Identification of the Factor Structure Affecting Work from Home during COVID-19 Outbreak in Sri Lankan Context

Abstract

Organizations have been paying more attention to offer their employees the option to work from home for years due to various reasons and working from home alternative has gained importance during COVID-19 pandemic as many countries apply physical distancing. Thus globally it become the only alternative for many organizations. With emergence of new waves of COVID-19, Sri Lankan government also issued several circulars on work from home for government employees. As productivity of the employees is one of the most crucial business factors for organizations, it is important to find out what are the factors affecting work from home in order to deliver the maximum outcome from the employees. This study aimed to identify the hidden factors affecting work from home in Sri Lankan context. Convenient sampling method was used to collect data during October 2020 to March 2021 using a questionnaire in a google form. Principal component analysis was used as the extraction method in factor analysis and Varimax was used as the rotation method. The results revealed that there are four main hidden factors affecting the work from home namely, social factors, organizational factors, technical factors and personal factors. As this is relatively a new concept especially for the government sector of Sri Lanka, the results of the study give insights and directions on the aspects like resource allocation and preparation of mindsets of employees for work from home. In general these results can be used to increase the overall productivity of work from home conditions.