IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 22, Issue 2. Ser. IV (February. 2020), PP 63-74 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/487X-2202046374 www.iosrjournals.org 63 | Page Improving Remote Employees’ Organisational Productivity – Practical Guidelines for Identifying and Managing Bottlenecks in Today’s World Abdullah Alghaithi, *Prof. Khaled Sartawi PhD Scholar, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE *Corresponding Author Abstract:This study investigates the impact of bottlenecks onthe productivity of remote employees. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) increase the performance of employees as long as they get the required support from their organisations.The bottlenecks that arise are related to the nature of an organisation, the personality of an employee, family demands and the perceptions on the management of FWAs. Organisations that invest in enhanced communication andthe provision of support services are likely to address the possible bottlenecks with ease. They also attract and retain the best talent, thereby maintaining good performance. They can further usetotal quality management and the theory of constraints to assess the productivity of virtual or remote employees working on sequentially dependent tasks. Furthermore, this study proposes guidelines for minimising productivity bottlenecks. Keywords:productivity, bottleneck, virtual employees, remote workforces, total quality management, theory of constraints --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 04-02-2020 Date of Acceptance: 19-02-2020 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction Technological advances have either reduced or eliminated recruitment challenges. Organisations offer flexible work arrangements (FWAs) that benefit employersas well as employees. These arrangements overcome the factors associated with workers‟ inefficiencies, such as poor communication, ineffective accountability and increased disruptions. Organisations depending on sequential tasks through in-office and remote work collaborations face serious productivity challenges. It is common for colleagues at the office to wait for the ones working remotely to deliver their work, so thatthey can, in turn, continue. Remote work lacks quality control measures that can address productivity bottlenecks due to the autonomy ofthe remote workers (Ciarniene and Vienazindiene, 2018). Indeed, organisations should provide favourable work environments and concomitant resources, such as on-site childcare, flexible work schedules (flextime), a compressed work week, telecommuting, job sharing, part-time work, or breaks to increase employee satisfaction and organisational commitment to increase satisfaction and commitment(Fiksenbaum, 2014). The total quality management (TQM) and the theory of constraints (TOC) showcase the methods of addressing bottlenecks to improve employee productivity. This report is divided into five sections: introduction, methodology, results, analysis and conclusion and recommendations. The introductory part introduces us to the possible bottlenecks associated with remote workers. The methodology section highlights the process used to gather the relevant articles, while the results section discusses the main findings. The analysis section delves into the bottlenecks that arise among remote workers, the impact they have on productivity, the ways in which to resolve such challengesusing TQM and TOC theoriesand the impact of effective flexible working arrangements on productivity. The final section presents the conclusion and recommendations,affirming the major findings of this study. II. Methods Search Strategy: The practitioner obtained peer-reviewed journal articles and published reports. The main keywords searched included „productivity‟, „bottleneck‟, „virtual employees‟, „remote workforces‟, „total quality management‟ and „theory of constraints‟. The practitioner reviewed the articles‟ abstract s and conclusions as well as their reference lists to determine whether they were relevant to this study. Article inclusion and exclusion Criteria and Quality Assessment: The researcher developed a specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure that only the most relevant articles would be used. The first criterion was to focus on articles published from 2010 onwards. Using the most recent studies would be the most effective strategy in achieving the research objectives. Mainly, the focus was on researches that had been