The influence of remote work in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic on changes in human behaviour patterns within organisations

Abstract

Objective: The sudden occurrence of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, colloquially called COVID-19, brought about the necessity of redefining all the existing organisational patterns within companies. This article carried out an analysis of selected important changes in employee individual behaviour patterns and changes taking place in organisational structure in the context of the transition to remote work in the home office system. Additionally, threats stemming from that and challenges for the managerial staff were discussed. The analysis of changes in behaviour has been done on the basis of research carried out by external institutions studying changes in organisations, which have been caused by the transition to remote work mode.

Research Design & Methods: When working on this conceptual work, the Authors analysed a few selected issues concerning the organisational changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and implemented by external orgnisations or research departments of a company. They also performed a though analysis of the current publications concerning the change of the staff behaviour in a given organisation, and in a more general sense, the disappearance of the organisational culture.

Findings: The results of the analysis of the examined topic point out that the change of working style from an office work to a remote work will affect the organisational culture and change the staff behaviour. Some staff members who worked on a remote basis could not take part in the creation of the current artefacts, values and basis objectives of the organisational culture, which will result in the fact that new, previously unknown behaviours, will appear in an organisation.

Implications & Recommendations: As a result of the change of organisational culture and individual staff behaviours, and of the disappearance of the artefacts and organisational values caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an organisation’s management should strengthen the staff identification with the organisation and thus, perhaps, redefine common values shared by all the staff and organisation. In order to specify the scope of the lack of common identification and individual behaviours, some research should be carried out within an organisation, identifying the necessity of re-establishing the values and new behaviours within a company.

Contribution & Value Added: The paper presents possible changes within the area of organisational culture and individual behaviours of the staff, as these factors had never before been faced with such a great challenge of survival and had never before undergone such a large change as during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic and also later on, when organisations continued online work. The paper is the first attempt to analyse possible changes of individual organisational behaviours and to measure the effect of remote work on organisational culture.