The Role of Remote Work in Organizational Relocations in Times of War

Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström, Serhii Prokopenko, Liudmyla Grynevych, Liana Razmerita

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Abstract

February 2022 marks the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, which has changed the lives of millions of people. In spite of the physical destruction of enterprises, evacuation of factories and personnel, and disruption of communications, the beginning of April 2022 became the re-starting point for business operations as a result of the Ukrainian state program targeted at supporting replaced enterprises. Moving organizational structures to safe regions creates many problems, but adapting to enforced remote work practices is pivotal for both employees and organizational resilience at a time of crisis (Razmerita et al., 2021). To this end, using the case of three relocated Ukrainian enterprises, the study addresses the following research question: How do businesses and employees adapt to remote work in times of war?
The research will be guided by the theory of organizational discontinuity in remote work (Watson-Manheim et al., 2012), the theory of organizational adaptation (Sarta et al., 2020), and the theory of self-determination (Deci and Ryan, 2000). The preliminary analysis of interviews with the Ukrainian entrepreneurs shows that remote work skills acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic were essential for a successful adaptation to the conditions of martial law. Further, partial or complete loss of customers and suppliers, dismissal of part of the staff who were
evacuated and are unable to work fully, and the urgent need to recruit and train new personnel were common challenges mentioned by the respondents.
The study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of adaptation strategies, boundaries, and discontinues during crises and war. As discontinuity is caused by a new type of crisis, organizations and managers have to invent new types of reactions and solutions for passing through these new critical circumstances. In the study, we will identify methods of response to new kinds of discontinuities, raising managerial implications valuable for practitioners as well as new theoretical insights.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICIS 2022 TREOs
EditorsRaffaele Ciriello, Bjarne Rerup Schlichter, Nargess Tahmasb
Number of pages1
Place of PublicationAtlanta, GA
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems (AIS)
Publication date12 Dec 2022
Article number1121
Publication statusPublished - 12 Dec 2022
EventThe 43rd International Conference on Information Systems: ICIS 2022: Digitization for the Next Generation - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 9 Dec 202214 Dec 2022
Conference number: 43
https://icis2022.aisconferences.org/

Conference

ConferenceThe 43rd International Conference on Information Systems: ICIS 2022
Number43
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period09/12/202214/12/2022
Internet address

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