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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.

Leader-member communications and employee engagement (EE) are critical for organisational success (Barhite, 2017; Kelly, 2021; Kohntopp & McCann, 2020). With a nearinstantaneous shift to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic, the nature of communication between leaders and followers has changed (Alexander et al., 2020; Braier et al., 2021). In turn, there is uncertainty as to how leader-member communication exchanges and associated EE are facilitated among workers in the remote context (Abowd et al., 2020; Zeuge et al., 2020). Moreover, there is limited research on how to achieve appropriate leadership communication quality and EE enhancement in the virtual leadership-employee interactional context (Bark et al., 2015; Chanana, 2020). It is against this background that the proposed study sought to examine the extent to which leadership communication quality (LCQ), across different channels, affects the level of EE among South African remote employees. The present study assessed LCQ across the following channels: videoconferencing, telephone/audio-conferencing, e-mails, and companies' intranet instant messaging (IIM) channels. This study was founded in the theoretical integration of Social Exchange Theory (Homans, 1958) and Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984). The study hypothesised that greater perceived LCQ, through the use of richer channels, would increase EE among employees in the virtual workspace. A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative research design was conducted to examine the study's hypotheses. Data was gathered via an online self-report survey from South African (SA) employees that engaged in full-time and part-time remote working schedules (N = 179). Pearson correlation analyses confirmed positive relationships between the LCQ of each channel and EE. However, once all channels were combined in one multiple regression model, only the LCQ of video-conferencing channels was found to be a unique predictor of EE levels. Friedman tests revealed that the respondents' mean rankings of the two LCQ sub-facets assessed (communication clarity and leadership behaviour transmission) were higher for video-conferencing channels than for the other channels. Cumulatively, the research revealed that the channel associated with the highest LCQ was video-conferencing, and that leaders could most likely increase EE among their remote employees by using this channel compared to the other channels assessed. These results may contribute valuable insight to inform the development of digital leadership strategies and connectivity interventions in organisations for the future world of work.

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Detta är en studie som syftar till att skapa fördjupad förståelse i hur samarbetet mellan medarbetarna på Maxkompetens Växjökontor har förändrats under ett långt distansarbete. Majoriteten av interaktionen mellan medarbetarna har tidigare utgjorts av att träffas fysiskt på kontoret men i samband med Folkhälsomyndighetens rekommendationer om distansarbete har den fysiska interaktionen minskat. I en undersökning om vilka utmaningar som upplevs svårast med distansarbete har det framkommit att samarbete med kollegor är den största utmaningen. Tidigare studier som genomförts innan Covid-19 pandemin menar att företag bör arbeta mer på distans i framtiden. Det som dessa studier inte reflekterat över är dock i vilken omfattning distansarbete försvårar medarbetarnas sociala relationer och samarbete med varandra. Denna studie utgörs av en kvalitativ fallstudie med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Den empiriska datainsamlingen baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem medarbetare från Växjökontoret. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i sociala relationer, vilket är en grundförutsättning för samarbete mellan medarbetare. Ett starkt socialt stöd och småpratande ökar möjligheten till goda sociala relationer och samarbete. När den fysiska interaktionen minskar mellan medarbetare finns det risk för att de sociala relationerna och samarbetet påverkas negativt. Slutsatsen visar att samarbetet mellan medarbetarna var sämre under första halvåret av pandemin. Detta då den ovana situationen med ett distanserat arbetssätt gjorde att det förekom lägre kommunikation och samspel mellan medarbetarna. Numera har medarbetarna ett starkt samarbete på distans. De har hittat nya sätt att samarbeta på genom att de är mer aktiva i att kontakta varandra på distans. Medarbetarna har fått ett lärande om både för- och nackdelar med distansarbetet. Det har visat sig vara svårt att finna digitala alternativ för att ersätta spontana småprat och den fysiska interaktionen. Avslutningsvis är det tydligt att öppen-dörr-kommunikation fungerar sämre på distans, detta då det kräver ett initiativ från medarbetare vilket underlättas vid den fysiska interaktionen.