When virtual work goes viral: How employees respond to a forced change from physical to virtual work set-ups

ABSTRACT This position statement presents a research framework for employee response and adaptation to abrupt change, in the context of the adoption of remote work arrangements in crisis conditions. The unprecedented scale of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to move most of their physical operations online in a matter of days. Imposed by government lockdown measures, this change from physical to virtual work arrangements came suddenly and caught many organizations off guard, since prior to the pandemic, only a mere 2.9 percent of employees worldwide were involved in telework. Given the abrupt nature of the change and the virtual work context, we believe two specific literatures – organizational change and virtual work – are critical to understanding the dynamics of employees’ responses. The first part of our paper provides an integrated review of these two streams of research. Using concepts from the organizational change literature, we build a framework that incorporates prior literature on remote work and virtual teams to develop an emergent research agenda. Drawing on our integrated literature review, we propose specific mechanisms via which the change would have occurred. The second part of our paper outlines the plans for an inductive study to explore these questions and build theory. The third and final part of our paper concludes with a brief outline of potential future research questions beyond the scope of the inductive study proposed here. Keywords organizational change, telework, distributed work, virtual teams, COVID-19 ABOUT THE AUTHOR/S Laurel H. Teo Singapore Management University hhteo.2017@pbs.smu.edu.sg Laurel is pursuing a PhD in organizational behavior and human resources. Her research focuses on the impact of emerging technologies on organizational participants, privacy and ethical issues. Laurel previously worked in advocacy, investor relations, and journalism. Jia Hui Lim Singapore Management University jiahui.lim.2016@pbs.smu.edu.sg Jia Hui is a PhD student in organizational behavior. Her research focuses on understanding and promoting inclusion in organizations, focusing on issues related to employee socioeconomic background and resource seeking behavior. New Future of Work 2020, August 3–5, 2020 © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).