Remote Work and Motivation : A Qualitative Study to Identify How Remote Work Effects on Motivation in the IT Industry in Finland.

Abstract

Most companies, globally, adopted remote work mode when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. In some industries it was already a familiar way of working, but in some others, it was strange. Despite the rapid change, most of the companies survived and are still performing strongly. This study researched remote work and its effects on motivation. The study was performed in Finland and within the IT industry context. The interviewees represented basically all the roles that that are in place when building software. The interviewees were, unintentionally, all born between 1981 and 1996, which means that they are called "Generation Y" or "Millennials", which, however, was not a pre-requisite to participate in this research. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The results displayed that the feeling of autonomy, and flexibility coming within it, had increased because of working remotely, even though all the interviewees did not feel like their level of autonomy had increased. Also, the results were similar within need for competence. An aspect where all the interviewees felt remote work affecting strongly, was the feeling of how they are connected to others. This was something where all the interviewees felt their connection to others had decreased. The monitoring aspect, basically meaning that employers micro-manage their employees, which previous research pointed out, was not raised in this study. Similarly, technological difficulties were findings of previous research, which did not come out in this research. However, the quality of feedback was pointed out in this research. The interviewees pointed out that even though they are receiving more feedback, the value of it has decreased. As suggestions for future research, similar kinds of research could be conducted in a different country or industry, or within different generations.