9/25/2023 0 Comments Study remotely meaning![]() ![]() For individuals, it is beneficial to have access to new, non-redundant information through connections to different parts of an organization’s formal organizational chart and through connections to different parts of an organization’s informal communication network 8. Previous research has shown that network topology, including the strength of ties, has an important role in the success of both individuals and organizations. To answer this question, we treat Microsoft’s company-wide WFH policy during the pandemic as a natural experiment that, subject to the validity of our identifying assumptions, enables us to causally identify the impact of firm-wide remote work on employees’ collaboration networks and communication practices. For long-term policy decisions regarding remote, hybrid and mixed-mode work to be well informed, decision makers need to understand how remote work would impact information work in the absence of the effects of COVID-19. For example, some scholars predict a long-run equilibrium in which information workers will work from home approximately 20% of the time 1. Instead, they are likely to switch to some type of hybrid work model, in which employees split their time between remote and office work, or a mixed-mode model, in which firms are comprised of a mixture of full-time remote employees and full-time office employees. More generally, COVID-19 has accelerated the shift away from traditional office work, such that even firms that do not keep full-time remote work policies in place after the pandemic has ended are unlikely to fully return to their pre-COVID-19 work arrangements 7. Many technology companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, Square, Box, Slack and Quora, have taken this shift one step further by announcing longer term and, in some cases permanent, remote work policies that will enable at least some employees to work remotely, even after the pandemic 5, 6. Thus, in a matter of weeks, the pandemic caused about one-third of US workers to shift to WFH and nearly every American that was able to work from home did so 4. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network.īefore the COVID-19 pandemic, at most 5% of Americans worked from home for more than three days per week 1, whereas it is estimated that, by April 2020, as many as 37% of Americans were working from home (WFH) full-time 2, 3. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Here, we use rich data on the emails, calendars, instant messages, video/audio calls and workweek hours of 61,182 US Microsoft employees over the first six months of 2020 to estimate the causal effects of firm-wide remote work on collaboration and communication. ![]() Viewing this shift as a natural experiment in which some workers were already working remotely before the pandemic enables us to separate the effects of firm-wide remote work from other pandemic-related confounding factors. By ditching policies for principles, investing in competence and relatedness, and giving employees the tools they need to do their job well regardless of location, leaders can create a culture of autonomy and flexibility to the benefit of the organization, teams, and individual employees.The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a rapid shift to full-time remote work for many information workers. By turning the dial on autonomy up or down, employee flexibility increases or decreases, respectively.įor organizations looking to remain competitive in the hybrid future, enabling and empowering employee autonomy will be the single most important enabler of flexibility. Autonomy is a key driver of human motivation, performance, and fulfillment in the context of hybrid working, it is also directly correlated to the amount of flexibility a given employee has access to in their work arrangement. And while a new hybrid working survey shows that employees do indeed want flexibility, it also shows that this flexibility is conditional upon their autonomy to exercise it in whichever way is best for them. Flexibility now dominates the way we speak about the future of work.
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