Remote Work: An Investigation Into Remote Work Regarding Autonomy, Satisfaction, Motivation, Productivity, Company Culture, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, and Principal-agent Theory

Abstract

Covid-19 led to a forced transformation for several corporations towards adopting extensive remote work policies. After the restrictions disappeared some corporations have chosen to continue embracing remote work while others have chosen to restrict it in varying degrees. This study’s purpose is to investigate in an exploratory nature why this divide exists between different corporation’s remote work policies and to identify key factors that influence the remote work policy decision.
An abductive approach is taken where empiric observations are made of corporations’ remote policies and their motivations behind them. This is followed by the creation of a theory framework focusing on management styles, agency theory, productivity, collaboration, culture, and transformation as themes that may contain the potential answers to the research question. Thereafter, a deductive model was created based on the theoretical reasoning to see if the identified potential explanations could be connected to the motivations behind corporations’ policy decisions.
A convergent parallel research design was used where quantitative survey data and qualitative case interviews were conducted and thereafter analysed separately and compared to each other. Additionally, a secondary purpose of the study was to identify the general public’s attitude in the Nordics to remote work in order to assist in bringing clarity to the primary research goal.
Findings indicated that the public considered remote work policies moderately to highly important and in general preferred hybrid workplaces and the flexibility of choice. Some key concepts such as the knowledge sharing, socializing and the ability to form work relationships were found to have a strong negative relationship with remote work, whereas feelings of freedom, autonomy and employee satisfaction were found to have a strong positive relationship with remote work. Simultaneously, the study found very low acceptance of remote policies that are fully remotely.
The study hints at a possibility to create a win-win situation where corporations can increase their labour market attractiveness and satisfy their employees with hybrid policies while potential tools exist to limit the identified downsides of remote work, such as negative impacts on collaboration, knowledge sharing, relatedness, company culture, socializing, and relational coordination.