The impact of telework on organisational performance, behaviour, and culture: evidence from business services industry based on employees’ perceptions

Abstract

The future of work is being redesigned by the world’s largest telework experiment as a consequence of the global pandemic. The research objective was to analyse and debate actual organisational needs in terms of telework and its implications for organisational performance, behaviour, and culture within the context of digital technology. This article challenges the results of previous research on factors related to telework and its outcomes, contributing to the literature through an advanced analysis of employees’ perceptions, for the Business Services industry. Quantitative research is conducted based on a questionnaire. The research hypotheses were tested through Kruskal–Wallis test, Spearman’s correlations, and linear regression, complemented by robustness tests. Findings indicate that the business professionals with pre-pandemic telework experience assigned a higher importance to all organisational dimensions, as compared with the employees having pandemic telework experience, only. The results also show significant relationships between telework and the organisational dimensions, with positive impact for factors contributing to achieving goals while teleworking. The results are mixed in the case of negative factors affecting telework, with a positive impact on organisational performance, and a negative impact on organisational behaviour. Significant changes were found when the digital technology dimension was considered.