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Research problem and objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a rise in remote working due to various restrictions, which meant that the managers and companies had to adapt to a new virtual environment and attempt to make the best out of the situation. The e-commerce industry has the particularity of being run mostly online, making it a suitable field to research implementing permanent remote work. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explore if it is beneficial for companies in the e-commerce industry to permanently switch to remote work. Method: This qualitative research gathered information primarily by interviewing six managers within the e-commerce industry in a semi-structured manner. Additionally, to examine the data collected, themes and codes were used to analyse the trends. Key results and arguments: Findings and analysis of the data gathered, show that there are certainly benefits to the change to an online working environment. However, there are multiple factors present that make it difficult for remote working to be considered beneficial enough to commit to the shift. Conclusion: The gathered data indicates that as of now, permanently switching to remote working is not beneficial for the companies within the e-commerce industry. Based on the results, it is recommended to focus on and develop control systems along with having sufficient preparation and planning before the transition is carried out to make the change to remote working beneficial.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the working remote setup has become the norm for many employees worldwide, who have been struggling to adjust in the new ways of working and collaborating with their colleagues remotely. The recent remote setup swift has impacted their productivity and collaboration either positively or negatively. Through this thesis, we try to identify the main factors that have impacted these two values, according to previous research, and identify new ones. In terms of methodology, an online survey has been conducted in order not only to rate the significance of each factor that was reported in previous research during the pandemic years but also to understand in which way they have affected these two values. Any additional factor that had not been identified through the literature review but was reported on our survey, was collected and documented. The results of the survey have been outlined and analyzed, taking the infographics into consideration and afterward, by using the average of the Net Promoter Score values as well as by using Regression Analysis models. From the statistical methodology used, the most significant factors were identified, such as the dedicated workspace, employee empowerment, social bonding with other colleagues, etc. Besides, the majority of the factors documented through the literature review seem to be consistent with the findings of the survey. Given certain limitations of the master thesis, due to both time constraints and certain samples (177 respondents), we encourage the additional factors documented through the survey, to be further investigated as part of future research. Moreover, the personality traits could be taken into consideration as well as examine the role of leadership and how it could affect both productivity and collaboration. Finally, another aspect that could be considered as part of future research is diversity and how this impacts productivity and collaboration, as well as other political or social factors.

Background: Sudden change in work routine, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, disrupted the historic patterns and created phenomena where people were forced to work remotely for a long-term period. Even when the restrictions were eased after the pandemic, business-as-usual concerning workplace was challenged since employees did not want to return to their 9-5 jobs. Therefore, employers are forced to rethink their legacy approach concerning where and when work can be conducted. Research Problem: With both employees and employers mutually convinced about the need for redefining how work can be executed, in parallel with negative correlation existing between extensive remote work and employee engagement, calls for exploring alternative flexible working arrangements. Research Purpose: In the context where neither extensive remote work nor fully on-site setups are perceived as the optimal workplace solutions after the Covid-19 pandemic, a hybrid approach may provide middle-ground, ideally combing the positive elements from both home- and corporate office workplaces, resulting in an enhanced employee engagement. Hence, the purpose is to understand how hybrid workplace impacts employee engagement. Research Question: What are the implications of hybrid workplace on employee engagement? Research Method: This research is qualitative and inductive, following relativism ontology and social constructionism epistemology. Grounded Theory as methodology, and data collected through 12 semi-structured interviews, concluded with grounded analysis to conduct interpretation and analysis.  Conclusion: The outcome of this study confirms that employee engagement is affected by hybrid approach as a workplace arrangement, either positively or negatively, dependent on conditions how hybrid approach is configured and implemented. Hybrid workplace elements which impact employee engagement were identified and are presented in this paper.

Submitted by Lucienne Costa (lucienneferreira@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-30T18:58:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LARISSA NEPOMUCENO COSTA – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2018.pdf: 1744146 bytes, checksum: 0bcd79f3d6e7fdb18cb617ae84dec90f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-30T18:58:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LARISSA NEPOMUCENO COSTA – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2018.pdf: 1744146 bytes, checksum: 0bcd79f3d6e7fdb18cb617ae84dec90f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-01 / O teletrabalho é um modo de trabalho especial, há muitos anos utilizada no Brasil e no mundo, onde o teletrabalhador desenvolve suas atividades remotamente, fora do local de trabalho tradicional. Existem poucas pesquisas e estudos de caso na literatura sobre a experiência de teletrabalho em ambientes de desenvolvimento de software que utilizam metodologias ágeis. A intenção deste trabalho é investigar o impacto da implantação do teletrabalho em projetos de desenvolvimento de software que utilizam métodos ágeis na percepção dos teletrabalhadores, gerentes e telegerentes e indicar recomendações práticas que orientem a adoção do teletrabalho. Foi executado um estudo de caso, envolvendo dois projetos de desenvolvimento de software, com o intuito de investigar o impacto da introdução do teletrabalho na qualidade e produtividade de projetos reais. Ainda foi elaborada uma pesquisa qualitativa em que seus resultados foram importantes ao gerar as diretrizes para a implantação do teletrabalho em projetos de desenvolvimento de software. Os resultados deste trabalho mostram que, de acordo com a percepção dos gerentes e desenvolvedores, a produtividade da equipe aumentou e a qualidade do código não foi afetada. Também é importante dar atenção à comunicação, utilizando ferramentas de áudio e vídeo que minimizem o tempo de resposta das iterações entre a equipe. Além disso, foram apresentadas recomendações e diretrizes práticas para orientar a fase de implantação do teletrabalho em projetos de desenvolvimento de software usando metodologias ágeis. / Remote working is a special working method, used in Brazil and in the world for many years, in which the teleworker develops his activities remotely, outside the traditional workspace. Few researches and case studies on the teleworking experience in software development environments that use agile methodologies can be found in the literature. This work aims to investigate the impact of teleworking in software development projects that use agile methods in the perception of teleworkers, managers and tele-managers and indicate practical recommendations that guide the adoption of this method. A case study involving two software development projects was carried out in order to investigate the impact of the introduction of teleworking on the quality and productivity of real projects. A qualitative research was also developed, and its results were important to generate the guidelines for implementing teleworking in software development projects. The results of this work show that, according to the perception of the managers and developers, the productivity of the team increased and the quality of the code was not affected. It is also important to pay attention to communication, using audio and video tools that minimize the response time of the interactions between the team. Furthermore, recommendations and practical guidelines were presented to guide the implementation phase of teleworking in software development projects using agile methodologies.

<p>This thesis project aims to create an animistic system for remote workers to promote a healthier work style and more interactions between remote workers and their colleagues. The Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 resulted in a significant increase in employees who started to work remotely, and with that came the benefits and challenges. Working from home allows remote workers to work with higher productivity and a more flexible schedule and improves the work and life balance of the remote workers. However, major communication issues were reported due to asynchronous working pace and less in-person interaction, which became a significant challenge for remote working. Other remote working challenges include difficulties setting up a home office, health concerns such as sedentariness and hydropenia, higher worker self-discipline requirements, etc. In this thesis, I took the approach of animistic design, focused on the context of a home office environment, and created an interactive system, Planto, a planter and mobile application system designed to improve the work-from-home experience. This thesis presents the Planto system’s research and design process, including literature review, peer product review, user research, ideation, the iterative process of a mobile application design and a product design, and a heuristic evaluation to assess the quality of the design outcome. Planto system seamlessly integrates product design, animistic design, and IoT design. More importantly, it aims to facilitate the complicated work-from-home experience, and the medium is a simple planter.</p>

Covid-19, pandemin som inte endast bidragit till, utan också skyndat på omställningen vad gäller framtidens arbetssätt i rasande fart. Projektledare har likt många andra behövt ställa om sitt arbetssätt helt under en lång period, vilket letttill en ny vardag att infinna sig i. Erfarenhetsöverföring är en viktig bit i och mellan projekt, där majoriteten av all information tidigare har delats naturligt på arbetsplatsen genom informella samtal. Vad händer med erfarenhetsöverföringen när de samtalen försvinner? Mot bakgrund av det var syftet med föreliggande studie att undersöka hur formellt och informellt lärande fungerar för erfarenhetsöverföring i infrastrukturprojekt vid fjärrarbete, vilket efterföljdes av frågeställningen; Hur upplever projektledare erfarenhetsöverföring i infrastrukturprojekt vid fjärrarbete?  Studien hade sin utgångspunkt i en kvalitativ ansats och semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med tjänstepersoner inom offentlig verksamhet som alla arbetar med infrastrukturprojekt. Sju intervjuer transkriberades och analyserades med tematisk analys, vilket resulterade i tre teman; Hur vet jag det jag inte vet?, Informationsmässigt offside och En varg är ingenting utan sin flock. Resultatet visar att den delade upplevelsen är att det i grunden är något positivt med erfarenhetsöverföring och fjärrarbete för att det kan bidra med mycket i projekten. För att erfarenhetsöverföringen ska fungera väl behöver formernaanpassas utifrån de förutsättningar som fjärrarbete ger. En slutsats är att det är viktigt med formella former hos organisationen för insamling och lagring av erfarenheter för att inte allt ansvar ska vara på individnivå. Ytterligare en slutsats är att det behövs förutsättningar för medarbetare att lära känna varandra för att etablera relationer, vilket möjliggör informellt lärande. / Covid-19, the pandemic that not only contributed to, but also accelerated the transition in terms of future working methods. Project managers, like many others, have had to change their way of working completely for a long time, which has led to a new way of life. Knowledge sharing is an important part of and betweenprojects. Previously most of the information has been shared naturally in the workplace through informal conversations. What happens to the knowledge sharing when those conversations disappear? Against this background, the purpose of the study was to investigate how formal and informal learning works for knowledge sharing in infrastructure project when working remotely. This led to the research question; How do project managers experience knowledge sharing in infrastructure projects when working remotely? The study was based on a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews were conducted with project managers who all work with infrastructure projects. Seven interviews were transcribed and analysed with thematic analysis, which resulted in three themes; How do I know what I do not know?, Offside in terms of information and A wolf is nothing without its wolf pack.  The results show that the shared experience overall is something positive, because knowledge sharing and remote working can contribute a lot to the projects. For the knowledge sharing to work well, the forms need to be adapted based on the conditions provided by working remotely. The conclusion is that it is important to have formal forms at the organization for gathering and storing knowledge, so that not all responsibilities are at the individual. Another conclusion is that employees need to have conditions to get to know each other in order to establish relationships, which enables informal learning.

Date: 1st of June, 2022 Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Orkhan Aslanov (1998/01/12) Muhammad Faisal Bin Zainal Fitri (1995/09/26) Title: Hidden costs in the managerial practices of remote working and digital transformation in Ericsson Supervisor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: Digital transformation, Remote working, Competences, Managerial practices, Pandemic Research question: What are the hidden costs in the implementation of digital tools for remote working and what kind of competences have managers developed to overcome challenges? Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand the horizons of what is currently understood within remote working regarding managerial practices in organizations by analyzing the emerging hidden costs of digital implementation for remote working in a Nordic-based organization as well to contribute to the limited existing research within this area. Method: The study follows qualitative analysis and the data was collected by conducting seven semi-structured online interviews with managers working at Ericsson's headquarters office in Stockholm. The thematic analysis approach is used which resulted in five themes: digital transformation, remote working, implications, competence development, and managerial practices. Conclusion: This study concludes with managers’ perspectives that Ericsson has successfully undertaken the digital transformation and remote working during the pandemic. Identifying hidden costs of the process helped the company to adapt its competence development and managerial practices.

Working remotely away from the traditional office is a continuously growing trend. Due to advancements in technology, workers can conduct their work remotely through the use of electronic technologies. While there are benefits for both the companies and workers due to this change in working arrangements, some negative effects have also occurred. Previous studies on remote working have found positive effects such as increased productivity or higher levels of job satisfaction. Whereas, other studies have found negative aspects such as overworking, hard time to switch off after work and social isolation. Previous research has focused on examining telecommuters (employees who work from home part-time). Hence there is a research gap for studying employees who work solely from home. Also, most of the previous studies have focused on samples where all the respondents have the same profession/work-role, rather than contrasting between different ones. Moreover, previous studies stress the need for further investigation on the impact that remote work has on well-being. Since previous research is mostly quantitative, there is a need for more in-depth understanding of the effects of remote working. Given the identified research gaps, our purpose in this thesis is to compare remote workers to workplace bound workers in terms of productivity and well-being. In order to help fill the research gaps and reach the purpose of this study we formulated the research question: How do remote workers and workplace bound workers compare in terms of productivity and well-being? In order to answer the research question and achieve the purpose of this thesis, we conducted a qualitative study. The data was gathered through six semi-structured interviews with workers who have previously worked in the traditional office and are currently working solely remotely in the same job position. Mainly, our research found that the remote and office setting were quite balanced in terms of well-being and productivity in our sample. However, the remote setting proved to have more challenges related to it than the office setting in our case, such as higher levels of work intensification, social isolation and management style. No significant difference was identified in terms of how work-role affects remote work in terms of productivity and well-being, however, the personal characteristics of the respondents seemed to play a part in the results. Our study contributes to the growing literature on remote working by offering insights on both the challenges and positive aspects of working solely remotely from home within different work-roles and organizations. Moreover, we offer some managerial implications on how to mitigate the challenges connected to remote working. Lastly, we offer some recommendations for future research in the context of remote working.

This qualitative study is constructive in its nature and it aims to find how remote workers perceive usability of communication features across different tools and platforms. Answering two main research questions; How do remote users perceive usability of communication features across different communication tools and platforms? and How, according to users, that features can be improved?, this research aims to link them with scholarly literature, find potential knowledge gaps and highlight improvement areas. Learnability, efficiency, universality and general satisfaction are researched within five participants, coming from different sectors and occupations. Usability in IS context connects ICT with HCI. Trends, challenges and solutions in remote work field lead us to different practices in work and knowledge sharing. Thematic analysis brings seven main themes that show satisfactory results in general. However, dissatisfaction is addressed to efficiency and universality with functionality of communication tools and platforms which falls within ICT, and learnability within its human component, HCI. Furthermore, three step solution is proposed: organizational readiness, standards in communication practice and soft skills. Contributions of this research confirm importance of human component that defines usability in remote field. General usability and satisfaction with ICT and its components is confirmed and improvement areas are addressed within HCI. This research serves as a good base for research of usability of same communication features across different channels however, comparing on-site and remote workers within specific fields.