The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on conventional work settings

Abstract

PurposeTo give insight into human resource (HR) policy makers of the impact of the abrupt change in working conditions as reported from their primary stakeholders – the employees.Design/methodology/approachReported from a first-person point of view, 192 employees from Kuwait who are currently working from home were surveyed as to how the lockdown circumstances have impacted their conventional work expectations. The study compares the old working conditions (OWC) to the current working conditions (CWC) to give insight into the overall sentiments of the abrupt changes to the workplace.FindingsIt was found that most employees agreed that OWC need to be reviewed, and that the general sentiment was almost equally split on the efficiency of CWC in comparison to OWC, yet the majority was enjoying the flexible conditions. Moreover, the majority of respondents found that overall conventional work elements either remained the same or had been impacted positively rather than negatively. Also, if given an option of a hybrid model inclusive of partly working remotely and partly working on-site, a considerable majority reported that they are able to efficiently conduct atleast 80% of their work expectation. Finally, it was found that employee expectation is changing as they consider post COVID-19 conditions.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was conducted using virtual crowd-sourcing methods to administer the survey and may have been enhanced should other methods have been integrated for data gathering. Also, a more comprehensive phenomenological approach could have been incorporated to add a qualitative method to the investigation. This could have freed the results of answer limitation and experience bias. Moreover, it is good practice to involve both quantitative and qualitative elements to any research when possible. Finally, future research can benefit from a bigger pool of participants so as to gain a clearer picture.Originality/valueThis research will give policy makers a look at what needs to be reviewed/changed for a successful roll-out of remote work in accordance with their original strategies.

The Leap into the New Normal in Creative Work: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of COVID-19 on Work Practices in Industrial Companies

“…Our interview data and other recent studies also indicate that employees appreciate the flexible hours when working from home and would like this to continue (Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020). This increases the likelihood that organizations will introduce more flexible models of working time in the future (Davis et al, 2003;De Paoli et al, 2015;Naotunna & Zhou, 2021).…”

“…Collaboration is increasingly likely to be virtualized, especially over greater spatial distances or when a business trip or change of location seems disproportionate in terms of meeting duration. The savings on employee time and travel costs will also contribute indirectly to environmental protection as highlighted in the recent scientific literature (Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020;Jordan & Palmer, 2020;Nediari et al, 2021). On that basis, we formulated the following proposition.…”

“…Proposition 9a: The feeling of freedom engendered by the home office work environment can enhance individual creative work. Relocating to the home office also grants employees the freedom to schedule their working hours more flexibly, and being able to adapt the working day to one's own needs is a form of autonomy that can also encourage creative moments (see Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020). In addition, employees are more likely to take creativity-enhancing breaks at home, which also improves their work-life balance.…”

“…The working world is undergoing a period of profound change as the outbreak of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has abruptly exposed companies in every sector to radically altered circumstances (Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020;Schmidtner, Doering, & Timinger, 2021). To protect the health of employees, on-site work has had to be suspended or severely restricted, and most employees have had to move quickly to working from home.…”

COVID-19 and psychological distress: Lessons for India

“…Similar results were found in a research amongst general adult population in Spain [ 53 ]. Perceived inadequate workplace protective equipment supply, fear of contracting the disease and the stigma associated with it, during COVID-19 pandemic significantly led to employee stress which explains why employees working on site were highly likely to be distressed [ 54 ]. Hence, fearing the consequences, employees preferred working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”