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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 9, No. 9
Publication Date: September 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/abr.99.10787. Olufemi, A. (2021). Should Working From Home be the Norm in Nigeria After Covid_19? Archives of Business Research, 9(9). 97-
115.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Should Working From Home be the Norm in Nigeria After
Covid_19?
Dr. Aladejebi, Olufemi
University of Lagos, Business School, Akoka Lagos
ABSTRACT
As part of the response to Covid 19, working from home (WFH) was enforced by
governments of more than 150 countries in order to curtail the transmission of the
pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic had brought new business ideas, making
organizations change how they conduct their business. This study aims to discuss
the advantages and disadvantages of working from home in the scientific literature,
using questionnaires, how employees feel about WFH in the aspects of family
values, increase of performance, isolation and disrupts work-life balance, how
workers cope with WFH. Data was collected from the primary source by using a
structured questionnaire completed through google form. The target respondents
were employers and employees both from the private sector of the economy . Data
was gathered from 504 respondents. SPSS and Excel were used to analyse the data.
The majority of the respondents were employees (76.98%), while 23.02% were
employers. An inquiry was also made about the marital status of the respondents,
and the majority (71.83%) were married while 28.17% were single. The study
showed that respondents were still able to connect with their teammates despite
working from home, frequently communicate with leaders, and have clarity on
working from home policies. It can also be seen that the majority of the respondents
enjoyed working from home, although they still look forward to returning to the
office. Findings on working from home on family values show that this work style
positively influences availability at the home front. Findings on the effect on work
performance show average agreement on the positive impact of working from
home. Agreement on the negative impact of working from home on office/social
interaction and work-life balance was also seen to be on average. It can be inferred
from this study that working from home is a work style that employees would prefer
to continue post-COVID-19.
Keywords: Working from Home, Teleworking, Remote Working, Covid 19 Pandemic,
Stakeholder Theory
INTRODUCTION
Most companies have been forced to innovate and change the way they do their business due
to the outbreak of Covid 19 around the globe. As a result, offices have become less important,
and work from home has suddenly become mandatory (Savić, 2020). The covid 19 pandemic
has undoubtedly been a worldwide human and economic disaster, but it has also led to
interesting and unexpected revelations about how we work, play, and live (Ford et al., 2020).
The world was caught unprepared for COVID-19 as a pandemic. It had a serious adverse effect
on every sphere of life. It brought untold adversity to many developing countries like Nigeria,
which may take several years to recover. Staying at home due to lockdown for a considerable
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period modifies many practices and activities for many people (Adeyemi, 2020). The Covid 19
pandemic is a clear example of disruptive change that caused employees and employers to
make quick adjustments within a short time (Caligiuri & Cieri, 2021).
As a response to Covid 19, working from home (WFH) was enforced by governments of more
than 150 countries in order to curtail the transmission of the pandemic (Nur et al.;, 2020).
Before Covid 19 became a basis for WFH, digital way of working from home has been in practice
by many organizations in developing countries such as South Africa, Belgium, Philippines,
China, Malaysia, & Thailand (Garg & Rijst, 2015; Bloom Liang, Roberts & Ying, 2015). Isaac
Newton retreated to his country home in 1665 during the Great Plague. During which he
worked for about 18months. Within the period, he developed his theories on optics calculus
and the law of gravitation, which fundamentally changed science's path for centuries. Newton
described the 18months as the most productive period of his life (Westfall, 1980). WFH is not
a new thing. The first set of studies have its origin in the 1970s alongside the reduction in costs
of data communications and the influx of microcomputers into offices and homes (Pratt, 1984;
Bailey & Kurland, 2002).
The COVID-19 pandemic had brought new business ideas, making organizations change how
they conduct their business and the offices' role in generating secure, successful, and rewarding
careers (World Economic Forum, 2020; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2020; McKinsey, 2020).
Compared to what obtains today, the number of employees working from home is greater than
before Covid 19 (Bolisani et al.; 2020). The Covid 19 pandemic has increased the number of
people working from home (WFH) tremendously. According to Park (2018) and Park & Kim
(2013), job position and the leadership style of each job and individual can also play a role on
WFH. Studies to date have shown that remote working is getting popular throughout the world,
and it is expected that the number of remote workers will increase over time (Belzunegui-Eraso
& Erro-Garces, 2020). Remote work is a practice that allows workers to work beyond the
traditional office setting; any place they are productive and that leads to perfect work-life
balance, and this is centered on the notion that there is no need for work to be carried out in a
particular place (Prasad, Rao, Vaidya & Muralidhar, 2020).
On February 27, Nigeria confirmed its first case in Lagos State; an Italian citizen who works in
Nigeria had returned on February 25 from Milan, Italy through the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, fell ill on February 26 and was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity
Facilities for isolation and testing (Ogunode, Abigeal & Lydia, 2020). The first phase of the
lockdown was announced by the President on April 27, 2020, with effect from May 4 to 17,
spanning two weeks in FCT, Lagos, and Abuja. Nigerian President Buhari and the Presidential
Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) have approved 'phase two' measures to ease the lockdown,
which has been in place since March 29, 2020. Phase two of the lockdown was in place from
June 2, 2020 – June 29, 2020.
WFH is something not too common in Nigeria before Covid 19. For most people working from
home seems to be a strange experience. Some employees have been working from home for
over a year despite the pandemic having drastically reduced (Savić, 2020). The percentage of
Nigerians vaccinated is very low; this makes some employers mandate their employees to
continue to WFH. Also, there is segregation between those that are yet to receive. In some cases,
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Olufemi, A. (2021). Should Working From Home be the Norm in Nigeria After Covid_19? Archives of Business Research, 9(9). 97-115.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.99.10787
employers allow those vaccinated to resume work at their offices, while those who have yet to
receive the vaccine cannot resume at their offices. In this era of better information technology,
being physically present in the workplace is no longer the only way of operating in an
organization (Day & Barber,2019). Nigeria needs to improve its digital technology because this
has helped many companies in developed countries survive the consequence of the COVID-19
pandemic. It may also create an opportunity to improve the country's digital economy (Ozili,
2020).
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study aims to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working from home in the
scientific literature, using questionnaires. Also, this quantitative study examines how
employees feel about WFH in the aspects of family values, increase of performance, isolation
and disrupts work-life balance, how workers cope with WFH.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Most Governments of the World introduced a lockdown to curtail the spread of the Covid 19
pandemic except for critical workers. This made many workers work from home (Ipsen,
Veldhoven, Kirchner & Hansen, 2021). The Covid 19 pandemic led public organizations,
schools, and many companies worldwide to mandate their workers to work from home. The
work methods and culture of many organizations have been changed as a result of Copvid 19.
To prevent the spread of Covid 19, WFH measures have been introduced in many countries,
impacting workers' productivity (Mustajab et al.; 2020).
The challenges of WFH include: lack of boundaries between work and personal life, need for
socialization, lack of boundaries between work and personal life, blurred boundaries between
leisure and work (Bell, & Kozlowski, 2002). Also, the problem of effective communication and
cooperation with managers and coworkers (Mitchell, 2017). For WFH to thrive, Trust, which is
a major factor between an employer and employee, must be agreed upon by both parties
(Mustajab et al.;, 2020). For many people, WFH is now a dream, especially the current millennia
generation who will not need to wake up early and prepare to go to work, thereby avoiding
traffic congestion on the way (Purwanto et al.; 2020). According to researchers being a leader
when workers work from home is more difficult than leading traditional teams (Fisher & Fisher,
2001).
Conceptual Framework
The workplace can be understood as the place or building where people perform their jobs
(Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). WFH has been studied under numerous; partially overlapping
terms, like telework, telecommuting, virtual office, home office, location independent working,
and remote work. "Telework" simply means to work that is carried out in any place other than
the usual. "WFH" refers to when the work is carried out partly or totally in the worker’s home
(ILO, 2020). Although the variety of terms makes it complicated to find the related literature,
the term "telework" is mainly used in this study, although the terms were eventually used as
synonyms. Throughout this article, we use the terms working from home, remote working, and
teleworking interchangeably.
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
STAKEHOLDERS THEORY
Business is about interaction among stakeholders, i.e., customers, employees, financiers,
suppliers, communities, and managers, to create value (Freeman et al.; 2010). From a
stakeholder perspective, business meant a set of relationships among groups that have a stake
in the activities that make up the business (Freeman, 1984). Stakeholders are persons,
neighborhoods, organizations, groups, institutions, societies, and the natural environment
(Mitchell, Agle & Wood,1997). According to Freeman (1984), "A stakeholder in an organization
is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's
objectives." Stakeholder refers to "persons or groups with legitimate interests in procedural
and/or substantive aspects of corporate activity" Donaldson & Preston (1995).
A manager is expected to profer solution where there is a stakeholder's conflict of interest; to
the extent, the conflict resolution by the manager may even create more value (Freeman, 1984).
Managers, management, and owners of businesses need to confront Covid 19 for their
establishments to achieve the set goals and objectives and consider the issue of the
organization's stakeholders. One of the ways of realizing the set goals and objectives of an
organization is to keep the company going. With various government orders worldwide about
social distancing and lockdown, it becomes necessary to adopt the concept of working from
home, which affects the various stakeholders of an organization. It is the work of management
to ensure that stakeholders' interests are protected in the best possible way (Mitchell et al.;
1997). In the joint value creation process, there should be mutual stakeholder relationships in
which stakeholders are both recipients and co-creators of value (Freudenreich, Ludeke-Freund
& Schaltegger, 2020).
DEFINITION OF WORKING FROM HOME
WFH is when employees of an organization carry out their duties remotely, like in their homes,
rather than the norm of working in the office (Nur et al.; 2020). WFH is the work activities with
the deployment of information and communication technologies (ICT) that enables workers to
access their work tasks wherever possible such as at home (Nakrosiene et al., 2019). According
to Savić (2020), WFH can be defined generically as employees working outside company offices.
It includes four basic characteristics: Work being performed outside the company's physical
premises; a person who is an employee of a company or a staff member of an organization;
telecommunication with the employer; actual work engagement with a company or an
organization on specific tasks. WFH can be defined as any situation where the employee is
physically separate from the employer, which could physically decentralize functions, as well
as "offshore" (Nilles, 1976) WHF can be defined as any work carried out in an environment
different from the employer's workplace (Hatch, 2006). WFH is a means to carry out work away
from the traditional go from house to office and vice-versa. Teleworking is work performed
from various locations that empower employees to access their work activities by utilizing
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (Perez-Perez et al., 2003).
ADVANTAGES OF WORKING FROM HOME
According to Ipsen et al.; (2021), the advantages of WFH include work-life balance, increased
productivity, less stress, reduced time of commuting, less contact with other staff, and increased
control of work patterns. WFH makes it easier for organizations to attract qualified
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Olufemi, A. (2021). Should Working From Home be the Norm in Nigeria After Covid_19? Archives of Business Research, 9(9). 97-115.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.99.10787
professionals who do not want to be tied to a specific work location. This gives the management
of companies the opportunity to reduce management costs. The virtual method of working
saves companies a lot of costs, thereby making it increasingly popular. It makes an organization
more agile and able to cope with ever-accelerating market changes and various crises. WFH
allows companies to hire qualified workers living anywhere globally, working 24 hours a day
irrespective of time zones. This also makes WFH attractive and more popular (Fisher & Fisher,
2001); Stich, 2020).
According to Zykova & Maussymbe (2021)., the following are the advantages of WFH: flexible
schedule allows workers to spend more time with family and work from everywhere; remote
work contributes to reducing commuting costs and time; consequently, it reduces traffic jams
and exhaust gases; online work boosted digitalization and automation; remote work might lead
to progress in communication and manufacture technologies; for some economic sectors,
remote work is good opportunity to boost income. According to Savić (2020), the benefits of
WFH include increased productivity and job satisfaction, increased staff retention, reduction in
office cost, greater flexibility, environmental benefits, and improved work-life balance. WFH
has been linked with saving time commuting to work (Klopotek, 2017) and high levels of work
satisfaction (Schall, 2019). Telework has attracted the interest of both professionals and
academics because of the possibility of working in any place and whenever. Therefore, it is a
win-win situation for both organizations and employees. It leads to workers' motivation,
creating work-life balance, and reducing costs (Madsen, 2003).
Perez-Perez et al.; (2003) discussed the advantages of teleworking as cost-saving; companies
can reduce costs in water, infrastructure, phone and internet bills, electricity, cleaning, and
security costs (Radcliffe, 2010). Teleworking can also reduce employee turnover because there
is an increase in employee satisfaction and fewer sick days. Morgan, 2004 asserted that
teleworking encourages planning skills. Teleworking has been shown to increase family time.
Employees can combine work with the capability to manage family-related issues, enabling an
employee to balance work and family time. (Johnson, Audrey & Shaw, 2007). It offers time
flexibility to an employee who can choose productive time to start and finish work
responsibilities. Thus an employees can build up a pattern of work that best suits them.
Teleworks save cost and time of commuting to work. (Tremblay & Genin, 2007). Teleworking
affords women the opportunity to spend more time and invest more energy in taking care of
their children (Hartig, Kylin & Johansson, 2007). Teleworking allows women to balance work
and family time (Lim & Teo, 2000).
Giovanis & Ozdamar (2021) asserted that previous studies show that WFH can positively affect
the employee's job, loyalty to the organization, financial satisfaction, and productivity. WFH can
increase 'spare' time, which is not always spent on recreational activities but is mainly occupied
with other paid work or household chores. Increased stress and health problems can result
from commuting to work.WFH may be advantageous to women, as it allows them to have a
better time to attend to household responsibilities and at the same time to also better manage
their work.