The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic
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University of Innsbruck
Master Program Organization Studies
Author: Paul Bobert – 11936905
Supervisor: Dr Katharina Pernkopf
Institut für Organisation und Lernen – Bereich Human Recource Management
& Employment Relations
Master Thesis:
The transformation of telework - Organizational
change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic
Innsbruck, January 2022Paul Bobert - The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eidesstattliche Erklärung
Ich erkläre hiermit an Eides statt durch meine eigenhändige Unterschrift, dass ich die
vorliegende Arbeit selbständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und
Hilfsmittel verwendet habe. Alle Stellen, die wörtlich oder inhaltlich den angegebenen Quellen
entnommen wurden, sind als solche kenntlich gemacht.
Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch nicht als Magister-
/Master-/Diplomarbeit/Dissertation eingereicht.
15.01.2022
Datum UnterschriftPaul Bobert - The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Abstract Technological development changes the way people can work. For professionals devices like smartphones and laptops create the possibility to decouple their work from fixed office spaces. Time and cost savings due to reduced commuting, saving of space and the possibility to combine private and professional interests are seen as advantages of teleworking within academic research. Anyhow, these incentives can’t fully explain why people telework (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). The COVID-19 pandemic changes this. Being locked down at home reduces the risk of an infection by not being in places with many other persons (Fang et al., 2020). Therefore, teleworking creates the possibility to maintain working while being socially distanced during a pandemic for many professionals. This thesis examines these changes coming along with the pandemic within private and team constellations for professionals in Germany. By the use of a narrative approach, the situation is reviewed under the theoretical frame of the different change theories resistance to change (Waddell & Sohal, 1998), improvisation (Weick, 1998) and Lewin’s (1947b) 3 phase model. This generates the possibility to enlighten the transformation of the practice telework from different angles on the micro and macro level.
Paul Bobert - The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Index
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... - 1 -
1.1. Historical perspective on telework ..................................................................... - 2 -
1.2. Terminology ....................................................................................................... - 3 -
1.3. Legal point of view ............................................................................................. - 4 -
1.4. Transportation & telework .................................................................................. - 5 -
1.5. Technological perspective .................................................................................. - 5 -
1.6. Time and extent .................................................................................................. - 7 -
1.7. Demographic aspects .......................................................................................... - 8 -
1.8. Employers vs. employees view........................................................................... - 9 -
2. COVID-19 and telework ..................................................................................... - 11 -
2.1. The COVID-19 pandemic................................................................................. - 11 -
2.2. Organization & the Pandemic ........................................................................... - 12 -
2.3. A chance for telework ....................................................................................... - 14 -
3. Change of Telework ............................................................................................ - 15 -
3.1. Linearity and resistance .................................................................................... - 16 -
3.2. Becoming .......................................................................................................... - 17 -
3.3. Lewin’s 3 Stages of change .............................................................................. - 18 -
3.4. The learning organization of telework .............................................................. - 20 -
4. Methodology ......................................................................................................... - 23 -
4.1. Qualitative research design ............................................................................... - 23 -
4.2. The role of the researcher ................................................................................. - 24 -
4.3. Sampling ........................................................................................................... - 25 -
4.4. Data collection & analysis ................................................................................ - 28 -
5. A story of COVID-19 & telework ...................................................................... - 31 -
5.1. Layer 1: How is telework perceived? ............................................................... - 31 -
5.2. Layer 2: Resistance to telework ........................................................................ - 41 -
5.3. Layer 3: Improvising as reaction to the new..................................................... - 46 -
5.4. Layer 4: The new normal .................................................................................. - 51 -Paul Bobert - The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 6. Discussion ............................................................................................................. - 60 - 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ - 62 - I Bibliography........................................................................................................... - 1 - II Coding Tree ............................................................................................................ - 6 - III Translated quotes .................................................................................................. - 8 -
Paul Bobert - The transformation of telework - Organizational change accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Introduction
The time when the office was the place clerical workers and professionals conducted all their
work has come to an end. Technological development changed the way people work all over
the world. Telephones and computers in the form of smartphones and laptops are accessible
for most of the working society and so telework became a possible way to conduct office work
during the last centuries. The new concept of conducting office work remotely became
increasingly known within the working culture and academics being associated with
advantages like travel time reduction, and the augmentation of flexibility in time and space.
Anyhow, chances of time and cost saving and the possibility to balance work and private life
alone have not been satisfactory in answering the question why people telework. (Bailey &
Kurland, 2002)
By the beginning of the year 2020, a novel global occurrence rose dust among the
interconnected globalized world. The spread of the COVID-19 virus reached almost every
nation. This pandemic situation affected various societal levels and governments tried to
establish measures to take care of the health of their inhabitants. Social distancing is one of
these measures. By keeping human beings physically separated from each other, the spread
of the virus can be hindered. For the world of work this means, being in the same office can
be perceived as a risk for the workforce. Hence, telework gains the novel attribute of being a
socially distanced way of work and so a new urgency to develop organizational changes arises.
Within pre-pandemic research on telework, most teleworkers working remotely, only to a
small extent, created a challenge, which was hardly accomplished, within organizational
research (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). The need for social distanced work hence created a new
chance for the development of telework activities. In Germany, for instance, governmental
pressure caused all companies to consider if sending their employees home, would be
possible. Therefore, one can see a new chance to academically observe telework and the
emergence of novel and old tendencies of this remote type of work within the phase of the
pandemic. By focusing the lens on private and work constellations, this, finally, leads to the
research question for this thesis:
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How are changes coming along with the COVID-19 pandemic transforming telework for
professionals in Germany within work-related teams and their private constellations?
For answering this question, first, literature on telework will be reviewed. Secondly, the
COVID-19 pandemic and the chances for the organization of telework will be set into context
of contemporary scholarship. Third, different perspectives on organizational change are
illustrated and linked to telework during the pandemic. Drawing on interview data, generated
by interviewing professionals in Germany within team and private constellations, differing in
the extent of telework they conduct, the analysis aims to generate a narration of the process
the professionals and the phenomenon of telework goes through, entangled with the global
phenomenon of facing a pandemic. Therefore, the different change theories Improvisation
(Weick, 1998), Resistance to change (Waddell & Sohal, 1998) and the 3-step Model of Kurt
Lewin (1947b) are used to generate a theoretic frame for this story of a transformation of
telework aiming for a wide angled view on the micro and macro level of change and
organizational learning.
1.1. Historical perspective on telework
By understanding how researchers approached the phenomenon of telework in the past,
understanding what it embodies now becomes easier. Therefore, this chapter aims to
enlighten the view on telework in academic research before the COVID-19 Pandemic. A
reference on how former research on telework can be seen and how one should approach the
topic is given by Bailey and Kurland in 2002 (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). This thesis takes the
critical overview Bailey and Kurland provided on the topic as starting point with the aim of
creating a comprehensive picture of the social, organizational, legal, ethical, and technical
phenomenon telework, whereby all these dimensions must be considered to understand it as
integrated as possible. As a result, the chosen categories for this literature review constitute
a first point of reference for the ensuing Analysis. The categories “terminology”, “legal point
of view”, “transportation & telework”, “technological perspective”, “time and extent”,
“demographic aspects”, “employers vs. employees view” and “family and telework” derived
from issues related to telework and plurally found in the literature.
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1.2. Terminology
Within academic research different terms are used for the phenomenon examined in this
thesis. Because some of these terms illustrate slightly different nuances, it is crucial to give a
definition of what is understood by the term telework. Sullivan argues project specific
definitions to be useful and inevitable (Sullivan, 2003).
Most common elements of the definition of telework describe it as being a decentralized form
of work containing the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Messenger
and Gschwind (2016) use this crucial role of technology in order to develop a model for the
evolution of telework based on the change of used technologies, the location and degree of
organization used in the conduct of the work. They assume authors of popular books, bloggers
and journalist not using the term telework because it may not appear contemporary in the
21st century. Therefore, they divide telework in home office, mobile office, and virtual office.
Currently tablet computers and smartphones make it possible to work from anywhere
imaginable creating the virtual office. Before these technologies were predominant, laptops
and mobile phones made it possible to work in any spaces if the location had access to the
internet. Messenger & Gschwind (2016) call that the mobile office. The instance of working
from home using at least a computer and a telephone was called home office. In that model
home office is illustrated as the term describing the first generation of telework. However,
commonly spoken in German speaking countries the term home office is used for any work
conducted from home instead of an office provided by the employer (Müller, 2020: p.24).
Other related terms used by researchers are homework as used for example by Kaufman-
Sarborough (2006) or telecommuting, which has its origins in scholar on transportation
benefits of telework (Sullivan, 2003). The “tele” in telecommuting and in the term telework is
a Graecism meaning remote.
In this thesis, telework is seen definite to other forms of remote work by the obligatory use of
ICTs, which lead to a focus on clerical work and professional work conducted on computers.
Thus, work which doesn’t contain the use of a computer is not part of the analysis. Concluding,
this thesis will examine the phenomenon of telework as office work, which is conducted using
ICTs at a place beside an office provided by the employer.
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1.3. Legal point of view
Legal provisions differ in every country. As the analysis in this thesis will draw on interviews of
persons working in Germany, this paragraph focuses on the legal situation regarding telework
in Germany. A general agreement on EU level exists, which describes telework as non-
stationary activity, which is doable autonomously under the use of ICTs (Müller, 2020: p.23).
In German law, some regulations are established. For the terminology a paragraph can be
found in the Arbeitstätten Verordnung, more precisely in §2 Abs. 7 S.7 ArbstättV. A workspace
is a telework-space, when it is a fixed display workstation provided by the employer in the
employee’s private space. Furthermore, the work relation can be fulltime. This is called
exclusive telework. Moreover, it can be a part-time agreement, called alternating telework.
Another interesting point is, that telework can either be conducted by self-employed persons,
or by persons in a usual employment relationship. Additionally, there is Heimarbeit, which is
regulated in the Heimarbeitsgesetz (HAG) established in 1960. One could describe Heimarbeit
as work, which is done on one’s own, or with family members in a private space on behalf of
tradesmen or -women. For employees, the framework for their temporal and spatial directive
should be established in the employment contract. In the Nachweisgesetz, precisely in § 2 Abs.
1 S.2 Nr5 NachwG, is established, that a short characterization of the job must be written
down. Consequently, remote work should formally be part of German employment
agreements and contracts. From the legal perspective, time recording appears to be
suggestive to give evidence of the employee working within the legal time framework given
by the Arbeitszeitgesetz and the health regulations of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, precisely
§16 Abs 2 ArbZG and §241 Abs 2 BGB. If telework for a German employer is conducted abroad
(not in Germany), a degree of vagueness exists, which legal framework is to be applied (Müller,
2020).
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1.4. Transportation & telework
With the rise of computer and information technologies in the 1970’s, the possibility to avoid
urban pollution caused by traffic became subject to scholars giving recommendations to urban
planners to provide infrastructure, which supports telework. In this connection, Nilles (1975)
recommended the diffusion of labor to a network of staff external to the firm working from
home in order to avoid commuting through the centers of big cities. In a broader way,
telework could, hence, be a chance to avoid pollution, to safe employee’s time, give
opportunities for economic growth and create a new market in information technology.
Therefore, it had environmental, social and economic benefits (Handy & Mokhtarian, 1996:
p.1). Obstacles in the rise of telework were within employee’s willingness to work off site, the
employer’s willingness to give opportunities to do so and the government’s endeavor to
facilitate telework. Arising from this transportation focused perspective, Bailey and Kurland
(2002) designed a model for a historical conceptualization of telework. This model explains
the motivation for employees working from home or an off-site work center by factors pulling
the employee to an alternative workplace and factors pushing the employee out of the office
for extended periods. Pulling factors hereby can be related to childcare and commute on side
of the employee. Pushing factors can be real estate or labor costs on side of the employer.
From this point of view transportation related issues as the reduction of travel time could be
seen as key factor within the motivation to telecommute. Even though this model still appears
to be reasonable to some extent and a reduction of travel is a positive factor for teleworkers,
according to Bailey and Kurland (2002) travel reduction is found out not to be the major
incentive for the conduct of telework.
1.5. Technological perspective
Based on the assumption of benefit linked to commute not being the reason why people
telework, technology becomes another topic of interest. Information technology transformed
the way human beings communicate. Via telephones one can have verbal conversations
without being at the same place. Computers and the internet enable human beings to transfer
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text and other forms of data in a minimum of time from one place to another. This
technological development is the base for teleworkers to stay linked to their colleges when
they are working from distance. Accordingly telework itself changes with the constant change
of technology.
Firstly, one could see telephones as the basic device needed for telework. Already early
studies emphasize the potential of the developments in telephone technologies for the
diffusion of telework (Nilles, 1975). Where in the past video telephone technologies where
costly and therefor hardly usable, they are integrated in tablets, smartphones, and laptops
and, thus, easily accessible to most clerical workers and professionals. Consequently, the life
of a teleworker can easily be shaped by telephone and video conferences.
In the 90s, Handy and Mokhtarian (1996) additionally mention fax and answering machines to
be prevalent among teleworkers. Like the development creating accessible video telephone
options, the transfer of text documents, which could be conducted by faxing machines, can
be replaced using the internet for example via e-mails. Furthermore, the development of
cableless devices, which are widely used nowadays, detached telework from the conduct at a
fixed place. Messenger and Geschwind (2016) differentiate between a first-generation
containing computers and telephones, which could only be used from a fixed place. A second-
generation containing laptops and mobile phones, which enabled working from any place with
access to internet and, finally the third generation characterized by smartphones and tablets
uncoupling work from any fixed place.
The dependence of telework on technology does not solely detach office work from the place
of an office. It also limits the possibility of teleworking to those, who are equipped with the
appropriate devices. Where for big companies other issues may be greater obstacles, for small
companies the cost of implementation and management of teleworking programs can be
crucial (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). Even though reduced use of office space provided by the
employer can also generate cost benefits, implementation costs illustrate one possible reason
to decide against the implementation of telework programs.
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1.6. Time and extent
In their review on telework research Bailey and Kureland (2002) observe a wide range in the
extent of time people telework form only working a few days per month remotely to part and
even fulltime telework arrangements. Only the minority worked in fulltime telework
arrangements. Nonetheless, it was necessary to examine these fulltime arrangements to
understand what the impact of telework on the worker and the work and the organization is.
The point of view on the phenomenon where a decision of how much telework is needed for
a particular employee in an organization leads to the question: How much telework suits an
employee’s job? One can see professional isolation as a starting point to this question. Cooper
& Kurland (2002) find the limit in telework in professional isolation because it lead to reduced
developmental activities in the form of interpersonal networking, informal learning, and
mentoring and missed opportunities when working at home. Furthermore, it was possible to
avoid these effects by arrangements, where the employee partly teleworks and partly works
onsite. Wojcak et. al. (2016) support this argument, by giving an adequate leadership the role
of finding the right extent of an employee’s telework arrangement. Some workers may need
more onsite office days to receive enough social integration and development opportunities
when others needed more remote days.
As soon as working remotely, no matter how many days, other time-based issues become the
focus of interest. As soon as a person enters the workplace, everything is somehow work
related, because the person is physically at a place where work is conducted. Even if one is
not working, the person is surrounded by work-related artefacts. Working remotely, these
boundaries blur, because the person is surrounded by things and persons not related to their
work life while conducting the work specific tasks. Occurring emotions and necessary actions,
which are not related to the domain of work, therefore, require a certain degree of boundary
management. Tietze and Musson (2003) describe the utilitarian perception of time as scarce
resource in contrast to the more fluid, cyclic temporal boundaries in the private domain as
reason. By examining two types of dealing with that issue, clock-based approaches, and task-
based approaches, they enlighten the importance of self-discipline a teleworker needs. Either
the disciplined focus on a work-related topic within a certain frame of time, or for the duration
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of a task created the segmentation of work and private being in a private place. Especially
family is often seen as the conflicting private domain to work. Scholar on work family conflict
(WFC) and remote cannot clearly explain the impact telework has on the WFC. While more
office hours onsite can leaded to an increase of the WFC, telework doesn’t seem to lead to
the same undesirable effect (Madsen, 2003). Even the effect of after hours on the WFC was
not found out to be problematic in a study among teleworking professionals (Jostell & Hemlin,
2018).
1.7. Demographic aspects
Because availability of ICTs exists for the widest part of the working society, it is difficult to
track a typical socio-demographic picture of a teleworker. Additionally different types of
commissions lead to telework situations. The range varies from employed professionals and
clerical workers to self-employed contractors and from part- to fulltime arrangements.
Observing differences in gender creates a mixed picture. Already in the step of sampling, some
studies draw on samples with a significantly higher amount of male respondents (e.g. Jostell
& Hemlin, 2018), where others find more female respondents in their samples compared to
control samples of non-teleworkers (Duxbury & Neufeld, 1999). It is certain, that both males
and females conduct telework. Bailey and Kureland (2002) observe a rather balanced picture
in the relative number of males and females with the tendency of male teleworkers being
professionals and female teleworkers being clerical workers. Accordingly, there is a higher
amount of part-time work arrangements on the side of female teleworkers. Hardil & Green
(2003) support this statement by describing differences in how long male and females work
in general, and hence telework, by the shifting role model of non-work women in the former
classic family model, to an increase of women being more satisfied with working in a part-time
job. Furthermore, research on telework and the WFC shows women being faced with a higher
conflicting interface between work and family (Madsen, 2003), which would make it
interesting to observe family situations related to telework as a whole. Nonetheless, one could
argue, like for example Handy & Mokhtarian (1996) do, that telework is offering benefits in
form of flexibility, especially for two wage couples. The classic example is the balance of time
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needed for the family. With the demographic changes in an aging society, telework created a
possibility to not only generate time looking after children, but also take care of elder family
members. Looking at age it is found out, that the possibility of telework as a source of freedom
and autonomy is appreciated most by the younger population (Nakrošienė et al., 2019). Other
interesting demographic dimensions could be material status and organizational affiliation,
which are not discussed in this chapter due to a lack of data found in the literature.
1.8. Employers vs. employees view
Looking at the employment relationship, telework creates a whole new facet of the interplay
between employees and employers. Both sides are affected unequally. Nevertheless,
telework can be a chance for everyone as Handy and Mokhatarian state:
“Workers, faced with increasing household responsibilities, see telecommuting as a
way to reduce stress and increase their free time. Employers are beginning to see
telecommuting as way to reduce costs and as a new kind of benefit they can provide to
employees.” (Handy & Mokhtarian, 1996: p.1)
This statement presents an optimistic way of seeing the situation. On the employer’s side,
there might be a reduction of cost because less office space and internal infrastructure is
needed. On the other hand, one also mustn’t forget the cost of technological equipment
necessary for the employees to telework sufficiently. Furthermore, if cost issues are
ambiguous here, an increase of the employee’s productivity would be beneficial for the
employer. Depending on the task the teleworker conducts at work, one cannot measure every
job with the same yardstick. Dutcher (2012) for instance examined the role of dull and creative
tasks finding out, that telework increases productivity for creative tasks. Additionally, one has
to be careful due to the fact, that most scholarships pointing on productivity increases is
drawn on self-reported data and can, hence, be biased (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). Beside
managing cost and productivity, leadership is an interesting point shaping telework. Kelley &
Kollaway (2012) illustrate, that leadership style mediates the outcome, when working
remotely. Hence, a transformative leadership style of the teleworker’s employer generated
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trust and lead to a higher level of job satisfaction and commitment. Consequently, one can
consider these trust-based management styles as crucial in the management of teleworkers,
especially controlling the employees work is aggravated by the employer and employee not
physically being at the same place.
Turning this point of view around, this means different things to the side of employees.
Flexibility in how and where people work, give an opportunity to balance private and work-
related interests. Hardill and Green (2003) describe the new economy as more fluid. Thus,
telework could be a way to positively influence the life of individual employees for individual
reasons. Partnership and family are important factors to consider in this regard as classic
example for the blur of private and professional boundaries. One couple with young children,
for example, could see telework as a chance to spend time with their children and still being
able to conduct their work and generate income for the family. For other workers, the same
situation could mean too much distraction due to the attention the child needs. Additionally,
remote work creates a chance for couples, who work in different places, but build a living
together. The reduction of commuting time and the possibility of living in a place far away
from the workplace make such arrangements easier. Furthermore, one must consider time as
a progressing dimension. Children, for example, get older and life situations continuously
change. Thus, what once was an appropriate situation for the employee, could be an
inappropriate later. Qualitative research gives insights in how the modern world of work in
some cases enables segmentation but rather amplifies integration of private and work-related
domains (Köffer et al., 2015). In the context of the workplace itself, professional isolation, as
described in e. time and extent, creates another obstacle. Wojak et al. (2016) create a model
presenting leaders as the ones, who could influence teleworkers to maintain a status of
competence and social saturation and so encounter the isolation. Communication, therefore,
is named to be the key attribute. Hence, once again, looking at the employer’s side of the
medal, a certain degree of leadership is crucial to maintain sufficient work remotely.
Nevertheless, communication is no one way road and is conducted in the interplay of the
leader and the led. Thus, the teleworker and the employer both take responsibilities in the
creation of a functioning model for their own telework arrangement and this not being a solely
top-down manageable work situation. The psychological contract is a concept for employees
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explicit and implicit expectations of the overall outcome of their work (Edwards, 2003).
Shifting a work relation towards a telework agreement transforms the psychological contract
substantially. Even though, the financial wage and the legal work contract may remain the
same, the fundamental nature of the job generally changes by altering communication,
technology in use and employers’ exertion of control and influence over the employee’s work.
In general, job suitability is the term to be mentioned, when thinking about when telework is
beneficial for both sides, the employer, and the employee. Bailey and Kureland (2002), for
example, mention telework to be suitable for jobs, where little control is needed. A point of
view, further emphasizing the role of job suitability, is offered by Cooper and Kurland (2002),
who examine the difference of employees perception of telework in the public and in the
private sector. In the public sector, Teleworkers where less affected by missing out on
development opportunities for reduced personal contact due to their telework arrangements.
The reason therefore was found in the non-individual-related organizational structure of
public organizations. Concluding, the constitution of the job, the style of leadership and the
private situation of the teleworkers create important aspects to look at ensuring telework is
perceived as a positive phenomenon for the involved actors.
2. COVID-19 and telework
2.1. The COVID-19 pandemic
In the year 2020 a worldwide phenomenon can be observed, which has never been there
before in such a globally interconnected way. The outbreak of the coronavirus SARS CoV-2,
known as COVID-19, caused a pandemic affecting more than 200 countries worldwide (Platto
et al., 2020). Already in the last quarter of the year 2019, even in Europe, phenomena linking
to the existence of the virus occurred. Nevertheless, the outbreak on level of a pandemic was
linked to the Chinese city Wuhan in the beginning of the year 2020. Even though, virologic
examination indicated, that the virus was transmitted from animals, most probably bats, to
human beings in the beginning, what makes the current mutations so dangerous is their high
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contagiousness among humans. The pandemic affects humankind on many different levels.
The health systems are challenged to take care of the infected. Societies face the need for self-
protection and solidarity. Economies face volatilities and the world of organized work is
affected by drastic changes. As many people die due to the pandemic, it is important to state,
that in general, this pandemic is not a good thing to have happened to the world, but one
could see the pandemic as accelerator for particular organizational activities.
2.2. Organization & the Pandemic
The reaction of the world to the virus lead to big economic consequences. The tradeoff to be
made on this level is between disease prevention and economic loss. One example are
unemployment rates increasing, like for instance in the U.S. about 0.9 percentage between
February and March 2020 (Béland et al., 2020). Gaudecker et al. (2020) describe the negative
expectations and consequences being more significant among self-employed compared to
employees, who were less affected. Nevertheless, there are occupational fields with a higher
demand for professionals and workers caused by the pandemic. Most of these essential
workers, like for example doctors, nurses, and workers in the field of transportation, must be
present physically to conduct their work. For all non-essential activities and the work of all
non-essential workers, besides vaccination, social distancing is the prevalent way to stop the
spread of the virus. Social distancing describes the reduction of social contact between people
by measures like for example the closure of schools, workplaces, and other places where
humans come together as well as contact reduction due to policies. A comparison in the U.S.
between states, that implemented social distancing to states without social distancing, found
the measures to be working out significantly (McGrail et al., 2020). Nonetheless, the impact
on society is tremendous. Therefore, it should be questioned, how such enormous decisions
for organizational rearrangements in a situation of crises with a high level of uncertainty
towards the future can be made. To find the right measures in times of crises, a certain amount
of trying out is inevitable. Kornberger et al. (2019) argue, that the logic of appropriateness,
which relies on stable roles and institutionalized identities in the past, would not be suitable
for times of crises, because crises embodied challenges one hasn’t been facing before.
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Likewise, the logic of consequences, which is characterized by decision making based on
predictable future expectations, were insufficient, because future outcomes could not be
foreseen. Therefore, the logic of tact, which coops with present uncertainty by feeling out
situations on the walk, filled this gap as decision making logic applicable for times of crises.
The application of the logic of tact can be seen as reason for the variety of altering measures
and detailed rules for the reduction of social contacts in different countries and even different
federate states to tackle the issues caused by COVID-19. It is for sure, that most people
currently living are somehow affected by this pandemic, and hence are confronted with this
world of uncertainty. Another concept helping to understand how to cope with crises is the
concept of enacted sensemaking by Karl Weick (Weick, 1988). By enactment one could
increase the feeling of control over the situation, which reduced the level of stress caused by
the crisis. This principle can be applied on many organizational levels. Scientists, for instance
did so actively and knowingly by writing about their own sensemaking on the pandemic and
what that would indicate for the scientific world (Stephens et al., 2020). Among Stephens et
al.’s findings are some possible research questions also dealing with topics highly related to
this thesis:
“How are we (re)organizing and being organized amidst this pandemic?” (Stephens et al.,
2020: Table 2, 5.)
“When people return to their physical places of work after weeks or months of work from
home, will they go through a re-socialization process and how?” (Stephens et al., 2020: Table
2, 15.)
“How will the norms, rituals, and terminology used during virtual work influence post-COVID-
19 work? (Stephens et al., 2020: Table 2, 17.)
Of course, this thesis is not going to answer all these questions but it aims to bring at least
some light into the dark mist of the pandemic uncertainty.
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2.3. A chance for telework
As mentioned in the previous chapter, social distancing is a way to encounter the spread of
the virus. One place humans often come together physically, is the workplace. Hence, one of
the major traits of telework becomes quite beneficial. Teleworking means being absent from
an office or a similar type of workplace. Not being surrounded by your coworkers accordingly
means a decrease in the risk of an COVID-19 infection. In the beginning of 2021 the German
government, who recommended the use of home office before, passed a regulation on how
to deal with worker protection during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2-
Arbeitschutzverordnung (Corona-ArbSchV), made home office mandatory for all German
companies if no operational conditions spoke the contrary. By July 2021, this regulation was
mitigated due to the reduction in inflectional numbers during the summer. Nevertheless, the
German government recalls for consideration in companies’ hygiene concepts. For some
regions in Germany, like for example the federal states Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria,
which are more focused on production industries than on computer based services, these
restrictions are harder to accomplish (Fadinger & Jan, 2020). In general, the number of hours
the working society spends in the home office are increasing (Gaudecker et al., 2020), which
one could argue to be a good way to tackle the pandemic. Nevertheless, the possibility of
sending people into situations of telework seems not to be exploited to its full potential.
Alipour et al. (2021) observe almost one in two places of employment is accomplishable as
telework space, where the realized quota remains about 30% of telework spaces since
February 2021. Although this quote could be higher to achieve more social distancing, the
entrance barriers for companies to change to telework are falling. Development in the area of
information technology delivers the toolbox for a variety of types of businesses in form of
team collaboration platforms and videocall tools like Microsoft teams or Zoom (Barnes, 2020).
Anyhow, the changes concerning telework can create an opportunity for many people, who
never had the chance to telework before. One example therefore provides Schur et al. (2020)
by demonstrating chances telework gave to a certain group of workers. Especially for workers
with disabilities, working from home created a chance to balance private vexations and their
work live. COVID-19 and the new emphasis on working remotely gives many people the
chance to try teleworking for the first time.
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As good as it is to hear that telework, a way of work a lot of people were forced to face during
the COVID-19 pandemic, has a lot of chances for the working society, one should never forget
looking at the downsides of such practices. An international study on twitter about sentiment
towards working from home found, that 73% of people had positive sentiment, where 23% of
people had a negative sentiment towards working from home during the pandemic (Dubey &
Tripathi, 2020). One reason for workers not being satisfied to work from home could be
disturbance within the home environment. Waizenegger et al. (2020) see such new interfering
entities as a risk for good team collaboration. Another level of downsides creates a view on
psychological consequences during COVID-19. Ammar et al. (2020) find out psychological
wellbeing generally being decreased compared to before the pandemic started. Scholars like
Armbruster & Klitzbücher (2020) are supporting this point of view connecting their findings of
increased need for psychological counseling with lockdown and social distancing measures to
be taken by the government. Even though, the cause of these findings is seen in social
distancing measures in general, and hence, not linked to telework specifically. Working absent
from the office takes a social component out of many lives, where loneliness was a reason for
mental unwell being during the pandemic.
3. Change of Telework
The previous chapters gave an overview of how academic research saw telework in the past
and what happed during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand how the phenomenon of
telework currently evolves, a look into the topic of change and transformation in general can
be helpful. Depending on how one frames the transformation of telework, the whole picture
can change. In the title of this thesis, it is stated that there is a transformation of telework.
Having its’s origin in old Latin, the prefix trans- means to the other side or through and forma
means form in the sense of the German word Gestalt. A transformation, hence, means the
change from one form to another form.
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3.1. Linearity and resistance
The approach of planned, purposeful, change entered the world of science with the Taylorism.
By optimizing results using objectivistic science it became possible to find a best way to do
something. For work during a pandemic one could argue this would mean sending as many
people as possible to the home office, because the workers could, thus, conduct their work
while the risk of infections within the organization was reduced to a minimum. Linestead &
Linstead (2009) see planned change approaches as systematic attempt to transform the
behavior of organizational members to cope with the changes in the organization’s
environment. A lot of these planned models contain several stages to go through to
accomplish the change and maintain the planed outcome of the change. One of these stage-
based change models are the eight steps to transforming your organization by John Kotter
(1995). Special about Kotter’s model is, that it emphasizes the role of resistance to change. To
overcome this resistance, one established a sense of urgency, formed a powerful guiding
coalition, created, and communicated a vision, empowered others to act on that vision,
created short-term wins, consolidated improvements, and in the end, tried to institutionalize
these approaches. By publishing recommendations and passing a bill, which tells companies
to send their workers into the home office, a sense of urgency was emphasized. Furthermore,
the German Government demonstrate a powerful coalition. Step three of the model is to
create a vision. For instance, a campaign through the media drawing the picture of a pandemic
world, where all people in office jobs work remotely, would be a way to create a vison. Even
though, the bill on the mandatory conduct of home office for companies should cause that all
office workers conduct their work in the home office, the bill not being binding combined with
the missing vision and empowerment of companies to overcome technical obstacles, made
the change not being institutionalized. Hence, one could argue, that companies and their
workers could not fully overcome their resistance towards the home office looking at the little
quota of people teleworking (Alipour et al., 2021). Nonetheless, even if the government would
have followed Kotter’s 8 steps, this doesn’t mean the goal would have been accomplished by
any means. Waddell and Sohal (1998) introduce a more complex view on resistance to change
seeing it as multi-faceted phenomenon creating inertia for rational, non-rational and political
factors. Accordingly, resistance was a productive power, which enabled learning. Therefore,
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resistance to the conduct telework can be a productive force in understanding obstacles
towards telework in general. Ford et al. (2002) see resistance to change in the historical
background conversations being either complacent, resigned or cynical. In the case of COVID-
19 and telework, all three types of resistance within background conversations seem plausible
depending on the individual company and their individual background towards home office.
A company, which has been successful without telework in the past, could be trapped in
complacent and a company, which failed an attempt of providing remote work options before,
could talk resignedly or cynical about the topic and so hinder the development. It remains
questionable how to overcome such resistance. Considering that, Thomas & Hardy (2011)
argue rather engaging in the day-to-day practices of work, than focusing on a linear planed
design of change would be the key to accomplish change. In sum, resistance can be seen as
productive force, if one focuses on the complexity of the change and the resistance itself.
3.2. Becoming
The Greek philosophers Parmenides and Heraclitus are accredited with two different opposing
philosophies. Parmenides elaborations take the ontological perspective of being, and
therefore, emphasize a status consistency. Linking this ontology to the field of organizational
change, this would mean that an organization can be seen as a fixed object at a certain point
of time. The scientific management of Taylorism and planned, stage-based transformation
programs would fit in this view of the world by changing it from one state to another.
Following this logic, one could clarify an objective of change and reach this goal by appropriate
management. On the other hand, Heraclitus philosophy offers a more process-oriented view
of the world, which is called the ontology of becoming. By taking in account that the world is
in a constant flux and never stops changing, Tsoukas and Chia (2002) argue for the attempt
of understanding instead of accomplishing change. Of course, punctuated in time, key
dimensions of an organization can be easily illustrated. But as time is constantly progressing,
a focus on the human behavior of organizing in an interconnected social world and not seeing
organizations as object-like existence, rather illustrated a truthful picture of the world.
Consecutive adjustment, advancement and even contempt of organizational rules and
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routines, thus, is what distinct one change from another. This makes the phenomenon to
some extent observable and influenceable as part of the system, but not controllable.
Illustrating the process metaphysical traits of heterogeneous becoming, otherness and
immanence, the rhizome is a metaphor for change within the ontology of becoming (Chia,
1999). Unlike, for example in a tree, within rhizomes a point of initiation cannot be found.
Comparing this to the COVID-19 situation, it is not even sure, when a human being was
infected by a COVID-19 virus for the first time. Furthermore, the virus is still and ever mutating
in an ongoing manor. Accordingly, the change of all organizational entities connected with
COVID-19, must be seen in a complex ongoing manner, without starting point.
Evolutionary models deliver another, totally different, ongoing view on change. For instance,
Hanan & Freeman (1977) link the change in populations of organizations to a socio-Darwinist
model. By not being suitable to the changing environment, entire populations of organizations
could become extinct, like an animal species in nature. Survival of the fittest form of
organization in connection with a global pandemic, would therefore mean, that companies,
which are not adjusted to the new situation, decreased in numbers, and that the
organizational form of an office without the possibility to work remotely, could become
entirely extinct.
3.3. Lewin’s 3 Stages of change
With the change having no actual starting point, where should one draw the attention then,
talking about a transformation from one form to another? Kurt Lewin (1947b) describes in his
early elaborations on change a phase of no recognizable social change as quasi-stationary
equilibrium. To describe this state, he uses the metaphor of a slow floating river. The interplay
of social forces finding a balance and defining a degree of tension and conflict within created
the equilibrium. Forces striving for change in one direction thereby countered the forces
pulling in the other creating a force field. To accomplish change, hence, one had to go through
three different phases before reaching a new quasi-stationary equilibrium. The first phase is
called unfreeze and is necessary to remove any form of prejudices, which would hinder the
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change. One can describe it as a phase of questioning the status quo. The second phase is the
moving to the new level. This is the phase where the change is accomplished and where the
vison for a new status quo emerges. In the end, there is another quasi-stationary equilibrium
being realized through a refreeze phase. As soon as the balance of a new social level is found,
it can be perceived as the new normal.
At first, Lewin’s model may look a little simplistic, linear, and straight forward. Hence one
could argue it having the disadvantages of being a top-down, stage-based linear model, where
even if all steps are followed, it could lead to a failure of change. One reason therefore can be
seen in misunderstanding of his work. Furthermore, Cummings et al. (2016) recommend to
dig deeper in the history of academic research, especially on Lewin, than just reciting the most
recent publications. Looking at the metaphor of ice for a change, one could criticize, that a
social environment is never frozen, and hence, the metaphor would be wrong. Digging deeper
into Lewin’s work, one would realize himself using different metaphors to describe the
phenomenon more exact:
“(..) it is clear that by a state of “no social change” we do not refer to a stationary but
to a quasi-stationary equilibrium; that is, to a state comparable to that of a river which
flows with a given velocity in a given direction during a certain time interval. A social
change Is comparable to a change in the velocity or direction of that river.” (Lewin,
1947b: p.1)
To add on this metaphor of the river, one might see a quasi-stationary equilibrium, which is
the frozen part in the 3-Stage Model, as a river with a frozen surface. Even if it looked like the
river was not moving, there are little streams under the surface, where not all the water is
frozen. Compared to a flooding river in the rainy season, which could be the move phase
within the model, the frozen river doesn’t show any big movement. Nevertheless, the social
world of change is never completely stuck, even within a quasi-stationary equilibrium.
Further criticism to the 3-staged model is it being only relevant for incremental change in form
of a project. By pointing out, that big changes can only be realized through a sum of small
changes and emphasizing Lewin’s concern with behavioral change on different levels from
individual over group to organization, Barnes (2004) argues for the model still being applicable
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if understood the original way. In general, this depends on the perspective. Zooming in on the
individual level, one can see the change in the altering patterns and routines of one person’s
everyday life. Zooming out on the whole organization, or a whole society, some states can
seem to be frozen for years before disruptive changes happen.
There are first attempts projecting Lewin’s approach to the changes within COVID-19. Arora
(Arora, 2020) describes the rapid changes within politics, policymaking and the public health
system by the use of the three steps. He argues for the world being in a state of move drifting
towards a new normal with chances for improvement. A link to the phenomenon of telework
can be made in a similar kind of fashion. Accordingly, one could see forces steaming for the
introduction of teleworking systems for companies as reduction of travel time, cost savings,
compatibility of family and work, and implementation-cost conflict within the domain of
family and work or management insecurities as opposing forces. These forces create a quasi-
stationary equilibrium. Hence, one saw a long period of inert changes within telework being
in a frozen state. The COVID-19 pandemic is extending the forces pushing towards a world
with more telework practices by the chance of the common goal of social distancing. Thus,
the social world of telework is in a state of move, until a new perceived level of normal can be
reached in a post-pandemic, refrozen world.
3.4. The learning organization of telework
Being in a state of current ongoing changes means entering the new and unknown. Greve
(2020), thus argues, that a close look on organizational learning would be a good way to react
to early responses of the crisis in order to be ready for the next pandemic. Nonetheless, not
only being ready for the next pandemic, but also being ready for the next upcoming repetitive
pattern of the crisis is helping organizations to maintain during the crisis. For a better
understanding, one can learn from the example of SWAT teams and film crews. In a qualitative
study on those two special occupational groups, Bachky & Okhuysen (2011) found out, that
resources like good training and expertise lead to social cognitive resources like shared task
knowledge and common workflow expectation, which then lead to the organization being
able to bricolage. Bricolage for that matter is a term, describing organizations being able to
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react to situations of uncertainty with an ongoing need to continue the conduct of work. Both,
film productions and SWAT team have in common, that within their volatile environment
reorganization or role shifting is inevitable. In his work on the Glen Dutch Disaster, Weick
(1993) illustrates how the loss of purpose in a collective intra-organizational process of
sensemaking can lead to organizational failure (Weick, 1993). To deal with such situations of
uncertainty, Weick compares organizational change to jazz improvisation. Altering roles, for
instance between the sax and the piano playing a solo are seen as source for collective
purposeful organization. Retrospective sensemaking was the key, as one can’t improvise on
nothing. Building up on this work, Barrett uses the following seven characteristics of jazz
improvisation to show the usefulness of the metaphor to other forms of organization: (1)
Provocative Competence: Interrupting Habit Patterns (2) Embracing Errors as Source of
Learning (3) Minimum Structures That Allow Maximum Flexibility (4) Distributed Task:
Continual Negotioation Toward Dynamic Synchronization (5) Reliance on Retroperspective
Sense Making as Form (6) Hanging Out: Membership in Communities of Practice (7)
Alternating Between Soloing and Supporting (Barrett, 1998). The instance becomes easier to
grasp with the illustration of these 8 categories by a fictious example on the case of telework
& COVID-19:
(1) By the new appearance or the extension of telework programs within
companies, old regulations and routines become mixed up. To stay productive,
the organizations must develop new habit patterns, which can be accomplished
by interrupting and questioning old patterns: Do we need the weekly meeting,
or is another form of communication more sufficient to the current situation?
This could be one example of questioning old habits. Depending on the
improvising organization the answers will differ.
(2) If a team, which knew each other beforehand becomes a virtual team,
miscommunication and mistakes are likely to be happening in the beginning.
These mistakes can be a source of learning instead of organizational members
ignoring or dismissing them. If the maintained weekly meeting in online form
was only visited by a small part of the team, the organization can adapt to other
forms of communication.
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