Factors Influencing Remote Working of the Information Technology Sector Employees in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

In the knowledge economy, rapid technological advancements have led organizations to embrace different work designs in response to the changing demographics of the labour market and geographically dispersed talents, resulting in flexible employment. Remote working is one of the rapidly growing flexible working methods that allow workers to work in locations other than their central offices, and workers are connected with their co-workers using advanced technology. With the progress in information technology (IT), cloud storage, and high-speed internet connectivity, modern organizations allow their workers to work remotely, ensuring the daily work is complete and communicated in a virtual working space. In Sri Lanka, remote working has become a new-normal work method, especially in a post-pandemic era as a cost-effective work design during the economic recession. However, the knowledge of the effective use of remote work is still scant in the extant literature. This research aimed to identify the factors that influence remote work, providing insights for Human Resource (HR) practitioners on the effective use of remote working for achieving favourable individual and organizational outcomes. This study employed a quantitative research design to investigate the factors affecting remote work by analyzing 120 employee-level data collected from four IT companies in Sri Lanka via an online survey. The data analysis involved descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regression. The factors influencing remote working, namely, self-efficacy, IT infrastructure, work-life balance, and virtual training, were examined via the SPSS data analysis tool. The findings revealed that employees’ self-efficacy and their preference for balancing work and personal lives were prominent factors influencing remote working whilst IT infrastructure and virtual training were found to be insignificant. The study unveils specific insights on remote working and contributes to the under-research context of remote working in the Sri Lankan IT sector.