<p>COVID-19 forced mass transitions to remote working across industries, significantly so in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). ICT divisions were significantly tested as the provided service and support for remote work/learning. The purpose of this research is to characterize successful ICT practices in support of remote work/learning within HEIs. </p> <p><br></p> <p>This study investigates the current literature on HEIs, remote work ICT support, and Critical Success Factors (CSFs). Gaps in the current knowledge inform investigation into the factors of successful support as identified by HEI ICT professionals. A narrative literature review is conducted to explore the research on HEIs, remote work ICT support, and CSFs. Thereafter, subject matter experts are interviewed through a semi-structured interview approach. Content analysis is employed to characterize successful ICT support to remote work within HEIs. </p> <p><br></p> <p>While ICT support took on many different approaches in HEIs across North America, several themes emerged as consistent to providing successful ICT support to remote learning. The characteristics of successful support to remote work/learning are organized under the following themes: leadership qualities, customer emphasis, RW ICT tools, organizational factors, and combating digital inequity. This study offers practitioners areas of consideration to examine their plans and policies. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Future research is proposed to include studies on other emergency events, the impacts of covid lockdown on future policies, military education, and demographic specific research. Remote work practices and strategies vary greatly by industry and organizational structure. This research focuses on HEIs thus generalizability may be limited. </p>

In the light of a post-pandemic world, the concept of hybrid work environments has become significantly more important since the way of working has changed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not being dependent upon a set office spot to conduct one´s work-related tasks has created both positive and negative consequences for both the individuals and the organizations. In conjunctions with the increased importance of hybrid workplaces, we have seen an improved academic attention towards the area since scholars claim that the hybrid way of working is the future. Even though there has been an abundance of research conducted investigating the post-pandemic hybrid work environments, this thesis contributes to an area that according to us have been sparsely investigated through focusing on the effects on remote and/or hybrid workplaces and its employees due to the abruptness of the Covid-19 pandemic through the following research question:  “How has the abruptness of the Covid-19 pandemic affected remote and/or hybrid workplaces and employees?”  The research purpose of this study is to investigate how the abruptness of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected hybrid and/or remote workplace solutions and its employees. We deem to broaden the existing research whilst concurrently develop new theoretical knowledge and expand the overall understanding of the investigated area. The purpose of this study was fulfilled through conducting a qualitative study with seven semi-structured interviews with people that have worked within the same organization before, during, and after the pandemic to obtain their own personal experience regarding the effects of the implementation of hybrid work environments. Through applying a qualitative thematic analysis, the empirical findings were categorized into three overarching themes with following sub-themes that were identified as adequate and relevant to highlight.  The result of this thesis indicates that the abruptness of the Covid-19 pandemic affected the organizations and the employees in both a positive and negative way since the changes were perceived to be needed and appreciated but at the same time implemented in an abrupt fashion which worked as an epiphanic force for several cultural and psychosocial related issues for the employees. Lastly, our findings indicates that there is a need for further research within the investigated area to hopefully facilitate and aid the future organizations, managers, and employees who are planning of or are currently in the process of implementing hybrid work environments.

Technological advances and the desire for employees to improve work-life balance have contributed to the growth of telework. Finding and retaining effective leadership talent are critical needs of organizations. Recruitment and retention of leadership talent can be supported by access to perquisites such as the ability to telework. Although research on teleworking employees in general, and virtual team leaders, can inform the industry, few leadership models exist that specifically help understand what it takes to be a teleworking leader. The purpose of this phenomenological study of teleworking leaders filled this gap by examining the experiences of 12 teleworking leaders with an average of 21 years of management experience across a broad range of industries. Six themes emerged from the interviews: communication, employee relations, individual leadership experience, employee or work issues, monitoring, and trust. Although many experiences of the teleworking leaders were consistent with existing research on teleworking employees and virtual team leaders, within the 6 themes, other aspects of the experiences within each theme are unique to the teleworking leader such as the development of efficient practices for communicating with employees and the intentional use of remote work for the important leadership activity of strategic thinking. Recommendations for further study include research specifically on teleworking leaders and their best practices that can be adopted by in-office leaders, and research on experiences of employees whose leaders are remote. Implications for positive social change include increased organizational sustainability through improved work-life balance for teleworking leaders and by increasing the strategic leadership capacity of leaders through telework.

In the last 10 years, the number of remote workers has increased by 80%. Remote workers are more productive than their traditional in-office colleagues, cheaper to maintain for the organization because of the major decrease in overheard costs, and drastically increase organizational leaders' hiring options. The problem was that over half of the nation's disengaged employees work remotely, contributing significantly to associated annual costs of employee disengagement to businesses of upwards of $550 billion. The purpose of this exploratory case study, using a critical incident technique, was to create a taxonomy of responses to the incidents that are critical for maintaining, strengthening, or eroding the workplace engagement of 14 remote workers nationwide. The data collection method included in-depth interview questions, open and selective coding, and thematic analysis from the data provided by the 14 participants. The 9-step analysis process, triangulation, and member checking consisted of structure and credibility of the findings. The taxonomy derived from this study that strengthens and maintains the engagement of remote workers is directly related to the primary theme of connectedness and organizational culture; the taxonomy derived from this study that erodes workplace engagement is directly related to the secondary themes of organizational fit and disconnectedness. The findings suggested that remote workers experience strengthened and sustained levels of workplace engagement more when working environments where they have a personal connection to the organization's mission and vision and where they feel the work culture is familial. The taxonomy derived from this research could provide organizational leaders with techniques to engage and inspire the talent of remote workers to create positive and sustainable social change

Titel: Kulturstyrning i kölvattnet av distansarbete   Författare: Axel Kagevik och Oliwer Sanderup   Handledare: Janet Johansson   Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Sedan lång tid tillbaka har ledare förlitat sig på kontoret i utövandet av ekonomistyrning. När distansarbete föreligger identifieras en avsaknad på synlighet och fysisk närvaro som innebär ett problem för styrning av medarbetare. Organisationskulturen har vidare konstaterats förändrats till följd av distansarbetets implementation vilket talar för ett ökat behov av kulturstyrning. Därför är det intressant att undersöka kulturstyrningens tillämpning i tider av distansarbete.   Syfte: Studien syftar till att skapa ökad förståelse för tillämpningen av kulturstyrning i tider av distansarbete utifrån ett ledarperspektiv.   Metod: Studien är utformad i linje med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi och ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Arbetet med denna studie har skett genom en abduktiv ansats. Syfte och frågeställningarna besvaras genom insamlandet av datamaterial i form av en kvalitativ intervjustudie bestående av tio ledare från fem olika organisationer.   Slutsatser: Distansarbetets har tvingat ledare att förändra sina tillvägagångssätt i hur de förhåller sig till medarbetare och hur de arbetar för att skapa målkongruent organisationskultur. Tillämpningen av kulturstyrning genom inkludering och skapande av deltagande inom organisationen samt genom användning av sin ledarroll för att förmedla och kommunicera viktiga budskap. Nyckeln för att ledarna fortsatt haft möjlighet att tillämpa kulstyrning, har grundat sig i nya initiativ och tillvägagångssätt som motverkar distansarbetets övervägande negativa effekter på förutsättningarna att tillämpa kulturstyrning utifrån ett ledarperspektiv. / Title: Cultural control in the wake of remote work   Authors: Axel Kagevik and Oliwer Sanderup   Supervisor: Janet Johansson   Background and problem discussion: Since a long time ago, leaders have depended on the office as a means of controlling employees. When distance work is imminent a lack of visibility and presence is identified which is a problem for controlling employees. Change in the organizational culture has been identified because of the implementation of remote work, which indicates a further need for cultural control. For that reason, it is interesting to study the application of cultural control in the context of remote work.   Purpose: The aim of the study is to enhance the understanding of the application of cultural control in the context of remote from a leader’s perspective.   Methodology: The study was designed as a qualitative study with a hermeneutical perspective. The work followed an abductive approach. Purpose and questions are answered through a qualitative interview study consisting of ten leaders from five different organizations.   Conclusion: Remote work has forced leaders to change their strategies in which ways they interact with employees and how they work in creating goal congruent organizational culture. The application of cultural control has been done through inclusion and creating participation within the organization and leaders have also used their leader role in mediating and communicating important messages. They key behind the continuous ability to apply cultural control is based on new initiatives and strategies to mitigate the predominant negative effects that remote work has on the prerequisites of applying cultural control from a leader’s perspective.

The effect of trust on employees’ business processes and work outcomes is an important focus for managers because more businesses have combined centralized and remote work environments in mixed-design organizations (MDOs). A multiple case study was conducted to explore successful strategies that 9 business leaders and managers in 5 service sector MDOs in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States used to improve organizational performance by successfully building organizational cultures of trust. Leader–member exchange served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and documents as secondary sources. Thematic analysis was used to examine participant content, evaluated in chronological and random order, as well as secondary data. Four themes emerged from data analysis: value of ongoing multidirectional communications, valuing mistakes as learning moments, observing trust responses regardless of leader/follower proximity, and relying on Internet communications technology to enable managers and leaders to create teams and build trust. Findings of this study may be used by leaders and managers in service sector MDOs to nurture and sustain trust among stakeholders regardless of location, including colocated and remote work environments. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential of trust between leaders and stakeholders to strengthen employee engagement and productivity, improving quality of work life for personnel and sustainability for residents who might seek career opportunities and contributing to community viability.

Denna studies syfte är att bidra med kunskap om nyanställdas upplevelser av en onboarding som sker på distans. Detta görs genom forskningsfrågorna: “Vilka förväntningar har nyanställda på en onboarding på distans?”, “Hur upplever nyanställda sin möjlighet att anpassa sig till sin nya arbetsroll?” samt “Hur upplever nyanställda sin möjlighet till att skapa nya relationer till kollegor och företaget?”. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ ansats där datainsamlingsmetoden varit semistrukturerade intervjuer. För att samla in empirin har sex semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med informanter som inom de senaste sex till åtta månaderna har påbörjat ett nytt distansarbete till följd av Covid-19-pandemins restriktioner. Genom tematisk analys har empirin analyserats i relation till studiens teoretiska ramverk som tar utgångspunkt i Säljös (2014) sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande, med inriktning på Jarvis et al. (2003) sociala lärande, Bergers et al. (1979) socialisation samt Lauvås och Handals (2015) yrkessocialisation. Resultatet visar att en strukturerad och genomtänkt onboarding upplevs vara av stor vikt för att uppfylla nyanställdas förväntningar, inte minst när den sker på distans. Detta går även hand i hand med hur de nyanställda upplever sina möjligheter att anpassa sig till sin arbetsroll. En onboarding på distans resulterar vidare i svårigheter när det kommer till den nyanställdas upplevda möjligheter att skapa relationer till kollegor och att bli en del av företaget. Resultatet visar ytterligare att företagen gör aktiva försök till att skapa rum och utrymme för sociala sammanhang genom digitala forum. Samtidigt möts detta av ett visst motstånd från de nyanställda som tenderar att undvika deltagandet i dessa frivilliga digitala aktiviteter. / This study aims to contribute with knowledge about new employees’ experiences of an onboarding that takes place at a distance during digital working conditions. This is done through three research questions: “What are the expectations of new employees for an onboarding through distance?", "How do new employees experience their opportunity to adapt to their new work role?" and "How do new employees experience their opportunity to create new relationships with colleagues and the organization?". This study is based on a qualitative research strategy where the data has been collected through six semi-structured interviews conducted with informants who within the last six to eight months have started a new employment through distance, due to the consequences of Covid-19. The result has been analyzed through thematic analysis and in relation to the study’s theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is based on Säljös (2014) socio-cultural perspective on learning with a focus on Jarvis’ et al. (2003) social learning, Berger’s et al. (1979) socialization and Lauvås and Handals’ (2015) professional socialization. The result shows that a structured and organized onboarding is of great importance for meeting new employees’ expectations, when it takes place at a distance during digital working conditions. The structure of the onboarding is also essential for how the new employees adapt to their new professional role. Onboarding through distance results in difficulties when it comes to the new employees’ opportunities to create new relationships with colleagues and to become a part of the organization. The result further shows that organizations make active attempts to make space for social context through digital activities. At the same time, this is met by some resistance from the new employees who tend to avoid participating in these voluntary digital activities.

More public and private organisations offer working from home as an alternative way of working for their employees. Working from home (WFH) has both benefits and drawbacks for the employees when it is compared to the office working. While some of the researchers, such as Shafizadeh et al. (2000) claim that working from home increases the productivity of the employees, other researchers, such as Monteiro et al. (2019) claim the opposite. This study analysed five research articles published in year 2000 and five research articles published in years 2019 and 2020 to discover the factors having an influence on the productivity of the employees who work from home, whether the influence of these factors have on the productivity is positive or negative and whether the factors have changed from year 2000 to the recent years (2019 and 2020). The study results indicate that working from home has an influence on productivity of the employees. While influences of some of the factors are either positive or negative, the influence of some of the factors depend on the characteristics and attitude of the employees and the circumstances.

Purpose - This study aims to identify how remote work may negatively influence the innovative climate, and how organizations can overcome the identified challenges. In doing so, we present challenges of remote work and solutions of how organizations, leaders, and employees can manage the challenges.  Method – The analysis was based on 18 interviews with industry experts and employees at the case study company, as well as secondary data regarding best practices. We combined and analyzed all data by thematic analysis. Findings - We identified 12 challenges with remote work that negatively influences the innovative climate within four areas: communication, collaboration, resources, and leadership. We have also mapped out 14 solutions to overcome those identified challenges.  Theoretical contribution - Remote work has been investigated several times but the connection to the innovative climate has not earlier been established. Thus, in this study, we bridge the gap between the challenges of remote work and the innovative climate at organizations. Additionally, independent of the COVID-19 pandemic, we contribute with findings on how remote work may negatively influence the innovative climate in organizations, how organizations can overcome these challenges, and how an innovative climate can be fostered remotely. Practical implications - We show how remote work negatively influences the innovative climate at organizations and what leaders, employees, and organizations could do to overcome these challenges and foster innovation despite working remotely. See appendix 4, 5, 7, and 8 for practical guidelines that describe what four different stakeholders (leaders, employees, organizations, and meeting moderators) can do, and appendix 6 for a suggested etiquette for remote meetings. Limitations of the study - We collected most of the data through one company in the high technology industry focused on gathering qualitative findings. Thus, our findings might be limited in terms of generalizability. Therefore, validation of our findings in other industries would be interesting for future research. / Syfte - Studiens syfte var att identifiera hur distansarbete negativt kan påverka det innovativa klimatet hos organisationer och hur dessa utmaningar kan övervinnas. För att uppnå det presenterade vi utmaningar med distansarbete samt lösningar på hur organisationer, ledare, mötesmoderatorer och anställda kan hantera utmaningarna. Metod – Analysen baserades på 18 intervjuer med branschexperter och anställda vid fallstudieföretaget, samt sekundära data om bästa praxis. All data analyserades med hjälp av tematisk analys. Resultat - Vi identifierade 12 utmaningar med distansarbete som negativt påverkar det innovativa klimatet inom fyra områden: kommunikation, samarbete, resurser och ledarskap. Vidare har vi kartlagt 14 lösningar för att övervinna de identifierade utmaningarna. Teoretiskt bidrag - Distansarbete har undersökts flera gånger men kopplingen till det innovativa klimatet har inte fastställts tidigare. I denna studie överbryggar vi klyftan mellan utmaningarna med distansarbete och det innovativa klimatet i organisationer. Dessutom, oberoende av COVID-19-pandemin, bidrar vi med kunskap om hur distansarbete kan påverka det innovativa klimatet hos organisationer negativt, hur organisationer kan övervinna dessa utmaningar och hur ett innovativt klimat kan främjas på distans. Praktiska implikationer - Vi visar hur distansarbete negativt påverkar det innovativa klimatet i organisationer och vad ledare, anställda och organisationer kan göra för att övervinna dessa utmaningar och främja innovation trots att de arbetar på distans. Se bilaga 4, 5, 7 och 8 för praktiska riktlinjer som beskriver vad fyra olika roller (ledare, anställda, organisationer och mötesmoderatorer) kan göra, och bilaga 6 för ett förslag på en etikett för distansmöten. Studiens begränsningar - Majoriteten av studiens kvalitativa data samlades in från ett företag och därför kan våra resultat vara begränsade avseende generaliserbarhet. Validering av våra resultat i andra branscher skulle därför vara aktuellt för framtida studier.

Sales is one of the oldest professions and is still a vital part of any business. It keeps evolving because of digitalization and from the impact of covid-19. The covid-19 outbreak has had tremendous influence on multiple levels in organizations and for business all over the world. Consequently, there is also an opportunity in a crisis. Furthermore, the firms have rapidly picked themselves up and continue pursuing for survival. Today, management has started restructuring their business models and including hybrid work models for their employees. In this study, the authors will investigate how this old profession is functioning in a modern and evolving business environment. Digitalization has accelerated at an alarming rate during the pandemic. It benefits and challenges many professions on a daily basis, including the B2B sales process.