Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5, 1676-1685 2024 Publisher: Learning Gate DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1888 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate * Correspondence: o.kopsidas@aegeancollege.gr Leadership challenges in SMEs as a result of remote work due to COVID-19 Archontis Efstathiou 1 , Odysseas Kopsidas 2* , Laura Maska 3 1,2,3 School of Business Administration, Aegean College, Athens, Greece; contact@andyefstathiou.com (A.E.) o.kopsidas@aegeancollege.gr (O.K.) lmaska@aegeancollege.gr (L.M.). Abstract: Soon after the rapid spread of COVID-19, most of the organizations started to seriously consider the possibilities offered by remote working (teleworking/working from home). The leadership tries to get the best out of the employees through continuous support. The positive aspects of telecommuting have been (among others) the improvement of work productivity, the reduction of overhead costs and the reduction of commuting time and movement and the increase of the possibility of work/life balance. As the number of organizations and employees who have adopted telecommuting continues to grow, the benefits are beginning to show, both in organizations and in the personal lives of employees. This paper investigates employee satisfaction with telecommuting, in the Greek working context, through the collection of primary data and their statistical processing. Keywords: COVID-19, Emloyment, Labor, Leadership, Management, SME. 1. Introduction As Dausend and Schieritz, (2020) state in their related publication entitled: Politics without touching, published in the newspaper DIE ZEIT regarding whether the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 affected the daily life of the members of the German Parliament, it is stated following: "my contact with citizens has been drastically reduced during the pandemic. But I need to know what the citizens think....” This finding is likely to apply even at the leadership level in small and medium-sized organizations. Given that the so-called small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a competent part of private entrepreneurship in Greece and a key pillar of the development of the Greek economy, it would be particularly important to answer the following structural questions: What are the ways of explaining the potential problems / challenges of the employees who act remotely using the telecommuting measure? What are the ways to utilize the experience produced through telecommuting at the level of business administration? In the end, is the institution of telecommuting just covering a pandemic necessity or will it become a universally used work practice in the near future? Is teleworking able to contribute to the sustainability and development of small and medium enterprises in the Modern Greek business reality? The research questions are the following: What is the effect of personal / professional life balancing on job satisfaction, in the midst of a pandemic, in the context of Greek, small and medium- sized organizations in the hotel (broader) sector? What is the effect of employee personality (based on the Big-5 model) on job satisfaction, in the midst of a pandemic in the context of Greek, small and medium- sized organizations in the hotel (broader) sector? What is the effect of perceived organizational support (provision of adequate technological equipment, perceived digital support, existence of performance monitoring mechanisms, etc.), on job satisfaction, in the midst of a pandemic, in the context of Greek, small and medium-sized organizations in the hotel (Broader) industry. 2. Literature Review The pandemic crisis of COVID-19 was both a very strong shock for the business world worldwide and also a justifying basis to implement it in a wide (almost universal if institutions such as the armed