Three Organizational Perspectives on the Adoption of Telework

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20-30 years, many public sector organizations have adopted organizational forms that include multi-located organizational units, in which leaders and part of their subordinates work in different geographical locations. The COVID-19 lockdowns have caused a similar trend with an increased use of home offices. Consequently, many leaders today have people working from different geographical locations, and virtual leadership (distant leadership) has become the possible normal practice. The situation before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood from multiple theoretical perspectives within organizational research the technological, the performance gap and the institutional perspective. The purpose of this chapter is to present, illustrate and discuss these three organizational perspectives on the adoption of-and changes related to-telework and virtual leadership. The illustrations of these perspectives are conducted to the old normal and the lockdown period, while the discussion is in relation to possible "new normal practices.” The illustrations are drawn from Norwegian public organizations, and the perspectives build on classic and new contributions within organizational research. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.