belonging to different functional units and with a different education backgrounds. Two different questionnaires, one addressed to clerks and one to managers/executives who coordinate the remote working activity, were prepared and sent. This paper investigates the issues of perceived productivity, technological preparation, coordination, programming and control with specific attention to how the participants faced the remote working experience from the learning point of view. Findings Before the pandemic, Italian SMEs did not feel the necessity to adopt a structured policy on remote working. The COVID-19 emergency has forced them to consider that working remotely is possible and can produce benefits and positive results for what they learned in terms of autonomy, motivation and trust, to the detriment of physical presence, which is not as fundamental to ensure productivity. Originality/value While large, formalized and structured companies encountered modest difficulties being already technologically and culturally prepared for remote working, the big challenge was that of SMEs, who found themselves obliged to adopt it. This paper examines how Italian SMEs lived and evaluated the switch to a new work organization and turned it into an occasion for workplace learning.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The impact of COVID-19 on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): empirical evidence for green economic implications

“…As Belas et al ( 2021 ) found, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in most regions face high levels of debt and cannot generate a profit from their operations, which is in line with our findings. Research conducted by Barabaschi et al ( 2022 ) is similar to our findings. SMEs in underdeveloped regions, on the other hand, have unreliable economic strategies and a deprived ethos of economic health, which results in economic indicators that are neither profitable nor sustainable; Pattinson et al ( 2022 ) demonstrated this.…”

“…However, these challenges can inspire managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be more creative and, of course, to put the focus on promoting innovation (Belas et al 2021 ). According to our findings, SMEs have become more vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Barabaschi et al’s ( 2022 ) findings. SMEs are struggling to keep their financial health in check and grow innovative marketing strategies, which have resulted in a significant and critical company’s competitive wear, to the point where they are only capable of surviving and covering their operational expenses, which has a severe impact on their financial returns.…”

Work from Home Arrangements and Organizational Performance in Italian SMEs: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Despite the numerous studies on the relationship between WFH and performance, only a few focus on SMEs, while the effects for these firms could be very specific, given the peculiarities characterizing these firms, for instance, in terms of higher financial constraints or organizational constraints. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies focus on SMEs to date: Zhang et al (2021) and Barabaschi et al (2022). Using aggregated data from a longitudinal survey on US firms and their employees, Zhang et al (2021) find positive effects of WFH arrangements on revenues and cash flows.…”

“…Using aggregated data from a longitudinal survey on US firms and their employees, Zhang et al (2021) find positive effects of WFH arrangements on revenues and cash flows. Instead, Barabaschi et al (2022) collect results from a survey of 60 Italian SMEs and 330 employees and investigate the issues of perceived productivity, coordination/control issues, and learning processes. They find that, differently from large organizations more technologically and culturally prepared for WFH practices, Italian SMEs are more reluctant to adopt such alternative working arrangements, but the adoption of WFH during the pandemic stimulated employees' autonomy, motivation, and trust, important aspects to sustain labor productivity.…”

“…In general, however, the effect of WFH in SMEs remains largely unexplored at the moment. Despite the growing literature on the effects of WFH, mainly driven by the diffusion of WFH during the pandemic, to the best of our knowledge, only two studies focus on firm performance in SMEs (Zhang et al, 2021;Barabaschi et al, 2022), although such firms exhibit starkly different dynamics and challenges than larger enterprises. Moreover, no existing study on SMEs investigates the employer perspective to date, which is fundamental to driving the decision about whether and how much to adopt WFH in the future.…”