Research on Remote Work in the Era of COVID-19

Abstract

Greetings from your new Senior Editor! My new role entails working closely with the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Prashant Palvia, to solicit quality submissions, screen submissions for appropriateness to JGITM’s mission, and then shepherding submissions through our team of Reviewers and Associate Editors with the ultimate goal of seeing the best submissions get published. The journal’s impact factor improvement adjustment in 2019 from .923 to 1.571 is a testament to this journal’s commitment to excellence. Often, my role is simply liaising with authors to let them know the status of their submission. As a researcher myself, I understand that this can be a nerve-wracking process and I attempt to approach it with the same sensitivity that I would want for myself. What is less visible is the editorial staff’s communications with our publisher, Taylor & Francis, to manage the online submission process and the publication process on the backend. This has been a fascinating learning opportunity for me to see the inner workings of exactly how an academic journal functions. I am enthusiastic about continuing JGITM’s mission of publishing high quality research related to all aspects of the application of information technology for international business. It aligns very well with my own background of 18+ years of industry experience in global IT management. One of the more exciting aspects of my new role is getting a hand in steering the direction of the discussion and emerging topics. There is no question that the current emerging topic in IS research is COVID-related, especially with regard to remote work (also known as work-at-home, telework, virtual work, and telecommuting). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of global IT forever and “remote work” is now simply “work”. This has quickly become a cultural norm around the world due to the extensive use of information technologies including cloud computing, video conferencing, collaboration platforms, and broadband Internet. We have reached a tipping point for remote work as more and more CIOs have been forced by circumstances to overhaul their IT infrastructure to enable their employees to be productive remotely (Watson, Ives, & Piccoli, 2020). The pandemic has introduced new areas of IS research such as the use of contact tracing apps, COVID-19 infection dashboards, digital technologies to prevent the next pandemic, e-learning, and, of course, remote work (Recker, 2020). But the dire nature of the pandemic cannot be understated. As of this writing, there have been over 2.6 million reported deaths worldwide due to COVID-19 (see https://coronavirus.jhu. edu). And if not for the option of working remotely, this number would be astronomically higher.