GAUGING THE REACTIONS TO REMOTE WORKING AT IBM JAPAN DURING THE PERIOD OF COVID-19

The Japanese corporate mindset often tends towards a more conservative stance compared to that of the West. However, Japan has the most companies with a continuous operation history of over 200 years, having survived many turbulent times including pandemics and war. How then, might companies of today learn from Japanese success cases? Sustainability and longevity are commonly based on the successes born from past corporate history, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, severe internal effects, and economic impacts suggests a need for an agility that most Japanese companies are not familiar with. This research utilizes modified unstructured focus groups to investigate IBM Japan’s employees’ perceptions of remote working at the during the COVID-19 pandemic.