Management practices supporting lecturing staff during remote working at a selected university of technology

Due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, higher education institutions worldwide had to abruptly change their working arrangements to remote working, without sufficient time to ensure that the organisational context is conducive for remote working. This study aims to propose supportive management practices for remote working at a selected university of technology. Qualitative research methodology was employed, and a purposive sample was drawn delimited to all full-time and part-time lecturing staff within a particular distant learning site of the selected university of technology (n=93). The justification for the selection is the lecturing staff's past and present experience of the phenomenon under investigation (remote working). Data was collected using an anonymous online survey questionnaire with open-ended questions. Questions were based on the study's set research questions. The online questionnaire was accessible by an anonymous link distributed through email by the Campus ICT Services to the purposively selected lecturing staff. The link was accompanied with a cover page, information leaflet and informed consent form. Thematic analysis was employed using ATLAS.ti-software to analyse and interpret the primary data collected by fragmenting the data into codes and then using the codes to create themes. Participation in the study was voluntary, and participants could withdraw from the study at any time without consequence. All ethical considerations and requirements of the university of technology were adhered to. The findings of the study revealed four major themes: (1) experiences of remote working, (2) challenges of remote working, (3) the outcomes of remote working and (4) supportive management practices areas that enable remote working. The deeper understanding of the major themes assisted in proposing supportive management practices to the selected university of technology to ensure a conducive organisational context for hybrid and remote working. The following supportive management practices are proposed: provide resources to assist in setting up an appropriate home office, promote work-life balance, provide the required digital infrastructure, maintain frequent, transparent, and consistent communication, provide organisational support, maintain social connectedness, set clear performance outcomes and schedule virtual teambuilding activities