The impact of the pandemic on ways of working : managing remote teams

Abstract

This thesis aimed to investigate the new ways of working that emerged as a result to the pandemic. The past years have affected the corporate world after a forced change in the working culture where companies had to quickly adapt to full time remote work. The impact of the pandemic in the traditional ways of working – the 9-5 office-based work – the working models that arose, as well as the benefits and challenges are being discussed. Working models such as hybrid teams, remote teams, and dispersed teams are explored. The subject is approached from an employee perspective.

The theoretical framework consisted of three main elements. The impact of the pandemic on traditional working culture, leadership and management, as well as digitalization, is introduced. The new ways of working are being analysed on the second part. On the third element, benefits and challenges of the new ways of working for both employers and employees, are presented.

The empirical part demonstrates the valuable information from the quantitative research that was conducted. Information from 30 individuals with remote experience about their holistic views and feedback on remote work have been collected and analysed.

In conclusion, the question of how the pandemic changed the ways of working and what the preferred ways forward are, is answered by the thesis. Wellbeing and healthier lifestyle, no commuting time, freedom and work life balance have been reported as the top benefits of remote work. On the other hand, lack of social interaction, delayed communication and technical issues were the most discussed challenges. Despite that, a clear preference for remote work is identified.