The Next Normal Impact On Organizational Dynamics By Telecommuting Practices In Information Technology Industry Of Sri Lanka.
- February 2, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue I, January 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Ayodya S. R. Dahanayake
Doctoral Student of Business Administration, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Abstract
The information technology sector is the fourth largest export earner of Sri Lanka. The output of ICT services are highly important for the economic stability of the country. The ICT sector currently services over 300 companies in different industry verticals. The export revenue of the industry was increased since 2007, USD 213 million to USD 1089 million in 2019. The ICT sector s created more than 150,000 employment opportunities in 2020, which is expected to increase over 200,000 employment opportunities by 2022. With the Covid 19 pandemic, the IT infrastructure requirements were increased island wide in all sectors. The pandemic has become an eye opener for many industries and new strategic imperatives were implemented. The pandemic encouraged most of the industries to trial telecommuting strategy and the majority of the companies moved to the remote working concept. Especially in the IT sector telecommuting has become new normal after the first wave of the corona pandemic in Sri Lanka. Most likely, most IT organizations will stick to giving their employees the opportunity of remote work even if the pandemic is over. However, there could be gaps in telecommuting practices and the productivity of employees by remote work is still questionable. This paper provides an opportunity to have a basic understanding on the gaps of the telecommuting practices and how they could affect the employee productivity. The reviews from different papers and articles on telecommuting practices at the global level and in the Sri Lankan context are also included in this study The literature review emphasize the empirical discussions related to the IT sector both internationally and locally about the challenges and the suggestions which other researchers made. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing the overall reviews and by making suggestions to overcome the situation in the long run, and also highlighting the further research areas related to the topic.
Keywords: Covid 19, Employee Productivity, IT Industry, Sri Lanka, Telecommuting
1.0 Introduction
The information Technology industry has become the key among all the other industries since IT has become crucial for all other sector developments. ICT is considered as the most essential and emergent sector worldwide. New inventions and the technological enhancements have limited human intervention and most of the projects were run using IT support through machinery (Minsela , 2018). Due to globalization and the increase of the online business platforms targeting profit benefits has influenced the IT infrastructure enhancements (Iedeals & Montellas, 2017). The IT support and services have become essential for all types of businesses during the past two decades. Most of the business ventures are looking for online platforms while they run the normal operation. Most business models have widened up their businesses by using online channels, not only targeting the local customers but also targeting the customers in other geographical areas. Due to this the technological improvements have become crucial, and the demand for the IT support and services have increased over the past two decades.
With the Covid 19 pandemic situation, most companies have come up with new business models that could function with less human intervention. Certain companies have limited their staff and initiated their online platforms. The banks have strengthened their online platforms and encouraged the customers to use the online platforms without visiting branches. Most of the other sectors also have enhanced their online payment gateways and online business portals. The internet penetration in Sri Lanka was increased by eight hundred thousand users, which is an increase of 7.9% between 2020 and January 2021 (Kemp, 2021).
The majority of the ICT sector organizations in Sri Lanka have changed their operation by giving the employees to work from home. The IT sector did not have a considerable impact from Covid 19 compared to other sectors in Sri Lanka since the employees have functioned remotely. From the Covid 19 first wave in Sri Lanka, the sector was fully in operation, remotely catering to the increasing customer demands. Telecommuting has been identified as a positive approach after the corona pandemic in Sri Lanka.
Even though the organizations have seen the benefits of telecommuting in the current situation, there could be drawbacks in the long run.
2.0 Literature Review
Majority of the organizations in the ICT sector in Sri Lanka have come up with the concept of working from home after the covid pandemic first wave. Organizations have realized the benefits of telecommuting practices and this has become new normal in the IT industry now. The concept of telecommuting provides a financial benefit directly to the employer. The building rentals and infrastructure costs, utility costs and many other costs could be eliminated since the employees function remotely. At the same time, employees also get some sort of benefit by telecommuting, such as saving time and money by not traveling to the workplace (Gorlick, 2020). They could also reduce the costs of office clothing, outside food, and other work related expenses. Also this helps stop spreading diseases to others at the office.
