Title: 

The Impact of Remote Work on Employee Engagement

Research Statement: 

The purpose of this presentation is to analyze how companies and businesses are maintaining the engagement of employees while working remotely. Because of the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19, it is important to explore strategies and practices being used to effectively continue an innovative environment through remote work. 

Article References:

George, Gerard, Lakhani, Karim R, & Puranam, Phanish. (2020). What has changed? The Impact of Covid Pandemic on the Technology and Innovation Management Research Agenda. Journal of Management Studies, 57(8), 1754-1758.

This source talks about how the working business environment has changed since the pandemic of Covid-19. It is a credible source because all of the collaborating authors are experts or professors in the interests of management, technology, and organization design. The journal specifically discusses how innovation, collaboration, and creativity is being impacted from the idea of working remotely. Because the purpose is to learn about employee engagement through remote work, the information in the journal is very useful since socialization and innovation are important elements to employee engagement. This source is also useful to this presentation because it analyzes how changes in the way the workplace operated impact organization strategies that were used prior to the pandemic. 

Montani, Francesco, and Staglianò, Raffaele. “Innovation in Times of Pandemic: The Moderating Effect of Knowledge Sharing on the Relationship between COVID‐19‐Induced Job Stress and Employee Innovation.” R & D Management, 2021, pp. R & D management, 2021–02-06.

This text source’s purpose is to describe how employees are affected by working in the time of a pandemic. The source specifically talks about the relationship of innovation from employees and the stress that rises in employees due to the effects of working remotely. This source is credible because Francesco Montani is an expert researcher in organization and human resource management and Raffaele Staglianò is a scholar in the department of economics. The source discusses how employees are affected emotionally from the environment of working in a pandemic, focusing on the stress of losing their jobs and not being able to work efficiently and effectively. The text also links the relationship of how these emotions of employees influence the level of innovation of employees. This information is important to the presentation because employee engagement is greatly affected by the emotions of employees, and so this information shows how emotion of stress or lack of security in the workplace can influence a business in the short run and the long run. 

Richard Binder. (2020). Want to increase employee engagement in the post-COVID era? Recognition is key. BenefitsPRO, BenefitsPRO, 2020-09-23. 

This research article by Richard Binder, a member of the social media at ALM, discusses the importance of employees’ engagement and recognition within the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help from Achievers Workforce Institute, the research and science arm of employee engagement company Achievers, who had performed a survey over a thousand employees, they were able to provide data that indicated the lack of appreciation employees recognized by a manager. The percentages and the amount of time in strategic planning, hiring, communication, professional development, budget decisions, work flexibility, and recognition will reflect what behavior needs to change, not just for the sake of the current situation but also for the future. This research article is beneficial to this topic because this will expand an understanding of how recognition is the central part of employees’ engagement. By changing a positive attitude will build a strong relationship, whether that will be working remotely or not.

Sako, M. (2021). From Remote Work to Working From Anywhere: Tracing temporary work modifications resulting in permanent organizational changes. Communications of the ACM, 64(4), 20–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3451223

This journal talks about the technology strategy and management from work in the office remotely to work from anywhere. This page discusses how information technology has dramatically impacted businesses and schools unexpectedly. The journal also points out the advantages of digital technology transition to bettering task execution, social norms with the reducing the stigma of working from home and being good citizens. Further, this page focuses on an effect within an organization and employees’ engagement. This source will be helpful to this presentation because employee’s engagement is the primary topic being discussed. The source is also beneficial to the presentation because it looks into the future of possibly continuing the use of remote work even after the recovery of pandemic. 

Wrycza, Stanisław, & Maślankowski, Jacek. (2020). Social Media Users’ Opinions on Remote Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Thematic and Sentiment Analysis. Information Systems Management, 37(4), 288-297. 

The article is a research journal conducted by Wrycza and Maślankowski in 2020 to assess the significant issues and opinions concerning remote working, which was recently increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The corona virus changed the way businesses worked previously, following the high rate of prevalence and subsequent issuance of social distancing orders. In order to stay running, these organizations had to switch to other models of remote working via the internet. Although remote working has been in existence for some time now, the pandemic forced its adoption by numerous organizations. In addition, this journal seeks to find out how various social media users have been feeling about COVID-19 and remote working in general. This journal will provide our group with good information, as getting first hand opinions from people who may or may not be experiencing remote working can give us insight on possible employee engagement levels. 

OB Journal References:

Employee engagement practices during COVID-19 lockdown. (2020). Journal of Public Affairs, E2508. 

This article talks about employees who have become of the utmost importance during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this piece they discuss how human resources managers have been affected, look at various studies, and research the overall environment of remote work. In addition, there are many other business practices such as training new skills, recognition and acknowledgments sessions that are being conducted remotely. This kind of information helps employees and companies understand what the effects of remote working are, and how they affect the overall business. This journal will be beneficial to our presentation as it highlights how employee engagement has been affected and adjusted because of COVID-19 and remote working. 

Mindy K. Shoss, K. A. H. (2011, February 26). The Conflicting Impact of COVID-19’s Health and Economic Crises on Helping – Mindy K. Shoss, Kristin A. Horan, Michael DiStaso, Chelsea A. LeNoble, Anthony Naranjo, 2021. SAGE Journals. 

Mindy Shoss, Kristin Horan, Michael DiStaso, Chelsea LeNoble, and Anthony Naranjo at SAGE Journals came together to create an informative journal discussing the impact of COVID-19 on economic/health help. In other words, the authors sought out to investigate whether an event like COVID-19 will cause communities to help each other more or less both economically and medically. With hopes to answer this question, the authors dive into the topics of things such as job insecurity, the change in employee engagement/behaviors, and the adjustment companies made to work remotely. In addition, the authors conducted two studies in regards to this topic. The first study gathered data from google, analyzing what topics or key-words were searched more or less often in regards to COVID-19 and helping others. The second study recruited employees working in low-wage positions, using two different types of recruiting strategies. Each of these study results will provide our group with the proper research and data needed to understand the impact of remote working on employee engagement/behavior.

Leonardi, Paul M. (2021). COVID‐19 and the New Technologies of Organizing: Digital Exhaust, Digital Footprints, and Artificial Intelligence in the Wake of Remote Work. Journal of Management Studies, 58(1), 247-251.

Paul Leonardi of the Journal of Management Studies dives into the topic of remote working, and its effects on various things in COVID‐19 and the New Technologies of Organizing: Digital Exhaust, Digital Footprints, and Artificial Intelligence in the Wake of Remote Work. In this piece, Leonardi discusses how remote working leads to an increase in digital exhaust or logs of employee behavior because everything done online leaves some sort of mark. In other words, every email or zoom meeting that is set up or conducted leaves some sort of digital exhaust. Because of this an increase in exhaust, companies can utilize this data to develop a better understanding of their employees and overall function of the company. Leonardi does not conduct any specific studies or research of his own in this piece, however, he rather uses recent statistics and data values to make predictions about what the employee workplace might look like in the future. By understanding the thought processes that managers and companies are experiencing right now, we can interpret how employees and their engagement will be affected. This journal is very beneficial to our presentation, as reflecting on how employee engagement may or may not change in the future because of remote working is very important. 

Jaime B., Celeste W., Waleed A., Cassidy T.