0000000000261662
AUTHOR
Kirsimarja Blomqvist
Employees' perceptions of relational communication in full-time remote work in the public sector.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous changes in society. This paper aims to understand how the abrupt transfer to remote work is reflected in employees' perceptions of relational communication at their work. Our research question is as follows: What kinds of perceptions and profiles regarding relational communication can be found among full-time remote workers? A sample of 1, 091 Finnish public sector employees with virtually no previous experience in remote work completed an open-ended survey during the first wave of the pandemic. The findings present 17 aspects of relational communication that the respondents mentioned as having changed because of moving to remote work. These …
Constructing leadership by storytelling – the meaning of trust and narratives
PurposeThis paper approaches manager's storytelling as a means for promoting organizational aims and for constructing leadership, and examines the intentions of managers in this process. We focus on the context of storytelling and the content of the stories told by managers in order to identify areas of influence on subordinates. Storytelling in relation to building a narrative identity for the manager is also studied.Design/methodology/approachThis is an exploratory empirical study that draws on 13 thematic interviews with Finnish managers working in different fields. A qualitative thematic analysis is used in order to analyze the data.FindingsAs a result of the study we found that manager…
Employee trust repair: A systematic review of 20 years of empirical research and future research directions
Employee trust, and increasingly its absence, is a critical topic for researchers and practitioners interested in social relations in the context of work and organizing. Employee trust repair is particularly important in the current disrupted work environment, due to unpredictable changes such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainty those bring to our lives. It is not surprising that employee trust is attracting increasing interest among researchers and practitioners alike. In this article, we systematically review and take stock of the research on trust repair conducted in the past two decades to provide comprehensive insights and future research directions for researchers and manager…
Factors influencing adjustment to remote work: Employees’ initial responses to the covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted when, where, and how employees work. Drawing on a sample of 5452 Finnish employees, this study explores the factors associated with employees’ abrupt adjustment to remote work. Specifically, this study examines structural factors (i.e., work independence and the clarity of job criteria), relational factors (i.e., interpersonal trust and social isolation), contextual factors of work (i.e., change in work location and perceived disruption), and communication dynamics (i.e., organizational communication quality and communication technology use (CTU)) as mechanisms underlying adjustment to remote work. The findings demonstrate that structural and contextual fac…
Understanding stressor-strain relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic : The role of social support, adjustment to remote work, and work-life conflict
This study investigates how the transition to remote work during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is experienced by employees. We investigate to what extent perceived work stressors relate to psychological strain through perceptions of social support, work-life conflict, and adjustment to remote work. The findings expound the mechanisms underlying psychological strain in the context of sudden organizational change. Specifically, this study shows that both challenge stressors and hindrance stressors have negative impact on adjustment to remote work, whereas hindrance stressors are more strongly negatively related to social support. The study further demonstrates that there is hardly any…
Towards networked R&D management: the R&D approach of Sonera Corporation as an example
In this paper the authors delineate the challenges of a dynamic environment to R&D management. The authors build on most recent ideas, such as the dynamic capability view of the firm, as strategic foundation for modern R&D management. Collaboration is emphasized as a meta-capability for innovation. These ideas are merged into a ‘Networked R&D Management’ approach that emphasizes internal and external collaboration networks as critical for companies operating in a dynamic business environment. The approach is illustrated with ICT industry as an example. The implementation of Networked R&D Management is reflected in the illustrative case discussion of R&D management of Sonera Corporation. 1