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Iwu, C.G.;  Okeke-Uzodike, O.E.;  Anwana, E.;  Iwu, C.H.;  Esambe, E.E. Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/24328 (accessed on 17 May 2024).
Iwu CG,  Okeke-Uzodike OE,  Anwana E,  Iwu CH,  Esambe EE. Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/24328. Accessed May 17, 2024.
Iwu, Chux Gervase, Obianuju E. Okeke-Uzodike, Emem Anwana, Charmaine Helena Iwu, Emmanuel Ekale Esambe. "Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/24328 (accessed May 17, 2024).
Iwu, C.G.,  Okeke-Uzodike, O.E.,  Anwana, E.,  Iwu, C.H., & Esambe, E.E. (2022, June 22). Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/24328
Iwu, Chux Gervase, et al. "Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa." Encyclopedia. Web. 22 June, 2022.
Academics Work from Home during COVID-19 in South Africa
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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/challe13010016

The continuing crisis caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has raised significant challenges for the higher education community globally. In South Africa, the government-forced lockdown measures and social distancing containment policy changed working arrangements across sectors and organisations. As a result, academics were forced to work from home (WFH), a task for which they were hardly prepared. 

academics COVID-19 universities South Africa work-from-home

1. Introduction

COVID-19 and its various strains continue to affect organisational work arrangements. Governments worldwide introduced various confinement measures to curb the virus resulting in many organisations resorting to alternative work arrangements [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to work outside the traditional office space, a working configuration described by Kniffin et al. [2], as a de facto global experiment of remote working, thus a ‘new normal’. In essence, the pandemic drove a mass social experiment of ‘remote working’, or ‘teleworking’ or ‘work from home’ (WFH), concepts driving many organisational policies in recent times [3][4]. The situation challenged the education system’s imposed modifications for Higher Education Institutions, which have seen an unplanned and rapid shift to adopting virtual and digital strategies [5]. Like any other critical sector, the education system has been hit hard, and South Africa is not an exception. Due to the abrupt nature of the pandemic, academic staff were forced to work from home, a transition the universities and the academics were generally unprepared for [6]. This has raised significant challenges to the communities of practice, forcing unending remote teaching and learning. The shift which has reshaped the education system from the traditional face-to-face to online teaching and learning exacerbated the challenges facing academics. The capabilities of academics to wholly work remotely has never been tested before, and thus, this current age remains a testing time for academic staff. Increasingly, in South Africa and across the globe, studies are emerging on the experiences of academics working from home since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some studies have highlighted the (potential) positive influences [6][7], others have also provided weaknesses emerging from such working arrangements on the part of the academics [5][8].
The work from home concept has been explored from various perspectives and academic disciplines. With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the gradual relaxing of restrictions, variants of the virus continue to emerge, making the pandemic far from ending. Although several studies have cited various work-related trends concerning the economy, society, health, organisational productivity, etc. [9], during this pandemic, these studies may lack contextual relevance on how the pandemic has shaped academic staff experiences in the context of South Africa. Additionally, several researchers have engaged the WFH situation of academics to understand the relationship between WFH and productivity [10][11][12]. Hedding et al. wondered how academics were able to meet their academic targets especially considering that WFH requires numerous infrastructure—namely technology—and advised that the time was right for South African academics “to forge strong supportive collaborations enabling South African researchers to stand together and support one another, particularly in light of possible future austerity measures” [10]. Adopting the convenience sampling technique, ref. [12] wanted to know whether WFH made teaching and learning activities more productive and found that despite the low quality of content delivery, student’s academic performance was not negatively affected.

2. Work from Home: Understanding the Concept in Academia

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to find alternative work arrangements. Responding to this emergency, information communication and technology-enabled work arrangements surfaced with varying terminologies, including work from home (WFH), teleworking, telecommuting, remote working, etc. This concept was first introduced by Nilles [13] during the oil crisis in the 1970s. The ideology gained popularity in the early 2000s, with technological development to create more flexible work arrangements and reduce commuting to a central workplace [3][4]. While research has pointed to slight differences in the understanding of ‘WFH’, ‘teleworking’, ‘telecommuting’, and ‘remote working’, scholars often used them interchangeably, especially in the context of COVID-19. Adopting WFH here, a working from home arrangement is considered one of the fastest measures in containing the ongoing virus, thus leading to the concept becoming increasingly trending. From a general perspective, WFH refers to a “working arrangement in which a worker fulfils the essential responsibilities of their job while remaining at home, using information and communications technology (ICT)” [1]. Within the context of COVID-19, WFH refers to a unique home-based teleworking as a temporary, alternative working arrangement. Although not widely practised [14], WFH supports various work types [15]. Dayaram and Burgess [16] argue that the WFH arrangement has brought notable changes across organisations and different occupations since the virus outbreak.
According to Vyas and Butakhieo [17], the concept of working from home is not new. With the new waves of the virus emerging and the advent of technology, organisations, including academic institutions, are increasingly adopting WFH, making it the ‘new normal. It is worth noting that WFH has not been a prevailing culture in the South African higher education sector. The pandemic has significantly altered the work order, work processes, and organisational culture, resulting in WFH impacting higher education institutions’ (HEIs’) environment and academic staff’s occupational ideology of work [3]. Educational activities (lectures, practical, research, etc.) have been disrupted to a sizeable magnitude in South African HEIs. The pandemic crisis has reshaped traditional face-to-face teaching and learning by accelerating the adoption of remote and online pedagogies [7], making it pertinent for academics. Before the pandemic, South African universities seldom used online platforms for teaching, instead to facilitate communications (through announcements), consultations, post assignments for students, etc. In acknowledgement, Mpungose [18] and Amory [19] opined that South African universities mostly adopted learning management systems to cope with the demands of accessibility and flexible online content dissemination. Today, the COVID-19 crisis has challenged academics on the collective use of technological equipment and resources separated from the central office work to home. Hence, academics have resorted to working from home, delivering courses and offering other academic activities and services using technologically enabled platforms. Despite these technological tools’ availability, academics face the consequences as the struggle to normalcy remains uncertain.
In terms of the changing work paradigm due to COVID-19, the shared experiences of academics working from home have had, arguably, varied outcomes. Using latent class analysis, Kotini-Shah et al. [20] examined the work-life balance and productivity amongst academic faculty staff working from home during COVID-19 and found a variation on the impact. While early- and mid-career academics were negatively impacted by an increased workload, stress, and decreased self-care, advanced career level academics were moderately affected with low-level stress and workload [20]. Parham and Rauf’s [21] study on obligatory remote working in HEIs shows positive and negative impacts on academic staff. For Parham and Rauf [21], academics enjoy flexibility in the WFH model, which entails avoiding commuting, reducing chances of infection, and carrying out tasks in one’s comfort zone. However, they also noted that such work arrangements interfere with academic staff’s work–life boundaries and poses health-related issues. Further, due to time pressure, academics struggle to learn and adapt to customised online pedagogies, resulting in an increased workload [22] and can be less productive [21], especially in research and publications.
Ugwuanyi, Okeke and Shawe [23] studied academic staff perception of the impact of WFH on effective teaching and learning. They sampled twenty-eight academic staff across universities in three provinces in South Africa. The result of the study indicated a negative development, and that it mentally drained academic staff, affected teaching and learning negatively, and stalled academic productivity levels. In another study, Van Niekerk and Van Gent [24] found an increased risk of mental and well-being among academic staff in a South African university during the stages of COVID-19 lockdown. Similarly, in their study, Walker, Fontinha, Haak-Saheem, and Brewster [25] found that the WFH model during COVID-19 negatively affected teaching and learning and posed an increased workload for academics in a UK Business School. In another study, Ghali-Zinoubi, Amari, and Jaoua [26] showed a strong positive link between flexible work arrangements, work pressure, work–life conflict, and academic satisfaction. They assert that online teaching and learning is a source of work pressure that affects academics’ mental and physical health—consequently an occupational risk [27]. Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced WFH has impacted academic staff’s work–life integration, boundaries, and balance, making it less tenable [22].

References

  1. International Labour Organisation . An Employers’ Guide on Working from Home in Response to the Outbreak of COVID-19. 2020. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---act_emp/documents/publication/wcms_745024.pdf (accessed on 10 January 2022).
  2. Kniffin, K.M.; Narayanan, J.; Anseel, F.; Antonakis, J.; Ashford, S.P.; Bakker, A.B.; Bamberger, P.; Bapuji, H.; Bhave, D.P.; Choi, V.K.; et al. COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action. Am. Psychol. 2021, 76, 63–77.
  3. Bouziri, H.; Smith, D.R.M.; Descatha, A.; Dab, W.; Jean, K. Working from home in the time of COVID-19: How to best preserve occupational health? Occup. Environ. Med. 2020, 77, 509–510.
  4. Tavares, A.I. Telework and health effects review. Int. J. Healthc. 2017, 3, 30–36.
  5. Fataar, A.; Badroodien, A. Editorial. In SARE Special Issue: Emergent Educational Imaginaries During COVID-19 Pandemic; Sabinet Publishing: Pretoria, South Africa, 2020; Volume 26, pp. 1–5.
  6. Jansen, J. Data or bread? A policy analysis of student experiences of learning under lockdown. In SARE Special Issue: Emergent Educational Imaginaries During COVID-19 Pandemic; Sabinet Publishing: Pretoria, South Africa, 2020; Volume 26, pp. 167–181.
  7. Graham, L. Pandemic Underscores Gross Inequalities in South Africa, and the Need to Fix Them. The Conversation. 5 April 2020. Available online: https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070 (accessed on 28 August 2021).
  8. Soudien, C. Systemic shock: How COVID-19 exposes our learning challenges in education. In SARE Special Issue: Emergent Educational Imaginaries During COVID-19 Pandemic; Sabinet Publishing: Pretoria, South Africa, 2020; Volume 26, pp. 6–19.
  9. Ancillo, A.L.; Núñez, M.T.V.; Gavrila, S.G. Workplace change within the COVID-19 context: A grounded theory approach. Econ. Res.-Ekon. Istraživanja 2021, 34, 2297–2316.
  10. Hedding, D.W.; Greve, M.; Breetzke, G.D.; Nel, W.; Van Vuuren, B.J. COVID-19 and the academe in South Africa: Not business as usual. S. Afr. J. Sci. 2020, 116, 1–3.
  11. AbuJarour, S.; Ajjan, H.; Fedorowicz, J.; Owens, D. How working from home during COVID-19 affects academic productivity. Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 2021, 48, 8.
  12. Omodan, B.I.; Ige, O.A. University students’ perceptions of curriculum content delivery during COVID-19 new normal in South Africa. Qual. Res. Educ. 2021, 10, 204–227.
  13. Nilles, J.M. Telecommunications and organisations decentralisation. IEEE Trans. Commun. 1975, 23, 1142–1147.
  14. Kossek, E.E.; Lautsch, B.A. Work-life flexibility for whom? Occupational status and work-life inequality in upper, middle, and lower-level jobs. Acad. Manag. Ann. 2018, 12, 5–36.
  15. Xiao, Y.; Becerik-Gerber, B.; Lucas, G.; Roll, S.C. Impacts of Working from Home During COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical and Mental Well-Being of Office Workstation Users. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2021, 63, 181–190.
  16. Dayaram, K.; Burgess, J. Regulatory challenges facing remote working in Australia. In Handbook of Research on Remote Work and Worker Well-Being in The Post-COVID-19 Era; Wheatley, D., Hardill, I., Buglass, S., Eds.; IGI Global: Hershey, PA, USA, 2021; pp. 202–220.
  17. Vyas, L.; Butakhieo, N. The impact of working from home during COVID-19 on work and life domains: An exploratory study on Hong Kong. Policy Des. Pract. 2020, 4, 59–76.
  18. Mpungose, C.B. Is Moodle or WhatsApp the preferred e-learning platform at a South African university? First-year students’ experiences. Educ. Inf. Technol. 2020, 25, 927–941.
  19. Aboelmaged, G.M.; Subbaugh, S.M.E. Factors influencing perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers: An empirical study. Meas. Bus. Excell. 2012, 16, e22.
  20. Kotini-Shah, P.; Man, B.; Pobee, R.; Hirshfield, L.E.; Risman, B.J.; Buhimschi, I.A.; Weinreich, H.M. Work-Life Balance and Productivity Among Academic Faculty During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Latent Class Analysis. J. Women’s Health 2022, 31, 321–330.
  21. Parham, S.; Rauf, M.A. COVID-19 and obligatory remote working in HEIs: An exploratory study of faculties’ work-life balance, well-being and productivity during the pandemic. Int. J. Econ. Commer. Manag. 2020, 8, 384–400.
  22. Okeke-Uzodike, O.; Gamede, V. The Dilemma of unrelenting workload amidst COVID-19 pandemic: An agenda for University Female Academics. J. Res. High. Educ. 2021, 5, 12–46.
  23. Ugwuanyi, C.S.; Okeke, C.I.O.; Shawe, T.G.J. South African Academics’ Perception of the Impact of Work from Home (WFH) on Effective Teaching and Learning in Universities. Libr. Philos. Pract. 2021, 5701. Available online: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5701/ (accessed on 7 April 2022).
  24. Van Niekerk, R.L.; Van Gent, M.M. Mental health and well-being of university staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 levels 4 and 5 lockdowns in an Eastern Cape university. South Africa. S. Afr. J. Psychiatry 2021, 27, a1589.
  25. Walker, J.T.; Fontinha, R.; Haak-Saheem, W.; Brewster, C. The Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Teaching and Engagement in UK Business Schools. 2020. Available online: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3717423 (accessed on 2 January 2022).
  26. Ghali-Zinoubi, Z.; Amari, A.; Jaoua, F. E-Learning in Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Work Pressure, Work-Life Conflict and Academics’ Satisfaction. Vision 2021.
  27. Okuyan, B.C.; Begen, M.A. Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, its effects on health, and recommendations: The pandemic and beyond. Perspect. Psychiatr. Care 2022, 58, 173–179.
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Subjects: Education & Educational Research
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :
Chux Gervase Iwu
,
Obianuju E. Okeke-Uzodike
,
Emem Anwana
,
Charmaine Helena Iwu
,
Emmanuel Ekale Esambe
View Times: 394
Entry Collection: COVID-19
Revisions: 2 times (View History)
Update Date: 22 Jun 2022
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