Teleworking during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy: Evidence and Tentative Interpretations

Abstract

The paper investigates the determinants and discusses the consequences of the switch towards Italian high-tech firms’ teleworking due to the COVID-19 crisis. Teleworking is important to reduce traffic congestion and increase the sustainability of cities, and as such, it is important to understand what helps the successful transition of firms to telework. COVID-19 crisis represents a natural experiment that allows studying organizational ability to adapt to unexpected environmental changes rapidly. The study is based on a survey conducted in mid-April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown among Italian manufacturing firms’ managers in high-tech sectors. The final sample is composed of 179 observations. Using path analysis, we model the organizational e-readiness as a mediator of the firm’s technological and organizational characteristics in the rate of adoption of teleworking. Teleworking is also modeled as dependent on human resources and from the exogenous shock represented by COVID-19 lockdown. While teleworking has been imposed by COVID-19, organizational readiness plays a key role in shaping the rate of teleworking adoption during emergencies.

Telework, Hybrid Work and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals: Towards Policy Coherence

“…SDG 9: Build Resilient Infrastructure, Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialisation and Foster Innovation The aim of SDG 9 is to build resilient infrastructure and to promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation. This was found to be a popular theme in the academic literature, as part of the broader conversation discussing the relationship between innovative new technologies and sustainability [118,119,121,122,125]. SDG 9 targets relevant in association with telework are shown in Box 5.…”

Teachers’ teleworking job satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

“…Technological improvements, the increased use of information technology, and new managerial perspectives concerning the importance of work rather than the place of work have enabled teleworking as an approach-to-work alternative to traditional styles (Tokarchuk et al, 2021 ; Belzunegui-Eraso & Erro-Garcés, 2020 ; Baruch, 2001 ; Davenport & Pearlson, 1998 ). Nilles ( 1976 ) coined the term “teleworking” in 1970s.…”

“…Despite the great interest of academic scholars, managers, and organisations, there is no precise definition of teleworking, and there is no agreement concerning the term. It has been referred to distinctively as ‘remote working’, ‘home working’, ‘telecommuting’, and ‘teleworking’; these terms have been used interchangeably in the literature (Tokarchuk et al, 2021 ). Notwithstanding these difficulties, teleworking is indicated as “an alternative work arrangement in which employees perform tasks elsewhere than is normally done in a primary or central workplace, for at least some portion of their work schedule, using electronic media to interact with others inside and outside the organization” (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007 , p. 1525).…”

Delineating the Implications of Dispersing Teams and Teleworking in an Agile UK Construction Sector

“…Since the term 'telecommuting' was first coined [1], the concept of teleworking has been considered and discussed from a variety of different perspectives and academic/industrial disciplines [2][3][4][5]. For example, organisational behaviour and social sciences researchers [6][7][8][9][10] consider teleworking from an intraorganisational and interpersonal perspective, detailing how work relationships and work/life balance is affected in teleworking scenarios.…”