Abstract
Managers at all levels have been forced to change their managerial activities during COVID-19 lockdowns. This paper describes early findings of a case study of 13 Danish first- and second-line managers’ experiences with distance management during COVID-19. The qualitative study collected data from May to December 2020 during six rounds. The analysis shows that the managers take the responsibility on them to make working from home function for their employees and seek new ways of organizing and manage work from home. They appreciate the flexibility and that meetings have become more efficient but also equal and inclusive. The new role provide them with new skills and tasks. However, distance management also comes with a cost i.e. longer workdays and awkward working hours, the tasks are demanding and require planning. The managers miss the social interaction that the office provides and work hard to create a sense of proximity and trust across distance. The study shows that the lockdowns have impacted managers’ experiences of their management job in a positive and negative way. If workplaces are to continue with WFH or hybrid-remote-work workplaces they are to ensure that managers’ wellbeing is safeguarded by new efficient ways of working rather than working harder and longer.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Vargas, O.L.: COVID-19 unleashed the potential for telework – How are workers coping? | Eurofound, Bruxelles (2020)
Eurofound. Living, working and COVID-19. COVID-19 Series (2020). https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2020/living-working-and-covid-19. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
Center for Workplace Mental Health: Your Mental Health & Well-Being. https://workplacementalhealth.org/. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
The European Commission’s Science and Knowledge Center: Telework in the EU before and after the COVID-19: where we were, where we head to. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrc120945_policy_brief_-_covid_and_telework_final.pdf. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
Ipsen, C., Kirchner, K., Hansen, J.P.: Experiences of Working from Home in Times of COVID-19 International survey conducted the first months of the national lockdowns. DTU, Denmark (2020)
Hosie, P., Sharma, P., Kingshott, R.P.J.: “Happy-performing managers” thesis: testing the mediating role of job-related affective outcomes on the impact of role stressors on contextual performance. Int. J. Manpow. 40(2), 356–72 (2019)
Skakon, J., Nielsen, K., Borg, V., Guzman, J.: Are leaders’ well-being, behaviours and style associated with the affective well-being of their employees? A systematic review of three decades of research. Work Stress 24(2), 107–139 (2010)
Lindorff, M., Worrall, L., Cooper, C.: Managers’ well-being and perceptions of organizational change in the UK and Australia. Asia Pac. J. Hum. Resour. 49(2), 233–254 (2011)
Hujala, A., Rissanen, S., Vihma, S., Unigrafia: Designing wellbeing in elderly care homes. School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University (2013)
Hosie, P.J., Sevastos, P.: Does the “happy-productive worker” thesis apply to managers? Int. J. Work Health Manag. 2(2), 131–60 (2009)
Worrall, L., Cooper, C.L.: The quality of working life: managers’ health and well-being. Chartered Management Institute, London (2006)
Worrall, L., Cooper, C.: The quality of working life: managers’ wellbeing, motivation and productivity. Eur. Bus. Rev. July–August, 49–52 (2013)
Haar, J.M., Roche, M., ten Brummelhuis, L.: A daily diary study of work-life balance in managers: utilizing a daily process model. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 29(18), 2659–81 (2018)
Kirchner, K., Ipsen, C., Hansen, J.P.: COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge work. Knowl. Manag. Res. Pract. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1877579
Kurland, N.B., Bailey, D.E., Kurkland, N.B., Bailey, D.E.: Telework: the advantages and challenges of working here, there anywhere, and anytime. Organ. Dyn. 28(2), 53–68 (1999)
Bailey, D.E., Kurland, N.B.: A review of telework research: findings, new directions, and lessons for the study of modern work. J. Organ. Behav. 23(4), 383–400 (2002)
Charalampous, M., Grant, C.A., Tramontano, C., Michailidis, E.: Systematically reviewing remote e-workers’ well-being at work: a multidimensional approach. Eur. J. Work Organ. Psychol. 28(1), 51–73 (2019)
Staples Inc.: There’s No Place Like a Home Office: Staples Survey Shows Telecommuters are Happier and Healthier, With 25% Less Stress When Working from Home. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110719005318/en/There%E2%80%99s-No-Place-Like-a-Home-Office-Staples-Survey-Shows-Telecommuters-are-Happier-and-Healthier-With-25-Less-Stress-When-Working-from-Home. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
Fonner, K.L., Roloff, M.E.: Why teleworkers are more satisfied with their jobs than are office-based workers: when less contact is beneficial. J. Appl. Commun. Res. 38(4), 336–61 (2010)
Anderson, A.J., Kaplan, S.A., Vega, R.P.: The impact of telework on emotional experience: when, and for whom, does telework improve daily affective well-being? Eur. J. Work Organ. Psychol. 24(6), 882–97 (2015)
Biron, M., van Veldhoven, M.: When control becomes a liability rather than an asset: comparing home and office days among part-time teleworkers. J. Organ. Behav. 37(8), 1317–37 (2016)
Kurland, N.B., Bailey, D.E.: When workers are here, there, and everywhere: a discussion of the advantages and challenges of telework. Organ. Dyn. 28, 53–68 (1999)
Cooper, C.D., Kurland, N.B.: Telecommuting, professional isolation, and employee development in public and private organizations. J. Organ Behav. 23(SPEC. ISS.), 511–32 (2002)
Hertel, G., Geister, S., Konradt, U.: Managing virtual teams: a review of current empirical research. Hum. Resour. Manag. Rev. 15(1), 69–95 (2005)
Stich, J.-F.: A review of workplace stress in the virtual office. Intell. Build. Int. 12(3), 208–20 (2020)
Kurland, N.B., Bailey, D.E.: Telework: the advantages and challenges of working here, there anywhere, and anytime. Organ. Dyn. 28(2), 53–68 (1999)
Gurstein, P.: Wired to the World, Chained to the Home: Telework in Daily Life, vol. 1. UBC Press, Vancouver (2001)
Jackson, P.J.: Virtual working: Social and organisational dynamics. Routledge (2001)
Mitchell, D.: 50 Top Tools for Employee Engagement: A Complete Toolkit for Improving Motivation and Productivity, vol. 1. Kogan Page Publishers (2017)
Crabtree, B., Miller, W.: Doing Qualitative Research, vol. 2. Sage, London (1999)
Lister, K.: Work-at-Home After Covid-19—Our Forecast. Global Workplace Analytics (2020)
Gartner: Gartner HR Survey Reveals 41% of Employees Likely to Work Remotely at Least Some of the Time Post Coronavirus Pandemic (2020)
Washington Post: Twitter employees can now work from home forever. Washington Post (2020). https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/01/twitter-work-from-home/?arc404=true. Accessed 09 Feb 2021
The Economist: The future of work - Is the office finished. The Economist (2020)
Ipsen, C., Poulsen, S., Nielsen, L.: Management across distances – how to ensure performance and employee well- being. In: Proceedings of the 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association 2015 (2015)
Fisher, K., Fisher, M.D.: The Distance Manager. A Hands-On Guide to Managing Off-Site Employees and Virtual Teams, vol. 1. McGraw-Hill, New York (2001)
Peñarroja, V., Orengo, V., Zornoza, A., Hernández, A.: The effects of virtuality level on task-related collaborative behaviors: the mediating role of team trust. Comput. Hum. Behav. 29(3), 967–74 (2013)
Acknowledgement
We want to thank Professor John Paulin Hansen at DTU Management, Denmark who has made substantial conceptual research design contributions, gathered important data and commented on this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ipsen, C., Edwards, K., Nardelli, G., Vendramin, N. (2021). Managers’ First Experience of the Transition to Distance Management During COVID-19. In: Black, N.L., Neumann, W.P., Noy, I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74611-7_81
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74611-7_81
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-74610-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-74611-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)