Does telework work? Gauging challenges of telecommuting to adapt to a “new normal”

Abstract

The paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of organisation management while telecommuting. With exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we define the specific set of telework organising efficiency characteristics. We determined the number of factors with Kaiser Eigenvalues rule as well as Cattel's scree criterion. We conducted the study in Lithuania, the country with a low percentage of teleworkers until organisations have been urged to properly implement their performance to remote means after the COVID-19 quarantine was announced. This paper reveals that the fundamental challenges of teleworking are the feedback issues related to working accomplishment, especially to the task and process overload, and individual self-organisation ability. Moreover, the flexibility of work organisation represents a unique characteristic of telework, and managers should cooperate more effectively with teleworkers to keep them motivated.