A Research Proposal

During the COVID-19 epidemic, remote work as a business employment choice has seen enormous expansion across a wide range of industries and professions. However, there is a crucial issue regarding the circumstances of people who engage in remote work that most, if not all, firms still need to ask. Are any adverse effects of working remotely more severe than those of working in person? Examples include those that are physical, social, environmental, emotional, mental, or psychological. Despite the technology that makes it possible to operate remotely, the extended isolation of those who do so can exacerbate one or more of the abovementioned problems. Businesses that often detect trends with people due to an in-person working environment may need to quickly notice remote work’s possible issues or destructive features due to the same isolation. The suggested research should shine a light on these neglected areas to help businesses recognize them and find solutions to these issues to support a better environment for remote working and trust between businesses and teleworkers.

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic has caused a considerable increase in workplaces that have switched to full or partial reliance on remote work to keep operations going forward for more than two years. However, the option to work from home has long existed before the global medical issue; thus, it is not a novel or actionable concept. The aim of this study is to get insight into the consequences of teleworking on individuals, regardless of how long that experience may have been at this time. It does not examine how teleworking affects businesses directly. Due to the conditions surrounding COVID-19, this study may help determine the future benefits and drawbacks of teleworking for people’s well-being. Businesses may also use the findings to improve their policies and procedures for dealing with remote work and their remote work environment. Any conclusions must be seen in the light of the fact that the global coronavirus pandemic is an essential factor in a study of this kind. Although working from home has several benefits for people’s well-being, teleworking currently has more drawbacks than benefits. This is true regardless of whether an individual or company chooses to work from home or an actual workplace.

Issue Statement

Despite the benefits of the widespread expansion of teleworking options, the isolation associated with remote work can have adverse effects on people that would otherwise go unnoticed by employers and perhaps even by the people affected. This proposal will review previous studies of some relevance, the merits, design, and potential schedule of the research, the nature and presentation of the results, and any ethical considerations, implications, and research limitations to provide initial clarity to this hypothesis and demonstrate the need for this research project to gain further clarity.

Research Review

There have previously been previous studies on some of the topics that this research study will cover, based on some formative research on the effect of remote work on an individual’s wellness. This section will discuss some relevant material published in different parts of the world and relates to the various physical, social, environmental, emotional, mental, or psychological side effects that people have experienced in prior teleworking studies.

The first part of the article will be based on research done before the coronavirus led to a sharp increase in telework as a viable alternative for employment. According to Ojala et al. (2014, p. 73), the emotional and psychological effects of working virtually from home may have a negative impact on family relationships. Given that this study examined data from the early 21st century, it is conceivable that the many detrimental effects of distant labor on people were already apparent at the time. Over the following 20 years, these difficulties may have become worse in society. Younghwan and Gao (2020, p. 2659) claim that the additional stress that comes with telework has a negative impact on people who work remotely generally. This statistic is crucial to understand because each person’s well-being is subjective due to the disparities in every individual. Additionally, Tietze and Musson (2010, p. 149–150) make a crucial point when they mention that as the idea of what constitutes legitimate paid employment needs to be reinterpreted, personal identity concerns may also have an impact on how distant work affects households. Therefore, if those who work remotely had to conceptually reevaluate their own personal identity, this would further support the stress and other potentially harmful effects of telework on various facets of life that would also affect everyone around the individual.

The global coronavirus pandemic has significantly increased the knowledge available for around two years, in addition to the literary research on the impacts of distant labor on people throughout the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Palumbo (2020, p. 773) says that “the juxtaposition of private life and work-related duties…undermine the gains of working from home in terms of work-life balance and nourish life-to-work conflicts.” The connection between private life and work life through remote work also has the potential to change the perception of job availability for individuals to keep their positions; people. Knardahl and Christensen (2022, p. 100) take notice of a similar issue with the adverse effects of being longer available for work on teleworkers. However, they do not provide any specific implications. The information from these investigations has led to an increase in conflicts between life and work.

The idea of isolationism, while always present in a remote working environment, has become a much more significant topic of interest due to the global limits during COVID-19. This is another theme in the background research for this study. It should be closely monitored even though it is not the primary theme in any of the studies that come after because isolation can simultaneously affect all six of the aforementioned side effects. According to Akiyoshi et al. (2021, p. 2), telework has elevated stress levels due to presenteeism, social isolation, and marginalization. In addition, Jämsen and Sivunen (2022, p. 2) note that while teleworking has some benefits, it is more difficult to establish them because of the isolation and lowered general well-being. In addition to isolationism, stress, sadness, and more work, Niebuhr et al. (2022, p. 3) examine the physical health risks associated with a hurriedly constructed and ergonomic workstation. According to Perelman et al. (2021, p. 5), working from home full-time is associated with increased negative emotions like despair and anxiety and physical problems like insomnia. These papers examine several of remote work’s adverse effects. However, all four of them agree that isolationism is a crucial aspect that can influence telework’s numerous negative impacts on people’s well-being. This idea is fundamental in COVID-19 settings because of the limited options for workplace adjustments and the limitations in every aspect of life outside work.

The extent of well-being in remote work has also received little attention from studies, particularly during the coronavirus lockdowns. According to Guler et al. (2021, 731), a few studies have shown a variety of adverse physical side effects from moving to entirely remote employment because of COVID-19. Graham et al. (2021, p. 939) also point out that more research needs to be done on how people fared during the coronavirus epidemic. There isn’t much research about the adverse effects of remote work on people’s well-being, let alone how much each can affect a person’s livelihood and relationships. This study might fill a gap that hinders firms from thinking of practical solutions to some of these observable adverse effects.

This earlier research lists several causes for the negative consequences that working from home might have on people. However, many others claim that the absence of particular data makes it unclear how severe these adverse effects are. Even though there are benefits and drawbacks to working from home, it is difficult to define these benefits and drawbacks because teleworking often overlaps with interpersonal and social relationships. Additionally, because COVID-19 served as the impetus for several of these investigations, the data from each study cannot be read generally because the worldwide crisis that compelled the dramatic rise in teleworking conditions prevented standard interpretation of the findings.

Relevance and advantages of the study

Understanding the variables that affect people and the distinctions between commuting for work and teleworking are the two most significant advantages of conducting a study on the effects of remote work on people. Situations that are physical, social, environmental, emotional, mental, and psychological can have an impact on people. These requirements are necessary because, if one or more are out of balance, a person may quit a job out of dissatisfaction or cease teleworking entirely owing to circumstances that might be easily attributed to the workplace. Since a person’s career and other aspects of their life sometimes overlap, working remotely enables people to identify with others with comparable work environments and personal situations and provides businesses with an overview of teleworking as a whole. Due to the in-person interactions with office employees, it is considerably simpler to evaluate the work environment when most employees commute for their jobs. However, the work environment and even the impact of the work on specific employees are difficult to observe when telework is the primary mode of intra-company communication. This research will help businesses better understand how a different work environment and its perceptions impact not only the bottom line, which keeps companies in business but also the potential benefits and drawbacks that remote work might have on specific employees within their organizations. In the end, businesses can choose what adjustments, if any, must be made to satisfy the needs of their employees and maintain growth within the market they serve.

Research Approach

The research design that is being suggested has four phases. Planning and idea generation, research and observation, completion and results, deliverables, and presentation are how they should be done. These should cover all the project’s research requirements.

The planning and brainstorming stage is the initial step in the study design. The study team would first create survey questions that would incorporate the six conditional qualities that impact people working remotely during this phase. Most of these inquiries ought to be multiple-choice or based on a degree of agreement or disapproval. There should also be a few open-ended questions that address topics that are challenging to describe in responses constrained by a scale or a small number of options. The study team will also locate web hosts for the poll and industries and particular businesses employing teleworkers that would welcome the findings from such research. Even though the survey shouldn’t be restricted to big companies or recruiters who can place people in remote work roles, these kinds of businesses are good places to start because they could stand to gain crucial insight into how teleworking might affect the brand’s image or business strategy.

Lastly, individuals performing the research in phase two must address any ethical issues a survey can raise. With this kind of research, personal privacy is a significant concern, so it should be prioritized in all the following stages of the research effort. Any personally identifying data submitted through the survey should be destroyed or handled with care.

The survey and observation phase is the second stage of the research design. During this phase, the study team will contact numerous companies to request individual involvement in the web survey and offer incentives to promote participation. The letter should contain the following:

• Clear instructions for the survey.
• A request for a written report on the findings.
• An invitation to an oral presentation or question-and-answer session to further explain the results.

The results and completion phase is the third step in the study design process. The survey’s findings should be compiled into valuable data and prepared for presentation during this stage. Since surveys will be finished gradually up until the determined hard stop date, this phase can be implemented concurrently with later phases of phase two. After this time, a written report for phase four can be created using the entire survey data gathered.

The deliverable and presentation phase is the last step in the research design process. The relevant staff will get the research project’s findings during this stage. The expected audiences will be prepared through virtual and live data presentations and question-and-answer sessions. This phase may also require cooperation and communication with additional audiences, as the parties initially interested in the data may be one of many who can use it.

Results’ Nature and Format

When analyzing answer patterns, gender, age groups, and single or married status should be considered. Individuals in these three categories should have similar responses, which should be presented to the intended audience. To uncover more precise trends and to look at any commonalities shared in age groups that a broad gender-only study would not have revealed, commonalities between genders can be further broken down into different age categories. Furthermore, there might be similarities between single and married individuals that weren’t evident in studies that looked solely at age or gender. The findings of those questions might be explained using bar graphs and pie charts, respectively, as the majority of the questions received in the online survey would either be on a scale of agreement or multiple choice. To better explain answer options and ranges among the responses, all free-answer questions should have answer extrapolations, the most typical answers, and a few pertinent instances of extremes offered.

The relevant parties should get a written report of this presentation to provide them with reading material for improvement. However, after the written statements are distributed, the details should also be clarified through oral presentations or question-and-answer sessions so businesses can use written and verbal communication to make sound judgment calls on improvements needed for employee well-being and continued business growth and success.

Budget

Most of the study funding should be allocated to travel costs to deliver the project’s results to the many audiences who can use them to improve telework. However, since the technology does exist to present the results via video conferencing, any audience who decides that the need to be present in person is not necessary will save money on travel costs, allowing these costs to be better accounted for during the planning and survey stages when connecting with various businesses. Given the potential for global travel, presentations should be made domestically first and only globally once the research has been determined to be deserving of acknowledgment in other nations. Therefore, it would be challenging to budget for cash for an overseas trip at this time. A live presentation session would be worthwhile if financing is available from other nations or multinational corporations.

A web setup for the survey and finances to communicate with and motivate the many firms that have opted to participate in the survey phase will also be required. Funding for the team will also need to be considered if the research team brings in a third party to assist with the planning, survey, and outcomes stages.

Schedule

Phase one of the research process should take two to three months to plan and develop. The timetable for this phase is based on how long it is anticipated to take to look into and formulate the survey and observation questions, as well as the companies providing participants, the data collection methods, and any initial ethical requirements and procedures that must be established and followed throughout the remainder of the research process.

The survey and observation phases of phase two of the study process should have a four-month definite stop date. Due to the probable busyness of the firm or individual, all companies and survey participants should be given at least three full months to complete the survey. As a result, the first portion of this phase will be spent on getting in touch with businesses and requesting their participation. Up until the last month, when they should be delivered every week, reminders to complete the survey should be sent out monthly.

After phase two, phase three of the research process, results, and completion should take another month. This phase should be finished concurrently with the middle and later parts of phase two because elements of phase three can be continuously compiled from the findings of phase two. After completing the survey and observation phase, the final results and write-up should take a maximum of a month.

It should take three to four weeks to complete the deliverable and presentation phases of the research process. It should take around a week to deliver the research’s written findings. Organizing and carrying out oral presentations, as well as question-and-answer sessions, should initially consume the entire given time. The presenting portion of this step may take another few months, depending on how much interest there is in the research project, as there is a strong likelihood that there will be more interested parties after the first corporations are given the data.

Ethics-Related Matters

The questions used to collect data throughout the study project’s data collection phase must safeguard the individual’s privacy and be broad enough to prevent participants from mistakenly being biased toward personal situations other than the effects of teleworking. Many people’s conditions have radically changed due to the coronavirus medical issue, which just emerged. The overall environment may bias any data collected more than the teleworking environment. The ethical problems of unintentional large-scale data manipulation from either the wrong types of questions or information coming from personal circumstances rather than general remote working conditions could lead businesses to use the study results in the wrong direction when seeking to improve policies and procedures. This is because the study results should seek improvements in teleworking generally. Even in regions that may be devoid of circumstantial or biased information, this worry alone could undermine the credibility of the study’s team and any findings.

Additionally, canceling this research study after it has been completed may hurt hundreds of companies attempting to adopt better practices for remote work. This damage would manifest as a loss of income from the time spent on ineffectual improvements and a deterioration in the relationship between the employer and employee due to what would be perceived as a token response to complaints rather than words followed up by appropriate action. In order for the results to be used to achieve actual change, every effort should be made to ensure that there is as little contextual bias as possible during the planning and brainstorming process.

Implications & Things to Think About

The research has a significant consequence: any findings were more influenced by particular circumstances and a bias toward compelled acts than by a steady change in recent years. Even though remote labor has been gradually adopted over several decades, persons analyzing the results may not value the formative decades more than information and turmoil in more recent decades. Another implication of the possible research findings is the absence of primary, significant modifications that might be implemented to strengthen weak points in the teleworking environment. The study’s results are generalized. As every company model is unique, large-scale transformations may only apply to some organizations, regardless of what changes may be performed on a large scale.

The potential bias that a massive global event like COVID-19 has had on the rapid spread and integration of remote work into various businesses is one of the significant constraints of the proposed study. The accuracy of data gathered by any research soon may depend on the individual feelings and circumstances surrounding COVID-19 rather than the shift in how work is done precisely because of the various emotions and events the potential global medical phenomenon has cultivated. Another drawback is the need for more data on how different companies implemented teleworking and the effects of the coronavirus epidemic on temporary employment and working conditions for employees who were new to teleworking.

References

Akiyoshi, S., Katsunori, Y., Yoshiki, I., Yusaku, A., & Takeshi, I. (2021). Remote Work Decreases Psychological and Physical Stress Responses, but Full-Remote Work Increases Presenteeism. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730969

Graham, M., Weale, V., Lambert, K. A., Kinsman, N., Stuckey, R., & Oakman, J. (2021).

Working at Home: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Health, Family-Work-Life Conflict, Gender, and Parental Responsibilities. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(11), 938–943. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002337

Guler, M. A., Guler, K., Guneser Gulec, M., & Ozdoglar, E. (2021). Working From Home During a Pandemic: Investigation of the Impact of COVID-19 on Employee Health and Productivity. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(9), 731–741. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002277

Jämsen, R., & Sivunen, A. (2022). Employees’ perceptions of relational communication in full-time remote work in the public sector. Computers in Human Behavior, 132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107240

Knardahl, S., & Christensen, J. O. (2022). Working at home and expectations of being available: Effects on the perceived work environment, turnover intentions, and health. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 48(2), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3996

Niebuhr, F., Borle, P., Börner-Zobel, F., & Voelter-Mahlknecht, S. (2022). Healthy and Happy Working from Home? Effects of Working from Home on Employee Health and Job Satisfaction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3).

https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=0&sid=7e83423b-c04b-4271-ae95-e0abc1e938ae%40redis

Ojala, S., Nätti, J., & Anttila, T. (2014). Informal overtime at home instead of telework: Increase in the negative work-family interface. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34(1–2), 69–87.

Palumbo, R. (2020). Let me go to the office! An investigation into the side effects of working from home on work-life balance. The International Journal of Public Sector Management, 33(6/7), 771–790. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-06-2020-0150

Perelman, J., Serranheira, F., Barros, P. P., & Laires, P. (2021). Does working at home compromise mental health? A study on European mature adults in COVID times. Journal of Occupational Health, 63(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/1348-9585.12299

Tietze, S., & Musson, G. (2010). Identity, identity work, and the experience of working from home. The Journal of Management Development, 29(2), 148–156. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011019288

Younghwan, S., & Gao, J. (2020). Does Telework Stress Employees Out? A Study on Working at Home and Subjective Well-Being for Wage/Salary Workers. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(7), 2649–2668.

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The Research Proposal: Final Assignment

RESEARCH PROPOSAL: FINAL ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

The purpose of the Research Proposal: Final Assignment is to ensure you appreciate the challenge of setting up an effective research plan and consider the context, research questions, sources, timeline, integrated implications, analysis, and writing required. Building a proposal will demand you work through all the research stages explored throughout the course, including:
Clarifying the research question, designing the research; reviewing relevant scholarly literature, data collection, preparation, and examination; analyzing the data; and reporting on the research. Using the Research Proposal: Topic Assignment that has been approved, build a comprehensive research proposal on that topic. The Research Proposal: Final Assignment should use the following outline/structure and follow the suggested quantity of content for each element:

· Title – clear, concise, and well-defined to explain your research question. (Employee Incentives in the Workplace)

· Executive Summary – short summary of 100-250 words that include the research question, hypothesis of your research, the research methodology, and findings.

· Introduction (>200 words) – provide a background or context for your research problem. It should include the purpose, background, significance, issues, variables, and hypothesis.

· Problem statement (< 100 words) – clearly state the specific problem down to something that is researchable. Present it in a thesis statement and a hypothesis.

Explain the management research question hierarchy for the problem.
· Literature Review (1000-1300 words) – conduct extensive background research and support your research question with ample proof from scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. Credible sources and research. Additional help on literature reviews is below in the section titled Additional Help.

· Importance/Benefits of the Study (>250 words) – describe the explicit benefits

· Research Design (>400 words) – explains the phases of the research, sampling design, participants, data collection design, instruments, procedures, ethical requirements, etc.

· Nature and Form of Results (>250 words) – explain the anticipated form for the results, including the types and format of data for the expected audience.

· Budget (>150 words) – summary of costs and expenses necessary to conduct the research.

· Schedule (>150 words) – summarize the major phases, timelines, milestones and primary deliverables.

· Ethical considerations (>200 words) – must carefully consider data collection processes and participant rights.

· Implications and considerations (>200 words) – identify at least 2 implications and 2 limitations of the proposed study.

· References

BUSI 600 Page 2 of 3 Ensure the following requirements are met:

· Follow the outline, content structure and length provided in the assignment instructions

· At least 3,000 words (excluding the title page and references pages)

· Reference at least 10 scholarly (peer-reviewed) research articles. For assistance on how to identify scholarly sources, refer to the Liberty University

Research Portal tutorials (see Resources section).

· Use proper grammar, and current APA format and submit in MS Word format.
The Research Proposal: Final Assignment does not require an abstract

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