Alienation in Pandemic-Induced Telework in the Public Sector

• Author: Carey Doberstein,Étienne Charbonneau
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221114788
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221114788

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(4) 491 –515

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260221114788

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Article

Alienation in Pandemic-

Induced Telework in the

Public Sector

Carey Doberstein1 and Étienne Charbonneau2

Abstract

Most of our knowledge of the benefits and costs of telework are based on self-

selected workers who have worked remotely part-time. Full-time, pandemic-induced

mass telework may present benefits and costs that differ from what was understood

in the prior context. Informed by conservation of resources (COR) theory, this

study examines the effect of pandemic-induced remote working on work alienation

in the public sector with two Canadian surveys: a panel of teleworking public servants

(n = 605), and a representative sample of teleworking Canadians in public and private

sectors (n = 1001). Teleworkers who fit the “conscientious” personality profile

were less alienated in their new teleworker status, and by contrast “extroverts”

were more alienated than before the pandemic. We then examine the types of

organizational adaptations that lower alienation, and find that more autonomy,

avoiding micromanagement and promoting communication among employees is most

promising.

Keywords

performance management, HR reform, HRM, productivity, telework

Introduction

Work alienation has long been a focus of organizational theorists, sociologists, and

psychologists, given its potentially corrosive effects on productivity, organizational

culture, and personal well-being. Defined concisely, work alienation is the estrange-

ment or disconnection from work, the context, or self (Nair & Vohra, 2009) and is

1University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

2École nationale d’administration publique, Montreal, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Carey Doberstein, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia,

1866 Main Mall C425, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.

Email: carey.doberstein@ubc.ca

1114788PPMXXX10.1177/00910260221114788Public Personnel ManagementDoberstein and Charbonneau

research-article2022

492 Public Personnel Management 51(4)

understood as an experience beyond merely job dissatisfaction and one especially con-

tingent on working conditions (Watson, 2003). As such, in the context of the COVID-

19 pandemic—a dramatic upheaval in working conditions toward mass forced

telework—work alienation is a critical phenomenon to investigate. The predictors and

causes of work alienation in normal times are well understood, not only in terms of its

effects if left unchecked—including high turnover intention (O’Donnell et al., 2010;

Orhan et al., 2016), diminished team work (Itani et al., 2019), lower motivation for

change (Liston-Heyes & Juillet, 2019), and even deviant behavior (Mangles et al.,

2016)—but also how management can mitigate against alienation and disengagement

through workplace adaptations, policies, and programming (Charalampous et al.,

2019).

Yet the past couple of years have not been normal times, particularly in professional

office environments which rushed into mass forced telework with the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic (and which look likely to retain various elements of mass tele-

work going forward). It is particularly useful to study work alienation in this context

because much of the telework literature is based on voluntary participation in it, typi-

cally by those self-selecting into it as part of a niche program in an organization. In the

pandemic, by contrast, the professional office environment changed dramatically for

everyone virtually overnight, in what has been characterized as “the world’s largest

work-from-home experiment” (Banjo et al., 2020), and various public surveys across

countries have documented the struggles faced by many. This is especially important

for public sector professionals and organizations which, by the very nature of the pub-

lic health crisis, were called upon to make critical policy and programmatic decisions

in short order in the context of significant domestic and global uncertainty.

One recent public opinion survey in Canada found that 40% of remote workers are

been experiencing more stress and nearly 50% are feeling less engaged with their

work since the shift (Dunham, 2021). At the same time, there are data that suggest for

some that mass forced telework has come with certain benefits like reduced com-

mutes, higher productivity, and better work–life balance. Nearly 50% of British

Columbian respondents in a separate survey claimed they would leave their current

job if the organization did not allow them to continue to telework as often as they want

(Canseco, 2021). Early academic evidence from diverse work environments in the

context of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests variable experiences with telework with

respect to productivity, team cohesion, and job satisfaction (Fominykh, 2020; Jeong &

Henderson, 2020).

It is therefore clear that mass forced telework has had a differential impact on

employees based on public surveys, media reporting, and the early scholarly research,

likely dependent on the nature of their work, dimensions of their personality, and the

network of resources they draw on to manage work life. Prior academic work on

telework by Cooper and Kurland (2002) noted that professional isolation stemming

from telework depends on the degree to which individual employees miss informal

development activities like networking or mentoring, signaling differential personal-

ity profiles as important to understanding the effects of pandemic-induced telework

when whole organizations are thrust into this space. The pandemic threatened the