Browsing by Subject "työn kuormitus- ja voimavaratekijät"

The COVID-19 pandemic drove knowledge workers to work remotely from their homes starting from spring 2020. The purpose of this study is to identify the stressors and resource factors that are reflected in knowledge workers’ experiences when changing to work remotely. In addition, this thesis aims to identify the changes that both individuals and organizations have made in their practices and activities in order to support well-being at work during a pandemic. In this thesis, the experiences of the interviewees are examined from the perspective of the job demands and resources model. In addition, the theoretical framework of the study is also based on self-determination theory which looks at the effect of satisfaction of the basic psychological needs on the experience of work-related well-being. The study was conducted qualitatively and the research material consisted of ten semi-structured interviews. The participants of this research were knowledge workers in different fields, and they had all moved to do their work remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview questions focused on the use of technology and its changes, differences in social interaction, and the support received by the organization during the remote work period. Both the workload and resource factors were noticeable from the research results. In this study, workload factors were divided into psychosocial, cognitive, and physical. The workload factors were related to the challenges of interaction and communication experienced in remote communication, the longing for physical interaction, the challenges of reconciling work and other life, the challenges of recovering from work, and the challenges of physical ergonomics. The job resources in remote work consisted of the support received from the work community, the increased flexibility and efficiency of work, the accessible leadership perspective, and the facilitation of reconciling work and family life. Individuals and organizations adapted their work practices and activities so that the workload requirements were reduced and the resource factors were strengthened. Individuals created new practices to address communication challenges in remote work, sought to increase a sense of relatedness in the work community, paid more conscious attention to their own recovery from work, and tried to avoid the occurrence of cognitive stress by influencing their own attitudes. Organizations identified the workload factors of remote work and adapted their practices by providing support to employees to minimize cognitive, psychosocial, and physical strain. This research provides targeted information on the effects of the transition of knowledge workers well-being at work following the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this research will provide more information about workload and resource factors in remote work and the ways in which individuals and organizations can influence the occurrence of these factors in remote work.