Working From Home, The New Normal? : A qualitative study of the working from home phenomenon’s future, through an international perspective.

Abstract: During the past two years, the pandemic of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has impacted where a big share of the world’s employees conducts their work. Governments around the world have encouraged people to stay at home as much as possible, in the hope of slowing down the infection rate of the virus. Companies around the world have therefore encouraged their employees to work from home. The change has been rapid and unusual for a lot of people. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what the effects of working from home has had on employees and what parameters may make it sustainable long-term. When investigating this matter further, a set of sub-questions has been identified in hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the topic and to answer the question of How can working from home be sustainable long-term? This paper is a qualitative research that follows an inductive approach. The literature review provides relevant theoretical background, which has then been the foundation for the analysis and conclusion. The theories provided covers leadership, motivation, efficiency, gender equality, government support, and internationalization. The conceptual framework then provides a deeper understanding of how each of these theories relates to the main question and its sub-questions. The authors have then examined secondary data such as articles from trusted journals as well as government records in a systematic literature review. An analysis of the findings in the systematic literature review in correlation to the theories has then been made to each sub-question. The concluding chapter then ties the thesis by answering the main question of this subject.