Telecommuting: A Necessity in the COVID-19 Era - Research Paper

Introduction

Nowadays, telecommuting is applied by many organizations to save on real estate and management costs, ensure employees enjoy the flexibility and reduce the cost of movements. More so, the ban on travelling from one country to another plus restriction of movement due to corona virus pandemic has forced organizations to shift for telecommuting as many workers operate from the home of respective countries. Telecommuting involves people working from remote places, especially at home (Peters et al., 2016). In these arrangements, employees have the opportunity to enjoy flexibility regarding the hours and working locations.

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The virtual teams incorporate a group of workers working across the time zones from different geographical areas or outside the organization's boundaries (Mihhailova, 2009). The coordination of these workers and the management plus their colleagues is mainly done through telecommunication technologies. Currently, the virtual teams in many organizations comprise of telecommuting or employees working from home and a small group working from the offices located in different places. Due to technological advancement, employees across cultural differences across the world can easily collaborate and work without having to travel (Laurindo, 2018). However, telecommuting automatically changes the working of the organization. The organization has to rely on a new set of competencies to accomplish the set goals. Virtual work, in this case, is used for communication between the organization staff. The study of Cross-Cultural Management of Virtual Teams in telecommuting is critical because the managers can easily understand its benefits, challenges, and the best ways to implement the method.

Research Questions

• The following questions would guide the research:
• Are people of diverse cultural backgrounds better suited for virtual work and telecommuting than those of similar cultures?
• Should managers apply the same styles to manage both telecommuters and office workers?
• How can managers ensure the effective coordination of virtual teams of cross-cultural backgrounds?
• To what extent do cultural differences like language barriers affect the coordination of virtual teams by the organization management?
• What requirements or technical tools are essential in managing virtual teams of different cultural backgrounds to ensure smooth functioning and coordination of the organization's tasks?

Research Objectives and Statement of Problems

Currently, the management of businesses relies much on technology. Telecommuting is one of the methods that depend entirely on technology because it involves virtual teams working to achieve specific organizational goals within a specified period (Ivanaj & Bozon, 2016). The current coronavirus pandemic has also forced the world to opt telecommuting to curb the spread of the virus. Therefore the general objective of the research is to study the Cross-Cultural Management of Virtual Teams in telecommuting. Specific goals of the investigation would include:

• To find out whether employees of diverse cultural backgrounds are more suited to virtual and telecommuting than workers of the same cultures
• To determine the way a manager can ensure effective coordination of virtual teams from cross-cultural backgrounds
• To find out the extent to which cultural differences and language barriers affect the coordination of virtual teams in organizations
• To find out the technical tools and other requirements for creating and facilitating the working of virtual teams from different cultural backgrounds and geographical locations
• To identify whether managers can apply similar management styles for both telecommuters and office workers

Literature Review

Studies have indicated the importance of telecommuting, but at the same time, highlighted the challenges that face it. Telecommuting has been a significant move to many organizations because of the multiple advantages it has over other working methods. According to Sundar (2013), Virtual teams and telecommuting boosts the performance of employees and reduces the turnover, whereby firms can work globally and reduce real estate costs if appropriately managed. Handling a combination of on-side employees and remote teams has been one of the main challenges facing remote managers. Reis (2016) notes that telecommuting staff and departments are required to agree on the work schedule, several hours, and days.

The difference in time zones results in overlapping of the period of the day, a situation that affects communication between the virtual team’s members et al.,(2017). The use of technology is significant in the management of telecommuting and virtual teams across diverse cultures and time zones. According to Ale et al. (2009), teleporting relies on technology for both issuing of orders, the work itself, discussion among colleagues, and delivery of results. The considerations for telecommuting by various managers include employee productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the tasks and the quality of the work delivered by the virtual teams. According to Rahja (2020), virtual teams' use can either improve or reduce the effectiveness of the virtual organization results. According to Narayanan et al. (2017), multiple factors determine the popularity of telecommuting. Some of these determinants include expansion of wireless access to the internet, level of sensitivity to employees, and the growing realization of managers concerning the importance of work-life balance among the employees (Makarius & Larson, 2017). In case the virtual teams are appropriately managed, global teams can increase productivity ion an organization because they can work 24 hours a day due to differences in time zones ( Beldarrain & Diehl,2019). But for the success to be experienced there should be strong cooperation between the manager and telecommuting employees.

The use of the internet is critical for any virtual team to operate. According to Mukherjee et al. (2012), cultural differences usually have a significant impact on the adoption and use of the internet. The cultures characterized as having high uncertainty avoidance levels are not likely to adopt the use of the internet in working. More so, according to Jarrell (2020), individualism versus collectivism, as well as avoidance of uncertainty is the most critical dimensions and considerations when studying the cultural effects of management of virtual teams.

Significance of the Study

The application of telecommuting is very significant, especially in the current situation whereby the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Travelling and holding gatherings is highly discouraged to limit the spread of the virus. Therefore, the study is very significant to all companies, especially multinational corporations. The study would provide a useful source of knowledge that managers can use in decision-making regarding the importance and challenges of telecommuting and virtual team management. They can then decide whether to adopt the system depending on the cost-benefit analysis and the recommendations from this research. Also, the managers would gauge the suitability of handling people of different cultural backgrounds in virtual teams because any organization employs people from different geographical and cultural backgrounds. More so, the management can apply the research recommendations and design the new and innovative ways of telecommuting to reduce unnecessary costs and increase revenues. They will also understand the various requirements for virtual teams and some of the challenges they expect so that they can make informed decisions when implementing such methods in the organizations.

Research Methodology

The study would rely on mixed methods in data in data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative data would be used. More so, primary and secondary sources would be applied. The primary data would be gathered from both managers and employees from ten multinational companies that have utilized telecommuting/virtual teams for the last five years. A total sample size of 240 participants would be interviewed through a questionnaire. Out of the total respondents, 220 will be employees who have been working under telecommuting for at least five years, and 20 would be managers of various firms that have been utilizing telecommuting for at least five years. Financial reports for the companies would also be used to acquire the performance data. The data would then be sorted and analyzed using either the Excel data analysis tool or SPSS. The trend, regression, and correlation analysis would be done to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The pattern would also show the organizations' precise outcomes using the technique in terms of performance for at least five years.

The secondary data would be collected from financial reports of those firms and other secondary sources. The literature would also be analyzed and compared with the results to ascertain whether there is any relationship. The qualitative data would be sorted analyzed in tabular form so that comparison can be made.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Multinational companies that have utilized telecommuting strategy for at least five years would be used. Any Company that has not attained these criteria would be excluded. More so, the financial reports for the last five years would be applied in for the study. The literature used should be at least less than ten years to ensure the most updated information is relied on for the research.

References

Ale, E. N., Ahmed, S., & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual teams: A literature review. Australian Journal of basic and applied sciences, 3(3), 2653-2669. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.103369

Beldarrain, Y., & Diehl, K. (2019). Compensating for the Lack of Physical Nonverbal Cues in a Virtual Team Context, Based on Cultural Background and Preferred Communication Style. The Wiley Handbook of Global Workplace Learning, 369-394. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119227793.ch21

Ivanaj, S., & Bozon, C. (2016). Managing virtual teams. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/managing-virtual-teams-9781785369261.html

Jarrell, A. (2020). The Experiences of Team Managers with Knowledge Sharing within Diverse Virtual Teams. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/8295/

Laurindo, D. (2018). Global Virtual Teams: Dynamics of Leadership, Trust, Communication, and Culture. https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/142345

Makarius, E. E., & Larson, B. Z. (2017). Changing the perspective of practical work: Building virtual intelligence at the individual level. Academy of Management Perspectives, 31(2), 159-178. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amp.2014.0120.

AMihhailova, G. (2009). Management challenges arising from the use of virtual work. Baltic Journal of management. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255650292_Management_challenges_arising_from_the_use_of_virtual_work

Mukherjee, D., Hanlon, S. C., Kedia, B. L., & Srivastava, P. (2012). Organizational identification among global virtual team members. Cross-Cultural Management: An International Journal. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13527601211270002/full/html

Narayanan, L., Menon, S., Plaisent, M., & Bernard, P. (2017). Telecommuting: The work anywhere, anyplace, anytime organization in the 21st century. Journal of Marketing & Management, 8(2), 47-54. https://gsmi-ijgb.com/wp-content/uploads/JMM-V8-N2-P04-Lakshmi-Narayanan-Telecommuting.pdf

Peters, P., Ligthart, P. E., Bardoel, A., & Poutsma, E. (2016). 'Fit' for telework'? Cross-cultural variance and task-control explanations in organizations' formal te...