A Literature Review of Work From Home Phenomenon During COVID-19 Toward Employees’ Performance and Quality of Life in Malaysia and Indonesia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to determine the performance of employees employed at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia and Indonesia, also to examine the employee’s quality of life affected by COVID-19. The current study is aimed to critically determine the performance of employees employed at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author has analyzed and reviewed various sources of articles, reports, and documents from previous research and literature. The findings explain that working from home has provided advantages and disadvantages for both the employees and the organization and is responsible for the decrease in employee productivity. In addition, the findings conclude that the fact that working from home is generally not feasible because many areas of work cannot be done from home, although for many employees, working from home has provided a work-life balance.

The effects of working from home on technical efficiency within the service industry: A meta‐frontier approach

“…The perceived advantages and disadvantages of WFH can be divided according to the views of employee and the views of the company. Employee preference for WFH affects the efficiency of a company (Abiddin et al, 2022; Gibbs et al, 2021). However, solutions need to provide advantages not only to workers but also to companies.…”

“…In addition, advantages of telecommuting such as reductions in office space requirements, capital savings for the organization, and possible retention of scarce skills and talents motivate organizations to adopt telecommuting (Iscan & Naktiyok, 2005). WFH further improves a company's productivity by decreasing office rental expenses (Abiddin et al, 2022). According to Ceurstemont (2020), even after the pandemic, the number of people WFH will likely remain higher than that prior to the pandemic, sustaining cost reduction due to office rental fees.…”

“…As a result, employee expectations of work may permanently shift toward telecommuting, leading to sustained high levels of remote work in the future (Bjursell et al, 2021; Igeltjørn & Habib, 2020). WFH enabled employees to enjoy greater flexibility in their schedules, resulting in better work–life balance (Abiddin et al, 2022; Ipsen et al, 2021). It also helped organizations to complete tasks efficiently while minimizing the risk of COVID‐19 transmission (Abiddin et al, 2022; Ipsen et al, 2021).…”

“…WFH enabled employees to enjoy greater flexibility in their schedules, resulting in better work–life balance (Abiddin et al, 2022; Ipsen et al, 2021). It also helped organizations to complete tasks efficiently while minimizing the risk of COVID‐19 transmission (Abiddin et al, 2022; Ipsen et al, 2021). Moreover, WFH provided cost‐saving benefits for companies, such as reducing the expenses of office rental, employee amenities, and other workplace support facilities (Abiddin et al, 2022).…”

Review of work from home empirical research during Covid-19

“…Due to these reasons, we tried to find a review study synthesizing the findings of WFH research during COVID-19. This study must include publications by different countries to have a broader overview and vast results of WFH empirically investigated ( Abiddin, Ibrahim, & Abdul Aziz, 2022 ). The empirical investigations ensure enough consistency for methodological quality to provide findings that satisfy internal validity ( Petticrew & Roberts, 2006 ; Priyashantha, De Alwis, & Welmilla, 2022a ).…”