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ISSN: 1220-1766 eISSN: 1841-429X
1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a large
population to work remotely. The temporary shift
from the traditional workspace to remote working
has triggered signifcant changes in working
patterns, leading to a new layer of complexity
(i.e., professional isolation). The transformations
related to the COVID-19 pandemic have altered
the norms while diminishing the cross-cultural
boundaries. The pandemic has pushed businesses
and other entities to expand their operations
beyond the national borders. This expansion has
led to a change in working methods, especially
to a fexible schedule and work from home.
These changes have also been found in the
application areas of communication technology
and the use of information (Raišiene et al., 2020).
Telework or work from home ofers fexibility and
independence to employees and the possibility
to be close to one`s family. At the same time,
the impact of employees on the environment is
reduced, considering specifc aspects of transport.
In early 2020, many global companies made it
easier for employees to work from home to avoid
overcrowding. As a result, employees’ interests
in teleworking began to grow, and this facility
came to be accepted by more and more workers
(Nguyen, 2021). Over time, employees began to
feel the need to socialize. As a result, employees
began to return to work at low rates in some
countries, feeling constrained by working from
home. However, the fuctuations in COVID-19
outbreaks have made workers switch to working
from home again earlier this year, 2021 (Li
et al., 2020; Pulido-Martos et al., 2021). The
Covid-19 period led to millions of workers in
the European Union and worldwide working
from home. In 2020, approximately 40% of
workers in the EU carried out full-time telework
(European Commission, 2020). Teleworking is
positively related to frm performance (Sánchez
Studies in Informatics and Control, 30(4) 77-86, December 2021
https://doi.org/10.24846/v30i4y202107
ICT Revolution from Traditional Ofce to Virtual Ofce:
A Study on Teleworking During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Muddassar SARFRAZ
1
, Larisa IVASCU
2,3
*, Kausar Fiaz KHAWAJA
4
,
Adrian Victor VEVERA
5
, Florin DRAGAN
6
1
College of International Students, Wuxi University, 333 Xishan Avenue, Wuxi, 214105, China
muddassar.sarfraz@gmail.com
2
Management Department, Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation,
Politehnica University of Timisoara, 14 Remus Street, Timisoara, 300009, Romania
larisa.ivascu@upt.ro (*Corresponding author)
3
Academy of Romanian Scientists, 3 Ilfov Street, 050044 Bucharest, Romania
4
Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University, Sector H-10, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan
kausar.khawaja@iiu.edu.pk
5
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, 8-10 Maresal Averescu Avenue,
Bucharest, 01145, Romania
victor.vevera@ici.ro
6
Department of Automation and Applied Informatics, Faculty of Automation and Computers,
Politehnica University of Timisoara, 14 Remus Street, Timisoara, 300009, Romania
forin.dragan@upt.ro
Abstract: The biggest challenge of today’s world is to adjust to the rapidly changing environment brought about by the
COVID-19 pandemic, where uncertainty and unpredictability have become the norm. The advanced technological tools
used during the pandemic have altered communication, employee motivation, and the employees` desire for personal
connectivity. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the efect of professional isolation on the teleworker’s job
performance, motivation, and turnover intention. This study also considers the moderating role of the access to information
and communications technology. In this context, a survey was carried out among the employees from the telecommunications/
IT sector in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan and 478 complete/usable responses were received and analysed. In
this paper, the MACRO PROCESS computational procedure was employed. A confrmatory factor analysis was carried out,
along with an analysis on Pearson correlation, internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity of the variables employed
in this study, and hierarchical moderated regression analysis with the purpose of testing six hypotheses. The obtained results
show that there is a negative relationship between professional isolation and the employees` job performance and motivation.
On the other hand, professional isolation is positively associated with turnover intention. To that, professional isolation and
the access to communication-enhancing technology (ACET) signifcantly afect employee job motivation.
Keywords: Professional isolation, Job performance, Motivation, Turnover intention, ICT, COVID-19.