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International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 17, No. 12; 2022
ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
1
COVID-19 Induced Teleworking and Future Expectations:
A Systematic Review
Vaggelis Saprikis1, Maro Vlachopoulou2 & Theodora Zarmpou2
1 Department of Management Science and Technology, School of Economic Sciences, University of Western
Macedonia, Kozani, Greece
2 Department of Applied Informatics, School of Information Sciences, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki,
Greece
Correspondence: Vaggelis Saprikis, Department of Management Science and Technology, School of Economic
Sciences, University of Western Macedonia, 50100, Kozani, Greece. E-mail: esaprikis@uowm.gr
Received: August 22, 2022 Accepted: October 16, 2022 Online Published: November 1, 2022
doi:10.5539/ijbm.v17n12p1 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v17n12p1
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought extraordinary changes to almost all human activities. This unfamiliar
situation has affected, among others, the working conditions, under which employees should keep doing their job
while protecting themselves and preventing the coronavirus from spreading. As a result, working from home has
been considered as a topic of high interest, and a number of empirical studies have been conducted aiming at
investigating its impact on contemporary companies, organizations and their employees. The focus of this
research is on the employee profile and type of organization, as well as on other factors and conditions that
influence the adoption of teleworking policies. Therefore, the scope of the systematic review paper is to analyze
and present the factors affecting COVID-19 induced teleworking, the perceived benefits and obstacles of this
situation to employees and their firms, as well as the determinants that impact pandemic induced teleworking
adjustment along with post COVID-19 intentions. The study proposes a conceptual framework where all the
major parameters of firms’ and employees’ characteristics are combined with the main benefits and drawbacks
of teleworking aiming at mapping the current and post COVID-19 working from home situation.
Keywords: teleworking, COVID-19 pandemic, influencing factors, adoption, adjustment, post COVID-19
expectations
1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought unprecedented changes to various fields of human societies globally
to keep people safe and prevent the spread of coronavirus. To tackle the virus outbreak, people are restricted to
their homes reducing face-to-face interactions and governments and organizations are enforcing new rules in
working conditions, in order to protect the health and safety of employees and customers.
Although closure of offices and pause of operations might have happened in some industries or governmental
organizations as a first reaction to the unexpected, it is something that could not last for days. Various measures
have been proposed to give a solution to having work-life rolling: Work from Home (WFH) and remote working
policy, extending the working day and dividing the employees in shifts, reductions in the companies’ and
organizations’ workforce are some of the most commonly adopted ones (Agba et al., 2021).
According to Vyas & Butakhieo (2020) “working from home” was not newly introduced during the COVID-19
period, but it was initially mentioned back in 1973. It is a term that is used to describe that employees conduct their
daily tasks remotely, even from their coach, without commuting to the physical location of their office and meeting
their colleagues. The whole office is enclosed in the virtual environment of a laptop thanks to online information
systems and ICT technologies (Almonacid-Nieto et al., 2020). There have also been alternative ways to define the
same concept such as “telecommuting” or “teleworking” (Kowalski & Swanson, 2005; Betchoo, 2020; Vasic,
2020). In the paper herein, the words teleworking, telecommuting and work from home are equally used to
encapsulate the above meaning and set the basis of the study.
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Previous research on teleworking has been inspired by different disciplines ranging from transport and
environmental planning to sociology, law, human and organizational studies (e.g., Giovanis, 2018; Hook et al.,
2020; Karia & Asaari, 2016). Although teleworking is a topic of high interest, there is still a question that crosses
our minds about an organization's/ company’s or employee’s profile that could suit working from home conditions.
Further research regarding COVID-19 induced teleworking inquiries are: What are the factors affecting the
acceptance of teleworking policies by employees? Should, probably, organizations give special provisions to
employees? There is much room for analysis about the factors and circumstances that enable the teleworking
policies adoption, and that forms the first research question of this paper:
RQ1: Which factors affect pandemic induced teleworking adjustment?
In the new reality of the crisis, the adoption of teleworking can be interpreted simultaneously as a constraint, as
well as a resource for new work processes and has become from highly important to absolutely critical, both for
firms and employees. Teleworking has nowadays attracted renewed attention in response to COVID-19 pandemic
as a new form of digital transformation in the working environment and has become a hot topic of discussion in the
current digital transformation argument due to its widespread adoption during the various stages of the epidemic
period. The importance of personal presence in the workplace has been diminished and online services, e.g.
meetings, suddenly are mandatory, leading to changes in work culture, and accelerating the digital transformation
of the workforce (Vasic, 2020), while employees believe that a digital form of work is a safe source of income due
to the COVID-19 pandemic (Nagel, 2020).
RQ2: What are the perceived benefits and obstacles by the COVID-19 to induced teleworkers?
Within the context of work culture transformation many researchers investigate further and report on the viability
and prospects of preserving the teleworking policy in the post-pandemic era. The question that arises “is this
change here to stay?” follows the exploration regarding the willingness of employees and companies to continue
with the teleworking patterns when the COVID-19 crisis is over.
RQ3: What expectations do employees and employers have for post COVID-19 teleworking?
In order to give insights to the above questions, this paper is based on previous research surveys conducted during
the different stages of the pandemic period. After analysis of the various surveys’ findings, this study aims to
conclude on the factors that affect employees’ reaction towards teleworking, as well as explore whether they
would be willing to adopt it on a regular basis, when there are no special safety conditions. Furthermore, the study
evaluates perceived advantages and disadvantages of several employees and firms towards COVID-19 induced
teleworking, to finally build a framework, which proposes the way perceived benefits and drawbacks affect the
teleworking adoption.
The collected surveys have been conducted in a variation of countries worldwide indicating the common interest
of the topic globally. Although there are multiple points of view that researchers choose to approach the topic, this
study critically inputs all the different aspects by organizing the various research findings into specific subject
streams.
This systematic review paper is structured in four sections. After the research questions are introduced in the first
section, the second one describes the methodology being followed. The third section presents and organizes the
previous studies that comprise the literature review in specific research streams. Third section concludes by
proposing a comprehensive research framework of the topic examined, whereas the last section deals with a
discussion about the findings of this study concluding by proposing future research avenues.
2. Research Methodology
To answer the research questions and achieve the goal of this study, a systematic review was performed. In specific,
systematic review is a group of research approaches which are utilized to analyze secondary data that bring
together the results of primary research to answer a research question(s) (Newman and Gough, 2020). As a result,
it can be defined as “a review of existing research using explicit, accountable rigorous research method” (Gough et
al., 2017, p. 4). The systematic review of this study was utilized by applying a classic protocol; the PRISMA
statement. PRISMA statement consists of a set of four distinct but interconnected phases – Identification,
Screening, Eligibility and Inclusion; and helps researchers achieve their scopes (Moher et al., 2009).
In particular, a detailed investigation was conducted for a five-month period - February–June 2021. First, during
the Identification phase, comprehensive research took place at identifying articles on the topic. The investigation
was performed by searching in the following, eleven, scientific databases - 1) Science Direct, 2) Web of Science, 3)
Emerald Insight, 4) Scopus, 5) Google Scholar, 6) Springer Link, 7) Wiley and Sons, 8) Taylor and Francis, 9)
Sage Journals, 10) IEEE Xplore Digital Library and 11) ProQuest Direct. The criteria for the search terminology
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were (“teleworking” or “telecommuting” or “working from home”) and (“COVID-19” or “coronavirus”). Non
relevant articles and duplicates were removed.
Second, Screening phase followed. All remaining articles were further screened as the aforementioned search
terms needed to be mentioned on the paper’s title, abstract or keywords. Add to this, each article should be carried
out during the COVID-19 pandemic waves in 2020 and 2021 and conducted a primary research study. Papers that
were not written in the English language were omitted as well.
Afterwards, during the Eligibility phase, all remained articles were first assessed to test for full-text eligibility and,
then, further screened by reading the abstract, their methodology section and finally the whole paper aiming at
excluding all non-primary research papers as well as those articles that did not focus on teleworking. This
procedure was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the abstract and methodology sections were checked to
determine if each article was relevant to the scope of this study. In the second stage, an in-depth reading helped for
final papers’ relevance verification.
Thus, after a persistent and comprehensive examination procedure 28 empirical papers met the above mentioned
criteria and consisted of the final sample - Inclusion phase -. The flow diagram of the PRISMA statement is
presented as follows (Figure 1).
Figure 1. PRISMA procedure
3. Literature Review of Teleworking Adoption During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic
The changes that the coronavirus pandemic has brought in various areas have raised the interest of the scientific
society resulting in a number of papers published internationally. The fear of virus transmissibility is observed to
have led - among others - to an increase in the application of teleworking practices and there are many studies
worldwide that explore the topic of teleworking from various aspects.
As explained in the Research Methodology section, a specific process has been implemented in order to conclude
a set of 28 publications being selected as the sources of the study herein. All of these sources are based on primary
data gathered by surveys conducted during the months of the crisis. The surveys are mainly addressed to the
employees, as there is only one study which is conducted from the companies’ perspective.
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It is remarkable that each study is mainly executed targeting one country, but on the other hand there are studies in
many different countries around the world. This gives an extra value, as it seems that teleworking practices are a
topic of common interest in different environments and working cultures. The following table shows the
distribution of the selected sources:
Table 1. Empirical papers – per continent and country
Continent Country Quantity Reference
Africa Mauritius 1 Betchoo, 2020
South Africa 1 Matli, 2020
Americas USA 2 Feng & Savani, 2020; Barbour et
al., 2021
Perou 1 Almonacid-Nieto et al., 2020
Asia India 2 Kapoor et al., 2021; Jamal et al.,
2021
Japan 2 Nagata et al., 2021; Okubo, 2020
Singapore 1 Lee, 2021
Vietnam 2 Nguyen, 2021; Ly et al, 2020
Hong Kong 1 Wong et al., 2020
Kuwait 1 Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020
Philippines 1 Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo,
2020
Europe
Spain 1 Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021
France 1 Carillo et al., 2021
Austria 1 Edelmann et al., 2021
Belgium 1 Baert et al., 2020
EU & UK 1 Blaskó, 2020
Italy 1 Tokarchuk et al., 2021
Lithuania 1 Raišienė et al., 2020
Netherlands 1 de Haas et al., 2020
Portugal 1 Tavares et al., 2020
Oceania Australia 1 Beck & Hensher, 2020
Other-
Multinational
(USA, Italy, France, Spain, UK and Germany), South East Europe,
(France, Italy and Spain)
3 Nagel, 2020; Vasic, 2020; Fana et
al., 2020
3.1 Factors Affecting Teleworking During and Post COVID-19
A total of 16 articles have provided insights into how employees have experienced teleworking during COVID-19
crisis, and how the perceived benefits and drawbacks have affected their outlook on the future of teleworking
utilization. In addition, several authors investigated how teleworking perceptions and corresponding future
attitudes towards teleworking are heterogeneous by their profile and job characteristics. To be more specific,
personal profile of employees and perceived benefits or shortcomings, previous experience with teleworking,
work related factors, job sectors and finally company/ organizational related factors have been explored by several
researchers after the outbreak of COVID-19. The focus of each study on different outcomes of teleworking (such
as productivity, teleworkers’ satisfaction and preferences, work-life balance/conflict, organizational performance,
efficiency) and the use of several variables in order to evaluate factors affecting telework adaptation during the
crisis and adoption after coronavirus, shows that there is no common integrated measurement framework that can
be used in global surveys of teleworkers. As a result, the presentation of these studies on different approaches is
considered as vital for better understanding of the topic. Thus, these 16 articles are presented in the following
paragraphs based on two approaches: a) conceptual frameworks of factors influencing employees’ teleworking
adjustment and b) perceived impact of teleworking during the COVID-19 crisis on life and job aspects.
3.1.1 Conceptual Frameworks of Factors Influencing Employees’ and Employers’ Teleworking Adjustment
During the pandemic, a significant increase in teleworking practice was observed, leading to research attempts to
better address issues affecting the workers’ adjustment. As far as it is concerned, only a limited number of
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researchers relied on conceptual frameworks approaching a comprehensive set of factors affecting teleworkers’
perceptions and attitudes. Their studies basically focused on exploring the factors that have a positive or negative
impact on the adjustment of employees to new working conditions from home, as well as on the future adoption of
teleworking after the pandemic. In particular, in the case of the examination of employers' views on teleworking,
extremely limited research was observed, just one study, perhaps due to the fact that the emphasis was given to the
employees to provide themselves concrete and actionable recommendations for the companies where they work.
In the following paragraphs, the studies carried out on the basis of conceptual frameworks investigating
teleworking adoption are presented.
The adoption of teleworking necessitates upgraded IT infrastructure, change in management and organization of
work with adequate resources, technologies and processes already in use of the company, leading to skilled and
experienced employees. These are the results of the study of Tokarchuk et al. (2021), who developed a conceptual
framework/ model introducing “the organizational e-readiness” as mediator of organizational and technical
resources supporting teleworking adoption. In specific, according to a survey conducted during the lockdown on
Italian managers working in high-tech sectors, organizational readiness was positively correlated with the degree
of teleworking use enhancing competitiveness and efficient management on organizational, technological and
human resources. Therefore, many companies have adopted teleworking to the extent that it was adequately
supported by their organizational e-readiness. Moreover, the ability of managers to organize and control remote
teams seems to be an additional factor to be considered in future research. It is worth noting that the
aforementioned study was based on the perceptions of the employers and not the employees’ ones.
Furthermore, an adjustment model, derived from the theory of Work Adjustment, focusing on teleworking
acceptance due to the crisis, was presented and examined on a sample of 1574 French teleworkers by Carillo et al.
(2020). The proposed framework refers to crisis- and non-crisis specific individual, “job and organizational
factors”. The results indicated the predominance impact of crisis-specific variables that are crisis-related
organizational support, job factors, such as professional isolation, teleworking environment, work increase; and
finally individual factors, such as personal stress. Concluding the research, specific and applicable
recommendations were provided to organizations to adapt their employee support measures, taking into account
that variables such as age, education, computer skills, management and job interdependence were found to be
significantly associated with teleworking acceptance.
Insights of teleworking during the COVID-19 may be a crucial for the attitude toward the further adoption of
teleworking after the pandemic. More information from a developing country contributes to a progress in the
understanding of teleworking. Nguyen (2021) examined the factors that influenced home-based teleworking in
Vietnam during and after the pandemic lockdown, classifying these factors in socio-demographic characteristics,
household characteristics, company related variables, attitudes toward work and teleworking, and previous
experience (based on a framework using graphical description of three binary logit models). The emergence of
COVID-19 impacted on the perception of home-teleworking through the infection fear. However, the lack of
familiarity with the type of work and training, represented by the difficulty of accessing data, had a negative
impact on teleworking adaptation. Due to the presence of almost all members of the household, mainly children,
teleworkers were confronted with blurred boundaries between work and personal life, making them less likely to
accept teleworking. The role of company-specific variables was significant due to the enforcement of teleworking
during the crisis by employers.
Another conceptual framework has been suggested by Barbour et al. (2021), that investigates teleworkers’
behavior switching to work-from-home during the pandemic, followed by evaluating the probability of ongoing to
work-from-home. Through a survey in July and August of 2020, it was found that almost 50 percent of the
respondents, who did not have any work-from-home experience started to work-from-home during the COVID-19
pandemic, mentioned their intention to continue work-from-home. 1,275 responses were collected via a survey
questionnaire that was administered through a U.S. nationwide panel (Prime Panels), were utilized in the model
estimation. The results gave useful insights into how explanatory variables impacted work-from-home choices
during different stages of the pandemic analyzing socio-demographic characteristics, different job sectors and
residential location. It was revealed that gender, age, income, the presence of children, education, residential
location and job sectors were significant factors in explaining these behavioral shifts and post-pandemic
preferences. Moreover, according to the survey’s findings, workers from large cities had a higher probability of
continuing teleworking in the post pandemic future.
Furthermore, the study of Jamal et al. (2020) in India, based on the job demands and resources model (JD-R model)
seeks to provide empirical understandings into the experiences of COVID-19 induced “mandatory full-time
telecommuting”. It was revealed that workload stress, job isolation and family intervention at work lead to
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exhaustion and stress, whereas work autonomy, schedule flexibility and sufficient technology infrastructure
improve employee work-life balance and productivity leading to job satisfaction.
3.1.2 Perceived Impact of Teleworking During the COVID-19 Crisis on Life and Job Aspects
The research of Baert et al. (2020) examined Flemish employee perceptions of teleworking during and after the
pandemic on various life and job aspects. Respondents were mostly positive about teleworking as 85% of them
believed that teleworking will be dominant in the future. Furthermore, its primary perceived benefits are increased
efficiency, better work-life balance, lower risk of burnout, whereas the perceived disadvantages are promotion
opportunities and weakened bonds with colleagues and their employer.
The study of Raišiene et al. (2020) in Lithuania distinguished between “the most satisfied and the most dissatisfied
teleworkers”, indicating dissimilarities in the evaluation of factors that affect teleworking efficiency depending on
gender, age, education, work experience, and experience of teleworking. Thus, those more satisfied with
teleworking were younger and middle-aged employees, who could combine teleworking with work in the office
and who had a satisfactory professional and teleworking experience before the quarantine. In terms of gender, it
was observed that men found their careers more successful when they have the opportunity to work in the natural
workspace. Regarding the age, the research proved that the younger employees are more technology-friendly,
whereas older ones think about more valuable work which takes place in the physical workspace. The most
dissatisfied teleworkers highlighted the negative effects of teleworking, such as lack of face-to-face interaction
with the manager, lack of feedback and the manager’s inability to estimate the workload. Concluding the authors
suggests that outgoing research knowledge can contribute to a better organizational management reducing the
problems faced by teleworkers enhancing employee productivity and teleworking efficiency.
Moreover, the research of Ly et al. (2020) focused on job satisfaction of a 100 employee sample in Quy Nhon City
(Vietnam), who worked at home during the April 2020. Research findings revealed a high level of job satisfaction
and the influence of both demographic factors and work-related factors on it. Job satisfaction was statistically
linked to age, working tasks, workload and work performance, job advantages and difficulties. These findings
could give government and employers the opportunity to increase job performance with the new normality of
teleworking in Vietnam.
Furthermore, Okubo (2020) investigated which jobs are suitable for teleworking and discussed what difficulties
are associated with teleworking in Japan, by conducting an analogous survey on Japanese workers. Regarding
survey’s results, the rate of teleworking utilization varied across industries, occupations, regions and firm size.
Some jobs, such as services with face-to-face communication are the most inappropriate for teleworking.
Additionally, about half of employees in the food and drink and accommodation industries saw a large decline in
salary and working time, unlike employees in the ICT, research and public service areas.
Perceived advantages of teleworking, according to the findings of another survey conducted by Betchoo (2020) in
Mauritius, were better time management (the most preferred reason), less disruption and time wasted, better
work-life balance, higher productivity and greater confidence. Concerning its disadvantages, respondents
mentioned the inability to meet face-to-face, the lack of guidance on technology issues, lack of support from
management, as well as remoteness and no recognition for their work.
Fana et al. (2020) aimed at better understanding how the considerable shift to teleworking induced by COVID-19
impacted on employees’ jobs and lives. The results revealed were quite multifaceted depending on workers’ job
and family factors. In specific, for a number of employees teleworking increased satisfaction and productivity as
well as provided better work life balance, while for others teleworking prevented them from communicating
facet-to-face with colleagues and managers. Moreover, workers with school-age children and especially women
found it difficult to find a balance between work and family. The majority of the respondents, however, would like
to continue working remotely at least infrequently in the future.
The study of Tavares et al. (2020) in Portugal highlights the importance of the support of the organization
regarding training of the workers in technological issues and time/schedule management. The results showed that
teleworking adaption happened quickly and the main obstacles faced by teleworkers were the lack of professional
communication, work-family balance problems, the lack of infrastructure resources and time/schedule
management issues.
To add to this, Diab-Bahman et al. (2020) studied 192 employees from Kuwait who were currently working from
home aiming at revealing COVID-19 induced work expectations. It was found that employees’ prime expectations
were positive sentiments about how their organization handled employees’ communication and motivation during
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the pandemic. Concluding the results, organizations are advised to reconsider their conventional employment
policies and expectations in order to better adapt teleworking in the future.
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, Matli (2020) provided insights from remote employees’ experiences in South
Africa. The positive aspects of remote working are the use of advanced technology, avoidance of commuting
traffic and costs, whereas as negative aspects are work overload and timely execution. According to these
researchers, social structures and the support with adequate infrastructure for remote workers requires
governmental measures to create an enabling environment for teleworking. The findings, similar to other research
results, indicated that remote working may continue to play a more active role in the future after the crisis.
The effect of working from home on employees’ productivity was investigated by Pauline Ramos and Tri Prasetyo
(2020) in Philippines, analyzing “the causal relationship between work from home factors, job satisfaction, job
performance, commuting satisfaction, job stress and productivity”. The results showed that work from home
factors increase employees’ job satisfaction and productivity, thus, organizations should view working from home
as one of their future work provisions.
Another study regarding how firms in the South-East European countries have reacted to COVID-19 pandemic
and working from home probabilities, and future expectations to overcome drawbacks of home working is the
research of Vasic (2020). The focus of the study was on problems related to social isolation faced by teleworking
under lockdown. The results indicated that factors such as lack of traditional leadership, physical workspace,
isolation, workload, work-life balance and/ or conflict, job performance measurement, stress, job insecurity, etc.
affected the teleworking adjustment of employees during the crisis. Empirical implications for the organizations
were that support (including psychological support and training) and proper leadership should be provided to
teleworkers in order to achieve job satisfaction and high organizational performance. Table 2 summarizes the main
characteristics of the aforementioned studies.
Table 2. Studies based on conceptual frameworks and factors affecting life and job aspects
Research focus Reference Summary of Research
Conceptual Frameworks /
models
Tokarchuk et. al (2021) Country: Italy
Industry: managers in high-tech sectors
Methodology: Conceptual framework / model
Findings: organizational e- readiness affects teleworking adoption during the
pandemic
Carillo et al. (2020) Country: France
Methodology: “Interactional Model of Individual Adjustment” tested to 1574
teleworkers
Findings: Predominance of the influence of crisis-specific variables that are job
factors and individual factors (personal stress). Recommendations are provided to
organizations for appropriate support measures for their teleworkers
Nguyen (2021) Country: Vietnam (Hanoi)
Methodology: A framework with graphical description of three binary logit
models
Findings: Socio-demographic characteristics, household characteristics, company
related variables, attitudes toward work and teleworking; and previous experience
constituted factors that affect teleworking
Jamal et al. (2020) Country: India
Methodology: Job demands and resources model (JD-R model)
Findings: Workload pressure, task interdependence, professional isolation and
family interference in work lead to exhaustion and stress, whereas work autonomy
& flexibility, technology infrastructure improve employee work-life balance,
productivity leading to job satisfaction
Barbour et al. (2021) Country: USA
Methodology: conceptual framework using binary logit models with
heterogeneity in means
Findings: Gender, age, income, the presence of children, education, residential
location and job sector; all of them played a significant role in explaining the
behavioral shifts and post-COVID behavior
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Perceived impact of
telework during and after
COVID-19 crisis on life
and job aspects
Baert et al. (2020) Country: Belgium
Methodology: A state-of-the-art web survey
Findings: Positive aspects of teleworking: increased efficiency, improved
work-life balance, and lower risk of burnout. Negative impacts on promotion
opportunities and work relationship. 85% of the surveyed employees believed that
teleworking is here to stay
Raišiene et al. (2020) Country: Lithuania
Methodology: Evaluation of teleworking during the COVID-19
Findings: More satisfied with telework are younger and middle-aged employees,
who can combine teleworking with work in the office and who have highly paid
job and teleworking experience
Ly et al. (2020) Country: Vietnam (Quy Nhon City)
Methodology: Focus on employees’ satisfaction
Findings: Job satisfaction is statistically linked to age, work tasks, workload and
work performance, job advantages and difficulties
Okubo (2020) Country: Japan
Methodology: Focus on type of organizations and job sectors
Findings: The rate of teleworking use varies across industries, occupations,
regions and firm size
Betchoo (2020) Country: Mauritius
Methodology: Focus on pros and cons of teleworking
Findings: Advantages: better time management, less disruption and time wasted,
better work life balance, higher productivity and greater confidence
Disadvantages: inability to meet face-to-face, the lack of guidance on technology
issues, lack of support from management, as well as remoteness and no
recognition for their work
Fana et al. (2020), Joint
Research Centre (JRC) of
the European Commission
Countries: France, Italy and Spain
Methodology: Interviews among teleworkers during the lockdown and after
Findings: The results revealed were quite multifaceted depending on workers’ job
and family factors
Tavaras et al. (2020) Country: Portugal
Methodology: Information about teleworking and individual’s adaptation process
and difficulties during the COVID-19 teleworking period
Findings: Obstacles faced by teleworkers were the lack of professional
communication, the lack of infrastructure resources, the time/schedule
management and the work-family balance
Diab-Bahman et al. (2020) Country: Kuwait
Methodology: Focus on COVID-19 induced work expectations
Findings: Organizations are advised to reconsider their conventional employment
policies and expectations in order to better adapt teleworking in the future
Matli (2020) Country: South Africa
Methodology & Findings: Insights from remote workers’ experiences and need
for governmental support
Pauline Ramos and Tri
Prasetyo (2020)
Country: Philippines
Methodology: Analysis of 250 electronic questionnaires using Structural Equation
Modelling
Findings: teleworking dimensions increase employee’s job satisfaction and
productivity
Vasic (2020) Country: South-East Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia,
Slovenia, and Turkey)
Methodology: Conducted between the 10th of April and 10th of May 2020.
Findings: Employees leadership and support is the prerequisite for the success of
teleworking
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3.2 Teleworking’s Impact on Specific Areas / Aspects
Based on comprehensive literature review, there have been 18 papers that focus their study on teleworking’s
impact on specific areas/ aspects that can be grouped in four main streams according to the area of their special
focus. These streams are: a) Organizational support, e-readiness and level of digital transformation, b)
Work-family balance and working parents, c) Health aspects and d) COVID-19 impact on daily mobility
behavior; and are presented as follows.
3.2.1 Organizational Support, E-Readiness and Level of Digital Transformation
The first stream includes four papers, which highlight the companies’ and organizations’ key role in the process of
teleworking adoption. A special emphasis is given on companies’ e-readiness in order to follow teleworking
policies, which finally leads to perceived job satisfaction and acceleration of digital transformation. In particular,
Tokarchuk et al. (2021) were concerned about how the firm's e-readiness impacts on teleworking adoption. After
179 middle-managers of Italian high-tech companies have been questioned, it was confirmed that technological
infrastructure, managers’ skills to coordinate teams remotely, equipment of information systems and virtual
platforms, and agility to organizational changes played a significant role to what extent companies are ready to
proceed with teleworking. The outcoming result of this research was that various organizations adopted
teleworking to the adequate degree supported by their organizational readiness. Tokarchuk et al. (2021) were the
only researchers compared to the rest papers of this systematic review article who approached the teleworking
issue from the businesses’ perspective.
Pauline Ramos and Tri Prasetyo (2020) completed a survey in the Philippines investigating the interrelationships
between work from home factors, job satisfaction, job performance, commuting satisfaction, job stress and
productivity. Based on the findings, organizations can take advantage of working from home as it seemed to have
a significant positive impact on job satisfaction and productivity, whereas it did not affect job stress.
In parallel, Nagel (2020) also investigated job satisfaction, as employees working from home during the pandemic
perceived it. It seems that workers welcome working in the digital world and are willing to continue in this routine
in the post COVID-19 era as well. The study makes clear that there is a strong possibility for working exclusively
digital in the future and gives room to talk about digital acceleration. Although the results confirmed the impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic on the acceleration of digital transformation, further researches are vital to approve this
statement in the long run.
Edelmann et al. (2021) are the ones who correlated the digital transformation with the organizational culture, and
brought forward the required changes in the public sector in order to follow the fast pace of such “digitization”.
The COVID-19 induced teleworking process in the public sector is a great opportunity to counteract the low
acceleration that usually rigid public tends to have.
3.2.2 Work-Family Balance and Working Parents
Another stream of studies concerned the maintenance of balance between work and family life when working from
home. These studies emphasized on the challenges that working parents faced during the pandemic lock-down,
when employees had to execute their daily tasks, while kids had no school.
Work-family balance as a result of teleworking is valued positive by many, given the needed flexibility in working
hours, and offered by the employers as a primary goal of their policy to improve employee well-being (van der
Lippe & Lippényi, 2018; Delanoeije & Verbruggen, 2019), but it also can be valued negative, due to unwanted
intrusions and blurring of boundaries between work and family tasks.
Based on the work–family balance theory, the research of Wong et al. (2020) aimed to reveal the factors that
impact employees’ work from home effectiveness and whether they want its extension when the pandemic is over,
through a sample of 1,976 employees in Hong Kong. The results of this research showed that the effectiveness of
work from home (WFH) is enhanced by personal and family well-being, perceived as positive experiences, but is
reduced by environmental barriers and resource constraints perceived as negative experiences. In specific,
regarding the impact of work-family balance factor on teleworking, a higher preference was indicated amongst
female workers compared to their male coworkers. Research findings provided empirical evidence of the impact of
working from home on work-family balance and are consistent with work-family balance and role theories, which
mention that achieving work-family balance would help reduce the role conflict and improve wellbeing, which
then enhances job performance.
Feng and Savani (2020) studied the difference in perspectives that working parents have based on their gender.
Mothers turned out to be more distracted with childcare when working from home in comparison to fathers. That
reflected on women reporting lower productivity and less job satisfaction than male employees.
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Blaskó (2020) highlighted the difficulty in keeping work-life balance when employees work from home. His study
focused on the interference of work to family and vice versa, exploring the implications of teleworking related to
this issue in all European countries affected by lockdown measures. Greater autonomy, more time to spend with
the family and the possibility to enter into the labor market having children were the perceived benefits of
teleworkers. On the other hand, the situation of mothers working at home and children not going to school made
the whole family and especially mothers with young children faced the negative effects of teleworking.
On the other hand, Kapoor et al. (2021) focused on working mothers in India. They gave insights regarding the
correlation between teleworking and perceived stress and psychological well-being. This research intended to
motivate organizations to give working mothers the option of having a flexible plan with working hours beyond
the strict job policy.
3.2.3 Health Aspects & Impact of Teleworking on the Psychological Well-Being of Employees
The third stream of studies consists of three papers that examine the impact of teleworking on health as well as on
psychology. Although people stay home to protect their health from the virus, they end up being concerned about
their health physically and mentally due to the inclusion of telework.
Nagata et al. (2020) presented survey findings on the health effects of the direct introduction of teleworking due to
the COVID-19 crisis, and develop a health impact assessment (HIA) to evaluate positive and negative health
effects of teleworking. They also suggested countermeasures on the negative effects on workers, non-workers as
well as their families. Teleworking drawbacks on health can be mitigated by e.g., medical guidelines, shared
responsibilities within families, business communication etc. Thus, enterprises should consider implementing
objective task management and conduct regular physical and mental health checkups to their employees.
Lee (2021) approached teleworking from a psychological point of view. The findings indicated that organizations
can have an impact on the emotional situation of their employees during the pandemic by creating safety.
Organizational support for transmitting to teleworking can help the workers psychologically, who finally can face
the crisis with a less stressful manner.
A social services approach to teleworking presented by Morilla-Luchena et al. (2021) in Spain, pointing out that
effects of teleworking on the psychological well-being of employees have not been thoroughly investigated. Some
teleworking experiences connected to social services indicated the inability of most employees to have full-time
teleworking due to the nature of their work. The research outcomes showed that men use telework to a greater
extent than women, and regarding age, the segment that mostly used teleworking was from 47 to 59 years of age.
Positive experience of teleworking is related to reduced work stress and role conflict, as well as increased
autonomy, whereas increased role ambiguity and reduced support and feedback are the negative experiences of
teleworking.
The research of Almonacid-Nieto et al. (2020) focused on the impact of teleworking on job burnout of higher
education administrative personnel in the Junín region of Peru during the crisis of COVID-19. According to this
study, existing teleworking skills reduced emotional fatigue and depersonalization. Additionally, although the
teleworking conditions are related to achieving personal fulfillment, they do not seem to be related to job burnout
reduction.
The study of Jamal et al. (2020) in India, based on the job demands and resources model (JD-R model) focused
herein on employee mental well-being, studied factors that act as facilitators or barriers to telecommuting and their
impact on employees’ practical and psychological outcomes. Thus, workload pressure, professional isolation and
family interference in work lead to exhaustion and stress, whereas work autonomy, schedule flexibility and
sufficient technology resources improve employee work-life balance, productivity and job satisfaction. Moreover,
improved well-being was also found to reduce stress for full-time telecommuters.
3.2.4 COVID -19 Impact on Daily Mobility Behavior
The focus of the following studies was on travel behavior aspects, including teleworking experiences. In specific,
the study of de Haaset al. (2020) aimed to investigate to what extent the coronavirus measures in the Netherlands
impact people's daily mobility behavior (including teleworking) with a 2500 sample from the Netherlands
Mobility Panel. Most workers that increased the hours working from home reported positive experiences, taking
into consideration that 44% of them believed that they are experienced homeworkers before the coronavirus crisis.
For those who indicated to have positive experiences with working from home, expectations to continue this
behavior in the future are higher. Moreover, workers’ experiences differed per sector, with people from the sector
‘Automation and IT’ being most positive, while in ‘Healthcare’ and ‘Retail’ relatively few people have started
working from home, and people working in the section ‘Education’ were much less positive.
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Beck et al. (2020) considered their research regarding COVID-19 induced work from home as an investment in
transport. This research belonged to an ongoing series of analyses of a longitudinal travel and activity survey.
Analyzing data collected at different points in the COVID-19 curve in Australia, it presented the perceived benefits
and drawbacks of teleworking. Employees positively reacted to teleworking and its future use after the pandemic,
demanding sufficient employer support. The highest benefits of working from home were not having to commute
and the creation of a more flexible work schedule, which are positive for transport authorities in order to solve a
congestion problem or encourage the spread of peak hours through the provision of telework. When it comes to the
negative aspects of working from home, especially for women, the interruption from family and children was the
most likely answer, which was generally followed by the inability to concentrate on work.
As Barbour et al. (2021) argued in their study, the analysis of the factors affecting the work from home adjustment
during the pandemic and its future adoption after the pandemic was inherently linked to the transportation systems
policy, exploring a viable alternative to reduce emissions from workers mobility. Based on the results of the
applied model, policies to encourage work from home should be considered the residential location, as the
respondents living in large cities were more likely to continue working from home, while respondents from small
cities were less likely to do so. Τhe above streams of studies are summarized at the Table 3 below.
Table 3. Teleworking’s impact on specific areas/ aspects
Specific areas/ aspects Reference Summary of Research
Organizational support,
e-readiness & level of
digital transformation
Tokarchuk et. al
(2021)
Country: Italy
Industry: Manufacturing firms’ managers in high-tech sectors
Findings: Organizational e- readiness influences teleworking adoption
Ramos and Tri
Prasetyo (2020)
Country: Philippines
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: Teleworking affects positively job satisfaction and productivity, whereas it
does not affect job stress
Nagel (2020) Countries: USA, Italy, Spain, France, UK & Germany
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: There is a decrease in the importance of traditional jobs as a secure source of
income in comparison to the digital types of work. Employees believed that digital
transformation has been accelerated and can imagine themselves working exclusively
digitally in the future
Edelmann et al.
(2021)
Country: Austria
Industry: Public Sector
Findings: Changes are required in the public sector to follow the fast pace of digital
transformation, especially regarding the working culture. The pandemic crisis is a
great opportunity to speed up the low acceleration that public sector tends to have
Work-Life Balance &
Working Parents
Wong et al. (2020) Country: Hong Kong
Industry: 1,976 Hong Kong working people
Findings: The effectiveness of work from home is improved by personal and family
well-being, but is reduced by environmental barriers and resource constraints
Feng & Savani
(2020)
Country: USA
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: There is a gender gap. When WFH mothers tend to be more distracted with
childcare in comparison to fathers, they reported lower productivity and less job
satisfaction than male employees
Blaskó (2021) Countries: EU & UK
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: When WFH there is interference of work to family and vice versa, leading to
parents having difficulty in keeping work-life balance
Kapoor et al. (2021), Country: India
Industry: Private Sector-only working mothers
Findings: Teleworking acted as a partial mediator and resilience proved to be a
significant moderator for teleworking-well-being relationship
Health aspects & Nagata et al. (2020) Country: Japan
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impact of teleworking on
the psychological
well-being of employees
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: Teleworking drawbacks on health can be mitigated by e.g., medical
guidelines, shared responsibilities within families, and business communication
Lee (2021) Country: Singapore
Industry: Private Sector
Findings: Organizations can have an impact on the emotional situation of their
employees by creating safety
Morilla-Luchena et
al. (2021)
Country: Singapore
Industry: Social services
Findings: Teleworking on the psychological well-being of employees have not been
well studied
Almonacid-Nieto et
al. (2020)
Country: Peru
Industry: Private Sector, higher education
Findings: Teleworking skills reduce depersonalization and emotional fatigue. Also,
teleworking conditions are related to achieving personal fulfillment, but they do not
seem to be related to job burnout reduction
Jamal et al. (2020) Country: India
Focus: On employee mental well-being
Findings: Workload pressure, professional isolation and family interference in work
lead to exhaustion and stress, whereas work autonomy, schedule flexibility and
sufficient technology resources improve employee work-life balance, productivity and
job satisfaction
COVID -19 impact on daily
mobility behavior
& effect on travel behavior
de Haas et al. (2020) Country: Netherlands
Survey: Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN)
Findings: The majority of the respondents reacted positively to teleworking. The 27%
of workers expressed future expectations to work from home
Beck et al. (2020) Country: Australia
Survey: Travel survey on the impact of COVID-19
Findings: Employees positively reacted to teleworking and wished to continue use it
after pandemic
Barbour et al. (2021) Country: USA
Survey: Binary logit models with heterogeneity in means – conceptual framework
Findings: Factors affecting the work from home adjustment during the crisis and its
future adoption after the pandemic was inherently linked to the transportation systems
policy
3.3 Factors Affecting Teleworking Adoption During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Conceptual Framework
The systematic review of the empirical studies revealed a number of characteristics and perceptions which impact
both employees and organizations/ companies during the COVID-19 pandemic concerning their teleworking
practices. Therefore, in reference to these findings, a proposed framework has been developed with the aim to map
the main elements which configure the teleworking environment during COVID-19 pandemic and is expected to
influence the post COVID-19 era as well. At first, these features are categorized into employees and organization/
company characteristics. In specific, employees’ characteristics are classified in three categories; a) profile, b)
work and c) teleworking environment & infrastructure, whereas organization/ company’s characteristics are
classified into two categories; a) profile and b) level of e-readiness. Both employees and enterprises’ features have
proved to impact on their perceptions regarding the expected benefits and drawbacks of the current teleworking
utilization. As a result, all of the aforementioned elements have already influenced both entities to proceed to
teleworking adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic and is believed that they are going to impact the post
COVID-19 working environment era as well.
With reference to employees, a significant number of studies mentioned the importance of teleworker’s personal
characteristics/ profile for the smooth and substantial adoption and use of telework. Age (Baert et al., 2020;
Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020; Carillo et al., 2021; de Haas et al., 2020; Ly et al, 2020;
Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021; Raišienė et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2020;), gender (Baert et al., 2020;
Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020; Blaskó, 2020; de Haas et al., 2020; Feng & Savani, 2020;
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Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021; Raišienė et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2020), educational level (Baert et
al., 2020; Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020, Carillo et al., 2021; de Haas et al., 2020; Morilla-Luchena et
al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021; Raišienė et al., 2020) and marital status (Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020;
Blaskó, 2020; de Haas et al., 2020; Fana et al., 2020; Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021) have been
considered as the most important factors concerning employee’s profile, thus, a significant number of empirical
studies did prove their effect. For example, Carillo et al. (2021) confirmed that younger and higher educated
employees are more receptive to telework. On the other hand, married women with kids at home have found it
really hard to teleworking especially during lockdowns (Baert et al., 2020; Nguyen, 2021). Moreover, the impact
of previous telework experience (Beck & Hensher, 2020; de Haas et al., 2020; Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021;
Nguyen, 2021; Raišienė et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020) and perceived digital literacy (Baert et al., 2020; Carillo et al.,
2021; Edelmann et al., 2021; Fana et al., 2020; Nguyen, 2021; Okubo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020)
does impact positively to a significant extent as well. Finally, income (Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020;
Nguyen, 2021) and residential location (Barbour et al., 2021; Beck & Hensher, 2020; de Haas et al., 2020; Okubo,
2020) are also important determinants of teleworking utilization. Regarding employee’s job, the characteristics of
his/ her work, along with the type and sector involved seem to impact on their teleworking duties (Beck & Hensher,
2020; de Haas et al., 2020). For instance, ‘automation and IT’ sector greatly accepted teleworking (de Haas et al.,
2020). In contrast, brick-and-mortal store retailers could not telework (Beck & Hensher, 2020). Finally, it has been
considered as important parameter for the employee to be equipped with the necessary hardware and software
equipment for his/ her teleworking (Edelmann et al., 2021; Fana et al., 2020; Jamal et al., 2021; Ly et al., 2020;
Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Okubo, 2020; Tavares et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020; Wong et al., 2020). To add to this,
the proper teleworking environment at home has also proved to impact deeply on his/ her perceptions towards
teleworking (Carillo et al., 2021; Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo, 2020; Tavares et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020; Wong et
al., 2020).
Concerning the organization/ company’s features, the extant empirical studies proved the importance of its profile
for the adoption and use of telework. Particularly, the size of the enterprise seems to impact substantially. Okubo
(2020) confirmed that the rate of telework utilization increases as the number of employees increases. Furthermore,
the industry type also plays a vital role (Barbour et al., 2021; de Haas et al., 2020; Fana et al., 2020; Ly et al., 2020;
Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021; Okubo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2020). For instance
the IT sector is more receptive to teleworking as the vast majority of its activities are keen on the characteristics of
telework (e.g. Barbour et al., 2021). Finally, public organizations have been more receptive to teleworking
compared to private companies as the formers have transferred faster and to a greater extent their activity by taking
advantage of the teleworking capabilities (Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021). With reference to firm’s e-readiness,
enterprises with organizational resources to support teleworking, such as previous similar experience and adequate
work organization perceived more the benefits of teleworking (Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020; Tokarchuk et al.,
2021; Vasic, 2020). Moreover, the organizational support for teleworking (Beck & Hensher, 2020; Diab-Bahman
& Al-Enzi, 2020; Edelmann et al., 2021; Lee, 2021; Tokarchuk et al., 2021; Vasic, 2020) along with technological
readiness (Tokarchuk et al., 2021; Vasic, 2020) proved to positively impact as well. For instance, Vasic (2020)
showed the importance of firm’s digital transformation for the positive perceptions and use of telework.
In regard to the main perceived benefits, productivity (Baert et al., 2020; Betchoo, 2020; Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi,
2020; Edelmann et al., 2021; Feng & Savani, 2020; Jamal et al., 2021; Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo, 2020; Wong
et al., 2020) along with work schedule flexibility (Beck & Hensher, 2020; Betchoo, 2020; Blaskó, 2020;
Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi, 2020; Edelmann et al., 2021; Jamal et al., 2021; Ly et al., 2020; Pauline Ramos & Tri
Prasetyo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020) and job satisfaction (Baert et al., 2020; Fana et al., 2020; Feng & Savani,
2020; Jamal et al., 2021; Ly et al., 2020; Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020) top the list;
followed by work autonomy (Carillo et al., 2021; Edelmann et al., 2021; Fana et al., 2020; Jamal et al., 2021;
Raišienė et al., 2020; Tavares et al., 2020) and commuting avoidance (Beck & Hensher, 2020; Diab-Bahman &
Al-Enzi, 2020; Ly et al., 2020; Nagata et al., 2021; Nguyen, 2021; Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo, 2020; Raišienė
et al., 2020). Furthermore, a considerable number of studies proved the positive effect on work-family balance
(Baert et al., 2020; Betchoo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020; Wong et al., 2020), whereas reduction of
COVID-19 infection risk (Nagata et al., 2021) and environmental benefits were also identified (Nguyen, 2021).
Concerning anticipated drawbacks, work overload (Nagata et al., 2021; Carillo et al., 2021, Raišienė et al., 2020;
Vasic, 2020; Fana et al., 2020; Ly et al., 2020, Matli, 2020, Jamal et al., 2021; Edelmann et al., 2021), personal
stress (Carillo et al., 2021; Edelmann et al., 2021; Fana et al., 2020; Kapoor et al., 2021; Nagata et al., 2021
Pauline Ramos & Tri Prasetyo, 2020; Vasic, 2020; Wong et al., 2020;) and work-family conflicts (Baert et al.,
2020; Beck & Hensher, 2020; Blaskó, 2020; Fana et al., 2020; Jamal et al., 2021; Ly et al., 2020; Nguyen, 2021,
Raišienė et al., 2020; Tavares et al., 2020; Vasic, 2020; Wong et al., 2020) were identified as the most major ones.
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Professional isolation (Baert et al., 2020; Edelmann et al., 2021; Jamal et al., 2021; Matli, 2020; Nagata et al., 2021;
Vasic, 2020), lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues (Baert et al., 2020; Betchoo, 2020; Edelmann et al.,
2021; Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021; Raišienė et al., 2020) and complicated access to work-related information and
systems (Baert et al., 2020; Edelmann et al., 2021; Ly et al., 2020; Okubo, 2020; Raišienė et al., 2020) were also
pointed out by various empirical studies. To add to these, less work motivation (Fana et al., 2020; Nagata et al.,
2021) and career prospects constraints (Baert et al., 2020; Fana et al., 2020) were reported as well. Finally, health
issues (Fana et al., 2020; Morilla-Luchena et al., 2021), such as physical conditions and well-being concerns and
decreased relationship and management control (Fana et al., 2020) completed the list of the key perceived
drawbacks of telework. At this point it should be emphasized, though, that there have been benefits which were
identified as drawbacks in some studies and vice versa. For example, the lack of ability for brick-and-mortal store
retailers to teleworking minimizes their productivity. Conversely, for a group of employees teleworking leads to
professional isolation, whereas a significant number of them reported that it helped them have work autonomy.
CO
• Age
• Gender
• Educati onal level
• Marital status
• Residential location
• Incom e
• Digital literacy
• Previous teleworking experience
Profile
• IT resource s (ha rdware &
software )
• Teleworking environment at
home
Teleworking
environment &
infrastructure
• Characteristics
• Type
• Sector
Work
EMPLOY EES
• Size
• Indu stry type
• Public organization / Private
company
Profile
• Technol ogical resources/
readiness
• Organ izational resources /
readiness
• Organ izational support for
teleworking
e-Readiness
ORGANIZATION/ COMPANY
• Productivity
• Work au tonomy
• Flexible work schedule
• Job satisfacti on
• Work- family bal ance
• Commuting avoidance
• Reduced risk of COVID-19 infection
• Envi ronmental benefit s
PERCEIVED BENEFITS
• Overworking
• Personal Stress
• Profe ssional isola tion
• Lack of face-to-face interaction with
colleagues
• Less work motivatio n
• Complicated access to work-related
information and systems
• Decreased relationship and
manageme nt control
• Career prospects constraints
• Heal th issues
• Work-family conflicts
PERCEIVED DRA WBACKS COVID-1 9 adjustment Post COVID-19 adoption
COVID-19 CONTEXT
Figure 2. Conceptual framework - Factors affecting teleworking adoption during and post COVID-19
pandemic
4. Conclusion
A significant increase in teleworking usage practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a fact worldwide.
During this difficult period for the humanity, companies and organizations along with their employees have tried
really hard not to stop their business activities and minimize face-to-face contacts to the greatest extent. To add
to this, lockdown periods have also forced all these entities to utilize ICT solutions; and teleworking practices
have taken place in the majority of industries and sectors as much as possible. There have been many companies,
however, that have found it really difficult to adopt these technological solutions as the nature of their activities,
the absence of relevant skills to employees or IT resources shortage prevent them from teleworking practices. As
a result, this systematic literature review paper aims to explore the factors that have played a decisive role in
teleworking adaption, taking into account both employers and employees towards this significant organizational
chance that leads to digital transformation. In specific, the article intends to explore how the COVID-19
pandemic has impacted on people’s behavior and attitude triggering changes in their working patterns as well as
expectations for the future, based on previous, very recent (2020-2021), empirical studies’ review. In terms of
research and future policy, it is vital to consider how individuals’ respond to coronavirus induced teleworking
and how the resulting positive and negative experiences might lead to future working patterns after this
pandemic will not be longer a threat. Understanding the positive and negative determinants in different contexts
is considered as vital with the aim to develop more specific teleworking practices. This is the reason why the
paper also focuses on presenting multiple points of views from previous researchers on the topic; and critically
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15
input all these different aspects by organizing the various research findings into subject streams. Moreover, the
ability of managers to organize and control remote teams seems to be an additional factor to be considered in
future research. Thus, as it was presented by a number of previous empirical studies, it is of high interest to
highlight that a considerable number of employees worldwide may prefer to continue teleworking at least for
some days during the week in the future, as their current experience might eliminate their possible hesitations
and make them more receptive to teleworking practices. Furthermore, the study through the evaluation of the
main perceived benefits and drawbacks of individuals and firms towards COVID-19 induced teleworking, along
with their specific characteristics (employees’ profile, work and teleworking environment & infrastructure –
companies’ profile and e-readiness) presents a comprehensive conceptual framework, which summarizes the
basic parameters that affect the teleworking adjustment and define the post COVD-19 adoption period. This
framework is expected to be a significant tool for redefining teleworking during, as well as after the COVID-19
pandemic period and might help both employers’ and employees’ actions towards the adoption or not of
teleworking practices as well as the level of its utilization. Thereby, this systematic review research contributes
to the extant literature on such an important and time critical topic on the expected teleworking consequences of
the COVID-19 crisis, but also to the overall scientific literature on teleworking.
Funding: This article was funded by the University of Western Macedonia, Greece
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