Interest in flexible work arrangements has proliferated in the last years, fuelled by technological advancements that allow people to work from anywhere at any time. This systematic literature review explores the impact of flexibility in time and place of work on intra-group relations and subsequent effects on group-level outcomes. Findings suggest that flexibility in place of work has positive effects on employee-supervisor relationships but negative effects on co-worker relationships. Although teleworkers remain well connected to their co-workers and overall workgroup communication does not appear to change, informal socialisation processes are affected. Knowledge sharing and creation is subsequently challenged. Furthermore, managers of mixed workgroups face issues of fairness and justice as well as challenges of creating and maintaining group cohesion when some of their employees are not always present. However, little is known of how flexibility in time of work impacts intra-group relations and group outcomes from groups containing flexible workers have not been explored. This paper therefore identifies significant gaps in the literature and presents opportunities for further research.

During the Covid-19-pandemic, many organizations have reorganized into teleworking to reduce the spread of the virus. The work is moved to the home, which requires the individual to carry out the same work remotely. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate whether, and if so how, a transition to full-time teleworking can affect the traditional managerial role based on managers and employees’ experiences. Central questions that are asked are whether the managers control and support of employees change during telework. This study is based on responses from six interviewees in white-collar work in the technology, banking, finance and insurance industries. The study's theoretical framework consists of Allvin's concept of flexibility through empowerment and Snell's theory of control systems. The results of the study indicate that teleworking does not have to lead to major changes in the managerial role. On the other hand, relationship-oriented leadership becomes of great importance in teleworking, as employees become isolated and experience feelings of not belonging to the workgroup. The flexibility that can arise in teleworking means that employees have increased control and independence over the work which means that they make their own decisions to a greater extent. Finally, it emerges that the managers play a more supportive role in teleworking and that communication between managers and employees becomes more open. / Under Covid-19-pandemin har många organisationer varit tvungna att göra en omorganisering till distansarbete för att minska smittspridningen. Arbetet har förflyttats till hemmet vilket ställt krav på individen att fortfarande genomföra samma arbete, men nu på distans. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, en övergång till distansarbete på heltid har påverkat den traditionella chefsrollen utifrån chefers och anställdas upplevelser. Centrala frågor som ställts är om chefers kontroll och stöttning av anställda förändras vid distansarbete. Studien baseras på svar från sex intervjupersoner inom tjänstemannayrken i teknik-, bank-, finans- och försäkringsbranschen. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av Allvins begrepp flexibilitet genom förtroende samt Snells teori om kontrollsystem. Studiens resultat har visat att distansarbete inte behöver leda till större förändringar av chefsrollen. Däremot har det visat sig att relationsorienterat ledarskap är av stor betydelse vid distansarbete, när de anställda blir isolerade och upplever känslor av bristande samhörighet till arbetsgruppen. Det har också framkommit att flexibiliteten som kommer av distansarbetet gör att anställda får en större kontroll över arbetsuppgifterna och upplever en högre grad av eget beslutsfattande än tidigare. Slutligen visar studien att cheferna intar en mer stöttande roll vid distansarbete och att kommunikationen mellan chefer och anställda därmed blir öppnare.

Telecommuting has become a globalized phenomenon after the Covid-19 pandemic. Itallowed technological improvements which made this context easier to handle forcoworkers. Because it can improve personal comfort and quality of life, and allowflexibility, companies are adopting this way of working widely so it makes it aninteresting topic to study. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand theeffects that telecommuting has on teamwork efficiency and particularly on new productdevelopment teams. The study was conducted with two project teams working on new ITproducts development from two different French companies.The current literature is mainly focused on the individual effects and consequences oftelecommuting towards team members, at the expense of collective effects. Little researchwas made to link collective consequences to the existent teamwork efficiency criteria.Furthermore, the solutions to address the challenges created by telecommuting, andespecially the ideal rhythm of work to have, are not sufficiently studied in the literature.To address these gaps, our research was conducted using a qualitative methodology whichallowed us to understand better how telecommuting is impacting teamwork efficiency innew product development project teams and how they can face these challenges.In order to do this, we conducted fourteen interviews with two different project teams:one composed of five coworkers, and the other one composed of nine coworkers. It helpedus to gain a better understanding of how telecommuting is experienced collectively byteam members. We analyzed the data through the use of coding, which allowed us todiscover six main themes: interactions, home-office balance, tools and methodologies,teamwork efficiency characteristics and behaviors, outcomes on new productdevelopment and future considerations. Finally, we were able to understand thatindividual, and mainly collective direct consequences of telecommuting influenceteamwork efficiency characteristics and behaviors adopted by the team members, whichwould make them develop strategies and solutions to answer these challenges.

Approximately 37% of the U.S. labor force currently works from a remote location. Costs and competition are driving organizations to increase the use of telework among remote workplaces. Increasing organizational knowledge of the perceptions of current teleworkers could increase its adoption by employees and improve its implementation by managers. The purpose of this research was to test hypotheses regarding the perceived levels of telework efficiency, social interaction, and technical support to determine in those perceptions differed between teleworkers and office workers. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints framed the quantitative research design. A purposive sample of 54 teleworkers and office workers in the Southeastern Division of the USDA received Harandi & Ghafari's Telework Management Scale. Thirty-eight participants responded yielding a confidence level of 0.95 with an interval of 0.15 given the population of 211 employees in the division. Teleworker scores from the Telework Management Scale were found to be significantly higher than office workers scores for telework efficiency (p=.001), social interaction (p=.027), and overall approval of telework (p=.017). No statistically significant difference existed between the two groups for technical support. The scores of both groups, however, were lower than the maximum approval scores of 25 per factor and the overall maximum potential score of 75. Nevertheless, preliminary indications from the findings of this study suggest that the perceptions of current teleworkers could increase its adoption by other employees and improve its implementation by managers. Increasing the level of adoption of telework and improving its implementation by managers could bring about positive organizational, economic, and social changes across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

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.

This study targeted to assess the social and individual telework implications, besides theprobable permanent outcomes that could be produced. In line with this purpose, a survey wasperformed on a sample of 118 Romanian workers, on which a model was established,dependent on structural relational modeling. The model comprises 5 latent variables, aimingtelework aspects from one side and in contrast, its probable impacts on the society andindividuals. At the level of the individual, the study outcomes highlighted that telework couldcorrelate to a well work-life balance and could also aid teleworkers to advance definiteteleworking capabilities. At a level of the society, telework could produce supportableinfluences aiming at the long-term workforce’s management and delivering solutions toprobable raised issues at domestic community scales. The managerial consequences of thisresearch were focused on the requirement to execute a sequence of supportable HRmanagement tactics and effectual staff training and progress programs. Furthermore, firmsrequire being further proactive in supposing corporate social accountabilities.

Telework is a method of work that lets employees work from other places than the central office. With the world becoming more digitized, technology is becoming mobile and people become accessible wherever they are located. There are many benefits with Telework, but also many challenges that need to be taken into consideration. The digital era has led to that employees have changed their perception of how often they need to be at the central office, wishing to be more flexible and attain a better work-life balance. However, the adoption of Telework strategies has not grown as fast as first predicted by the originator, Jack Nilles, which some researchers after him have explained to be due to managerial resistance and lack of technology. This master thesis aims to investigate Telework as a phenomenon and explore how modern organizations can evolve to meet the demands of employees seeking more flexibility, but at the same time deal with challenges that may affect the organization negatively. Through a systematic literature review, we explore the concept of Telework and use previous publications in order to find common themes in research in order to find what may have impacted the decision-making process when organizations decide to implement Telework or not. A complementary literature study has also been used to investigate these themes further, which was followed by conducting empirical data collection through one semi-structured interview and two qualitative surveys. From our findings it can be found that common themes that act as drivers for Telework to be implemented are related to: an employee’s eligibility to reduce their commute, availability of digital infrastructure and ICT based tools and the organization’s possibility to cut cost related to office space. In our findings we have identified factors that organizations discuss before making a decision with regard to the implementation of Telework. Lastly, we see that how well an organization has adapted to a digital working environment does have impact on the adoption of Telework, given that there are many ICT solutions that can cope with the challenges Telework brings. / Distansarbete (Telework) är en arbetsmetod som låter anställda arbeta på annan plats än det centrala kontoret. Eftersom digitaliseringen i världen ständigt utvecklas och teknologier utvecklas mot att bli mer mobila så blir människan ständigt nåbar var de än befinner sig. Det finns många fördelar med distansarbete, men också många nackdelar. Den digitala eran har bidragit till att många anställda har förändrat sin syn på hur ofta de behöver befinna sig på det centrala kontoret, vilket har lett till att efterfrågan på flexibilitet och bättre balans mellan arbetsliv och privatliv har ökat. Införandet av distansarbete har dock inte ökat med den fart som upphovsmannen, Jack Nilles, förutspått, vilket forskare efter honom har förklarat med att det funnits ett motstånd från ledargrupper och brist på teknologiska lösningar. Den här masteruppsatsens mål är att undersöka distansarbete som fenomen och utforska hur moderna organisationer kan utvecklas för att möta efterfrågan på ökad flexibilitet från anställda, och samtidigt hantera de utmaningar som en organisation ställs inför. Genom en systematisk litteraturgranskning utforskar vi distansarbete som koncept. Där använder vi tidigare forskning för att försöka hitta teman i vad som påverkat beslutsfattandeprocessen när organisationer diskuterar distansarbete. En kompletterande litteraturstudie har sedan hjälp till att vidare undersöka de funna temana, vilket följdes av insamling av empiriska data genom två kvalitativa enkäter och en semi-strukturerad intervju. I våra fynd har vi hittat att teman som kan ses som drivande i frågan att införa distansarbete: möjligheten för anställda att minska pendlingstid, tillgänglighet av digital infrastruktur och ICT-baserade verktyg, samt organisationens möjlighet att minska kostnader kopplat till minskad kontorsyta. Våra fynd innehåller vilka faktorer som beslutsfattare tar i beaktning när implementation av distansarbete diskuteras inom organisationer. Vi ser också att hur väl en organisation har implementerat ICT-relaterade lösningar påverkar införandet av distansarbete.

Covid-19 pandemin har lett till flera förändringar i det svenska samhället och organisationer har behövt anpassa sig till de rådande rekommendationerna som folkhälsomyndigheten har gått ut med. Det har inneburit att flera medarbetare runt om i landet har tvingats arbeta på distans. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka medarbetares upplevda arbetstillfredsställelse och arbetsmotivation under det påtvingade distansarbetet. Studien har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i Herzbergs tvåfaktor teori för att förklara samt analysera respondenternas upplevda arbetstillfredsställelse och self-determination theory för att förklara samt analysera respondenternas upplevda arbetsmotivation. Det har genomförts en kvalitativ studie där insamlingen av empiri gjordes genom fjorton semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det genomfördes ett icke-sannolikhetsurval och avgränsades till svenska medarbetare som arbetar på kontor. Resultatet visar på att den största förändringen som respondenterna upplever är kommunikationen mellan arbetskollegor och chefer. En gemensam upplevelse framträdde där respondenterna beskrev att den sociala kontakten har påverkats negativt och att den fysiska kontakten med sina arbetskollegor och chefer minskat. Resultatet visar på att respondenterna upplever en större autonomi till upplägget av deras arbetsdag samt att de upplever en mer flexibilitet i att arbeta hemifrån. Det dras inte en generell slutsats men det konstateras att arbetsmotivationen förbättras kopplat till respondenters autonomi, arbetsmotivationen försämras kopplat till samhörighet och arbetsmissnöjet ökar kopplat till respondenternas relation till kollegor och chefer. / The purpose of this study is to investigate employees perceived work satisfaction and work motivation during the obligated teleworking that has emerged due to Covid-19. The study has its theoretical basis in Herzberg two-factor theory to explain and analyse the respondents perceived work satisfaction, and self-determination theory to explain and analyse the respondents work motivation. A qualitative study was conducted where fourteen semi structured interviews took place. The selection of participants was limited to Swedish employees who work in an office. The results shows that the biggest change respondents perceived was communication between co-workers and managers. The respondents describe a decline in social contact, and they perceive a negative effect regarding their relationship between co-workers and managers. The result shows a greater perceived autonomy and flexibility linked to work arrangement. The study does not draw a general conclusion but what can be stated is that the work motivation is lower due to a negative effect on relatedness and that the autonomy leads to a higher work motivation. The negative effect on respondent’s relationship between co-workers and managers leads to a higher dissatisfaction. The study is written in Swedish.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur revisionsbyråer har anpassat sig i förändradeomständigheter orsakade av påtvingat distansarbete och att ge en inblick i hur de upprätthåller legitimitet i revisionsarbetet. En kvalitativ studie har genomförts medsemistrukturerade intervjuer med revisorer samt en dokumentstudie med interna dokument som vi har fått från respondenterna. Dokumenten innehåller beskrivningar av revisorers omställning inom teknologi och kommunikation. Resultaten visar att revisorer och revisionsbyråer har kunnat fullgöra deras arbetsuppgifter även om de har saknat fysiskinteraktion med medarbetare och klienter. Revisorers och revisionsbyråers förmåga att upprätthålla legitimitet har i flera situationer däremot försvårats vad gäller befintliga förväntningar. De har trots detta ställt om tillräckligt bra för att kunna upprätthålla deras legitimitet. / The purpose of this study is to examine how audit firms have adjusted in changed circumstances caused by forced telework and to provide an insight into how they maintain legitimacy in the audit work. A qualitative study has been conducted with semi-structured interviews with auditors as well as a document study with internal documents that we have received from the participants. The documents contain descriptions of the auditors adjustment in technology and communication. The results show that auditors and audit firms have been able to fulfill their duties, even though they have lacked physical interaction with colleagues and clients. Auditors and audit firms ability to maintain legitimacy has in several situations deteriorated regarding existing expectations. They have nevertheless adjusted well enough to be able to maintain their legitimacy. This essay is written in Swedish

Les études sur le travail à distance post-COVID-19 portent en grand nombre sur la pérennisation de cette forme d’organisation du travail (Nguyen, 2021) et les conditions qui s’imposent (Chambel et al, 2022). Les définitions du travail à distance sont nombreuses et divergent à certains égards. Cependant, les travaux actuels indiquent que certains postes s’y prêtent mieux que d’autres (Tremblay et Demers, s.d. ; OCDE, 2021). Toutefois, peu de recherches arrivent à faire le lien entre les tâches et caractéristiques des postes à l’efficacité du télétravail. D’où notre question de recherche : Quels sont les effets des caractéristiques des tâches sur l’ajustement au travail à distance ? Notre mémoire vise à évaluer l’efficacité du télétravail en mettant l’emphase sur les tâches et les caractéristiques qui composent les postes de travail. Nous mobilisons la théorie des caractéristiques d’emploi (Job Characteristics Model) et des théories subséquentes, ainsi que la théorie de l’ajustement au travail pour examiner l’efficacité des modalités de travail à distance. Les facteurs qui contribuent à l’organisation des modalités de travail à distance et à leur efficacité sont examinés. Nous estimons que la créativité, le traitement de l’information, la résolution de problème, le travail d’équipe et l’autonomie caractérisent tout emploi à des niveaux et des degrés différents. Ces éléments fondamentaux influencent l’efficacité des télétravailleurs. Ils sont cependant modérés par l’accès des télétravailleurs à des conditions adéquates de télétravail, du soutien des organisations et de la connectivité organisationnelle. L’efficacité du travail à distance influence à son tour les états psychologiques des travailleurs qui sont plus susceptibles de conduire à des résultats de travail favorables. Notre mémoire se base sur une base de données de 893 répondants recueillie par la Chaire BMO en diversité et Gouvernance de l’Université de Montréal. Nos résultats montrent l’existence d’un lien positif entre l’autonomie au travail et l’efficacité du travail à distance alors que la résolution de problème l’influence négativement. Les conditions de travail à distance contribuent à une plus grande autonomie au travail et stimulent la créativité. Le soutien organisationnel facilite le travail d’équipe alors que la connectivité organisationnelle contribue dans la résolution de problème et le traitement de l’information. Du point de vue théorique, notre recherche contribue aux nouvelles connaissances sur les caractéristiques des tâches et améliore le JCM en l’adaptant à un contexte de télétravail, en fonction des nouvelles études. Du point de vue de la pratique, les gestionnaires devraient cibler l’outil à mettre en place en fonction de la tâche à exécuter afin d’assurer l’efficacité de l’organisation du télétravail. / A large number of studies on post-COVID-19 telework focus on the sustainability of this form of work organization (Nguyen, 2021) and the conditions that are required (Chambel et al, 2022). Definitions of remote work are numerous and divergent in some respects. However, current research indicates that some positions are better suited to it than others (Tremblay and Demers, n.d.; OECD, 2021). However, little research is able to link job tasks and characteristics to the effectiveness of telecommuting. Hence our research question: What are the effects of task characteristics on the effectiveness of telework organization? The aim of our dissertation is to assess the effectiveness of telecommuting, focusing on the tasks and characteristics that make up workstations. We mobilize Job Characteristics Model and subsequent theories, as well as Work Adjustment Theory, to examine the effectiveness of telecommuting work arrangements. Factors that contribute to the organization and effectiveness of remote work arrangements are examined. We believe that creativity, information processing, problem-solving, teamwork and autonomy characterize all jobs to varying degrees and levels. These fundamental elements influence the effectiveness of teleworkers. They are, however, moderated by teleworkers' access to adequate teleworking conditions, organizational support and organizational connectivity. Telework efficiency in turn influences workers' psychological states, which are more likely to lead to favorable work outcomes. Our brief is based on a database of 893 respondents collected by the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance at the Université de Montréal. Our results show a positive link between autonomy at work and the effectiveness of remote work, while problem solving has a negative influence. Remote working conditions contribute to greater autonomy at work and stimulate creativity. Organizational support facilitates teamwork, while organizational connectivity contributes to problem-solving and information processing. As a consequence, our research contributes to new knowledge on task characteristics and improve the JCM by adapting it to a telecommuting context based on new studies. From a practical point of view, managers should target the tool to be implemented according to the task to be performed, to ensure effective telecommuting organization. The aim of this study is to contribute to scientific research by highlighting adjustment to remote work regarding tasks in the context of remote work.