Discussion: Probability and Nonprobability Sampling

Survey Research Methods

Research Proposal Introduction Draft

Introduction

According to Songsangyos and Iamamporn (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic made a lot of companies to embrace telecommuting in early 2020 instead of the traditional office operations. Moreover, the pandemic has given researchers opportunities to study the impact of the shift from remote working to office working under normal circumstances (Green et al., 2002). Due to the varied responses to the pandemic, the recovery progress from the effects of the pandemic is different among companies and countries. Some countries have managed to control the spread of the virus through lockdown, vaccinations, and other control measures. In places where the spread of the COVID-19 is controlled, the economy and society are recovering fast from effects of the pandemic and requiring employees to stop telework and shifting back to the worksite (Y.Wang et al., 2021).

Currently, organizations are reopening, notwithstanding the extraordinary rules governing physical guards like physical distancing and using personal protective equipment (PPE) (Y.Wang et al., 2021). Vyas and Butakhieo (2020) stated that some of the concerns of recalling employees back to office reflect common issues like job flexibility, organizational support, individual disease vulnerability, and differences in workstyle. Green et al. (2020) stated that individuals who never worked remote before has been heavy effective in this transtition back to the worksite from telework. One particular work sector that are going back to the worksite are admissions personnel at colleges, universities, and institutions. Therefore, the problem statement that will be studied is how employees are adjusting back to work in a centralized office post telework in COVID19 pandemic?

Purpose of Study

Prior to the pandemic, Hu (2020) notes that admissions were successful in advising students; however, in the midst of the pandemic, students are complaining due to the lack of in person communication because they cannot effectively utilize the technology that are in place. Hu (2020) stated that based on a survey, nearly half of college and university presidents indicated that need for additional support in instructional technology development. Now, admissions personnel are going back but the employees are not adjusting to well. Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garcés (2020) noted that telework allowed for flexibility and a work life and family balance. Green et al. (2020) states that once employees experienced telework, it is likely that many workers will want this situation to continue, at least in some capacity. Also, Green et al. (2020) notes that employees do recognize some communication shortcomings, but productivity, wellness, and satisfaction of the job are increased due to remote work.

Remote working has become the new normal (B.Wang et al., 2021). Though there are various studies like B.Wang et al. (2021) and Naughton (2021) which examine the impact of remote work experience, there are no studies that emphasis admission personnel adjustment after working remote but now transitioning to the worksite during the pandemic recovery. The present study aims at filling this gap to understand admissions personnel experiences and practices in returning to office after the COVID-19 and explore the impact of the work arrangement between office and home on their job attitudes, organizational commitment and working conditions.

Background/Literature

B.Wang et al. (2021) conducted a qualitative study that which involved online survey and semi-structured interviews on employees from a multinational organization to determine the impact of shift from teleworking to traditional office. At the time of the interviews and survey, the company had embraced both telecommuting and traditional office workplace, so their experiences had perception of the hybrid work mode was reliable. From the study, B.Wang et al. (2021) argued that the workers have a general perception that production and satisfaction is higher productivity in the telework, compared to the worksite office. This finding is important in informing organizations and helping them plan for post COVID-19 work mode. Moreover, this study identified that the shift from teleworking to traditional office was embrace by employees when they could do hybrid, a combination of telework and traditional office. Hybrid schedules was more favorable for the employees when the transition to traditional office which impacted the workers’ strategies and attitudes towards work which increased job satisfaction. Therefore, the present study will complement ongoing studies and contribute to appreciation of telecommuting and traditional working in the new working environment.

It is important to recognize that workers will need time to adapt to new working conditions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Naughton (2021) conducted a qualitative study that look at how admission advisors are facing communication challenges and how they are were forced to adapt to virtual formats. This study explored that virtual advising may address important information gaps and can support student enrollment at higher quality; however, virtual tools have not successfully replaced engaged and intensive support provided through interpersonal relationships and in person interaction. Naughton (2021) stated that students can face issues within person advising intervention because students needed the direct help and hand holding. Although virtual admissions advising were not ideal for the student, it did provide the admissions advisor the flexible schedule and less stress in dealing with student’s issues. Telework gave admissions personnel a flexible work arrangement during the pandemic. However, Naughton (2021) stated is not always beneficial in reality. For instance, the advisors were forced back on campus from telework for better collaboration and communication with the students. Teleworking is a critical dimension in future operations, but its impact on company overall performance is inconclusive.

Prior studies, Shaw et al. (2020) investigated the drawbacks and benefits of telework from different angles. Some studies show that remote work led to higher job satisfaction and increase productivities, because it provides workers more flexible working time. Conversely, teleworking may decrease productivity because of poor communication. The shift from remote working to traditional office work mode has specific challenges that impact employees. Some of the challenges include change in social interaction and blurring work-life balance. The initial response to COVID-19 necessitated remote working to most workers and impose health and social restrictions (Larochelle, 2020). The work conditions changed the dynamics of working, suggesting the need to study how resuming traditional office operation impact workers. The pandemic has given the researchers an opportunity to study shift to remote work and back to office at a large scale.

Social Exchange Theory

According to Cropanzano et al. (2017), social exchange theory suggests that social behavior is the result of an exchange process that maximize benefits and minimize costs. This theory allows individuals to weigh the potential benefits and risks relationships. When the risks outweigh the rewards, people will terminate or abandon that relationship. Garcia-Contreras et al. (2021) suggest that social exchange theory implies that employees who believe they can benefit from the option of telework will feel obligated to reciprocate an increased work effort by performing actions that will benefit the organization. Employees who work from home sees this as a privilege and now, feel obligated to the organization to perform much higher. Cropanzano et al. (2017) notes that social exchange theory indicates that employees consider the valuing of the ​benefits and costs of each relationship that will help to establish whether or not he or she choose to continue a social association.

Grounded Theory

According to Bratianu (2020), ground theory involves the gathering and analysis of data. It details the support of the data use to create theories and discover aspects under specific social fields after the data is collected. The method involves comparison between data collected from different sources to establish the differences and similarities (Chun Tie et al.,2019). Naughton (2021) used grounded theory methods to analyze and explore the experiences and perspectives of college advisers, as these methods are useful in the exploration of a social phenomenon of which little is currently understood. The present research will use sources for qualitative data published in official reports and journals concerning COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on return to work. Therefore, instead of collecting data, the study will involve search for reports addressing return to work after and during the pandemic. The paper will involve construction of conceptual framework based on the data collected.

Research Questions

Null Hypothesis : Admissions advisors, recruiters and representatives are more productive in telework instead of working at centralized office post COVID19.

Alternative Hypothesis 1: Admissions advisors, recruiters and representatives experiment low morale and low production when relocating back to the office after teleworking during COVID19.

Alternative Hypothesis 2: There is no sufficient change in production for admissions advisors, recruiters and representatives when transitioning from telework back in the office since COVID19.

As we examine how admissions personnel are transitioning from telework back to traditional office workplace, this study will help migrate an effective process for the organization and the employee with the transtition. With past studies, organizations have tried to embrace telework, but issues arise that looked like lack of communication between employee/employer or employee/consumer and a decrease in production. According to the Society of Human Resource Management (n.d.), employers are ending telework due to lack of performance of employees and/or revenue are down. This study will help bring social change from the organization to the employees by providing innovation for the future workplace that seeks to provide flexibility, job satisfaction, organization commitment and better working options and conditions. By examining how employees are adjusting, this will monitor different work option- telework, traditional office place or hybrid- which will be suitable for the employee for future references of post COVID-19 pandemic.

References

Belzunegui-Eraso, A., & Erro-Garcés, A. (2020). Teleworking in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. Sustainability, 12(9), 3662.

Bratianu, C. (2020). Toward understanding the complexity of the COVID-19 crisis: a grounded theory approach. Management & Marketing: Challenges for the Knowledge Society, 15(1), 410-423.

Vyas, L., & Butakhieo, N. (2020). The impact of working from home during COVID-19 on work and life domains: an exploratory study on Hong Kong. Policy Design and Practice, 4(1), 59-76.

Chun Tie, Y., Birks, M., & Francis, K. (2019). Grounded theory research: A design framework for novice researchers. SAGE Open Med, 7(1).

Garcia-Contreras, R., Munoz-Chavez, P., Valle-Cruz, D., Ruvalcaba-Gomez, E. A., & Becerra-Santiago, J. A. (2021). Teleworking in times of COVID-19. Some lessons for the public sector from the emergent implementation during the pandemic period: Teleworking in times of COVID-19. In DG. O2021: The 22nd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, 376-385.

Green, N., Tappin, D., & Bentley, T. (2002). Working from home before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic: Implications for workers and organization. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 45(2), 5-16.

Hu, X. (2020). Building an equalized technology-mediated advising structure: Academic advising at community colleges in the post COVID-19 era. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 44(10-12), 914-920.

Larochelle, M. (2020). Is it safe for me to go to work? Risk stratification for workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. NEJM Perspective.

Naughton, M. R. (2021). Cracks to craters: College advising during COVID-19. AERA Open, 7(1),1-12.

Shaw, W. S., Main, C.J., Findley, P. A., Collie, A., Kristman, V.L., & Gross, D. P. (2020). Opening the workplace after COVID-19: What lessons can be learned from return-to-work research? Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 30(1).

Society of Human Resource Management (n.d.). Why are some companies moving away from telework? Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/why-are-some-companies-moving-away-from-telework.aspx

Songsangyos, P., & Iamamporn, S. (2020). Remote working with work-life balance. International Journal of Applied Computer Technology and Information Systems, 9(2), 85-88.

Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Cui, W., Tang, J., Zhang, H., Walston, D., & Zhang, D. (2021). Returning to the office during the COVID-19 pandemic: Early indicators from China. In In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstract. Yokohama, Japan.