IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rbs/ijbrss/v12y2023i6p101-117.html

Exploring the effects of remote work on employee productivity in Botswana amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas Chiguvi

    (BA ISAGO University)

  • Keneilwe Bakani

    (Botswana Unified Revenue Services, Gaborone, Botswana)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a widespread shift towards remote work, driven by the imperative of social distancing. This transition has compelled organizations and individuals worldwide to explore alternative employment arrangements. Botswana, like many other nations, witnessed a significant uptake of remote work, leading to the formulation of remote work policies by numerous institutions. To ensure the viability of these policies, it is essential to consider their practicality for both companies and employees. The pandemic offered institutions such as the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) an opportunity to investigate the efficacy of working-from-home (WFH) arrangements, which could play a pivotal role in shaping future labor policies to accommodate flexible working hours. This study leverages data from BURS to scrutinize the impact of WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic on employee productivity in Botswana. Employing descriptive qualitative research methods and conducting in-depth interviews with 18 BURS personnel who experienced WFH during the lockdown, the study employs theme analysis and non-probability sampling to analyze the collected data. The findings reveal that WFH contributed to increased employee productivity, underscoring the importance of allocating adequate resources to optimize WFH performance in organizations. Key Words:Work From Home (WFH), COVID-19, Productivity, Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), Botswana.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Chiguvi & Keneilwe Bakani, 2023. "Exploring the effects of remote work on employee productivity in Botswana amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 12(6), pages 101-117, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:rbs:ijbrss:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:101-117
    DOI: 10.20525/ijrbs.v12i6.2505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs/article/view/2505/1942
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v12i6.2505
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.20525/ijrbs.v12i6.2505?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & James Liang & John Roberts & Zhichun Jenny Ying, 2015. "Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 165-218.
    2. Aum, Sangmin & Lee, Sang Yoon (Tim) & Shin, Yongseok, 2021. "COVID-19 doesn’t need lockdowns to destroy jobs: The effect of local outbreaks in Korea," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Ana Gálvez & Francisco Tirado & M. Jesús Martínez, 2020. "Work–Life Balance, Organizations and Social Sustainability: Analyzing Female Telework in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jun Hyung Kim & Yu Kyung Koh & Jinseong Park, 2023. "Mental Health Consequences of Working from Home during the Pandemic," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 18-50, January.
    2. Douglas Chiguvi & Keneilwe Bakani & Segolame Kalayakgosi, 2023. "The Impact of Covid-19 on Employees' Work-Life Balance: A Case Study of Botswana Unified Revenue," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 12(6), pages 118-133, September.
    3. Lee, Munseob & Finerman, Rachel, 2021. "COVID-19, commuting flows, and air quality," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Rost Vincent & Erdsiek Daniel, 2026. "Gekommen, um zu bleiben: Homeoffice verstetigt sich auf hohem Niveau," Wirtschaftsdienst, Sciendo, vol. 106(3), pages 221-225.
    5. Kouki, Amairisa, 2023. "Beyond the “Comforts” of work from home: Child health and the female wage penalty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Stefano Magrini & Alessandro Spiganti, 2021. "The Day After Covid-19: Implications for Growth, Specialization, and Inequality," Working Papers 2021:13, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    7. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    8. Vij, Akshay & Souza, Flavio F. & Barrie, Helen & Anilan, V. & Sarmiento, Sergio & Washington, Lynette, 2023. "Employee preferences for working from home in Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 782-800.
    9. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2024. "Working from home, commuting, and gender," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Carolyn E. Waldrep & Marni Fritz & Jennifer Glass, 2024. "Preferences for Remote and Hybrid Work: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, June.
    11. Marta Fana & Francesco Sabato Massimo & Angelo Moro, 2021. "Autonomy and control in mass remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidence from a cross-professional and cross-national analysis," LEM Papers Series 2021/28, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    12. Ting Zhang & Dan Gerlowski & Zoltan Acs, 2022. "Working from home: small business performance and the COVID-19 pandemic," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 611-636, February.
    13. Jingbo Hou & Chen Liang & Pei-Yu Chen & Bin Gu, 2024. "Can Telework Adjustment Help Reduce Disaster-Induced Gender Inequality in Job Market Outcomes?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(4), pages 1701-1720, December.
    14. Bergeaud Antonin & Ray Simon, 2020. "The macroeconomics of teleworking [Macroéconomie du télétravail]," Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 231.
    15. Janice Eberly & John G. Fernald, 2022. "Jackson Hole 2022 - Reassessing Economic Constraints: Potential Output (The Impact of COVID on Productivity and Potential Output)," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, August.
    16. Christos A. Makridis, 2025. "The Allocation of Time and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 12363, CESifo.
    17. Toshihiro Okubo, 2024. "Work from Home and Time Allocation: Evidence from Time-use Data in Japan," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 598-630, December.
    18. Julia Darby & Stuart McIntyre & Graeme Roy, 2022. "What can analysis of 47 million job advertisements tell us about how opportunities for homeworking are evolving in the United Kingdom?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 281-302, July.
    19. Christian Kagerl & Julia Starzetz, 2023. "Working from home for good? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and what this means for the future of work," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 229-265, January.
    20. Jean-Victor Alipour, 2026. "Performance Pay in the Hybrid Work Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 12680, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rbs:ijbrss:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:101-117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Umit Hacioglu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ssbffea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.