Studiens syfte är att undersöka arbetstagares upplevelser av distansarbete under COVID-19 pandemin samt hur de upplevt stress i relation till krav-kontroll-stödmodellen. Arbetstagarna i studien har arbetat på distans mer än 50 procent och under en period av minst sex månader under pandemin. Tio kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och insamlad data analyserades med analysmetoden tematisk analys. Studien visar på positiva upplevelser av integrering mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. Produktiviteten och effektiviteten har ökat och tekniken har upplevts välfungerande under perioden av distansarbete. Störningsmoment i distansarbetet upplevdes vara att de inte fått träffa kollegor och distraktioner som exempelvis hushållssysslor. Trots avsaknaden av arbetets sociala aspekter på grund av distansarbete är arbetstagarna positiva till fortsatt distansarbete efter pandemin. Arbetstagarna upplever låga krav, hög kontroll, högt stöd och låg stress, vilket ger stöd för Karasek och Theorells (1990) krav-kontroll-stödmodell. / The purpose of the study is to investigate employees' experiences of teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they experienced stress in relation to the demand-control-support model. The employees in the study have worked remotely more than 50 percent and during a period of more than six months during the pandemic. Ten qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted and the collected data were analyzed by using the method thematic analysis. The study shows positive experiences of integration between work and personal life. Productivity and efficiency have increased and the technology has been experienced as well-functioning during the period of telework. Disturbances in teleworking were perceived to be that they were not allowed to meet colleagues and distractions such as household chores. Despite the lack of social aspects of work due to teleworking, workers are positive about continued telework after the pandemic. Employees experience low demands, high control, high support and low stress, which provides support for Karasek & Theorell's (1990) demand-control-support model.

Ce mémoire vise à comprendre le processus menant à un acte de confiance dans un contexte organisationnel en étudiant l’implantation du télétravail. Il explore la manière dont un gestionnaire franchit les différentes étapes du processus menant à un état d’attentes positives à l’égard d’un employé et, sur cette base, prendre le risque de lui autoriser le télétravail. D’un point de vue théorique, j’adopte une vision dynamique de la confiance en mobilisant notamment l’approche processuelle ainsi que le concept de suspension (Möllering, 2001, 2006). Cette étude est basée sur des entrevues semi-structurées réalisées auprès de six gestionnaires ayant autorisé le travail à domicile. Les participants ont été rencontrés à deux reprises et ont chacun rédigé une courte réflexion écrite sur le thème de la confiance. Leurs témoignages ont été analysés selon la méthode d’analyse inductive. Mes résultats révèlent que lorsqu’un gestionnaire envisage d’autoriser le télétravail, il mobilise une banque de connaissances qu’il a préalablement acquises à travers ses interactions avec l’employé pour construire une fiction optimiste de l’avenir. Cet exercice imaginatif lui permet de suspendre son incertitude et d’anticiper avec optimisme le comportement de ses télétravailleurs. La prise du risque que représente l’autorisation du travail à domicile ne découle cependant pas uniquement de cet état d’attentes favorables. Dans les grandes entreprises, la concrétisation de cet acte de confiance semble également reposer sur une suspension collective de l’incertitude et de la vulnérabilité organisationnelle. / This master’s thesis aims to understand the process leading to an act of trust in an organizational context by studying the decision to authorize teleworking. It explores how managers cross the different stages of the process leading to a state of positive expectations with respect to an employee that allows them to authorize teleworking. From a theoretical point of view, I adopt a dynamic view of trust by mobilizing a processual approach and the concept of suspension (Möllering, 2001, 2006). This study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with six managers who have authorized teleworking. Participants were interviewed twice and each wrote a short reflection on the theme of trust. Their stories were analyzed inductively. My results show that when a manager plans to authorize teleworking, he or she mobilizes a knowledge bank that has been previously acquired through interactions with the employee to build an optimistic fiction of future. This imaginative exercise allows the manager to suspend his or her uncertainty and anticipate optimistically the behavior of remote workers. Taking the risk represented by the authorization of telework is not only the result of a state of favourable expectations. In large business, this act of trust also seems to be based on a collective suspension of organizational uncertainty and vulnerability.

Esta pesquisa de tese teve como objetivos a identificação de como e por que as empresas de call center e contact center utilizam a modalidade de teletrabalho executado por teletrabalhadores em suas residências; a identificação das forças propulsoras do uso do teletrabalho, nas empresas pesquisadas; a identificação das forças restritivas do uso do teletrabalho residencial junto a estas empresas; a verificação das contribuições (ganhos e benefícios) advindas do uso do teletrabalho para os atores (empresas e teletrabalhadores) envolvidos neste processo, e a identificação das perspectivas de continuidade ou não do uso do teletrabalho residencial, nos próximos anos, pelas empresas em questão, inclusive com as razões deste posicionamento de continuidade ou não continuidade. Foram consideradas inicialmente seis empresas. No entanto, apenas quatro delas foram pesquisadas. Utilizou-se o método de pesquisa quali-quanti - uma combinação do método de estudo de caso e o método survey. As conclusões da pesquisa revelaram que o teletrabalho residencial tem sido utilizado com muito equilíbrio. As empresas, cujos casos foram estudados, representavam 92% do universo de empresas de call center e contact center, prestadoras deste serviço, por meio de teletrabalhadores residenciais deste segmento, no Brasil. As atividades mais executadas eram as típicas de call center e contact center: cobranças, televendas, pesquisas de satisfação com clientes, entre outras. As razões do uso desta modalidade, apresentadas, foram a redução de custos; o aumento da produtividade; a melhoria da qualidade de atendimento aos clientes; a possibilidade de se proporcionar melhor qualidade de vida aos teletrabalhadores residenciais e portadores de deficiência, proporcionando-lhes oportunidades de empregos com inclusão social e digital. As forças propulsoras e restritivas foram identificadas como sendo as de natureza econômica, social, legal e comportamental. As contribuições (ganhos e benefícios) obtidas pelas empresas e pelos teletrabalhadores foram identificadas como sendo as econômicas, as de qualidade de vida, as sociais, as ambientais e institucionais. Apurou-se que três das empresas, entre as quatro pesquisadas, pretendiam continuar utilizando a modalidade de teletrabalho, nos próximos anos. Uma empresa havia desistido desta continuidade, até o final desta pesquisa, e duas delas, que fariam parte do estudo, desistiram antes da coleta de dados. / This research thesis aimed to: 1) identify how and why call center and contact center companies use the method of telework performed by teleworkers in their homes; 2) identify the driving forces of telework in the surveyed companies; 3) identify the restrictive forces of residential telework of these companies; 4)verify contributions (earnings and profits) for the actors as a result of the use of telework (enterprises and teleworkers) involved in this process, and, 5) identify the process and reasons for the continuity or discontinuity of residential telework by these companies in the coming years. Six companies were initially considered. However, only four of them were surveyed. It was used the qualitative / quantitative method that combines the case study method and survey. The research findings revealed the residential telework has been used very sparingly. The companies whose cases were studied represent 92% of the population of call center and contact center providing service of this nature, by means of teleworkers in the residential segment in Brazil. The activities performed are more typical of call center and contact center, i.e., collections, telesales, customer satisfaction surveys, among others. The reasons for the use of this modality were: 1) cost reduction, 2) increasing productivity , 3) improving the quality of client service; 4) providing better quality of life for residential teleworkers with disabilities by giving them employment opportunities with social and digital inclusion. The driving and restrictive forces were identified as being of economic, social, legal and behavioral nature. The contributions (earnings and benefits) achieved by businesses and teleworkers were identified as economic,quality of life, social, environmental and institutional. It was found that three companies among the four surveyed intended to continue telework in the coming years. One company withdrew to continue with this mode at the end of this research and two that were found to integrate the objective analysis of this study withdrew before data collection.

Flexibla arbetssätt som i distansarbete, flexibla arbetstider och frihet över genomförande av arbetet är något som blivit vanligare på företag och därför är det intressant att undersöka närmare om fenomenet flexibelt arbete. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vad anställdas uppfattning är gällande motiven till att företag inför ett flexibelt arbetssätt och vad anställdas uppfattning är gällande hur produktiva de upplever sig vara i sitt arbete med ett flexibelt arbetssätt. En kvalitativ studie genomfördes baserad på 12 semistrukturerade intervjuer av chefer, HR-personal och övriga anställda på tre IT-intensiva företag i Sverige: Ericsson, Spotify och Hyper Island. Som komplement till intervjuerna gjordes en mindre observation av respektive arbetsplats. Studien visar att för merparten av de anställda upplevde införandet av flexibla arbetssätt som något positivt. Det möjliggjorde för dem att skapa en bättre balans mellan arbetets och privatlivets krav och villkor. Anställda ansåg att införandet av flexibla arbetssätt var motiverat både av personalhänsyn och verksamhetsintressen. Vi fann att informanterna upplevde att det flexibla arbetet bidrar till att öka deras produktivitet i arbetet på lång sikt men det ibland minskar anställdas produktivitet i arbetet på kort sikt. Utifrån informanternas upplevelser verkar det finnas ekonomiska bakomliggande motiv till införandet av det flexibla arbetssättet då det leder till minskade kostnader och ökad lönsamhet. / It is more common that companies introduce flexible working arrangements such as teleworking, flexible times and freedom over how to plan and carry out duties and therefore it is interesting to examine this phenomenon more closely. The objectives of this study is to investigate employees view on what they think are the companies’ motives to having flexible working arrangements and how the employees experience the flexible working arrangements affects their productivity in their work. A qualitative investigation was conducted based on 12 semi-structured interviews of managers, HR employees and other employees at three IT-intensive companies in Sweden: Ericsson, Spotify and Hyper Island. An observation of each workplace was made to complete the interviews. The results show that for most of the employees, the introduction of flexible working arrangements was experienced as something positive, which enabled them to create a better work-life balance. Employees felt that the introduction of flexible working arrangements was justified by both employee considerations and business interests. We found that the employees experienced that the flexible working arrangements generally increased their productivity in their work in the long term, but sometimes made them less productive in the short therm. Regarding the employees` experience there seems to be economic underlying reasons for companies to introduce flexible working arrangements as it reduces costs and leads to increased profitability.

Teleworking is the key to a more flexible design of working time and places of work. To reach the flexibility for working anywhere and anytime a virtual working environment is needed which is reached from any place having a browser and internet access, at home, on the road or in the office. The goal of our activities is to develop a set of technologies fitting in the web architecture in order to bring teleworking applications to their full potential. Our new concept is to combine different web services in a new integrated man-machine environment that enables access to all necessary services. So it will be easier for the teleworker to handle the different applications and techniques. The teleworking portal provides them access to various resources: office applications, multimedia objects and documents, communication tools such as email and conferences, collaboration and group work systems or educational software and training tools. In order to promote interoperability and extensibility among these applications, as well as to allow them to be combined to perform more complex operations, a standard reference architecture for such services is needed. Consequently our approach is based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the web service technology. / Telearbeit ist der Schlüssel zu einer flexibleren Arbeitsplatz- und Arbeitszeitgestaltung und eröffnet vielfältige Möglichkeiten und ökonomische Potentiale. Nach zahlreichen Kontroversen über die Vor- und Nachteile haben vor allem die Entwicklung kostengünstiger Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken, aber auch der Handlungsdruck einer zunehmend globalisierten Wirtschaft das Thema Telearbeit in den letzten Jahren neu belebt. Im Rahmen vorangegangener Projekte wurden vielfältige Forschungen zum Thema Telearbeit durchgeführt. Bei der bisherigen Umsetzung von Telearbeit in der Praxis ergaben sich vor allem Probleme im Umgang mit den verschiedenen Arbeitsumgebungen im Büro und am Telearbeitsplatz und dem Abgleich der Arbeitsstände und -ergebnisse. Ziel der Arbeit ist die prototypische Entwicklung einer webbasierten, flexiblen und modular aufgebauten Arbeitsumgebung, die eine effektive Anpassung an die Arbeitsweise des jeweiligen Telearbeiters und Unternehmens ermöglicht. Dabei wurde neben der Definition und Anforderungsanalyse von Telearbeit ein Architekturmodell für eine integrierte Arbeitsumgebung entworfen. Durch die umgesetzte Bausteinarchitektur wird eine flexible Anpassung der Umgebung an die Bedürfnisse der Telearbeiter und der Unternehmen erreicht. Weiterhin werden im Rahmen der Arbeit existierende Ansätze zur Unterstützung von Telearbeit analysiert und klassifiziert, um die eigene Arbeit abzugrenzen. Zur praktischen Umsetzung des Konzeptes wurden vorhandene internetbasierte Protokolle auf ihre Nutzbarkeit für Telearbeitsumgebungen untersucht. Als sehr gut geeignete und innovative Technologien erwiesen sich die Web Services. Deshalb werden die Basisprotokolle und grundlegenden Technologien für Web-Service-Lösungen im Rahmen der Arbeit spezifiziert und auf ihre Nutzbarkeit im Telearbeitskontext untersucht. Abschließend erfolgte eine prototypische Umsetzung der vorgeschlagenen Lösung und eine Validierung in verschiedenen Anwendungsszenarien, um die Praxistauglichkeit des Konzeptes nachweisen zu können.

This qualitative study examined fifteen organizational members across four international technology companies to discover how they behave and manage daily interactions in a virtual environment within a geographically distributed team. Using a grounded theory methodology, an extensive analysis of the interview data was conducted. Three core themes emerged that focus on the individuals’ attempts to manage impressions in an environment that demands multicommunication. The themes of time stacking, participation predications and performance are discussed in detail using the theoretical lens of impression management. / text

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Ce mémoire vise à comprendre le processus menant à un acte de confiance dans un contexte organisationnel en étudiant l’implantation du télétravail. Il explore la manière dont un gestionnaire franchit les différentes étapes du processus menant à un état d’attentes positives à l’égard d’un employé et, sur cette base, prendre le risque de lui autoriser le télétravail. D’un point de vue théorique, j’adopte une vision dynamique de la confiance en mobilisant notamment l’approche processuelle ainsi que le concept de suspension (Möllering, 2001, 2006). Cette étude est basée sur des entrevues semi-structurées réalisées auprès de six gestionnaires ayant autorisé le travail à domicile. Les participants ont été rencontrés à deux reprises et ont chacun rédigé une courte réflexion écrite sur le thème de la confiance. Leurs témoignages ont été analysés selon la méthode d’analyse inductive. Mes résultats révèlent que lorsqu’un gestionnaire envisage d’autoriser le télétravail, il mobilise une banque de connaissances qu’il a préalablement acquises à travers ses interactions avec l’employé pour construire une fiction optimiste de l’avenir. Cet exercice imaginatif lui permet de suspendre son incertitude et d’anticiper avec optimisme le comportement de ses télétravailleurs. La prise du risque que représente l’autorisation du travail à domicile ne découle cependant pas uniquement de cet état d’attentes favorables. Dans les grandes entreprises, la concrétisation de cet acte de confiance semble également reposer sur une suspension collective de l’incertitude et de la vulnérabilité organisationnelle. / This master’s thesis aims to understand the process leading to an act of trust in an organizational context by studying the decision to authorize teleworking. It explores how managers cross the different stages of the process leading to a state of positive expectations with respect to an employee that allows them to authorize teleworking. From a theoretical point of view, I adopt a dynamic view of trust by mobilizing a processual approach and the concept of suspension (Möllering, 2001, 2006). This study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with six managers who have authorized teleworking. Participants were interviewed twice and each wrote a short reflection on the theme of trust. Their stories were analyzed inductively. My results show that when a manager plans to authorize teleworking, he or she mobilizes a knowledge bank that has been previously acquired through interactions with the employee to build an optimistic fiction of future. This imaginative exercise allows the manager to suspend his or her uncertainty and anticipate optimistically the behavior of remote workers. Taking the risk represented by the authorization of telework is not only the result of a state of favourable expectations. In large business, this act of trust also seems to be based on a collective suspension of organizational uncertainty and vulnerability.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

This mixed methods study contains two studies that are linked together sequentially to explore the work/nonwork boundary management of home-based teleworkers through the overarching research question: Do personality traits and ICT use influence how teleworkers manage their work-nonwork boundary? Mobile ICT s such as smartphones are becoming increasingly more important for work and they can have a boundary blurring effect on the work-nonwork boundary as they may be used at anytime and anywhere. However, the issue of how personality traits influence ICT use and work-nonwork boundary management has been neglected, particularly in a teleworking context. As people manage their work-nonwork boundaries differently and some people work better at home than others, it is not known to what extent personality traits play a role in boundary management and ICT use. Study One explores the relationships between the big five personality traits of conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism, the facet level traits of dutifulness, gregariousness, and impulsiveness and work/nonwork boundary interruptions. It also explores the relationships between these traits and frequency of technology use for work purposes and the relationship of ICT s (smartphones, tablets and laptops) to work/nonwork boundary interruptions. Data was collected via an online survey, with recruitment from social media sites and Local Authorities totalling 391 usable responses. Conscientiousness was found to be negatively related to work-nonwork and nonwork-work interruptions, dutifulness negatively related to nonwork-work interruptions, neuroticism positively related to work-nonwork interruptions and impulsiveness positively related to nonwork-work interruptions. Personality traits were found to have small correlations to boundary interruptions which was a new finding, although it was expected that the correlations might have been larger than they were found to be. Extraversion was positively related to frequency of laptop use and extraversion and gregariousness were positively related to frequency of smartphone use, neuroticism was negatively related to frequency of smartphone use which were new findings in a work context. Frequency of ICT use was positively related to work-nonwork interruptions, with smartphones showing the highest correlation, followed by tablet and then laptop displaying a stepped effect. This finding of a stepped effect was new and suggests that the portability of smartphones makes them much easier to connect to work out of hours, than laptops and tablets. The second study included interviews from 20 participants who had completed the survey, four from each of five boundary management groups (Strong Segmentors, Strong Integrators, Moderate Managers, Work Boundary Protectors and Family Boundary Protectors). The groups were derived from scores from the survey data, in order to investigate in more depth, other factors that influenced boundary management interruptions that were not picked up in Study One and specifically the idiosyncrasies of ICT use between groups. The qualitative data was analysed via Template Analysis and the final themes in the template were Boundary Management, Crafting Work, Individual Differences, Telework and Interruptions. The theme of Boundary Management was dealt with in this study. Some key findings were that Study Two built upon Study One by finding that proactivity was a key theme and that this trait may be particularly active while individuals are teleworking due to the context. ICT s were used in a way that reflected the wide ranging boundary management preferences of the individuals using them.