The New Normal? Motivators for and Hindrances to Telework

Abstract

Telework or telecommuting – a concept of flexible work arrangements predominantly driven by the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community – has vastly increased in recent months due to lockdowns and other measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we explicitly exclude outside forces (such as a pandemic) as grounds for adopting telework, but rather ask: What are the reasons for organizations and/or individuals to voluntarily decide for or against telework? In this effort to identify the most relevant antecedents of the adoption of telework at both the organizational and the individual level, we present the results of a comprehensive literature review of 72 papers conducted in Q4/2020. The discovered characteristics influencing the decision for or against telework were then structured in a 6 (rationales) by 2 (organization vs individual) matrix, each of which was further analyzed in detail. The multifaceted results fall into three broad categories that impact telework adoption: (i) the type of work, (ii) the way this work is organized and (iii) its organizational environment. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.