The effects of telecommuting on teamwork efficiency in a context of new product development

Abstract: Telecommuting has become a globalized phenomenon after the Covid-19 pandemic. Itallowed technological improvements which made this context easier to handle forcoworkers. Because it can improve personal comfort and quality of life, and allowflexibility, companies are adopting this way of working widely so it makes it aninteresting topic to study. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand theeffects that telecommuting has on teamwork efficiency and particularly on new productdevelopment teams. The study was conducted with two project teams working on new ITproducts development from two different French companies.The current literature is mainly focused on the individual effects and consequences oftelecommuting towards team members, at the expense of collective effects. Little researchwas made to link collective consequences to the existent teamwork efficiency criteria.Furthermore, the solutions to address the challenges created by telecommuting, andespecially the ideal rhythm of work to have, are not sufficiently studied in the literature.To address these gaps, our research was conducted using a qualitative methodology whichallowed us to understand better how telecommuting is impacting teamwork efficiency innew product development project teams and how they can face these challenges.In order to do this, we conducted fourteen interviews with two different project teams:one composed of five coworkers, and the other one composed of nine coworkers. It helpedus to gain a better understanding of how telecommuting is experienced collectively byteam members. We analyzed the data through the use of coding, which allowed us todiscover six main themes: interactions, home-office balance, tools and methodologies,teamwork efficiency characteristics and behaviors, outcomes on new productdevelopment and future considerations. Finally, we were able to understand thatindividual, and mainly collective direct consequences of telecommuting influenceteamwork efficiency characteristics and behaviors adopted by the team members, whichwould make them develop strategies and solutions to answer these challenges.