IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i14p8731-d864534.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Qualitative and Longitudinal Study on the Impact of Telework in Times of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Anne-Sophie Maillot

    (Psychology Department, Parisian Laboratory of Social Psychology, University Paris Nanterre, 92000 Nanterre, France)

  • Thierry Meyer

    (Psychology Department, Parisian Laboratory of Social Psychology, University Paris Nanterre, 92000 Nanterre, France)

  • Sophie Prunier-Poulmaire

    (Psychology Department, Parisian Laboratory of Social Psychology, University Paris Nanterre, 92000 Nanterre, France)

  • Emilie Vayre

    (INSERM Unit U1296, Psychology Institute, Lumière University Lyon 2, 69365 Lyon, France)

Abstract

Mandatory teleworking has become a major tool of public authorities for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 when work activity allows it. A lexical and morphosyntactic analysis was performed with 22 employees interviewed at home by phone on two occasions during and after a national lockdown (April 2020 and March 2021). The results indicate that the organizational changes initially implemented became sustainable and highlight a change in work practices. Changes in working time structure were observed and led to a feeling of intensification and/or increase in working hours. The preservation of the professional bond through informal exchanges required a deliberate communicative effort. The lack of face-to-face social relations deprived employees of both their usual ways of working and the meaning they found in them. Finally, the continuation of the health crisis (phase 2) and the multiple reorganizations generated a decrease in wellbeing (mental wear and tear). Employees feared that the company’s management would retain a working model based mainly on remote working.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne-Sophie Maillot & Thierry Meyer & Sophie Prunier-Poulmaire & Emilie Vayre, 2022. "A Qualitative and Longitudinal Study on the Impact of Telework in Times of COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:14:p:8731-:d:864534
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8731/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8731/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coenen, Marja & Kok, Robert A.W., 2014. "Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 564-576.
    2. Alain Rallet & Anne Aguilera & Caroline Guillot, 2009. "Diffusion des TIC et mobilité. Permanence et renouvellement des problématiques de recherche," Post-Print halshs-00489835, HAL.
    3. Valentina Dolce & Emilie Vayre & Monica Molino & Chiara Ghislieri, 2020. "Far Away, So Close? The Role of Destructive Leadership in the Job Demands–Resources and Recovery Model in Emergency Telework," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Jesse T. Vullinghs & Annebel H. B. Hoogh & Deanne N. Den Hartog & Corine Boon, 2020. "Ethical and Passive Leadership and Their Joint Relationships with Burnout via Role Clarity and Role Overload," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(4), pages 719-733, September.
    5. François de Corbière & Jessie Pallud & Cécile Godé, 2020. "Conférences à distance, oui mais… (Editorial)," Post-Print hal-03122179, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eugenia Țigan & Radu Lucian Blaga & Florin-Lucian Isac & Monica Lungu & Ioana Anda Milin & Florin Tripa & Simona Gavrilaș, 2022. "Analysis of Sustainable Communication Patterns during the Telework Period in Western Romanian Corporations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-19, August.
    2. Gregor Murray & Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau & Christian Lévesque & Nicolas Roby, 2023. "What makes work better or worse? An analytical framework," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 305-322, August.
    3. de la Torre-Ruiz, José Manuel & Ferrón-Vílchez, Vera, 2024. "Determinants of managerial perceptions of the impact of telework: The effect of information communication technology support, trust, and frequency of communication," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    4. Joseph Crawford, 2022. "Working from Home, Telework, and Psychological Wellbeing? A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, September.
    5. Jorge de Andrés-Sánchez, 2023. "A Configurational Evaluation of Spanish Teleworkers’ Perception and Nonperception of Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ko, Eun-Jung & Kim, A-Hyun & Kim, Sang-Soo, 2021. "Toward the understanding of the appropriation of ICT-based Smart-work and its impact on performance in organizations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Paweł Ziemba & Mateusz Piwowarski & Kesra Nermend, 2023. "Remote Work in Post-Pandemic Reality—Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Teleconferencing Software," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Toshihiro Okubo, 2024. "Non‐routine tasks and ICT tools in telework," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(2), pages 177-202, June.
    4. Yushan Wu & Rita Yi Man Li & Sher Akbar & Qinghua Fu & Sarminah Samad & Ubaldo Comite, 2022. "The Effectiveness of Humble Leadership to Mitigate Employee Burnout in the Healthcare Sector: A Structural Equation Model Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Andrea Alonso & Andrés Monzón & Yang Wang, 2017. "Modelling Land Use and Transport Policies to Measure Their Contribution to Urban Challenges: The Case of Madrid," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-28, March.
    6. repec:arp:sjossm:2021:p:44-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Gawke, Jason C. & Gorgievski, Marjan J. & Bakker, Arnold B., 2019. "Measuring intrapreneurship at the individual level: Development and validation of the Employee Intrapreneurship Scale (EIS)," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 806-817.
    8. Clément Marinos, 2019. "Action publique locale et espaces collaboratifs de travail," Post-Print hal-02310313, HAL.
    9. Battisti, Enrico & Alfiero, Simona & Leonidou, Erasmia, 2022. "Remote working and digital transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Economic–financial impacts and psychological drivers for employees," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 38-50.
    10. Zhang, Xi & Wei, Xin & Zhang, Te & Tan, Yahe & Xu, Dongming & Ordóñez de Pablos, Patricia, 2023. "How platform-based internet hospital innovation affects doctors’ active stress coping efforts: The conservation of resource theory perspective," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    11. Stela Zhivkova, 2022. "Sustainability in the Companies Practices," European Journal of Marketing and Economics Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 5, ejme_v5_i.
    12. Ioana Gutu & Camelia Nicoleta Medeleanu, 2023. "Assessing Teleworkforce and Electronic Leadership Favorable for an Online Workforce Sustainability Framework by Using PLS SEM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-32, September.
    13. Prager, Fynnwin & Rhoads, Mohja & Martínez, Jose N., 2022. "The COVID-19 economic shutdown and the future of flexible workplace practices in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 241-255.
    14. Virginie Lethiais & Emilie Huiban & Adrien Souquet, 2012. "Télétravail : du discours à la réalité. Le cas des travailleurs bretons," Post-Print hal-01063093, HAL.
    15. Groen, Bianca A.C. & van Triest, Sander P. & Coers, Michael & Wtenweerde, Neeke, 2018. "Managing flexible work arrangements: Teleworking and output controls," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 727-735.
    16. Benedikt Müller-Stewens & Klaus Möller, 2017. "Performance in new product development: a comprehensive framework, current trends, and research directions," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 157-201, May.
    17. Nicholas S. Caros & Jinhua Zhao, 2022. "Preparing urban mobility for the future of work," Papers 2201.01321, arXiv.org.
    18. Sima Sabahi & Mahour M. Parast, 2023. "An operations and supply chain management perspective to product innovation," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 808-829, June.
    19. Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "Telework in the spread of COVID-19," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    20. Milenko Radonic & Valentina Vukmirovic & Milos Milosavljevic, 2021. "The Impact of Hybrid Workplace Models on Intangible Assets: The Case of an Emerging Country," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(58), pages 770-770, August.
    21. Yushan Wu & Qinghua Fu & Sher Akbar & Sarminah Samad & Ubaldo Comite & Mirela Bucurean & Alina Badulescu, 2022. "Reducing Healthcare Employees’ Burnout through Ethical Leadership: The Role of Altruism and Motivation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-17, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:14:p:8731-:d:864534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.