Work-From-Home or Pre-Pandemic Office-Based Setting

Research Paper Outline
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1.0. Introduction
1.1. Problem Statement
COVID-19-induced restrictions created unprecedented disruption for the businesses. To cope with the situation and ensure the continuity of businesses, the organizations decided to rely on remote work arrangements to minimize human contact and keep the lockdowns from affecting the business processes (Buchanan et al., 2021). While work from home scenario brought several opportunities for employees and employers, such as reduced cost, enhanced flexibility, diversity, and enhanced scope for recruitment, it also posed critical challenges. Some challenges include barriers to effective communication, lack of supervision, lack of workplace-like camaraderie and psychological implications, cybersecurity issues, and difficulties maintaining the organization's cultural identity (Franken et al., 2021). In the post-pandemic scenario, several organizations are at a crossroads as they determine their future choices. The question arises whether the organizations should continue with the work-from-home arrangement or return to a pre-pandemic office-based setting.
For this purpose, conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis of each prospect's potential benefits and challenges is important. Since the corporate world is still in its premature transition phase, it is challenging to locate reliable evidence and use it as the base for the decision. The theoretical debates are also divided in this regard, outlining that the remote work arrangement is a dual-edged sword (Doliver, 2022). These indicators warrant a detailed inquiry into the opportunities and potential costs associated with the remote work arrangement in the post-pandemic scenario.
1.2. Research Objectives
The research compares the opportunities and challenges associated with remote work arrangements in post-pandemic scenarios to help managers make informed choices. This aim is broken down into the following key objectives and research questions to serve as the roadmap for the study:
1.2.1. Objectives
* To identify the opportunities associated with remote work arrangements.
* To identify the challenges associated with the remote work arrangement.
* To compare the opportunities and challenges to help concerned managers inform their choices.
* To provide recommendations from organizational and human resource management perspectives based on the comparative analysis between the opportunities and challenges of remote work arrangement in post-pandemic scenarios.
1.2.2. Research Questions
* Which factors have contributed to the preference for remote work arrangement in the post-pandemic scenario?
* Which factors associated with remote work arrangement can contribute to organizational performance?
* What challenges do human resource managers face while managing people remotely?
* How communication issues related to remote work arrangements can affect team performance?
* Which management strategies are helpful while dealing with the challenges associated with remote work arrangements?
1.3. Background
The recent research considering the trends of work-f...