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Working from home during COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and issues

Author

Listed:
  • Bolisani Ettore

    (University of Padova, Vicenza, Italy)

  • Scarso Enrico

    (University of Padova, Vicenza, Italy)

  • Ipsen Christine

    (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark)

  • Kirchner Kathrin

    (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark)

  • Hansen John Paulin

    (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark)

Abstract

During the COVID pandemic, many companies, schools, and public organizations all around the world asked their employees to work from home i.e. to adopt what are called “smart working” modalities. This has and will presumably have a serious impact on both employees and employers, which still needs to be clarified and investigated: indeed, if smart working becomes a common working modality, this may have a significant impact on both organizations and employees. This paper reports the results of an online survey of “smart workers” in Italy during the COVID pandemic, when a great number of employees suddenly moved to working from home with no or little preparation. The study offers interesting indications about the involvement and usefulness perception of smart working by the sampled people and makes it possible to single out different categories of employees based on their attitude towards this modality. Also, it points out the potential impact on socialization among colleagues, and the consequent implications for knowledge sharing and knowledge management. From the collected responses, a fully positive or negative conclusion about working from home was not possible, nor a clear indication about the efficiency and effectiveness of this working modality. The analysis, instead, highlighted the presence of different but numerically similar groups of people, i.e. those who were not satisfied at all with the experience, those who were very satisfied, and those who were “undecided”. Furthermore, respondents underlined the importance and the difficulty to maintain working contacts and the intense use of communication systems made for this purpose. Lastly, collected opinions on positive and negative aspects of working from home provided some practical suggestions about how to successfully implement this solution.

Suggested Citation

  • Bolisani Ettore & Scarso Enrico & Ipsen Christine & Kirchner Kathrin & Hansen John Paulin, 2020. "Working from home during COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and issues," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 15(s1), pages 458-476, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:manmar:v:15:y:2020:i:s1:p:458-476:n:4
    DOI: 10.2478/mmcks-2020-0027
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alfred Michael Dockery & Sherry Bawa, 2014. "Is working from home good or bad work? Evidence from Australian employees," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1402, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    2. A.M. Dockery & Sherry Bawa, 2014. "Is Working from Home Good Work or Bad Work? Evidence from Australian Employees," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 17(2), pages 163-190.
    3. Ashish Malik & Philip J. Rosenberger & Martin Fitzgerald & Louise Houlcroft, 2016. "Factors affecting smart working: evidence from Australia," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(6), pages 1042-1066, September.
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    5. Erik Brynjolfsson & John J. Horton & Adam Ozimek & Daniel Rock & Garima Sharma & Hong-Yi TuYe, 2020. "COVID-19 and Remote Work: An Early Look at US Data," NBER Working Papers 27344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Charles Gottlieb & Jan Grobovsek & Markus Poschke, 2020. "Working from Home across Countries," Cahiers de recherche 07-2020, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shen, Lingbo, 2022. "Essays on behavioral finance and corporate finance," Other publications TiSEM a9b98a25-a208-4ba6-9344-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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