The Sociocultural Barriers of Work-From-Home Arrangement Due to COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia: Implications and Future Implementation

Abstract

<p>The rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic entails many unprecedented life circumstances, including in the way people work. The social distancing policy has forced companies to adopt work-from-home (WFH) arrangement to maintain business sustainability amidst both health and economic crises. While in many developed countries, WFH arrangement has been a common practice, this is not the case in some Asian countries, particularly in countries where high power distance emphasizing heightened supervision and punishment among workers are still a preferred managerial style, such as Indonesia, China, India, and Thailand. For companies with such a power-reliance managerial style, WFH could be seen as a threat towards productivity as face-to-face supervision cannot be performed. On the other hand, not all workers have a positive attitude and a sense of readiness towards implementing WFH and having involuntary WFH arrangement adds as a potential stressor on top of those caused by management demands and lack of trust. While acknowledging that WFH is considered as beyond an option in this pandemic period, this commentary paper aims to critically identify key barriers of WFH implementation in some Asian countries, particularly in autocratic societies, using both theoretical and contextual approach. The paper concludes by discussing recommendation for future studies and proposing strategic implications for companies and workers to effectively adopt WFH arrangement, especially in societies where WFH is still a new practice or is involuntarily held. </p>

The Behavioral Patterns and Human Resource Development of Surabaya Millennial Workers Facing New Normality Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Other research also confirms studies that highlight the relationship of WFH to the barriers experienced by workers, for instance: social interaction, internet access, decreased work motivation, environmental disturbances, the portion of flexible working hours, which have an impact on increasing workloads and can even lead to work stress (Anggraini & Eprilianto, 2022;Ashal, 2020;Ham & Etikariena, 2022;Himawan et al, 2020). Besides that, other research also presents the relationship between WFH, which simultaneously makes the house a public space and a domestic space.…”

“…Companies that do this to empower and reward employees make employees feel a high quantitative workload can prevent them from feeling attached to their work (Ham & Etikariena, 2022). Similarly, the study by Himawan et al (2020) states that flexible work arrangements can even result in job stress because employees still need to prepare.…”

The Impact of Working from Home on Compulsive Buying Behavior

“…First, although this study has discussed the impact of WFH on psychological state and consuming patterns, it did not focus on organizational outcome (e.g., work stress, job performance, etc.). Since organizational outcomes are considerably important and can be affected by working arrangements [30], future studies can address this. Second, social distancing and working from home only effective if the employees restrict their physical encounter with others [31].…”

Home as a new physical workplace: a causal model for understanding the inextricable link between home environment, work productivity, and well-being

“…This new physical workplace issue poses challenges for Asian societies, particularly those adopting the traditional managerial approach (e.g., Thailand), where WFH is a less favored, but unavoidable practice due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2) . The latest survey results reveal that 20% of Thai companies have permanently switched to WFH to reduce the risks of COVID-19 infection 3) .…”