“Is remote working the answer to some of our biggest global issues?”

Introduction

My research study will focus on the ability of remote working to solve modern global problems beyond the business world. Given the interdependent relationship of the world and the variety of serious issues it faces, it is essential that we recognise the revolutionary potential of remote work in solving global problems. This study helps as it explores the potential of remote work to address some of the most important global issues, looking beyond remote workings effects on business organisations and focusing on its potential effects on a larger scale.

Because remote work offers flexible labour arrangements which break down physical barriers, it has the ability to completely transform traditional solutions to societal, economic, and environmental issues. This study intends to give insightful information that can help communities, corporations, and politicians use remote work as a tool for good by examining and emphasising the many advantages and positive possibilities of remote work on an international level.

This study will focus on four major issues we are facing in the modern world and discuss how I believe remote working can offer a solution to each of these topics. The topical issues are as follows; Mental health, pollution, diversity and inclusion and finally the housing crisis. Accompanying each main issue will be sub issues which will be addressed or benefit from remote working. The study will address each issue and explain how each one can be solved through remote working and the benefit of solving each issue.

I believe this topic is important to highlight as remote working is a relatively new concept and I do not think that we have yet comprehended or benefitted from the full advantages or opportunities that the concept offers. I want to offer unique solutions to issues that I am passionate about and require immediate action and solution and I believe this simple concept offers so many benefits that have not yet been realised but I am hopeful that this study can act as enlightenment to decision makers and business owners to make the move to remote working for the greater good.

Literature review

The practice of working remotely has become more popular, particularly in the past decade, as developments in technology have enabled a move towards working schedules that are flexible. This adaptation has been fast tracked in the last three years in response to the covid 19 pandemic and its policies and restrictions leaving no option but for many global businesses to implement a remote working model, many of which have actually made this change a permanent one and remain a remotely working business to this day.

The purpose of this portion of the study is to examine and assess the current collection of research on the effects of remote work on solving global concerns. The study includes a range of published works that highlight how remote work may be able to address important issues related to infrastructure, society, economy, mental health and the environment. These sources along with others and my own knowledge and beliefs will support my study of this topic and help deliver a clear and critical report on this question.

As mentioned in the introductory stage of this project mental health is one issue which I believe could be improved through remote working. Many people would highlight or blame work related issues for their poor mental health. This can include work related stress, harassment in the workplace, burnout and more. In fact a study by Cigna healthcare revealed that alarmingly a massive 84% of workers revealed that their mental health had been negatively affected by at least one work related factor and over 78% of employees revealing that they had experienced a burnout at work (Cigna Healthcare , 2022) I would find this study extremely helpful if the employees were given the opportunity to suggest solutions to this work related stress they have experienced as it would give us great insight into the exact causes and solutions of the workplace negatively affecting workers mental health.

Another source I identified which helped give me great insight into the effects of remote working on employee’s mental health was an article by Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts & Zhichun Jenny Ying. The article examines the findings of a experiment carried out by a Chinese company on the effects of remote working. The experiment collected and compared feedback data and statistics of two groups, one working remotely and the other doing the same job in the office. The experiment found that there was an increase in positive attitude and a decrease in work related exhaustion, both of which would have a substantial positive impact on the employee’s mental health. The experiment review goes into great detail providing statistics, data and figures to support each result (Nicholas Bloom, 2013)

Similarly at home in Ireland an article on “the impact of flexible working arrangements on work-life conflict and work pressure in ireland” by Helen Russell, Philip J. O’Connell and Frances McGinnity reveal that remote working arrangements saw a reduction in both work pressure and work life conflict in cases where the employee was partaking in remote working (Helen Russell, 2007), this would have a massive positive impact on one’s mental health.

Pollution is another global issue which could be addressed through remote working. Of course, it would eliminate the need for workers to commute often long distances in single occupant vehicles. This would reduce each worker’s carbon footprint massively and reduce pollution overall. In fact Juliet Chen’s research found that the daily American workers commute alone amounts for over 98% of their work related carbon footprint (Chen, 2020).

Not only this but she also provides data on the greater carbon emissions from data centres responsible for holding the data of massive office blocks in comparison to those of the cloud which is generally used by remote workers being much less. There would also be a severe reduction in office supplies used and energy consumption as the majority of remote workers already have someone at home who is using the same light/heat that they would need to use for working anyways.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace is currently more topical than ever as businesses are beginning to see the importance of moving toward a diverse and inclusive workforce. Remote working is something which promotes and facilitates both diversity and inclusion in the workplace in ways that are not possible in many physical offices.

Firstly, remote work allows people to work from anywhere with a wifi connection and a laptop in most cases. This provides a global catalogue of diverse workers, ranging in nationality, age and language, to companies allowing them to be as diverse as ever. This would not be possible in many physical roles as employees would be required to move country to the offices of these companies and apply for a visa to enter and work in the country which can be a long and expensive process but now, they can be either hired directly as employees where a visa is not required or as a contractor for the business so that the use of a visa is not necessary (Kowalska, 2023).

Not only does this increase diversity of the workforce but it acts as a form of foreign direct investment as people from lower income countries who may not have had the opportunity to benefit the same way financially as people in first world countries through their high-income skills can now do so. Remote work promotes equal opportunities globally. This was ever obvious at Meta where the world economic forum reported that they hit their diversity goals two years earlier than expected and credited the success to their adaptation of remote working (Feingold, 2022)

Remote working also offers diversity and inclusion for people which disabilities as evaluated by the Irish department of enterprise, trade and employment. They highlighted the increase of employment amongst people with disabilities and people of older ages thanks to the facilitations of remote working (Williamson, 2022). This report was extremely valuable to me in my research as it provided data and findings on all benefits and impacts of remote working which I am discussing in this project not just diversity and inclusion.

The final major issue which remote working can offer a solution to is the housing crisis, currently there is not enough houses to home the labour force in the major cities. This is also causing houses on the market’s prices to rise drastically. The global property guide has reported Ireland’s property prices have rose 113.3% in the last 10 years (Global Property Guide, 2023). This isn’t sustainable and is causing many Irish people to emigrate.

Remote working gives people the ability to work from anywhere. This allows them to live as far away from the companies’ headquarters or offices as they like. Thanks to this remote working will reduce the amount of people seeking housing in major cities for employment purposes and increase the number of people living in rural or developing areas. This would also contribute to rural development and investment as more people will be building and buying homes in rural area which will create jobs in a number of sectors. There will also be a need for many new businesses such as shops, restaurants, cafes etc in these rural areas thanks to the influx of new homeowners (Williamson, 2022).

This is already evident in the United States of America where a journal article revealed that between the years of 2020 and 2022 there was a significant decrease in location demand in popular housing areas and that the general housing cost also decreased thanks to the adaptation of remote working due to the covid 19 pandemic (Greg Howard, 2023)

Research Methods

One research method that I relied on heavily for this study was qualitative research. Qualitative research often overlooks figures and numerical data instead focusing on peoples beliefs and feelings toward certain things. Methods such as case studies and observational studies like surveys and interviews are used in this particular research method and information is gathered based on people’s beliefs and feedback (Bhandari, 2020). This was necessary particularly when researching the impact of remote working on mental health as people’s feelings and thoughts were one of the most important factors in deciding whether or not the concept of remote working would have a positive impact on people’s mental health and could be offered as a solution to that global crisis.

The opposite to qualitive research is quantitative research. This is research focusing on gathering and analysing numerical data, facts and figures using methods such as experiments (Bhandari, What Is Quantitative Research? | Definition, Uses & Methods, 2020). An experiment is one method in particular which I actually used myself to help research my topic (Nicholas Bloom, 2013) the numerical data gathered from this experiment was able to support my claims that working from home will improve workers mental health.

The use of both quantitative and qualitative together as used by me in this project is known as mixed research methods. It offers a panoramic viewpoint and gives a more complete report of a topic (Shorten A, 2017). My theory was pre built and tested using the mixed methods approach.

These paired with my realism philosophy, which I identified and selecting using the HARP activity, made for a well rounded and researched study with both qualitative and quantitative data in support for the question being asked “Is remote working the answer to some of our biggest global issues?” led to us being able to come to a conclusion that yes it would definitely offer great support to solving many of the worlds biggest modern issues.

References

Bhandari, P. (2020, June 19). What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples. Retrieved from Scribbr: https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/

Bhandari, P. (2020, June 12). What Is Quantitative Research? | Definition, Uses & Methods. Retrieved from Scribbr: https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/quantitative-research/

Chen, J. (2020, April 24). Is Remote Work Greener? We Calculated Buffer’s Carbon Footprint to Find Out. Retrieved from Buffer : https://buffer.com/resources/carbon-footprint/#:~:text=Daily%20commute,-Environmentally%20speaking%2C%20one&text=The%20average%20American%20commutes%20to,employee’s%20work%2Drelated%20carbon%20footprint.

Cigna Healthcare . (2022, July). Employee burnout and stress – is the workplace to blame or can it be part of the solution? Retrieved from Cigna Healthcare: https://www.cignaglobal.com/blog/whole-health/employee-burnout-and-stress-is-the-workplace-to-blame-or-can-it-be-part-of-the-solution#:~:text=Alarmingly%2C%2084%25%20of%20employees%20reported,has%20affected%20their%20mental%20health.

Feingold, S. (2022, July 21). Remote work fuels major diversity boost at Meta. Retrieved from world economic forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/meta-remote-work-diversity-boost/

Global Property Guide. (2023). House Price Change 10 Years (Nominal) in Ireland compared to Europe. Retrieved from Global property guide : https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/europe/ireland/price-change-10-years

Greg Howard, J. L. (2023). The short- and long-run effects of remote work on U.S. housing markets. Journal of Financial Economics, 166-184.

Helen Russell, P. J. (2007, May Gender Work and Organization). The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Work-Life Conflict and Work Pressure in Ireland . pp. 4-9.

Kowalska, A. R. (2023, April 21). How to work remotely for a US company from abroad. Retrieved from rippling: https://www.rippling.com/blog/work-remotely-for-a-us-company

Nicholas Bloom, J. L. (2013, march). Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment. Retrieved from national bureau of economic research : https://www.nber.org/papers/w18871

Shorten A, S. J. (2017). Mixed methods research: expanding the evidence base. Evidence-Based Nursing, 74-75.

Williamson, H. (2022, May 18). An Evaluation of the Impacts of Remote Working. Retrieved from Government of ireland: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/96175-an-evaluation-of-the-impacts-of-remote-working/

Timeline

Task	duration
HARP	20-21^st november
Collection of sources + brainstorming	20-31^st November
Create a plan	31^st – 31^st November
overview	1-3^rd december
Literature review	3-9^th December
Research method	9-15^th December
Proof read	18^th December
Submit	18^th December

HARP

HARP is an activity designer by Bristow and Saunders to help one get a better understanding and test their own research philosophy. You give your opinion on a selection of categorised questions with your response ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Each answer holds a numerical value and at the end you add up the total value of each section to see which research philosophy reflects your own the most.

My results

Positivism – 6

Critical realism – 12

Interpretivism – 12

Postructuralism – postmodernism – 9

Pragmatism – 10

These results imply that my philosophy is divided between critical realism and interpretivism. Interpretivism in research takes peoples beliefs and views into account while also allowing those beliefs and views to be shaped by peoples past experiences, feelings and surroundings. Realism is the opposite it believes there is truth and facts on all topics regardless of ones beliefs or their feelings. I have decided to focus on realism while researching my project as the supporting sources required to answer my question require factual evidence and data to be considered as good supporting arguments for remote working.

Table of contents

Introduction…………………………………………pg1

Literature review………………………………….pg2

Research methods………………………………..pg5

References……………………………………………pg7

Timeline……………………………………………….pg8

HARP…………………………………………………….pg8