Remote Work in Public Sector Organisations: Employees' Experiences in a Pandemic Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immense impact on our society, changing the ways we meet others, learn, buy and work. The crisis has led to rapid and far-reaching changes in organisations from all sectors and employees' everyday working lives. One of the measures implemented in organisations in response to the pandemic was remote work (work from home). This study, based on 40 interviews with employees from two different public sector organisations in Austria, analyses their experiences and insights during and after the first lockdown period in order to understand how remote work is perceived to influence organisational and digital culture. The results address important dimensions of remote work that need to be considered by public sector organisations, for instance in their organisational strategies. Remote work will significantly change ways of working, processes, collaboration and interaction, dimensions that influence the organisational and digital culture of an organisation, and hence will accelerate its digital transformation. On one hand, such changes in public sector organisations reflect substantial challenges, on the other hand, they can provide competitive advantages, as organisations offering remote work can be perceived as modern and attractive employers.