Discussions around the “future of work” nearly always revolve around knowledge workers. Since the Covid pandemic, many of these discussions revolve around remote work, and whether it has been productive, the gender issues involved when we work from home, and what it might do to corporate real estate.
Research from Reichman University’s Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology takes a different tact and explores the issue of remote work from the manager’s perspective. The researchers wanted to understand how the transition to remote work has affected managers, especially in light of the reinvention of the managerial role in the wake of the transition.
Changing role
As part of the study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with roughly 30 managers from various industries who underwent the shift from office-based work to remote work during the pandemic.
The managers were requested to narrate their experiences with the transition process, beginning from the outbreak of COVID-19 to the time of the interview (conducted during Israel’s third wave of coronavirus), by which point the majority had already implemented remote work arrangements with their teams.
The results suggest a clear rise in tension among managers as various aspects of their work seemed to come into conflict with one another. For instance, there was a corresponding need to retain a trust-based relationship with employees but also a desire to effectively supervise their work when they were out of sight.
Similarly, the absence of geographic boundaries between one’s personal and professional environment made it that much harder to maintain professional boundaries. There were also tensions observed between the traditional concept of the manager as the fount of all knowledge, as few managers had any real expertise in operating in the new remote environment.
New ways of working
The study revealed that managers would typically adopt one of two distinct changes to their approach to enable them to deal with these three different forms of tension that emerged during the shift to remote working.
“On the one hand, there were managers who perceived the extremes of the paradox as opposing one another, and chose to focus on one of the elements over the other,” the researchers explain. “On the other hand, there were those who managed to hold the paradoxical tension at both ends—that is, they found a creative way to contain the conflicting tensions in their work. The latter found innovative ways to deal with the changing reality and adapt their managerial role accordingly.”
The researchers found that managers would often decide to tighten the supervision of staff, ignoring the impact this might have on the trust their team had in them. It’s an approach supported by research from St. Andrew’s University, which found that investments in employee monitoring technology grew by 108% during April 2020, with the authors noting how the use of these tools belies a lack of trust between managers and employees.
Although surveillance tools measure the quantity of work, the mistrust they invoke results in reduced quality, poorer mental health, and diminished employee engagement and loyalty.
Servant leadership
The Reichman team found, however, that when managers positioned themselves less as some sort of remote eye in the sky and in more of a supportive role, they not only bonded better with their employees but managed to get more out of them. It’s classic servant leadership.
“Managers who failed to pay attention to the blurring of the boundaries between home and work created an undefined and draining environment, in contrast to managers who understood the need to formulate new boundaries for remote work and created needs-based boundaries for employees rather than location-based boundaries, allowing them to work from home while maintaining their personal space,” the researchers explain.
When managers were aware of these blurred boundaries, they were able to do things such as adjust employees’ hours to be more flexible and considerate of any personal or family commitments they may have. For instance, this may involve allowing employees to rest during the day and not operate under a rigid 9-5 regime.
Loss of power
The researchers also found that remote work tended to be viewed very badly by managers who thought that their authority and power faded away when their team operated remotely.
“Some even tried to maintain a façade of certainty in an uncertain reality, which resulted in personal burnout,” the researchers explain. “Other managers, in contrast, were willing to admit to their employees that they didn’t ‘know it all,’ were more willing to jointly learn with the employees how to handle the new reality.”
The study reminds us that remote work requires a very different form of management from that traditionally exhibited over the years when most work was done on premise.
To operate effectively in a remote working setup, managers must comprehend the mental disconnect that exists between them and their employees. They can enhance the manager-employee relationship by cultivating trust-based connections, implementing working routines that cater to the needs of employees, and initiating a collaborative learning process. These steps can be taken even when separated by distance.
