The Study of Emotional Effects of Digitalised Work: The Case of Higher Education in the Sustainable Development

Abstract

This paper reports on the experiences of working with new digital tools along with the experience of new remote work. We explore the emotional experiences of working from home during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications. There were two groups of respondents participating in the study, those who had experience working remotely before the pandemic [digital natives] and those who started working remotely during the pandemic [digital immigrants]. The results show that emotional experiences while working from home do not differ depending on the profession, age, gender, length of experience and from previous remote work. This suggests that the digital natives had to deal with the same emotions as the digital immigrants. The study found that independent external changes determine the growth of competence in employees, in this particular case, to work remotely. Working in conditions that are difficult for everyone obliges employees to cooperate, even across company boundaries, and increases each other’s competencies. In such situations, the management is required to be emotionally involved and closer to the employee.

Knowledge-related tensions in remote work arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode Knowledgerelated tensions post-pandemic period, when various hybrid work arrangements will be adapted, and remote work will possibly remain on a wider scale than before the pandemic (Staniec et al, 2022).…”

“…This is especially the case in knowledge-intensive organizations, such as higher education institutions (HEIs), which have mostly transitioned to a remote work mode during the lockdown. Currently, work life is in preparation for the post-pandemic period, when various hybrid work arrangements will be adapted, and remote work will possibly remain on a wider scale than before the pandemic (Staniec et al , 2022).…”

“…In the field of higher education, previous studies have investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g. based on the viewpoints of communality among students and staff in a Finnish university (Uusiautti et al , 2021); Australian universities’ support for academic staff with caring responsibilities during COVID-19 (Nash and Churchill, 2020); the effects of job-related factors on mental health for academic staff (Docka-Filipek and Stone, 2021); knowledge sharing in HEIs via enterprise social networks (Kazemian and Grant, 2022); delivering student services via digital tools (Paolini et al , 2022); organizational communication misalignments (Lovell et al , 2022); the emotional experience of working from home (Staniec et al , 2022); and relationships between employees’ experiences of perceived competence, autonomy, relatedness, intrinsic motivation and productivity (Rietveld et al , 2022). In the field of Finnish higher education management, Pekkola et al (2021) have investigated the impact of COVID-19 on Finnish universities’ leadership from the viewpoint of managers (rectors and deans) in Finnish higher education, specifically how they coped during the crisis and how they feel about it.…”

Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Quality of Life, Mental Health, and Level of Physical Activity in Colombian University Workers: A Longitudinal Study

“…These practices have generated harmful situations for workers, such as presenteeism, a perception of increased workload, and even physical and mental health problems in Colombian professionals [ 9 ]. In addition, Staniec et al [ 10 ] found that, during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emotional experiences of working from home were similar between people with pre-pandemic remote work experience and people who had to migrate to the modality.…”

“…Colombian professionals [9]. In addition, Staniec et al [10] found that, during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emotional experiences of working from home were similar between people with pre-pandemic remote work experience and people who had to migrate to the modality.…”