How the rapid digital work from
home transition has affected
management
A case study at an R&D department at Husqvarna AB
BACHELOR
THESIS WITHIN: Business administration NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Sustainable Enterprise Development AUTHOR: David Kågebäck & Steven Ochieng Nyibule
TUTOR: Ziad El-Awad
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation and acknowledge to all who have been part of this thesis process. Firstly, the supervision of this thesis by Ziad El-Awad, for his constructive feedback support and advice throughout the writing process. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the participants who contributed with
knowledge in this study from Husqvarna AB. Also, we want to thank the co-operating seminar groups at Jönköping International Business School for their recommendations and feedback.
We thank you all! David & Steven
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Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration
Title: How the rapid digital work from home transition has affected management. Authors: David Kågebäck & Steven Ochieng Nyibule
Tutor: Ziad El-Awad. Date: 2020-05-23
Keywords: Work from home, digital work, productivity, management, covid-19.
Abstract
Background: With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, working from home has become one of the new implementations within organizations and businesses. The ability to work from home gives individuals the freedom to work from any location they want. Also, the fact that it is financially beneficial for organizations and businesses since they can reduce office expenses. However, working from home brings new challenges that influence the way of working and managing. These challenges can be for example communication breakdown, trust, and lack of collaboration among employees.
Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate and see what changes have been implemented by the management at Husqvarna AB to adapt to this digital transition. Also, see how the employees have been affected by this drastic digital transition. This research findings will contribute to potential improvements when it comes to digital management and organizational structure in a digital environment.
Method: The interpretivism paradigm is applied to this research together with an inductive approach. The research is based on a single case study at Husqvarna AB where primary data was acquired through six in-depth interviews with the semi-structured question approach. The participants we interviewed consisted of two
engineers, one certification coordinator and three managers. Furthermore, the thematic analysis approach was applied when analyzing the data in order to draw applicable conclusions.
Results: The empirical findings shows that the main change that have been
implemented by the management to adapt to this digital transition is the increase of meetings. Further, the outcome of this has led to some employees being used more inefficiently, the time they spend in these meetings could be spent more efficiently. When it comes to how the employees have been affected by this transition and perform their daily tasks, there is relations towards the self-efficacy theory.
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Table of Content
1
Introduction ... 1
1.1 Husqvarna AB... 2
1.2 The problem statement... 3
1.3 Research Questions ... 3
1.4 Purpose of the Study ... 3
2
Literature Review ... 4
2.1 Working from home (WFH) ... 4
2.1.1 Working from home challenges ... 5
2.1.2 Workplace technologies ... 5
2.1.3 Working from home benefits ... 6
2.2 Management in a digital environment ... 6
2.2.1 Employee freedom and engagement ... 7
2.3 Virtual Teams ... 8
2.4 Work from home influence on employees productivity ... 8
2.5 Self-efficacy theory ... 10
2.6 Work from home effects ... 11
2.7 Gaps in the existing literature ... 13
3 Methodology ... 14
3.1 Research Philosophy ... 14
3.2 Research design ... 15
3.3 Data Collection ... 16
3.4 Interview Design ... 17
3.5 Population and Sampling ... 19
3.6 Data analysis ... 21
3.7 Ethics ... 22
4 Empirical findings ... 23
4.1 Digital managing... 23
4.1.1 Changes in the digital management ... 23
4.1.2 The importance of socialization. ... 24
4.1.3 Efficient meetings ... 26
4.2 Communication ... 27
4.2.1 Communication problems, lack of insight information and feedback ... 27
4.2.2 Lack of conflicts ... 28
4.2.3 The future of work from home ... 28
4.3 Work productivity ... 29
4.3.1 More efficient planning ... 29
4.3.2 Work life balance ... 30
4.4 Work environment transition ... 31
4.4.1 The transition of work environment can be challenging ... 31
4.4.2 Benefits of this working from home transition ... 32
5 Analysis ... 34
5.1 Digital managing... 34
5.2 Communication ... 36
5.3 Work productivity ... 38
4
6 Conclusion ... 42
7. Discussion ... 43
7.2 Implementations of the study ... 45
7.3 Reliability and validity of the study ... 45
7.4 Limitations and future research ... 47
References... 48
Appendix A ... 53
Appendix B: Interview Protocol ... 54
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1
Introduction
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This section introduces the reader to essential background on the work from home trend. On the basis of this introduction, the reader will become aware of the reasoning for the choice of research field and the purpose of our thesis.
__________________________________________________________________ Working from home (WFH) is an arrangement where the employee fulfills essential responsibilities of their work while they remain at home (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021). Various businesses and organizations have slowly planned and implemented this work from home concept in the last couple of years. However, due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the beginning of 2020 and the restrictions that followed. Modern organizations
immediately had to transform to a digital approach of working, this established the work from home trend (Fukushima, et. al. 2021).
According to Vyas & Butakhieo (2021) the concept of working from home
arrangements has been with many companies for some years now and accelerated with the advent of the advancements in information and communication technology. At the same time the nature of working is changing, there is also a new workforce that is emerging, further shaping the future of work (Fukushima, et. al. 2021). However, according to Raišiene et al. (2020), digital workers are faced with multiple challenges which may affect their work performance, such lack of socialization, unclear boundaries between work leisure and personal life, and problems in sustaining effective
communication.
Since the digital workplace implements a new way of working, the involved business leaders often lack the acquired skills of how to effectively manage in a digital
workplace environment (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018). It is important that leaders within the organization implement new technologies and shift their mindsets to thrive towards a more digital future (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018). Also, previous studies have shown that it is more difficult to build personal relationships and mutual understanding
2 The fact that organizations are forced to adopt new procedures and workplace
technology in ensuring the organizational goals are maintained through working from home arrangement. Workplace technologies refer to a range of different types of digital services that enable work within organizations (Baptista, et al., 2020). From early workplace technologies based on certain individual office applications to intranets, email, and now in recent years the impact of different types of video platforms where people can work in virtual teams to communicate with each other (Baptista, et al., 2020). Moreover, the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic has further increased the prevalence of working from home and organizations resisting the concepts were involuntary adopting the concept.
This research is a single case study at a Research and Development department at the company Husqvarna AB. Since most of Husqvarna AB employees and managers never have worked from home before, we want to investigate how they have managed to make this drastically digital transition without prior planning. Further, what kind of mechanisms that may have been used to rapidly adjust to the new transition and see what changes have been implemented by the management. Furthermore, also investigate and see potential differences made in their work projects while working digitally from home, to see the effect this digital working approach has had on the employees at Husqvarna AB.
1.1 Husqvarna AB
Husqvarna AB is a Swedish multinational business. They currently have their headquarters located in Huskvarna, Sweden. Husqvarna AB mainly operates in the market of power-driven gardening products such as, for example robotic lawnmowers, chainsaws, and trimmers (Husqvarna AB, 2021). The company is currently one of the market leaders within this market area (Husqvarna AB, 2021). Husqvarna AB is also active when it comes to irrigation products, as cutting equipment and diamond tools for the construction and stone industries (Husqvarna AB, 2021).
Husqvarna AB also incorporates sustainability into their company, Husqvarna AB has established Sustainovative. The core principle is to connect innovation and
sustainability to create economic, social, and environmental value for stakeholders (Husqvarna AB, 2021). Since, the covid-19 pandemic Husqvarna AB have implemented
3 digital solutions for many of their employees, so they would be able to continue
working and prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus. 1.2 The problem statement
Since, the covid-19 pandemic Husqvarna AB have implemented digital solutions for many of their employees, in this way were workers able to continue to work without spreading the covid-19 virus. However, working from home has brought new challenges both within management and among the employees. Work from home may lead to communication breakdown, trust, collaboration, and inadequate technology
infrastructures (Eurofound & ILO, 2017). We want to investigate what changes that have been made within the management at Husqvarna AB to adapt to this transition of working digital from home. Also, investigate how the employees have been affected and by this digital approach of working.
1.3 Research Questions
The study will answer the following research questions.
1. What changes have been implemented by the management at Husqvarna AB to adapt to this digital transition?
2. How has this digital transition affected the employees at Husqvarna AB?
1.4 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to see what changes that have been implemented by the management at Husqvarna AB to adapt to this digital working approach. Furthermore, investigate how they managed to establish this digital transition without any previous planning. Also, how this digital transition has changed the management and what problems that may have appeared among the employees. In this way can we evaluate this new digital working approach and come up with recommendations for potential future improvements in management and organizational structure.
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2
Literature Review
__________________________________________________________________
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the theoretical background to the main topics of work from home, management in a digital environment, virtual teams, work from home influence on employees productivity,self-efficacy theoryand work from home effects. Concluding a section with the research gap is explained.
__________________________________________________________________
2.1 Working from home (WFH)
Working from home has been described using various terms over the four last decades, which are remote work, flexible workplace, telework, telecommuting, e–working (Vyas & Butakhieo 2021). Digital work emerged in the 1970s in the US, when telecommuting developed in the information industry in California state (Eurofound & ILO, 2017). WFH refers to the ability of workers to work from flexible locations such as home by using technology to execute work duties (Grant, Wallace & Spurgeon, 2019). WFH is described as an alternative work arrangement whereby employers give the employees permission to work elsewhere from central workplaces by using technology in
interaction with the organization (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021). Dingel and Neiman (2020) posit that 37 percent of the job such as financial tasks, business management, and other professional services can be done from home during the COVID-19 pandemic while other jobs cannot be completed from homes such as healthcare, farming, and hospitality.
The studies conducted by Vyas and Butakhieo (2021) revealed that WFH has two distinct domains i.e., work and life domains. Several studies have revealed positive outcomes on work domain components such as productivity and work flexibility. Working from home provides various benefits to the organization and workers such as reduced commuting time, increased motivation levels, less absenteeism and turnover, and higher productivity (Mello, 2007). For multinational corporations, working from home provides an opportunity to leverage the expertise of employees dispersed globally at a minimum cost. Furthermore, this creates a geographical gap between the
5 from different parts of the world, at a low cost which enhances unit performance, and the organization may acquire a competitive advantage (Mortensen & Neeley, 2012).
Eurofound and ILO (2017), indicated positive effects of working from home are diverse such as a reduction in commuting time, working flexibility, work–life balance, and higher productivity.
2.1.1 Working from home challenges
The WFH concept has challenges that may affect the level of productivity and the employees work motivation. According to Vyas and Butakhieo (2021) WFH faces many drawbacks as for example, the unclear line between work and private life, physical distractions, social isolation, and cost related to working from homes such as internet and electricity costs. Eurofound and ILO (2017) states that digital work has drawbacks as for example, working longer hours which creates an overlap between work and personal life which leads to work intensification. The isolation of workers from their coworkers and managers because of working affects productivity negative (Collins & Moschler, 2009). Working digitally may bring separation between
employees and the organization (Efimov, et. al. 2020). The organization may be faced with low efficiency due to potential breakdown in communication, technology problems and for employees due to absence from the regular workstation and physical isolation from other employees may lead to depression (Efimov, et. al. 2020).
2.1.2 Workplace technologies
Workplace technologies are a key factor when an employee works from home, workplace technology refers to a range of different types of digital services that will enable certain work within the specific organization (Baptista, et al., 2020). These types of workplace technology within office applications can be everything from email, mobile, social media, to analytics, video, and cloud services (Attaran et al. 2020). Workplace technology is used as instruments that will support office work, these instruments have more recently developed to be a key component when it comes to building community and social interactions within organizations (Baptista, et al., 2020). According to Baptista, et al. (2020) workplace technologies have a more central role within organizations than ever before. As mentioned in Baptista, et al. (2020) the outbreak of the COVID-19 restrictions meant that many organizations had to adapt to an
6 even more digital workplace or in some cases a total digital environment. The outcome of this was the workplace technology’s role within many organizations got crucial for companies to continue to be able to communicate and keep their businesses alive during the COVID-19 pandemic (Baptista, et al., 2020). Working from home reflects an
unconventional and volatile working environment that connects the employees through advanced information technology to workstations. WFH creates opportunities for employees to work across time, space, and organization which allows firms to minimize management and operational costs and in return increase the organizational
performance (Raišiene et al., 2020). 2.1.3 Working from home benefits
WFH offers new possible benefits for employees. It brings organizational flexibility in employees' working time and place of work which is vital in productivity; boosts work-life balance; reduces work-related stress and saves employees traveling costs (Raišiene et al., 2020). The impact of a more digital workplace in organizations, with the help of these different types of workplace technologies, improves communications within organizations since these technology instruments make it possible to communicate with people all around the world constantly (Zaki, 2019).
2.2 Management in a digital environment
Since the digital workplace implements a totally new way of working, the involved business leaders often lack the acquired skills of how to effectively manage the digital workplace environment (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018). It is important that leaders within the organization implement new technologies and shift their mindsets to thrive in a more digital future (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018).
According to Roe, D. (2016) leaders need to understand who they are leading, in a digital environment (Efimov, et. al. 2020). It has been shown that management over digital form may lead to difficulties in building and maintaining trust. This can further effect and create challenges in team coordination and loss of motivation among the employees (Efimov, et. al. 2020). According to the current state of research, it is important that the leadership concept in a digital environment have the focus on the participation among the employees together with autonomy and self-control (Efimov, et. al. 2020).
7 2.2.1 Employee freedom and engagement
When managing in a digital environment, the ability to give the employees more freedom while working is a key factor, since the digital workplaces need less
management, since software takes care of the repetitive tasks (Roe, 2016). Employee involvement is a key factor when managing in a digital environment. The interaction between employees and managers falls under the human relations tradition, it
characterized by opportunities for the employees to take part in discussions, direct participation is often referred to as ‘employee engagement’ (Truss et al. 2013). By engaging the employees more in and letting them contribute with new ideas for operational improvements will enhance their motivation and productivity (Child, 2021). Active participation by employees on, for example, operational decisions, will increase greater shared understanding and acceptance of the goals of the specific organization (Child, 2021). Also, the fact that rights to participate gives the workers more control over their working conditions and job security, this should motivate the employees to stay loyal towards their organization and continually commit additional effort to the organization’s future success (Child, 2021). However, it can be a challenge to keep our employees engaged, when shifting towards a digital working approach, since
communication problems may appear.
Also, the ability to implement more “freedom” for the employees from the managers within the organization, in that way may allow the information flow of organizational policies and regulations to be clear together with the main output goals within the organization (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018). Today companies can use analytics to calculate and measure for example IT and business metrics to create a digital scorecard (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018). According to Haddud, & McAllen (2018) digital
scorecard can later be used to see the engagement and interaction among the employees on certain applications, the software tracks the employees’ daily activities and time spent, this data is used to see if the employees work performance. However, it is
important to consider that digital workers may enjoy using technology, but they usually expect their human interactions with leaders to be personal, therefore is it important that leaders continue to be seen as ‘humans’ (Haddud, & McAllen, 2018).
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2.3 Virtual Teams
Virtual teams are defined as a virtual tool, that is used to communicate between
individuals, that have common tasks and objectives but have geographical distance from each other (Efimov, et. al. 2020). Digital communication technologies are constantly increasing in use by organizations, this makes it possible for employees to work from any location and be able to have fixed working hours (Efimov, et. al. 2020).
Furthermore, the implementation of virtual teams in an organization is a central role, when it comes to both time and cost-effectiveness (Zaharie, 2021). Therefore, the implementation of virtual teams has become a recent phase of organizational evolution in the recent couple of years (Zaharie, 2021). Communication in virtual teams is a crucial challenge since technical problems constantly can appear. For example, a bad internet connection can hinder effective communication, this can later lead to
misunderstanding between individuals. Also, according to Efimov, et. al. (2020) it is more difficult to build personal relationships and mutual understanding between people in virtual teams. When working in a new virtual team, research have indicated that it takes a few weeks before the members are able to fully recognize, trust, and coordinate their specialized knowledge in order to effectively perform the tasks (Kanawattanachai & Yoo, 2007) Furthermore, the challenges to build personal relationships in virtual teams are because it seems more difficult to establish trust among individuals who work in virtual teams (Efimov, et. al. 2020). This is because it is easier to express your
personality and build trust when meeting and socializing with people in real life (Efimov, et. al. 2020).
In addition, the health of the employees in this flexible working environment is also a factor. In some cases, working in a digital work environment may bring psychological stress factors (Efimov, et. al. 2020). This can potentially affect the health and
performance of the users within virtual teams (Efimov, et. al. 2020).
2.4 Work from home influence on employees productivity
Productivity is defined as a measure in terms of quantity and quality of work performed, in respect to the resources cost (Matui, 2017). Productivity is the ratio between a
measure of output and a measure of input such as sales, units produced, orders
9 as value-added per employee (Sauermann, 2016). The productivity of the workers determines the success of the organization. Worker productivity is determined by many factors such as worker’s effort, age, technology, work environment and wages levels. The productivity also refers to the time spent by an employee actively executing the job he or she was hired to do, in order to produce the desired outcomes expected from the employees” (Ferreira & Plessis, 2009). Also, the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic created a rapid change in the office environment for the employees, due to social distancing rules employees had to start working from their own home instead of the office space (Fukushima, et. al. 2021). Fukushima, et. al. (2021) claims that the employees have started to work more hours when they have worked from their home during the pandemic compared to when they worked at the office space.
According to Fukushima et. al. (2021) the WFH trend has caused an increased amount of sitting and screen time among individuals. The consequence of this increase of sitting and screen time have decreased the number of physical activities, which in some cases can have a negative effect on work related outcomes and create lack of productivity among employees (Fukushima, et. al. 2021). One key factor to take in consideration in this area within motivation is the objective Work Time Control (Beckers, et. al. 2015). WTC is a tool that can be used by employees, by implementing WTC, employees can more efficiently schedule the amount of time that they are working, this can improve job motivation (Beckers, et. al. 2015). Individuals that do not use WTC were in many cases associated with relatively high levels of fatigue, and lower job motivation (Beckers, et. al. 2015).
Working from home provides flexibility in conducting virtual tasks (Eurofound & ILO, 2017). This creates opportunities for both longer and more flexibly arranged working hours, teleworking facilitates flexible work schedules, which while they typically improve individual and organizational performance (Eurofound & ILO, 2017). A study that was conducted in France found that 84% of teleworkers stated that their productivity increased due to digital work, and 81% said that their work was of higher quality than their office (Eurofound & ILO, 2017). Measuring employees’ productivity entails defining the span of accomplishing a task by an individual or team of employees to generate a level of output. Measuring employees’ productivity is complex and hard to
10 measure and has a direct impact on a firm's profit. Schneider (2008) states that
organizational productivity is attained through ensuring the workers physiological and social needs are satisfied by the management. The empirical evidence on working from home arrangements impacts on employees’ productivity is scarce and in different countries globally. Some studies analyze the relationship between working from home and workers’ performance and productivity using case study (Eurofound & ILO 2017; Rupietta and Beckmann 2016; Felstead & Henseke 2017 Raišiene, Rapuano &
Stachová, 2020). All three studies find a positive correlation on working from home and on employees’ productivity, the studies were based in different countries and industries and different sample sizes. Some studies have used experiment and exploratory study to estimate the effect of employees working from home (Bloom, Liang, Roberts & Ying 2013; Vyas & Butakhieo 2021).
2.5 Self-efficacy theory
The fact that productivity levels while working from home can be different between individuals might be explained by the self-efficacy theory. The self-efficacy theory was developed by psychologist Albert Bandura in 1977. Self-Efficacy is an individual’s particular set of beliefs and behaviors that determine how perfectly to carry out a task in prospective situations (Bandura, 1977). The self-efficacy can be defined as a judgement of one's ability to perform and succeed in a particular task within a predetermined behavior pattern (Eriksson & Petrosian, 2020). Workers can either have a strong or a weak self-efficacy belief. This implies that individuals with strong self-efficacy beliefs are more committed to their work and able to overcome work related challenges
whereas individuals with low self-efficacy tend to have low drive thus putting less effort in work which may impact negatively on their productivity (Eriksson & Petrosian, 2020). Theory of self-efficacy anchors the study of working from home as it involves individuals working remotely without direct supervision from superior, as working productively from home requires some set of behavioral patterns and motivation. Self-efficacy theory entails a worker's ability to execute consistent behavioral trends in performance of tasks (Eriksson & Petrosian, 2020).
Also, another key factor when it comes to work productivity is the limited organizational participation among the different actors within an organization,
11 according to the industrial relations theory, effective participation within the
organization could enhance productivity (Van den Berg et al. 2013).
2.6 Work from home effects
The study conducted by Eurofound and ILO (2017) on working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work. Eurofound and ILO (2017) states in their analyzed
research from digital work in the following countries Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and USA. That prevalence of working from home varies substantially, from 2% to 40% of workers, depending on the country, occupation, industry, and the
frequency of job engagement by the worker. Eurofound and ILO (2017) study revealed digital work had a positive impact on both the employees and employers as it reduces commuting time, more working flexibility, better work-life balance, increased
motivation, productivity, and efficiency. Vyas and Butakhieo (2021) study on the impact of working from home during Covid-19 on work and life domains: an
exploratory study on Hong Kong, the study framework was based on two domains i.e., work and life domains. The study revealed that WFH had a positive correlation with productivity, job satisfaction, flexibility, and work engagement (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021). However, the research indicates that WFH has an adverse outcome on the work domain if they must bear the cost of WFH, which is negatively associated with work motivation (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021).
The study on working from Home Who Is Happy? A Survey of Lithuania’s Employees during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period (Raišiene, Rapuano, and Stachová, 2020). The study was examined the evaluation of digital work through a questionnaire of 436 digital workers in Lithuania (Raišiene, Rapuano, & Stachová, 2020). Through a correlation analysis among the variables, the findings noted that there are variances in the evaluation of influences contributing towards digital work efficiency and qualities required from a remote working employee, depending on demographic factors such as gender, age, education, work experience, and experience of telework (Raišiene, Rapuano, & Stachová, 2020).
ILO (2020) conducted a study on an employers’ guide on working from home in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. According to ILO (2020) their research
12 indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated the concept of WFH, and
stakeholders were more responsive and comfortable towards the concept. The survey done in the US during the pandemic on 1200 employees found that 50 percent were comfortable working from home and 40 percent were open to the WFH concept (ILO, 2020). The study on assessing the growth of digital work and its consequences for effort, well-being, and work-life balance by (Felstead & Henseke, 2017). The study aimed to critically assess two of the most prominent presumptions of the spatial revolution (Felstead & Henseke, 2017). The first presumption indicates that work is losing its spatial fixity and the second presumption is that conducting work from home is beneficial to employers and workers (Felstead & Henseke, 2017). According to Felstead & Henseke (2017) employers benefit from increased work intensity and extended working hours. Also, employees benefit from greater spatial and temporal flexibility which leads to increased levels of motivation and satisfaction (Felstead & Henseke, 2017). Furthermore, a Chinese study done by (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, and Ying, 2013) carried out a WFH experiment with 16,000 call center employees, who volunteered either to work from home or workstation for nine months. The results indicated that WFH led to a 13 percent increase in performance, nine percent were attributed to working longer hours, and four percent were attributed to the conducive working environment.
Thorstensson (2020) studied the influence of working from home on employees' productivity comparative document analysis between the years 2000 and 2019-2020. The study revealed that the attitude and policy of the firms in connection to WFH affect the productivity of their employees. The employees’ work performance rises when the employee feels that the organization trusts and cares through the provision of resources, training, and good project management for the specific employee. WFH creates work and time flexibility that brings freedom to employees. This brings a work-life balance that may have a positive impact on employees’ work performance.
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2.7 Gaps in the existing literature
There is currently a lack of previous studies when it comes to managing in a digital workplace. As stated by Haddud & McAllen (2018) there are no solid recommendations of how to govern in a digital workplace. Also, the fact on how this digital transition got established without any previous planning within the organization, since it appeared so drastically. Accordingly, how has this transition to a digital management affected the communication in the organization, what impact it has had on the employees and their performance. According to Efimov, Harth, & Mache (2020) communication in virtual teams may be a challenge. Since it is harder to build personal relationships in virtual teams, it seems more difficult to establish trust among individuals who work digitally (Efimov, Harth, & Mache, 2020).
With the rapid transition to digital work from home, companies were not able to prepare themselves for such an abrupt change of working environment. The lack of planning before implementing a digital transition in an organization, and a change of work
environment will in most cases be problematic. Since it may create no sense of urgency, unclear roles and responsibilities of employees, non-adjusted and rigid organizational culture (Kohnke, 2017). With the covid pandemic pushing all organizations to digital transformation abruptly, the management within the organization often lack the skills of how to transform to a digital workplace effectively (Kohnke, 2017). Previous studies have shown that many existing organizations that have not managed to digital transform and lack clarity from the managers about strategic considerations in their digital
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3 Methodology
__________________________________________________________________
In this section, research philosophy, research design, data collection, interview design, population & sampling and lastly the data analysis are presented.
__________________________________________________________________ 3.1 Research Philosophy
The objective of this research is to contribute with knowledge about how the digital work from home transition has affected management. This study was classified as exploratory since there is currently a lack of research when it comes to how to successfully manage in a digital workplace. In order to conduct this research, the interpretivist paradigm was used in this thesis. A research paradigm is a philosophical framework that is used as guidance on how research should be conducted, based on philosophies about the world and the nature of knowledge (Collis & Hussey, 2014). There are various paradigms, the two most common paradigms are positivism and interpretivism (Collis & Hussey, 2014). Research philosophy is used to indicate the broad relation towards increasing the existing knowledge and what currently is acknowledged concerning a particular subject (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). Research philosophy is divided into two different types of perspectives: epistemological and ontological. Epistemology indicates the idea of knowing and understanding of a certain phenomenon, while ontology is about the idea of how someone identifies the nature of reality and its existence (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). According to Easterby-Smith et al., (2018) ontological assumptions of relativism involve people constructing reality in the environmental context and this implies reality is relative to humans. In relativism, assumption lies in people making sense of their past and current experience to form a reality. In this research, the respondent will describe their experience and perception, in this way the finding will be shaped by individual constructions on the realities and depends on an individual. The study’s philosophy will be social constructionism. Staller (2010) indicates that social constructionism is mostly associated with a qualitative research design, as it involves locating knowledge in a wider historical, political, and cultural context. This approach is connected to inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is an activity involving theory extraction from specific instances of observation and experience (Johnson & Duberley, 2000).
15 In this research, we interact with people through interviews and then derive knowledge and information from the participants. This knowledge has then been considered as valid knowledge, which aligns with the epistemological assumption of the interpretivist view. Therefore, was this framework used in this thesis.
3.2 Research design
According to Kothari (2004) research design can be defined as a plan for the collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance with the research purpose. Research design is defined as a blueprint for the measurement, collection, and analysis of data (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). As mentioned previously, there is
currently a lack of research and knowledge within our specific sector when it comes to work from home. To fulfill this research gap, this study is based on a qualitative research design.
A qualitative research design is used in this research since the purpose is to understand how the rapid digital work from home transition has affected management at Husqvarna AB. Qualitative research methods focus on uncovering peoples' thoughts, behaviors, and feelings through achieving in depth understanding of the phenomenon studied (Bristol & Fern, 1993). Since we are studying human behavior under certain conditions, a qualitative approach is suitable. Qualitative research utilizes subjective analysis of the meaning of subject matter rather than objective measurement of phenomenon.
Furthermore, an inductive approach was applied in this research, to establish clear links between research findings and objectives (Thomas, 2006).
This research will also apply to the single case study design as it provides a holistic, in-depth analysis of phenomenon under study constrained by time and place (Yin, 2018). In this research we have conducted a single case study at an R&D department at Husqvarna AB that is working with battery products. This study is a single case study where we have chosen to interview a total of six people, more information about the population in this case study can be seen at the 3.5 Population and Sampling part. According to Yin (2018) a case study design produces important and diverse data through a blending of different data collection techniques such as interviews,
16 since the fact that Husqvarna AB had to adapt to this digital transition without any planning, made it relevant for our research. We specified the study to the R&D battery product department since none of their managers or employees had worked full time at home before. Also, the fact that many of the employees daily tasks were usually performed in place at the office or in the lab. In this way could we use that specific department to conduct relevant data for our research.
3.3 Data Collection
In this research, primary and secondary qualitative data was collected and analyzed to acquire information from different types of sources. The primary data was collected to acquire data on the specific research problem, in this case how the rapid digital work from home transition has affected management. The primary data was collected by interviews. The objective of qualitative interviews is to focus on collecting information that captures the meaning and interpretation of a subject matter in relation to the
participants perspective. In this research we collected primary data through conducting interviews by the video platform Microsoft Teams, we had to conduct our interviews digitally due to the current covid-19 pandemic. In the interviews we used
semi-structured questions. The study will administer semi-semi-structured interviews where similar questions will be asked to all respondents for consistency. Cridland, Jones, Caputi, & Magee (2015) states that semi-structured interviews entail the use of interview questions administered to the participants which are consistent and systematically designed to elicit more detailed responses.
The interview was conducted in an environment where the interviewee will be
comfortable. However, carrying out an effective interview depends on the researcher's preparedness in terms of planning, development, and choosing an appropriate interview method (Cridland, et. al. 2015). The design of qualitative interviews focuses on
collecting information that captures the meaning and interpretation of a subject matter in relation to the participant’s perspective. The main drawback of using this approach is that the entire process of interviewing, transcribing, coding, and translating is tedious (Marks & Yardley, 2003).
Furthermore, secondary data were literature in the form of articles, journals and books, this data was used to achieve a broader perspective on the research topic. Also, the
17 secondary data were used to compare the findings from the primary data, this improves the development of theoretical insights.
The literature was mainly collected from the database Primo, Primo is the library database of Jönköping University. Additional literature was collected from the database Google Scholar. These two databases were used since they have a wide variety of different types of academic sources, such as articles, books, and journals. Furthermore, these two sources are peer-reviewed, this means that the sources are constantly
reviewed by other people and scholars, this enhances the quality and validity of the reviewed sources used in this study. The keywords that we used in Primo and in Google Scholar to find relevant and useful literature were the following: work from home,
productivity, digital work, management, and covid-19. To narrow down our search
results, we refined our searches by selecting years of publication, category, and type of document. By doing these changes, we could more easily identify literature about working from home and managing in a digital environment. The literature that we collected for our secondary data mainly consists of new sources since our topic has developed recently. However, some of the sources are older but we see them relevant since it brings up different perspectives to our research, the majority of the sources that we used were created between the time frame 2017-2020.
3.4 Interview Design
As we mentioned previously, the interviews were conducted by using semi-structured questions to obtain our primary data. In total six in-depth interviews were conducted, these interviews were held during the period between the 12th April to the 28th of April 2021. The interviews were conducted virtually through the video platform Microsoft Teams due to the current covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, face-to-face interviews could possibly produce better interview results in terms of the immediate
contextualization, depth, and nonverbal communication (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). Interviews were conducted individually, to ensure that the participant was able to express their own personal thoughts without any influence from other people. Before the start of the interview all the participants were asked for permission to record the interview. This was made in line with conducting an ethical study, informed consent was obtained from participants before data collection. The consent from participants
18 and provide full disclosure before the commencement of data collection must be
provided by the researcher (Ferreira & Serpa, 2018). The interviewees were briefed on the confidentiality of the interview participation and an anonymity approach was used. As the interview was voluntary, the interviewees were informed of their right to cancel the interview at any stage if they feel uncomfortable.
In ensuring comfortability of the participants, they were given the opportunity to choose the most appropriate mode of interview. For example, the participants were asked if they wanted to do the interview with or without video. In this way was the interview conducted in an environment where the interviewee felt comfortable. Furthermore, the participants were also given the option to do the interview in English or Swedish, to avoid potential misunderstandings. The option to choose of language also improves the outcome and information given in the answers by the participants. The interviews were administered with the semi-structured interview approach, with similar questions being asked to all respondents for consistency. According to Cridland, Jones, Caputi, and Magee (2015) state that semi-structured interviews entail the use of interview questions administered to the participants which are consistent and systematically designed to elicit more detailed responses. However, carrying out an effective interview depends on the researcher's preparedness in terms of planning, development, and choosing an appropriate interview method (Cridland et. al. 2015)
During the interview procedure, each interview was started with a five to ten minutes discussion that focused on the topic of study, objective, and confidentiality which made the interview more comfortable to proceed with the interview and this time was not included in the full interview times as indicated in Table 1 - Interview information below.
During the interview process probing and laddering were used in increasing the richness of the answers (Schultze & Avital, 2011). Through laddering upward and downward, this aided the research respondent to move from descriptive statements upwards in revealing the underlying motives. Thus, questions on why were used for probing
purposes. Laddering down was conducted to gain illustrations and examples of concepts the interviewees were discussing in their answers (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018).
19 included in the Table 1 - Interview information below. After the interview, the recorded data were then transcribed so there would be no information missed out on or.
Table 1 - Interview information
PARTICIPANT DATE TYPE LANGUAGE DURATIONS
DN1 09/04/2021 Video call English 45 minutes
DN2 14/04/2021 Video call English 51 minutes
DN3 15/04/2021 Video call English 46 minutes
DN4 16/04/2021 Video call Swedish 48 minutes
DN5 16/04/2021 Video call Swedish 35 minutes
DN6 28/04/2021 Video call Swedish 55 minutes
3.5 Population and Sampling
This study used a purposive sampling in the selection of participants in the study. In the usage of purposive non-random sampling, the use of own judgment in participants' identifications from a population that meets the criteria and objective of the study (Yin, 2018). The first sampling was made by reaching out to Husqvarna AB by email, since we saw Husqvarna AB as most suitable for our research, we also had some previous connections within the company, this made the process a bit easier.
Furthermore, we had one contact person that gave us six potential candidates to
interview. We reached out to the potential candidates by email and asked if they wanted to contribute to our research more information about this process can be found at 3.7
Ethics. All six candidates responded and wanted to contribute our research. The
20 two engineers, one certification coordinator, and three managers. The participant’s specific work roles can be viewed in Table 2 - Participants information below. The selected participants work within the same overall Research & Development (R&D) area but have different roles and work within different departments. Also, all the
managers selected in this research have different degrees of responsibility. Furthermore, the choice to select participants within different areas and responsibilities was chosen on purpose. The choice of interviewing both managers and workers were made in order to get an overall and broader understanding on how the work from home affects
management and from multiple perspectives. Also, since the respondent possesses different roles and backgrounds, the participants could provide different insights on working from home from their specific working area. The selection of sample
respondents will be deliberate due to its qualitative nature to enable more inferences and generalizations (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018).
Table 2 – Participants information
PARTICIPANT INDUSTRY POSITION NATIONALITY AGE
DN1 R&D,
Engineering
Lab manager Swedish 56
DN2 R&D,
Engineering
Test engineer Swedish 47
DN3 R&D, Engineering Certification coordinator Swedish 47 DN4 R&D, Engineering Technical product manager Swedish 44
21
DN5 R&D,
Engineering
System engineer Swedish 42
DN6 R&D, Engineering Overhead manager Swedish 44 3.6 Data analysis
The analysis of data in this case study, consists of a critical examination of data and classifying research data, and tabulating to analyze phenomenon (Yin, 2018). The qualitative data were analyzed using an inductive approach. The main objectives for using an inductive approach are to condense raw data into a summary format and establish clear links between research objectives and findings (Thomas, 2006). The analysis will involve transcribing the interviews, patterns, and trends identification through coding in the data, and thematic analysis in the identification of high-level links between codes (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The data analysis will consist of an audit trail of transcripts of the interviews and notes.
In this research, we used a thematic analysis approach to be able to identify themes from the data that we collected from the interviews. The methodology that we used in this study was the thematic analysis approach which is based on the six steps described by Braun and Clarke (2006): familiarization, initial coding, searching for themes, reviewing, defining the themes, and producing and finalizing the analysis and the report. According to Braun and Clarke (2006) there is no clear agreement on how exactly the thematic analysis method should be applied. The outcome of this was that we had a lot of freedom when we analyzed our data which was beneficial and made the process primitive. Also, the fact that the thematic analysis is in accordance with the interpretivism paradigm, as well since it allows the researchers to interpret and derive insights from the participants (Braun & Clarke, 2006). As mentioned earlier, we used the thematic analysis method to deepen our understanding of our topic in this research. The first step in the thematic analysis was to transcribe the data that we had collected during the interviews. Hence, the second step in the analysis was to search for themes that we could use. Furthermore, the coding was conducted in an excel sheet where all participants in our interviews were
22 given their own personal color. In this way, were we able to find the empirical data for our different themes. Then, in the final step we analyzed and defined each theme, our main themes in our findings consist of digital managing, communication, work
productivity and work environment. This is visual representation in the appendix in Figure 1, we illustrate how the process from raw data to the final findings occurred.
3.7 Ethics
As the ethical factors should be considered when performing a research. As we mentioned earlier all the participant in this research received an email where they got invited to voluntary participate in our research. Furthermore, they also received some background information about our study. In this way were the participants aware of that they are the subject of research (The Swedish Research Council, 2017).
To balance research transparency, all the participants were informed both by email and before the start of the interview that the interview would be held confidential. Thereby, the standard for avoiding potential harm in research has been required (The Swedish Research Council, 2017). We also ensured that the questions that we used in our interview guide were not sensitive (The Swedish Research Council, 2017). Further, we only asked questions that were related to our research, we avoided to ask personal questions that could potentially create discomfort. Moreover, the dignity of interviewees was taken into consideration. To ensure that our participants would be anonymous we also gave the respondents names as DN1, DN2, etc.
Furthermore, the participants were asked for permission to record the interview or not. To avoid any potential errors, false, or misleading data in our findings section and at the same time ensure the validity of our study we transcribed the interviews. Later when the study was completed, we send out a copy to the respondent. This was to clarify how the participants specific answers had been used in the research.
The recorded data from the participants together with the transcript was saved on an external hard drive. When the research was completed, we deleted this data to ensure the protection of privacy from our participants.
23
4 Empirical findings
__________________________________________________________________
In this section, the empirical findings are presented from the interviews. The findings are structured with different categories founded in the data.
__________________________________________________________________
4.1 Digital managing
4.1.1 Changes in the digital management
When Husqvarna AB had to transform to this digital working approach it obviously impacted the way of how to manage. All our three managers in our research claims that this digital work from home approach has led to an increase and an overload of
meetings.
DN:1” Working from home has created an overload of regular meetings which were not
there initially”.
Control was an issue when the company management was faced with the issue of sudden digital working, but this was a challenge the management resolved through regular meetings and feedback. Working from home arrangement as compared to working from office reduces the level of control by the management as they cannot physically monitor performance of the employees.
DN:6 “The main thing I have changed in my leadership is that I have introduced more
weekly meetings, more let say deeper weekly meetings, where everyone below me participates, both engineers and managers. So that everyone gets the same information and clarity in the different projects”.
As this participant claims, the online work environment has created more meetings than before. Furthermore, the participants in these meetings are often just invited to get the overall information, if the meeting should have been held at the office place, they would most likely not have been invited.
DN:6. “I think that the meeting culture could be improved, sometimes I feel like we
have too many people in the meetings. Right people should be picked for the right meetings, some people that really do not need to be in the meetings are invited just to get overall information. So those people could have been used much more efficiently. I
24
think it is a waste of resources. In the long-term those people spend a lot of hours that could have been used much more efficiently".
However, it is important that everyone is informed about the overall information in the organization. Even if there are more meetings it can also have positive aspects. As participant DN4 who has started to schedule in a few extra meetings every week to increase the social aspects with the personal.
DN:4. “We have decided to have meetings a few mornings a week. I think that is
important when everyone is working alone from home and that they just talk. I have learned a lot more about my personal now during this online work, I have come much closer to my personal now on a personal level. But obviously it takes some time off my schedule, there are more meetings now then previously.”
When managing in a digital environment we can also see the importance of visualization.
DN;1 “If I have a meeting then I always want everyone to have their video camera on,
then it’s much easier to talk, when you see the people in front of you and the body language, I see how you respond and so on”.
DN:5 “I think it is up to the person who is in charge of the meeting, if you will be
focused or not”. This clearly shows that it is important that the management are clear
about the concept of the meeting, for example that the person in charge make it clear that everyone have to use their camera.
4.1.2 The importance of socialization.
The research found that working from home and the social isolation that it brings impact both the managers and employees. Since, this social isolation may create a lack of empathy. It is also easier to see how an individual reacts and really feels when you meet in real life. The managers were not prepared on how they could be able to empathetic or even feel about the employees reaction online as it is physically. DN:6
“You lose social contact, so it is difficult to work at home as a manager. In the office, it is much easier to see how people are feeling and ask a little more in-depth how things are going for them etc. You lose that when you work online all the time.”
25 Human interaction is a key component in the work environment as human beings are social beings and employees tend to form workgroups that share work and personal related issues. The lack of human interaction and sharing may reduce the efficiency of the workers.
DN:2 “I miss social interactions at the workplace that fostered teamwork, working in
isolation is a bit lonely and input from others sometimes is hard to come by online”.
The small that is usually among people is mostly gone, this may also influence wellbeing and work productivity.
DN:3 “I miss my colleagues and these quick little talks around the table, or printer or
just quick meeting together, even though we have this Microsoft Team’s it's not the same.”
Excessive control from management may stifle individual performance but control is an important element in ensuring productivity and focus. While having online meetings we can clearly see the importance of visualization. It is important to see all the participants in the meeting, to see their behavior, reactions and make sure that they listen and are not occupied with other activities that are not related to the meeting.
DN;1’’Employees have sometimes focus problems while working virtually, if I have a
meeting then I always want all to have their video camera on, then it's much easier to talk, when you see the people in front of you and the body language, I see how you respond and so on”.
DN; 3’’It is much easier to hide, so yeah, a bit less focus. I think it is up to the person
who oversees the meeting, if you will be focused or not, I would say it is about the personality of the person in charge of the meeting”.
Visualization can be used as a control tool; it is necessary on the online activities to ensure productivity and completion of the task. Self-discipline and self-efficacy are key components and when they lack, employees may not perform as expected and this may affect productivity. From the interviews, the issue of keeping focus while working online is prevalent in digital working arrangement and may affect the morale and eventual the work performance of both managers and employees.
26 DN;5 “I have less focus while online in meetings, I get more disturbance in an online
meeting compared to a physical meeting. It is easy to for example answer an email during a meeting”.
4.1.3 Efficient meetings
This study found that working from home on employee productivity is not so adversely affected as management has set performance targets, expectations, and standards that employees must meet. The efficiency when it comes to the meeting has improved. DN;4” Yes, it is a really big difference. Before I run a lot between the buildings and
very usually 7-8 minutes late. Now all the meetings start exactly, so the meetings online are a lot more efficient. Now if you are 1 minute late, you are late now, so it is much more efficient.
The efficiency when it comes to the scheduling and start of the meetings have as mentioned previously,
DN:6 “If we look at start and end time of meetings. Meetings starts more preciously
now, and those who usually are late are slowly getting better, so that is positive.”
DN;1 “I think that efficiency is higher when working in Microsoft Teams because, if I
am in the office, we have multiple different kinds of houses, so when I need to go to meetings physically. I constantly must run between multiple houses. Many times, I've been 5 minutes late or more to the meetings since the lack of time. In teams the meeting starts exactly, I think that is better, however during this pandemic the overall
productivity levels it's pretty much the same”.
In this way does the participants save a lot of time that they previously wasted on traveling.
27
4.2 Communication
4.2.1 Communication problems, lack of insight information and feedback
The respondents highlighted challenges associated with working from home and aspects of communication problems, feedback, the lack of face-to-face interaction enhances communication of deeper insights, this cannot be received online. For managers the feedback during lunches or coffee breaks were important for the company and the sudden digital transition affected this form of feedback. This is something that they had no idea how it would work digitally as it usually is a voluntary and friendly mode of feedback.
DN: 4 “The thing that you lose while working from home is the “office noise”, is the
small talk at the coffee machine or before and after meetings. The information you need you will receive now, but not at the same amount as before, the things ``around you” will you not receive now’’.
Previously people received information from other departments that you regularly do not have any engagement with, this insight information got retrieved during for example, lunches outside etc.
DN: 5 “I miss talking with my colleagues, and you do not get the same overall
information from other departments that you get when you meet people at lunches, coffee machines etc. There is a lot of information that comes out this way, so it is really important”.
Now while working from home digitally the individuals only interact with the people that are in their specific area and projects. The outcome of this is that there is less information about the overall organization among the employees.
DN:3 “I know that there is plenty of feedback that people don't get when working
online, at the office you constantly receive feedback, during breaks, lunches etc. Online you don't get that feedback so that is a bit inefficient.” This insight information from
multiple different areas within the organization that previously constantly got communicated among the employees in the organization is now absent. The overall
28 information of the organization must now be communicated even more online than previously.
4.2.2 Lack of conflicts
Working from home is perceived as a way of reducing conflicts and unnecessary office politics in the workplace as people are isolated and not meeting face to face.
DN: 6. “In general I personally feel that there are fewer conflicts online”. DN: 1. “I have experienced less conflicts working virtually”.
Conflict was not common in most of the respondents, most of the respondents claimed that they have not experienced many conflicts since they started to work online.
However, there is also a downside of this lack of conflicts. Since, sometimes it can be good that people really state their opinions and conflicts appear. Furthermore, then everyone can clearly see that there are certain problems that must be fixed.
DN:1. “I think that conflicts online do not come up to the surface so fast as in real
life. Sometimes it is good when you have a conflict because it shows that there is a problem”.
If there are no conflicts at all, during a long time period, then something might be wrong. Conflicts or questioning is an important factor for future development and improvement in an organization.
DN: 3. “I usually have between eight to ten meetings a day and I have never been in an
online meeting that has led to any conflict yet”.
4.2.3 The future of work from home
The covid-19 pandemic has changed the perspective of working from home and most of the employees are positive regarding the arrangement. Despite this rapid change to digital work from home both the management and the employees are appreciating the change. However, they do not want to work full time at home, all our participants want to have some sort of mix between working from home and at the office place because of the lack of socialization.
29 Respondents were willing to work online, but not on a fulltime basic since it may affect their social and mental wellbeing negatively. DN:6 “I would like a mix, about 50%. So,
you do not lose the social competence completely.”
DN:3 “I think I cannot work from home the rest of my work life; I would get really
bored. We humans like to meet people, to talk to people. I think it is better to solve things, you will give better feedback when you meet people in real life. Like a simple talk over lunch for example. That is totally gone now”.
DN:2 “I did not work at home before, but before it was a policy to be at place at work
and I would like to have a mix in the future, right now it is 60/40; 60% at home and 40% at work.
Others were skeptical of this work from home concept as a long-term option.
DN;4 “I am an office guy. So, I would choose to work at the office. But I think in the
future a mix would be pretty good. For example, if I had a big project for example then I might choose to work from home that day, to get silence and minimum disturbance than it would be easier. But if I had to choose, I would still choose the office”.
This shows that it is individual, what aspects decide if a person wants to work from home or not and what kind of position the individual possesses.
4.3 Work productivity
4.3.1 More efficient planningThe respondents’ also claim that productivity and efficiency have improved due to working from home. Furthermore, some individuals can work more efficiently from home since they now can choose when they want to contact individuals.
DN:4 “When it comes to my daily task, I am even a bit more productive while working
from home. Because at the office is usually someone that constantly knocks on my door and asks for stuff. At home there is no disturbance so I would say that I actually work a bit more effectively when I work from home”.
Also, the fact that working from home brings more freedom for individuals, being able to do certain work-related areas and for example being able to take our breaks whenever you want to. DN;5“I would say that I am a lot more productive while working online. I
skip all the morning breaks for example. So, I work a lot more efficient while working from home’’
30 DN;4 “For me working from home is a form of freedom, which was not there while
working from the office”.
DN:3. “This arrangement has given me a choice to work some days in office and other
remotely, this flexibility has saved me commuting time and money.’’
However, some participants claimed that there is no change in productivity that is at the same level as previously.
DN:3 “Productivity is pretty much the same, everything just takes a bit longer for
everyone at the beginning. It feels like everyone has a new normal speed. But now it is pretty much back to normal. So, it is the same.”
DN:5 “Now we need to plan more carefully, so we have found new ways to prepare for
a shipment that have been really good and more efficient from that perspective.”
We can see that it has taken some time to adapt to this new digital work from home approach, but that it improves with time.
4.3.2 Work life balance
In regard to issues on work-life balance, the participants that we interviewed highlighted it as a main challenge and created a blurred line between work and individual time. DN 3:” When working remotely from it becomes difficult to separate work and private
time and one end up spending more time working as compared when working from a physical office”
DN 4:” Working from home makes me sit in my chair all day and just leave to get coffee
or to the toilet. I noticed this directly when I started to work from home, that I got problems with my back. So now I have started to work out more, it is important to work out. Before I got my physical activity free when I constantly ran between the buildings etc.”
Also, the fact that working from home has increased screen time and less like physical activities thus affecting their health. It is obvious that it is important to not forget to work out and do physical activities, small physical activities such as a small walk for example, have a positive effect. This could also in some cases increase productivity for some individuals.
