New Technology, Work and Employment in the era of COVID-19: reflecting on legacies of research

How teleworking adoption is changing the labor market and workforce dynamics?

This article investigates how teleworking adoption influenced the labor market and workforce dynamic using bibliometric methods to overview 86 years of teleworking research [1936-2022]. By grouping the retrieved articles available on the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database, we revealed a holistic and topical view of teleworking literature using clustering and visualization techniques. Our results reflect the situation where the adoption of teleworking in the last three years was accelerated by the pandemic and facilitated by innovation in remote work technologies. We discussed the factors influencing one's decision to join the workforce or a specific company, besides the unintended consequences of the rapid adoption of teleworking. The study can aid organizations in developing adequate teleworking arrangements, enhancing employee outcomes, and improving retention rates. Furthermore, it can help policymakers design more effective policies to support employees, improve labor force participation rates, and improve societal well-being.

A bibliometric analysis of remote working practices: Call for future research

BACKGROUND

According to Gallup survey report, 69% of U.S. workers moved to working remotely in April 2020. Due to COVID-19, work is changing rapidly, including where individuals work.

OBJECTIVE

Research in this field has drawn much attention, and in the last ten years, there is a constant augment in the number of publications on the same. Several works of literature on Remote Working (RW) culture have been reported. Nevertheless, only less research is present on bibliometric reviews of RW culture. Therefore, Bibliometric research is wielded in this work and a comprehensive review of relevant publications was taken from Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), together with the Social Science Citation Index Expanded.

METHODOLOGY

At first, meticulous bibliometric analyses of 430 published articles are done and descriptive information about a piece of work, namely (a) author, (b) title, (c) date of publication, et cetera, is provided.

RESULTS

Mapping the scope along with the structure of the discipline is enabled by these analyzes, which discovers the instituted collaboration patterns amongst countries and organizations, and identifies authoritative papers together with authors. Therefore, the publication's evolution over time is illustrated by these analyses, and the current research interests and potential directions for future study are identified.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper incorporates insights on remote working culture and enables mapping the scope and structure of the discipline, discovering the established collaboration patterns among countries and organizations. Thus, these analyses illustrate the publication's evolution over time and identified the current research interests and potential directions for the research.

Prepared for Home-Based Telework? The Relation between Telework Experience and Successful Workplace Arrangements for Home-Based Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

This article focuses on the perceived effects of home-based telework during the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to five outcomes (job satisfaction, burnout, work-family conflicts, technostress, and social isolation) and how these are affected by workplace arrangements and telework experience.

METHODS

Cross-sectional survey data from employees in the IT, finance, and insurance sector collected during the COVID-19 crisis ( N = 808) were used for the study.

RESULTS

Outcomes are most negatively affected by feelings of surveillance and most positively affected by suitably equipped offices. Organizational teleworker support is most strongly related to job satisfaction. Experienced teleworkers report better outcomes, because of improved support, less perceived surveillance, and better equipped home stations.

CONCLUSIONS

Adaptation of management strategies avoiding surveillance and suitable setups of home offices to reconcile work and private spheres are key to well-being of teleworkers.

Who would continue to work from home in Hong Kong as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses?

This study aims a more thorough understanding of individuals' motivations and determinants of working from home (WFH) at various phases of the pandemic. To achieve this research goal, we analyze attitudes towards WFH, the profiles of various types of workers engaged in WFH, and the determinants of the current and future expected frequency of WFH among 816 workers in Hong Kong. We identify four types of teleworkers: (1) those with little employer support, (2) those distracted with tech problems, (3) those with good home office, and (4) those with substantial employer support. Separate latent-class choice models present that WFH frequencies in early phases of the pandemic (and at the moment), attitudes towards WFH, and certain constraining/facilitating factors affect the (expected) frequency of WFH. This study provides valuable insights into the types of teleworkers and the determinants of WFH, which will help policymakers create ways to encourage (or discourage) the future frequency of WFH.

Strategic human resource development in times of business and economic uncertainty: the case of Greek banks

Purpose

This paper aims to operationalise a modified strategic human resource development (SHRD) framework to examine managerial perceptions of the strategic embeddedness of human resource development (HRD) in organisations in times of business and economic uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on qualitative research data, following a case-study research design and semi-structured interviews with 44 participants to enable an in-depth investigation of managerial perspectives.

Findings

Research findings outline complexities in both understanding and operationalising SHRD in times of crisis which flow from managerial differing viewpoints.

Research limitations/implications

Research findings and conclusions are subject to “respondent bias” as events occurred several years ago, thus participants may not fully recall how SHRD has changed over time. Focussing on a unique industrial sector, as well as to a specific national context, limits the generalisation of the findings in comparative contexts.

Practical implications

Owing to the ongoing business and economic uncertainty, this study could serve as a powerful tool at the hands of HRD professionals to effectively assess the nature of their HRD interventions in their organisations.

Originality/value

Having a modified SHRD framework assessed in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous contexts, the reality of SHRD in organisations is examined. In addition, focussing on a single sector overcomes the “one-size fits all” proposition of prominent SHRD models. Finally, the paper expands SHRD literature by examining managerial perspectives on SHRD into understudied national and industrial contexts.

Understanding the Mental Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Railway Workers: Risks and Protective Factors

OBJECTIVE

Railway workers have provided an essential service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the effects of COVID-19 on the mental well-being of railway workers (N = 906) in the United Kingdom during the third lockdown period.

METHOD

The online survey included measures of COVID-19-related risk factors (perceived risk, stress, burnout, trauma) and protective factors (resilience coping, team resilience, general help seeking) associated with mental well-being. Responses were analyzed using multiple regression and content analysis.

RESULTS

COVID-19-related risk factors negatively predicted well-being. Higher scores on adaptive resilience, intentions to seek help, and team resilience significantly predicted higher mental well-being scores. Mental health decline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns for the future were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Building a resilient railway workforce requires attention to staff mental well-being and to ensuring that support systems are robust and accessible.

Telework: A Social and Emotional Perspective of the Impact on Employees' Wellbeing in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic gives us the largest telework experiment ever conducted globally, that will most likely leave visible and lasting marks on the organization of the labor market in the future. The purpose of this approach is to investigate the wellbeing from the social and emotional perspective of the individual, considering relevant relational communication, emotional dimension, work intensity, organization, autonomy and work-life balance, customized in the context of teleworking. The information was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The wellbeing assessment was performed based on the correlation analysis and the regression analysis. The results of the studies reveal that the existence of adequate communication and work-life balance ensure the wellbeing of telework employees, while the increase in work intensity degrades it. Furthermore, good communication moderates the relationship between organizational skills and wellbeing. The comparative analysis of wellbeing in relation to the explanatory variables considered by including the gender and age perspective reveals the existence of different configurations, with specific signs and statistical meanings.

Telework quality and employee well-being: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) forced organisations to implement intensive telework for many of their workers overnight. This scenario was completely new, and the emergency caused by COVID-19 created the possibility of experimenting with new ways of working with an unknown impact on employee well-being. Drawing on previous literature, we defined a model of telework quality consisting of the following four core domains: agile offices within organisations, functional remote workstations, flex-time and engaging management. We identified two high-quality and low-quality telework profiles using latent profile analysis on a data sample of 2295 insurance and financial sector employees. Demographic, occupational and procedural characteristics were associated with the probability of being in the positive or negative profiles. Our results showed that employees' emotional exhaustion and work engagement levels were related to telework quality. This study suggests that organisations need to consider the quality of telework to effectively adopt new ways of working that foster employee well-being.

Shining a light on an additional clinical burden: work-related digital communication survey study - COVID-19 impact on NHS staff wellbeing

Work-related communication volume within the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) has had little systematic research previously. The impact of communication volume on work-life balance of healthcare staff in the NHS is also not known and has not been an area of focus or governance. COVID-19 led to a shift to non-physical work, with greater reliance on digital communication for clinical decision making. We sought to elucidate the relationship between communication, work-life balance, and COVID-19. An online survey was conducted to assess the platforms used to communicate professionally, the volume of and time spent on work-related communications, how this has changed from before to during COVID-19, and the effect on work-life balance. A total of 3047 healthcare staff provided consent and evaluable data. Emails were reported as the most frequently used communication tool, and the majority of staff asked, reported increased work-related communications due to COVID-19. Staff estimated receiving 14 emails on an average day before COVID-19. During the pandemic, staff estimated getting approximately 17 emails on an average day and 29 emails on a busy day. Work communications reportedly took up increased amounts of family and home time during COVID-19. A large proportion (36%) of staff were unable to switch off from work-related communications already before COVID-19, worsening (57%) during the pandemic. Work-related digital communication is a vital component of working in the NHS. We provide the first detailed data on the types, volume, and impact of such communication on NHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to pre-pandemic levels. We found that 82% of staff support the need for NHS guidance on work-related communications to help manage overload, protect emotional wellbeing, and increase resilience. Further work is urgently needed in this area to tackle the negative impact of communication technologies (technostress) on work-life balance to reduce staff stress, burnout, and turnover or early retirement of some staff.

Get vaccinated or else…employees' perspective on mandatory vaccination in the retail sector in Zimbabwe

The emergence of COVID-19 has resulted in many changes in the world of work. Measures such as remote working, physical distancing, compulsory use of face masks, sanitization among others. With time, a number of medical interventions to deal with the pandemic were developed and availed. Zimbabwe's retail sector was not spared of different vaccines which were meant to curb the virus. Most Zimbabwean organizations made it mandatory for their employees to get vaccinated or risked losing employment. However, less is known about the perceptions of employees toward voluntary vaccination. This gap is important given the strategic nature of employees in an organization. This paper poses the following questions (1) to what extent were employees consulted on the compulsory vaccination? (2) What are the employees' perceptions toward compulsory vaccination? (3) How are employees coping with the mandatory vaccination? The study was premised on the classical work of Kurt Lewin on types of leadership, specifically autocratic-democratic styles. Twenty shopfloor employees from two major retail outlets with functional human resource departments and works councils in Masvingo were purposively sampled and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The sample composed of women and men of different age groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data. The paper argues that employees have a right to be involved in issues that concern them. The study has established four levels of consultation existing on a continuum namely formal and genuine consultations, formal but less genuine consultations, informal consultations, and no consultation at all. The fourth level emerged to have been the most popular among most participants. With regards to employees' perceptions of mandatory vaccination by management, findings have revealed three categories which are, perceived good decision, perceived tight hands on the part of management and the them and us perceptions. Concerning reactions to mandatory vaccination, the study has shown that employees in the retail sector had a number of options to follow. Some went for full vaccination willingly or under duress, while others settled for a single dose. Most participants highlighted that they fraudulently obtained some vaccination cards. These findings support the relevance of engaging employees on matters that affect them. The study has therefore established the importance of genuine consultations between management and employees on issues that pertains the latter.

The use of social media at work place and its influence on the productivity of the employees in the era of COVID-19

As per Internet world stats, with 560 million Internet users, India is the second largest online market in the world, ranked only behind China. Out of these 560 million Internet users in India, almost 375 million people use social media. These facts are enough to highlight the deep penetration of Internet and social media in Indian society. This deep penetration of social media among the Indian workers has further more deepened in the era of COVID-19. The employees are working from home, so they are more prone to use mobile and social media platforms for non-work-related purposes. It is a proven fact that social media has not only impacted our personal lives but also professional lives in more than one ways. Despite the previously mentioned staggering figures which show the deep penetration of Internet and social media in our Indian society, sufficient studies/researches have not been conducted to study the impact of social media on our professional lives. Keeping in mind these things, the purpose of this study is to understand the impact of social media on one of the most crucial aspects of our professional lives, i.e., labour productivity which is quite crucial not only for the success of individuals and business organizations but also for the economic growth of any country. This study also tries to highlight the other related aspects of social media usage at workplace like the perception of the employees regarding use of social media at workplace, purpose for which social media is being used by the employees and other such related issues. Primary data have been used in this study; collected through a survey from the professionals/employees who hail from different sectors/industries. The authors have used convenient sampling method to collect data to examine the impact of social media usage on the productivity of the employees in the era of COVID-19. The findings of this study offer practical insights about the various impacts of social media on work life of the employees and how their working lives have changed while working from home in the era of COVID-19. This study also offers suggestions about harnessing the benefits and minimizing the side-effects of social media usage at workplace. Both the employees and the organizations can equally take advantage of this report.

Evaluating the effectiveness of labor market interventions on reducing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper evaluates whether different labor market policy interventions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been effective in reducing its adverse impacts. We construct a database covering 165 countries and 39 labor market interventions grouped into four pillars: stimulating the economy and jobs (pillar 1); supporting enterprises, employment, and incomes (pillar 2); protecting workers (pillar 3); and social dialogue (pillar 4). The results revealed that measures taken under pillars 1, 2, and 3 have reduced the impacts of the pandemic on economic growth; measures under pillar 4 were significantly associated with reducing its impacts on employment and those under pillar 2 with reducing its impacts on working hours.

Psychological distance and user engagement in online exhibitions: Visualization of moiré patterns based on electroencephalography signals

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the exhibition of artworks in museums and galleries. Many have displayed their collection online. In this context, experiencing an online exhibition is essential for visitors to appreciate and understand the artwork. Compared with offline exhibitions, visitors to online exhibitions are often unable to communicate their experiences with other visitors. Therefore, in this study, by facilitating communication via Zoom call, we established a system that allows two people to visit the museum together through the Google Arts and Culture (GA&C) website. To reduce the psychological distance between online visitors and help increase user engagement, we designed and developed a media device based on moiré pattern visualization of electroencephalography (EEG) signals. The participants were divided into two groups to visit the online museum, communicating remotely through Zoom. The objective of this study was to test whether a real-time EEG signal visualization device could help close the psychological distance between participants and whether it could increase user engagement with the online exhibition. Participants were randomly assigned to either the normal online exhibition experience (NOEE) group or EEG signal visualization device (ESVD) group. Participants in the NOEE group experienced four online exhibitions (Task1, Task2, Task3, and Task4) together (two participants per test unit). The conditions for participants in the ESVD group remained the same, apart from adding a media device to enable them to visualize EEG signals. A total of 40 university students participated in this study. Independent samples t-tests revealed that participants in the ESVD group perceived a significantly closer psychological distance between themselves and the participants on the opposite side than those in the NOEE group (t = −2.699; p = 0.008 < 0.05). A one-way ANOVA revealed that participants experienced Task3 with significantly closer psychological distance assessments than Task1 (p = 0.002 < 0.05), Task2 (p = 0.000 < 0.05), and Task4 (p = 0.001 < 0.05). Repeated ANOVAs revealed that participants in the ESVD group had higher overall user engagement than those in the NOEE group, with marginal significance (p = 0.056 < 0.1). Thus, this study shows that EEG visualization media devices can reduce the psychological distance between two participants when experiencing an online exhibition. Moreover, it can increase user engagement to some extent.

The Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart cities: the ethics of the hyper-connectivity, datafication, algorithmization, and platformization of urban society

Recent advances in computing and immersive technologies have provided Meta (formerly Facebook) with the opportunity to leapfrog or expedite its way of thinking and devising a global computing platform called the “Metaverse”. This hypothetical 3D network of virtual spaces is increasingly shaping alternatives to the imaginaries of data-driven smart cities, as it represents ways of living in virtually inhabitable cities. At the heart of the Metaverse is a computational understanding of human users’ cognition, emotion, motivation, and behavior that reduces the experience of everyday life to logic and calculative rules and procedures. This implies that human users become more knowable and manageable and their behavior more predictable and controllable, thereby serving as passive data points feeding the AI and analytics system that they have no interchange with or influence on. This paper examines the forms, practices, and ethics of the Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart cities, paying particular attention to: privacy, surveillance capitalism, dataveillance, geosurveillance, human health and wellness, and collective and cognitive echo-chambers. Achieving this aim will provide the answer to the main research question driving this study: What ethical implications will the Metaverse have on the experience of everyday life in post-pandemic urban society? In terms of methodology, this paper deploys a thorough review of the current status of the Metaverse, urban informatics, urban science, and data-driven smart cities literature, as well as trends, research, and developments. We argue that the Metaverse will do more harm than good to human users due to the massive misuse of the hyper-connectivity, datafication, algorithmization, and platformization underlying the associated global architecture of computer mediation. It follows that the Metaverse needs to be re-cast in ways that re-orientate in how users are conceived; recognize their human characteristics; and take into account the moral values and principles designed to realize the benefits of socially disruptive technologies while mitigating their pernicious effects. This paper contributes to the academic debates in the emerging field of data-driven smart urbanism by highlighting the ethical implications posed by the Metaverse as speculative fiction that illustrates the concerns raised by the pervasive and massive use of advanced technologies in data-driven smart cities. In doing so, it seeks to aid policy-makers in better understanding the pitfalls of the Metaverse and their repercussions upon the wellbeing of human users and the core values of urban society. It also stimulates prospective research and further critical perspectives on this timely topic.

The Social Shaping of the Metaverse as an Alternative to the Imaginaries of Data-Driven Smart Cities: A Study in Science, Technology, and Society

Science and technology transform the frontiers of knowledge and have deep and powerful impacts on society, demonstrating how social reality varies with each era of the world. As a set of fictional representations of technologically driven future worlds, the Metaverse is increasingly shaping the socio-technical imaginaries of data-driven smart cities, i.e., the outcome of radical transformations of dominant structures, processes, practices, and cultures. At the core of the systematic exploration of science and technology is the relationships between scientific knowledge, technological systems, and values and ethics from a wide range of perspectives. Positioned within science of science, this study investigates the complex interplay between the Metaverse as a form of science and technology and the wider social context in which it is embedded. Therefore, it adopts an analytical and philosophical framework of STS, and in doing so, it employs an integrated approach to discourse analysis, supported by a comparative analysis of the Metaverse and Ambient Intelligence. This study shows that the Metaverse as a scientific and technological activity is socially constructed, politically driven, economically conditioned, and historically situated. That is, it is inherently human and hence value-laden, as well as can only be understood as contextualized within the socio-political-economic-historical framework that gives rise to it, sustains it, and makes it durable by material effects and networks. This view in turn corroborates that the Metaverse raises serious concerns as to determinism, social exclusion, marginalization, privacy erosion, surveillance, control, democratic backsliding, hive mentality, cyber-utopianism, and dystopianism. This study argues that, due to the problematic nature of the Metaverse in terms of its inherent ethical and social implications, there need to be more explicit processes and practices for enhancing public participation and allowing a more democratic public role in its shaping and control, especially early in the decision-making process of its development—when the opportunity for effective inputs and informed choices is greatest. The novelty of this study lies in that it is the first of its kind with respect to probing the link between the Metaverse and data-driven smart cities from an STS perspective. The main contribution of this study lies in deepening and extending social scientific critiques and understandings of the imaginaries of data-driven smart cities based on the analysis and evaluation of the Metaverse and the warning signals and troubling visions it conveys and animates in order to help construct desirable alternative futures for the greater good of all citizens. The ultimate goal is to structure the Metaverse in ways that are morally acceptable and collectively the most democratically beneficial for society.

The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures

Data infrastructures, economic processes, and governance models of digital platforms are increasingly pervading urban sectors and spheres of urban life. This phenomenon is known as platformization, which has in turn given rise to the phenomena of platform society, where platforms have permeated the core of urban societies. A recent manifestation of platformization is the Metaverse, a global platform project launched by Meta (formerly Facebook) as a globally operating platform company. The Metaverse represents an idea of a hypothetical “parallel virtual world” that incarnate ways of living and working in virtual cities as an alternative to smart cities of the future. Indeed, with emerging innovative technologies—such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, the IoT, and Digital Twins—providing rich datasets and advanced computational understandings of human behavior, the Metaverse has the potential to redefine city designing activities and service provisioning towards increasing urban efficiencies, accountabilities, and quality performance. However, there still remain ethical, human, social, and cultural concerns as to the Metaverse’s influence upon the quality of human social interactions and its prospective scope in reconstructing the quality of urban life. This paper undertakes an upper-level literature review of the area of the Metaverse from a broader perspective. Further, it maps the emerging products and services of the Metaverse, and explores their potential contributions to smart cities with respect to their virtual incarnation, with a particular focus on the environmental, economic, and social goals of sustainability. This study may help urban policy makers to better understand the opportunities and implications of the Metaverse upon tech-mediated practices and applied urban agendas, as well as assess the positives and negatives of this techno-urban vision. This paper also offers thoughts regarding the argument that the Metaverse has disruptive and substantive effects on forms of reconstructing reality in an increasingly platformized urban society. This will hopefully stimulate prospective research and further critical perspectives on the topic.

Data-Driven Evaluation and Optimisation of Livelihood Improvement Efficiency

In this study, we developed a data-driven approach for the evaluation and optimisation of livelihood improvement efficiency (LIE) to address slowing global economic growth and the decline in well-being in the broader population, enhance the quality of people’s livelihoods, and promote sustainable social development. We designed a questionnaire survey and constructed an evaluation index system based on a comprehensive consideration of economic resources, social security and employment, education, and health. Using principal component analysis, entropy weighting, and data envelopment analysis, we optimised the evaluation indicators and quantitatively assessed LIE. We used a Tobit regression model to analyse the factors influencing LIE and provide decision-making support for proposing countermeasures to optimise LIE. Based on the research data, we administered the questionnaire survey to 3125 residents in 16 cities in China’s Anhui Province and demonstrated the applicability of the aforementioned method. The results indicate that there is room for optimising LIE in cities in Anhui Province, which needs to be achieved through the following steps: controlling costs and avoiding waste, encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing income, guiding the direction of industrial growth, optimising regional population structure, and promoting public participation to enhance people’s livelihoods.

New Technology and Loss of Paid Employment among Older Workers: Prospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

This study investigates the association between the implementation of new technology in the workplace and the subsequent loss of paid employment among older workers.

METHODS

We estimated the prospective risk of loss of paid employment (register-based) from questions on new technology among 10,320 older workers (≥50 years). To investigate potential differences between work types, analyses were stratified by job function: (1) work with symbols (office, administration, analysis, IT), (2) work with people (people, service, care), (3) work in the field of production (processing, producing or moving things).

RESULTS

The introduction of new technology at the workplace reduced the risk of losing paid employment among older workers working with symbols (risk ratio [RR] 0.74, 95% CI 0.72-0.76) and in the field of production (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.80-0.85), whereas new technology increased this risk among those working with people (RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26). Being involved in the introduction of new technology and receiving adequate training in its use decreased the risk of loss of paid employment.

CONCLUSIONS

Depending on the context, the introduction of new technology at work associates positively as well as negatively with future labour market participation among older workers. Worker involvement and adequate training in the use of new technology seem to be important for retaining workers in the labour market.

Safety and Work Organization Management in the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Lignite Mining and Energy Sector in Poland

The paper presents the results of sociological qualitative research on safety management in work organization. The focus was on how to adapt the workforce to the sanitary regime during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in the lignite mining and energy sector in the Bełchatów poviat (Łódź voivodeship, Poland). The study aimed to identify the dimensions of safety and the work culture created in crisis conditions as perceived by workers. Based on the conducted analysis, the process of adapting employees to the new rules of work organization was reported, including the transition from fear and anxiety to control over threats and negative emotions. The essence of the research was to support institutional memory to consolidate the existing knowledge and use it in the future.

Essential jobs, remote work and digital surveillance: Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic panopticon

An unprecedented COVID-19-induced explosion in digital surveillance has reconfigured power relationships in professional settings. This article critically concentrates on the interplay between technology-enabled intrusive monitoring and the augmentation of managerial prerogatives in physical and digital workplaces. It identifies excessive supervision as the common denominator of "essential" and "remotable" activities, besides discussing the various drawbacks faced by the two categories of workers during (and after) the pandemic. It also assesses the adequacy of the current European Union legal framework in addressing the expansion of data-driven management. Social dialogue, workers' empowerment and digital literacy are identified as effective ways to promote organizational flexibility, well-being and competitiveness.

Activités essentielles, télétravail et surveillance numérique: l'effet panoptique de la pandémie

Avec la pandémie, les pratiques de surveillance numérique ont explosé sur les lieux de travail physiques et virtuels, modifiant les rapports de force professionnels, au profit de l'employeur. Tant les travailleurs essentiels que les télétravailleurs ont fait les frais de cette évolution, qui risque de survivre à la crise. Dans ce contexte, les auteurs s'interrogent sur l'adéquation du cadre juridique européen sur la protection des données. Pour eux, le dialogue social, l'autonomisation des travailleurs et la maîtrise des techniques numériques figurent parmi les moyens à mobiliser pour améliorer la protection des travailleurs tout en promouvant la flexibilité, le bien‐être et la compétitivité.

Inequalities in the disruption of paid work during the Covid-19 pandemic: A world systems analysis of core, semi-periphery, and periphery states

This article reveals the extent of international inequalities in the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participation in paid work. Drawing on World Systems Theory (WST) and a novel quasi-experimental analysis of nationally representative household panel surveys across 20 countries, the study finds a much sharper increase in the likelihood of dropping out of paid work in semi-periphery and periphery states relative to core states. We establish a causal link between such international disparities and the early trajectories of state interventions in the labor market. Further analysis demonstrates that within all three world systems delayed, less stringent interventions in the labor market were enabled by right-wing populism but mitigated by the strength of active labor market policies and collective bargaining.

Assessment of the Similarity of the Situation in the EU Labour Markets and Their Changes in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the study is to assess the similarity of the situation in the EU labour markets and their evolution using selected indicators in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The benchmark are the countries that most closely meet the Sustainable Development Goals related to the labour market. We use quarterly data from Eurostat presenting the basic indicators of the labour market: unemployment, employment, and activity rates. We analyse all indicators for the total population, young people, and people aged 55+. We assess the similarity of the situation using the TOPSIS method and similarity of changes by means of the Dynamic Time Warping. We obtain homogeneous groups of countries due to similarity of time series using hierarchical clustering. We conduct the analysis in two periods: the years 2018 and 2019 (pre-pandemic period) and from the beginning of 2020 to the present (pandemic period). The composition of the clusters in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods is different. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the situation in the labour market can be noted. This is a result of different degree of development of labour markets, which had an impact on coping with the effects of the crisis caused by the pandemic.

Business transformation in an age of turbulence - Lessons learned from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global economic turmoil. Although many companies have suffered huge losses, some have flourished by changing their old ways of doing business. We investigate the business transformation process under drastic market changes and time pressure, with a focus on decision speed and structure in the decision & planning phase, the implementation structure and monitoring in the implementation phase, and reinforcement after the implementation. Through case studies in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, e-commerce, and finance, we explore how companies in specific contexts have dealt with the above-mentioned critical factors when transforming their business during the pandemic, whether the experienced transformation processes differ from theory, and if so, how. The examples of business transformations cover eight categories, including work from home, the use of augmented reality, internet of things, and business model redesign. Our findings reveal how these transformations are perceived and evaluated by companies one year into the pandemic. In addition, we show how decision speed, structure of the decision-making process, structure of the implementation process, and scale of the implementation impact the completion time of the transformations. Based on our results, we provide suggestions to companies for an effective business transformation in times of crisis.

Sustainability and Employability in the Time of COVID-19. Youth, Education and Entrepreneurship in EU Countries

This paper aims to identify several changes in the labor market structure in COVID-19 pandemic times. The context of the research is represented by the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the economic field, especially at the labor market level. This difficult situation could generate a negative impact in the sphere of traditional jobs and economic sectors. The main challenge for sustainable development in this new global situation is represented by human sustainability. Related to human sustainability, we emphasized the role played by the labor market and employability in mantling an optimal function at the social and economic level. For measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the economic sphere, we used a quantitative design based on descriptive and inferential statistics. The research variables are represented by unemployment rates in the EU-28, employability rates, educational levels, gender, economic growth, labor mobility, material deprivation, economic freedom, and human development indicators. Empirical findings present the situation of a deep economic crisis generated by economic degrowth and by high levels of unemployment rates in the EU-28. Moreover, we have observed several predictors of employability in the new pandemic context as: material deprivation by age (in the field of young people), employment rate by education (tertiary education), and economic freedom. Another important finding is related to the gender perspective. Statistical correlations estimate a positive linear correlation between gender (women) and low rates of employability in the EU-28. All these empirical results could prove valuable for scholars interested in the relations between employability and sustainability and for political decision makers involved in the effort of reducing the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic within national and trans-national economic systems.

Human Augmentation Technologies for Employee Well-Being: A Research and Development Agenda

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the style of work. In adapting to the changing work environment, human augmentation technologies (HAT) can provide employees with new options to support their work. However, the agenda for research and development of HAT for the new normal is still unclear. In this study, we set two research questions: (i) what type of technology demand has emerged among employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (ii) what is the nature of job satisfaction experienced by employees during the COVID-19 pandemic? This study aims to clarify the technology demand and job satisfaction of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed data from in-depth interviews with employees based on a grounded theory approach to answer the research questions and proposed an agenda for the research and development of HAT to enhance employees' well-being in this new normal based on the crosspoint of technology demand and job satisfaction. The theoretical contribution of this study is the development of models of technology demand and job satisfaction of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The practical contribution is the development of a crosspoint framework to enable the development of HAT to support work while considering their impact on employees' well-being.

Mastering new technologies: does it relate to teleworkers’ (in)voluntariness and well-being?

Purpose

This study aims to examine the associations among mastering new technologies, teleworkers’ voluntariness and involuntariness and employee well-being (i.e. work engagement and exhaustion). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have explored the relationships among these constructs in the same conceptual model.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a sample of 451 individuals performing telework in Portugal. AMOS was used to test all hypotheses of the study.

Findings

The findings showed a positive relationship between mastering new technologies and teleworkers’ voluntariness and a negative relationship between mastering new technologies and teleworkers’ involuntariness. However, contrary to expectations, voluntariness in teleworking was not significantly related to either work engagement or exhaustion. However, consistent with the theoretical background of self-determination theory, involuntariness in teleworking was negatively related to work engagement and positively related to exhaustion.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by addressing the analysis of telework-related variables that may impact workers’ well-being. Implications for human resource management policies and knowledge management are discussed.

Covid-19 Pandemic - Insights of Newspapers Trends

Our study aims to analyze the change in coverage of health issues awareness, printed on the front page of Indian E-Papers (The Hindustan Times and The Times of India) for the pre-and- peri coronavirus period. The collected news articles are examined by performing the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm. The sentiment analysis is performed to analyze the change in the emotions aroused from news articles. The outcome regarding the pre-coronavirus period reveals that the focus of the e-papers was mostly on politics, crime, and economy whereas, in the peri-coronavirus period, the e-papers are focusing more (i.e. 40 % topics) on publishing the news related to disseminating the awareness about the Coronavirus disease. The priority of news topics includes the active number of cases, medical facilities, COVID-19 testing. The outcome regarding sentiment analysis reveals that negative sentiments are prominent in the peri-coronavirus period due to fear of the outbreak of the virus.

Wellbeing and Work Design in Brazilian Teleworkers

Studies suggest that work characteristics may be related to workers' wellbeing. However, little is known about how these work characteristics may influence telework wellbeing in the face of the long period of social isolation and restrictions imposed by COVID-19. This study aimed to relate work characteristics in remote work to wellbeing using a two-stage multi-method approach. The general hypothesis is that different work characteristics will be organized into different groups and related to wellbeing. In Step 1, 108 teleworkers who participated in compulsory telework conditions answered the Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) and Wellbeing at Work scale. A cluster analysis was conducted in which two clusters emerged based solely on their valence. The variables that contributed most to the cluster were: feedback from the job, social support, problem-solving, and decision and execution autonomy. Cluster 1 aggregated higher scores on work characteristics, and Cluster 2, lower scores. Cluster 1 presented significantly higher scores on wellbeing. In Step 2, 27 of these workers were blindly interviewed. Five classes of words emerged from the interviews: Class 1 - wellbeing, Class 2 - work dissatisfaction lexicon, Class 3 - role clarity, Class 4 - job demands, and Class 5 - job resources, including receiving feedback, conversations, praise, and support. Chi-square analysis suggests significant differences in classes 2, 3, 4, and 5. Cluster 1 appears more frequently in the role clarity class and less frequently in the work dissatisfaction and job demands classes. Cluster 2 is more frequent in the job dissatisfaction and job demands classes, however, less frequent in the job resources class. Class 1 shows no significant difference. These results partially support the general hypothesis that different work characteristics will be organized into different clusters and related to the teleworker's wellbeing, but in the sense that it prevents suffering but does not necessarily promote wellbeing. The results contribute to the understanding of the relationship between work characteristics and wellbeing during the pandemic by using a different methodological approach, describing that work feedback, social support, skill variety, and problem-solving are the most significant in differentiating the perception of the groups. Social support and feedback from the job differentiate cluster 1 from cluster 2, but social support is not able to increase wellbeing, unless buffering unwellness.

COVID-19 and digitalization: The great acceleration

Inspired by burgeoning scholarly interest in the role of digitalization in the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is driving or constraining the digitalization of businesses around the globe. We contend that COVID-19 is "the great accelerator" in fast-tracking the existing global trend towards embracing modern emerging technologies ushering in transformations in lifestyle, work patterns, and business strategies. Thus, COVID-19 has evolved to be a kind of "catalyst" for the adoption and increasing use of digitalization in work organization and the office, alongside presenting foreseen and unforeseen opportunities, challenges, and costs-leading to negative and positive feedback loops. In this article, we develop and advance a conceptual model by linking the different forces for and against digitalization in response to the pandemic. Our analysis indicates that adoption of emerging technologies may be hindered by vested external interests, nostalgia, and employer opportunism, as well as negative effects on employee well-being that undermine productivity, work-life balance, and future of work. Whilst digitalization may bring new opportunities, the process imparts risks that may be hard to mitigate or prepare for. Finally, we draw out the wider theoretical and practical implications of our analysis.

Working hours - tracking the current and future trends

It is important to track the trends of future working hours, since working hours have strong associations to everyday life and work-life interaction, but also to health. In this paper we aim to track the current and future trends in working hours. We discuss the trends through the key dimensions of working hours: the length, timing, tempo and autonomy. We also consider the role of current trends of spatial changes of work. Changes in working time patterns are fostered by several driving factors: globalization and business restructuring challenging the current work organizations, new information technologies, demographic and climate change and the current and future pandemics. The past and current tremendous changes in working hours indicate that changes in working hours will continue. The contemporary trends in future working hours pose risks for personal, family and social life, material well-being and health. At its best, however, the new post-industrial working time regime may provide more autonomy and time for recovery to employees as new technologies and changes in business structures release opportunities for greater individual autonomy over how, where, and for how long paid work is performed.

Perception of the Movement Control Order during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study in Malaysia

Malaysia implemented its first Movement Control Order (MCO) during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to slow the transmission of the virus. This study aimed to explore the public perception of the MCO implementation and people’s experiences during this period. The study employed qualitative explorative in-depth interviews conducted with 23 Malaysian adults from various demographic backgrounds. Thematic analysis was performed using NVivo 12. Three main themes were identified: a period of information surge, heterogeneous emotional response, and attempts to adapt. During the MCO, the participants obtained information from multiple platforms. They suggested the need for clear and repeated instructions to avoid confusion and misinformation. They also acknowledged the importance of the MCO in breaking the chain of transmission and safeguarding high-risk groups; however, they also expressed that stricter enforcement from the authorities was warranted. The changes in the participants’ work–life routines, lack of physical interaction, and uncertainty about their health and the economy due to the MCO negatively impacted their psychological states. Despite these challenges, the participants attempted to adapt to life under the MCO in different ways. The findings imply that during a crisis, the public tends to seek clear and reliable information, experience emotional turmoil, and adapt to changes. The MCO implementation can be improved through an effective communication strategy and efforts to battle misinformation.

Is it ok to be connected outside the office? The impact on well-being at work and the mediating role of the work and family relationship

Purpose

To analyze the relationship between technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW) and well-being in the workplace – burnout and engagement. Furthermore, this study aims to test the relationship between TASW and burnout, mediated by work-to-family conflict (WFC) and the relationship between TASW and engagement mediated by work-to-family enrichment (WFE).

Design/methodology/approach

The data was collected from a service company operating in Portugal. A total of 338 responses from a services company in Portugal were analyzed. Two statistical programs were used for the data analysis: IBM statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS 25.0) and SPSS analysis of moment structures (AMOS 25.0).

Findings

The results highlight the positive relationship between TASW and engagement and the relationship between TASW and burnout, which only exists when WFC is present. Moreover, the relationship between TASW and engagement is stronger through WFE.

Originality/value

Using the conservation of resources theory as a framework, the results contribute to the literature by shedding further light upon the positive effects of TASW on employees’ well-being and the work and family relationship.

Please, Do Not Interrupt Me: Work–Family Balance and Segmentation Behavior as Mediators of Boundary Violations and Teleworkers’ Burnout and Flourishing

The lockdown, in the COVID-19 pandemic, is considered an external crisis that evokes innumerous changes in individuals lives. One of the changes is the work and family dynamics. Based on boundary theory we examine the mediated role of work and family balance and boundary segmentation behavior in the relationship between boundary violations and teleworkers’ stress and well-being. However, because women and men live their work and family differently, gender may condition the way teleworkers lead with boundary violations and boundary segmentation. Hypotheses were tested through moderated mediation modeling using data collected of 456 teleworkers during lockdown. In line with our expectations, teleworkers who have suffered most boundary violations were those with least boundary segmentation behaviors and with least work-family balance which, in turn was related to higher burnout and lower flourishing. Furthermore, gender was found to moderate the relationship between boundary violations from work-to-family and segmentation behavior in the same direction and this relationship was stronger for females than for males. We discuss implications for future research and for managing teleworkers, creating sustainability, both during a crise and stable days.

Factors Influencing Adjustment to Remote Work: Employees' Initial Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted when, where, and how employees work. Drawing on a sample of 5452 Finnish employees, this study explores the factors associated with employees’ abrupt adjustment to remote work. Specifically, this study examines structural factors (i.e., work independence and the clarity of job criteria), relational factors (i.e., interpersonal trust and social isolation), contextual factors of work (i.e., change in work location and perceived disruption), and communication dynamics (i.e., organizational communication quality and communication technology use (CTU)) as mechanisms underlying adjustment to remote work. The findings demonstrate that structural and contextual factors are important predictors of adjustment and that these relationships are moderated by communication quality and CTU. Contrary to previous research, trust in peers and supervisors does not support adjustment to remote work. We discuss the implications of these findings for practice during and beyond times of crisis.

The feminist economic geographies of working from home and "digital by default" in Canada before, during, and after COVID-19

This paper builds on insights in feminist economic geography to critically review the literature on work in the home and provide a starting point for examining COVID-19 pandemic-imposed work from home measures for tertiary and quaternary sector firms and organizations. It critically reviews literature on the pandemic, working from home, and work in general, to examine lockdown-related workplace disruptions in relation to the various forms of work that took place in the home prior to the pandemic. It argues that feminist economic geography provides a starting point for examinations of working from home during and after COVID-19. This situates writing on social reproduction, and informal and unpaid work in the home, within the purview of our understanding of pandemic response. Following this review, the paper demonstrates this argument by interrogating Canada's "telework capacity" discourse and the decisions by white-collar offices regarding the continuation and abatement of "digital by default" policies. The pandemic will radically shift our understanding of the meanings of both home and work, and this paper, through a critical review of key literature, suggests that feminist economic geography provides one starting point for theorizing the implications of that shift in the Canadian context.

Head-worn displays and job content: A systematic literature review

Despite the emergence of head-worn displays at work around forty years ago, few studies have appeared about their impact on job content. To investigate this, a systematic literature review was conducted on these devices and job content, defined as job demands and controls. In total, 3481 studies were identified using five scientific databases. After applying selection criteria, reference searches, citation tracking and an in-depth reading, 28 studies were selected for review. Remarkably, the findings of these studies showed contrasting results. Both increases and decreases in job demands and controls were identified. We distinguished across studies two opposite approaches for the deployment of these devices, i.e. a supportive and a directive approach.