How E-Working Is Effective in Education: Observable Determinants and Challenges

Introduction

E-working or remote working is a situation when a worker works beyond traditional protocols at anyplace which fits his requirement either from home, cyber spaces, or co-working places with the manager's approval (Remote Year, 2020; Anscombe, 2020; Hilberath et al., 2020). Mutual trust between employee and the manger is particularly important in the case of e -working, as there are few expectations associated with each job profile that needs to be fulfilled when working remotely as well (Jarvenpaa & Staples, 2001). When working remotely or distantly, the representatives can encounter work environment separation that can withdraw them from their work and upset their performance and success (Collins et al., 2016; Marshall et al., 2007). Remote working can also be known as Telework, Telecommuting, Agnostic location, ROWE (Results only work environment, Home shored and Agile working (Grant et al., 2013; Howington, 2015). It has been reported that there are improved business results, retention of talents and better engaged employee through e working but the only difficulty is lack of supervision which is the major concern in e-working conditions (Nassazi, 2013) . Remote working has resulted in flexibility and productivity which has helped in reducing employers’ expenditure and has increased employees’ savings, enhanced employee job satisfaction etc. (Digneo, 2020). The period between 2005 and 2017 has seen 159 percent rise in remote working among US employees which intensified the job satisfaction among them (Wu, 2020). During Pandemic period currently it has been observed that 64 percent of US employees were working from home (Hirschhorn, 2020)(SHRM's COVID-19 Market Index) and 62 percent of American employees(Gallup, 2013) (Gallup 's research) and 88 percent of Indian employees prefer to work from home with flexibility (Business World, 2020). Compared to countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand (Business World, 2020), 69 percent of Indian employees believe that telework/remote working has resulted in higher productivity which is higher in the APAC countries (Business World, 2020). Constructs like ambiguity of the role, working environment inside the organisation, job security and the management style considerably influences the psychological well-being and balancing work life of the employees (Chambel et al., 2017; Grant et al., 2013; Medhi, 2020; Sheppard, 2016; Yadav et al., 2021).

Pandemic on one side needs seclusion and social distancing but on the other side individuals must restart the system that was halted due to the pandemic. The immediate requirement of becoming digital due to the current pandemic COVID -19 which has completely changed the working pattern of almost all the sectors and has invariably increased the workload and related stress of the employees. Even the education sector is affected with this paradigm shift. The education sector is, expected to overcome challenges in meeting twenty first century global demands and expectations. Education sector is key to longterm maintenance of the nation’s productivity and sustainability, the country's education sector has been going through continuous transition over the years. Working culture has been affected greatly in the higher education sector during pandemic. Teachers who were already struggling between teaching, administrative responsibilities and research for a better blended work life (Houston et al., 2006; Rapanta et al., 2020; Veletsianos & Houlden, 2020; Yadav et al., 2019; Yadav et al., 2022) are being burdened to prepare and take online classes. All academicians irrespective of the background and age have to formulate and execute their lectures notes or courses from home, handling all the pedagogic and technological issues they face without proper training and support (Hodges et al., 2020; Rapanta et al., 2020).