Telework reframed: problematizing a new normal in organizational life

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to analyze the real challenges of telework, to understand what really matters with this way of working and to identify the necessary levers to make it successful as a possible new normal. Design/methodology/approach This viewpoint combines a problematizing literature review with longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork to critically explore the challenges of telework. The literature review, which uses the problematizing approach, aimed to challenge dominant assumptions about telework’s benefits and drawbacks. Empirical insights came from the author’s field research across multiple organizations, involving direct observations, semistructured interviews with employees and managers and content analysis of internal documents and digital communications. This dual approach enabled a grounded, theory-informed reflection on telework, building on the author’s research experience and inspired by recent organizational cases that sparked debate over telework practices. Findings This viewpoint argues that telework is neither inherently good nor bad but constitutes a profound spatiotemporal and managerial rupture in organizational life that needs to be recognized and learned. Rather than a simple technical shift, telework challenges traditional assumptions about coordination, control and presence. This viewpoint specifies four key levers necessary to make telework successful and sustainable as a “new normal”: contextual alignment, managerial transformation, collective cohesion and organizational fairness. Originality/value As societies navigate through the ever-evolving post-COVID-19 pandemic world of work, this viewpoint uncovers important questions that remain about telework and its effects, as illustrated by recent decisions of some companies to control their teleworkers and to require less productive performers to return to the office. Despite the wealth of research on telework, the current context provides an unprecedented opportunity to reopen the debate and reframe the real challenges of telework. Practical recommendations and implications for future research are identified.