A New Landscape for Management Control: Managers Reaching a Balance of Remote Work in a Post-Pandemic Era

Abstract: In recent years organisations have faced the COVID-19 pandemic, which entailed extensive restrictions and lockdowns around the world. The new challenges have created new patterns for organisations to work after the pandemic and remote work has been implemented. The overall usage of remote work is applied to various extents in organisations. The purpose of the report is to further contribute with insight about the present dimensions and trends influencing the adaptation of remote work, in the post pandemic era. Theories of importance constituting a central role in this study are, enabling versus coercive, trust, productivity and sustainability. Throughout the study, a qualitative method is used including eleven semi-structured interviews and previous literature. By applying the enabling versus coercive framework, the study supports managers in the balancing act of remote work to find a composition that rectifies productivity. Trust can be seen as a complement to formal control systems that facilitate remote work and productivity. The viewpoint of productivity may be divided into long-run and short-run, as to show the inbound contradictory nature that is necessary to retrieve a balance. Environmental sustainability has shown to not be a complete determinant of working remotely. The themes of the study reveal the dimensions of remote work, which are several elements constituting the decision basis for managers, of whether to work on-site or remotely.