Beyond digitalization: the role of structured management practices in the uptake of working from home after COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in working from home (WFH). Part of this increase in WFH is likely to stick post-COVID. One question is: in which firms will it? Using survey data covering over 1,500 firms across industries in the Netherlands, we find that WFH is more likely to stick in firms with structured management practices. This finding holds even whilst controlling for firms’ level of digitalization.

KEYWORDS:

• Working from home
• management practices
• digitalization
• COVID-19

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• D22
• L22
• M20

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with Erik Stam while writing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.