Remote and hybrid work before, during and after the Covid19 pandemic. A qualitative study of changing attitudes and work practices

Sammanfattning

The Covid-19 pandemic forced organisations across the world to relocate work into employees' homes almost overnight. Several years later the workplace has still not gone back to what it was. This qualitative study, based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with employees and managers at a global company within the food processing and packaging industry, explores which practices, routines and expectations from the pandemic have stayed and which have been left behind. Drawing on psychological contract theory, the SECI model, e-leadership theory and boundary theory, the analysis shows that the deepest change is not located in any single policy or routine, but in the underlying attitude toward remote work itself. Trust has been re-anchored from visibility to delivery, knowledge sharing has been redistributed across physical and digital settings, leaders have kept their relational principles while changing the channel through which they lead, and individual boundary work has opened up to a wider range of legitimate preferences.