Cultural and Gender Perspectives on Working from Home
FRANCESCA HORSLEY
SENIOR LECTURER
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
MANUKAU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
G ANTON
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT GRADUATE
DIPLOMA GRADUATE
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
MANUKAU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Email: Francesca.horsley@manukau.ac.nz
Abstract: In March 2020, New Zealand went into a level 4 lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. Overnight, workplace operations shifted into the home, requiring employees to rapidly upskill and use online collaboration platforms to maintain ‘business-as-usual’. However, the home was not an empty space, rather it reflected specific cultural and gender activities and norms. A phenomenological research study conducted in 2020 examined the working from home experiences of 21 women from different cultural backgrounds employed by a South Auckland organisation. The research focused on two groupings of HRM themes; one the HR practices of productivity, performance, leadership, health and safety, and technology and equipment; the other, the impact of these practices on the domestic cultural norms and gender roles of the women employees. The paper identifies an unresolved tension between the organisation and the women and asserts the need for revised performance expectations in a working from home context. The paper argues that a potential resolution is available if the organisation adapts Trompenaars’s model of intercultural reconciliation.
Keywords: WFH, culture, gender, human resource management, reconciliation
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