The big “What If”

Remote work setups have become more commonplace in recent years. Remote and hybrid work are said to be a highly desired work structure, it also offers different benefits to employees, from flexible hours to flexible work locations. The question is, is remote work just a trend or is it going to be the new normal? Andrew Heng, SMU PHD graduate, discusses his research, conducted under the guidance of  Roy Chua, Associate Professor of Organisational Behavior and Human Resources, about the impact of working from home on employee creativity, and what it means for urban life.

The science behind the speculation

Q: What motivated your research with Prof Roy Chua on this topic? What about virtual office work and its effect on creativity sparked your interest? 

Dr Heng: I think Covid has changed the way we behave. Many people have shifted their shopping behaviour from offline shopping to online. I received many questions from CEOs and HR practitioners asking if they should still make use of  work from home arrangements even after the pandemic. Many of them know about the immediate benefits of working from home, like reduced cost in office spaces. However, I think most CEOs and HR practitioners are more interested in the long-term effects on the business. Also, after doing some research, many C-suite executives mentioned that innovation creativity is the key to organisational success. That's where I thought that creativity should be studied in terms of the long term effect on this work from home arrangement. Are we losing something essential when we move away from physical office space or are we still able to thrive in this kind of virtual setting? Essentially, our paper explores the impact of the virtual office on creativity, delving into the potential drawbacks of remote work, such as isolation, distraction, and a lack of spontaneous interactions, which can hinder creativity and innovation. 

Q: With the rise of virtual office work, what challenges does it mean for modern businesses?

Prof Heng: I think the primary challenge for remote work today is that companies seek creativity and innovation, but when we move on to a virtual environment there's a lack of spontaneous discussion and a lack of interpersonal interaction. For instance, the term ‘water cooler moments.’ People go to the water cooler, get coffee and start a conversation, on work, on personal things, or even just bouncing ideas off each other. When we shift to remote work, most of what I just mentioned would be lost. 

In addition to this, cultural context plays a huge role in modern businesses. In today's office setup, tends to be multicultural, we have people from different nationalities and cultures within the same company. Communication between these two cultures can be tricky. We explore this in our paper. For example, if I have to communicate with, let's say, someone from Germany, the way we communicate and interact is different from our daily conversations with people from our culture. The use of words, the nonverbal cues, everything will be slightly different. These nonverbal cues can be difficult to communicate through things like video calls.

Q: What are three to five important takeaways from your research?

Prof Heng: First is creativity. It will be stifled without our intentional effort. So, in the absence of spontaneous discussion and in-person interaction, virtual work reduces the chance for creativity in terms of brainstorming sessions and idea exchanges, which are essential for businesses to implement strategies to encourage creativity, virtually. 

Second, I wanted to point out that cultural differences shape remote work dynamics. For instance, German teams may emphasise structured and clear communication in a straight to the point manner, while Chinese associates might prioritise a hierarchical level or collective harmony when in a virtual environment. Most of them will not want to turn on the videos and would like to go around the bush before coming to the point as to not to hurt certain emotional feelings. So, there is a difference in terms of culture. We need to acknowledge that these differences will have an impact on remote work. 
The third one that I want to mention is demographics. Demographics specifically in terms of age, education and gender. Generally, younger employees find it easier to use the virtual environment for meetings whereas older employees may face more challenges in terms of technology. The more highly educated ones will be more comfortable and effective in using remote work tools like Teams and Zoom. These tools will be easier for them to use and they will be able to use certain terms to articulate themselves better. Lastly, an interesting finding would be that women are more impacted by virtual environments and creativity compared to men. Generally, when women socialise, they are more attuned to nonverbal cues where they need emotion and connection in terms of communication. When we are using remote working software those nonverbal cues are taken away. As a result, women may find it harder to adjust to virtual meetings.

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Q: Does one’s culture and geographical location affect how virtual work affects creativity? For example, in a country like Malaysia, if we compare someone in a big urbanised city like Kuala Lumpur, versus someone in a more rural area?

Prof Heng: This was also a question we considered. To keep it short, individual culture will adapt itself. We will adapt based on the place that we stay. It will be influenced by the people around us and our surroundings. So for instance, if I'm a Singaporean, if I'm staying in Germany for a long time, I will have adopted certain behaviours that will be confined to the cultural norm in the country itself. So back to your question, remote work, be it if you are from China or Singapore, will impact creativity. The more days you work remotely, the less creative you will get. This is consistent across cultures, but the main difference, in terms of culture, would be if you lean more towards a Western culture or an East Asian culture. Western cultures will experience less of an impact while the East Asian culture will be impacted higher. 

Q: Why is that the case?

Prof Heng: I'll just give a couple of examples. Western cultures, in terms of communication behaviour, tend to be more direct and more explicit. If they say no, it's clear. They use fewer nonverbal cues, like hand gestures. Their body language is more direct and straight to the point. In Eastern cultures, at times, we try to sugarcoat certain words even though we disagree. We might show it in our facial expressions, but we will still say, “Yes, I agree to it” because of the hierarchical structure established. 

Q: How does remote work affect or impact urban life as we know it? 

Prof Heng: In terms of city life, remote work has many positive and negative impacts. It reduces travel time. So in the city, transportation time is quite hectic. By the time you reach the office, you will be quite drained because of the travel time, which will have an impact on your work productivity and creativity. On the other hand, in terms of city life, we are in quite a hectic environment. Singapore is a city environment and there are a lot of distractions. Those distractions will have an impact on how focused you are on doing your work. So if you are working from home, at times you will have distractions because you will have deliveries coming in. If you are working from home you might be working halfway, when suddenly the doorbell rings and you will be taken out of a creative moment. So it is a give and take. There are certain effects that, in my opinion, have more of an impact on those in the city life than those living outside the city.

 Reframing the future

Q: With the rising amount of remote work and virtual office work, what is the likelihood of a future where most of the population is engaged in virtual work? 

Prof Heng: The fact is that remote work is here to stay. The question is what are the reasons to go to the office now? Covid has shifted the way we work and the need to go to the office has diminished. Offices are no longer fundamentally working spaces anymore. Today, offices should be collaboration spaces, not spaces for reporting meetings. This is a fundamental change in mindset for many individuals and organisations that should be addressed structurally.

Q: What are the most significant implications of a future where virtual office work is the norm? Especially for those living in urban cities

Prof Heng: First of all, when companies adopt virtual work, it's fundamental that a certain level of training be provided to unleash the potential of these virtual working technologies and tools. There should be certain sets of norms, guidelines or best practices. For instance, turning on your video during calls. I think that should be one of the first steps that we should be looking at. 

Next, in terms of the virtual work environment, most particularly in the city environment, we need to consider the fact that we are going through a fundamental shift in terms of technology. We should look at new tools for people to collaborate. So organisations need to consider what tools work for them. For example, if I'm an innovative company, should I look at a virtual workspace in a VR setting instead of a 2D screen? Should we have a full body virtual workspace where team members can have a futuristic and interactive environment to do more brainstorming instead of via screen? Or can companies look into a hybrid arrangement where they should be more open to hiring talent from around the world instead of people within the city itself? Can I use this opportunity to attract top talents from around the world since they don't have to go to the office that often? 

Third, office spaces are expensive in the city. Why not have collaboration rooms like a creative hub in the city itself and leave all the day-to-day operations to be done remotely and then use the office space for creativity or team building? So reimagining the office space for collaboration instead of normal work. 

Q: Do you think the rise of remote work will decongest cities or make it less necessary for people to migrate to cities to get well-paying jobs?

Prof Heng: I think companies today should be more open to attracting talents from around the world. For example, a company in Manila could be getting talent from different cities like Cebu or different areas in the Philippines, instead of just getting people from Manila. I think it's a conceptual mindset that the company needs to evolve and change. If a company can move beyond this mindset that everyone needs to be in the office, I think it will unlock a lot of new potential for the company to hire people from different cities within a country, even cross country. This will give certain benefits to the organisation and means that the workforce will be more decentralised.

What’s in the way?

Q: In your research, you find that working from home can stifle creativity. What are the steps to counteract this, in a future where remote work becomes the norm?

Prof Heng: Number one is that the company should have tools for the employees to use. When I say tools, I’m not limiting to Zoom calls or Teams, we should be looking at collaborative tools like Miroboard, that lets company employees interact freely and brainstorm ideas. Companies should invest in the right tools for the right environment. 

Second, From the company perspective, they should invest in training for the employees, since not every employee will know how to use the tools. From the employee level, I think, they need to be more open to learning how to use the tools. They need to be more open to upskilling themselves and not just waiting for the company to send them for training.

Q: What are concerns and issues that we need to address to make this future manageable? For example, are potential deepfakes something to be concerned about?

Prof Heng: Definitely. I think as most companies jump on the bandwagon to introduce different remote working arrangements, there are two points I would like to highlight. The first is to improve virtual collaboration tools. Because of COVID we introduced Zoom and Teams, then the entire progress of the tool introduction process stopped right there. There is limited training for staff on how to use the tools. Though these tools are useful, they lack dynamic interaction for meetings. There are already advancements today in AR or VR technology that could revolutionise remote work, creating a more immersed virtual experience where the employee could feel their presence with their colleague and connection with the company. 

Second is advanced security measures. AI today has been a well-talked-about topic in terms of how to make life easier. Companies should start to look into how to use AI to proactively identify potential threats for work from home environments. Beyond setting up a VPN gateway for people to have Zoom calls or team calls, they should use AI to detect unusual patterns to prevent cyber security attacks which can affect the company. Cybersecurity attacks could be in terms of deepfakes or even data loss. For example, people who work in cafes, where a lot of people are connecting to the public internet, can be vulnerable to security risks. 

So in summary, the first is to improve virtual collaboration tools for the employees to have an immersive kind of experience. Second would be security measures to protect the company, the use of different AI software to predict and to prevent cyber attacks on the company.

Q: What further research or advancements are needed to make remote work safe, productive and efficient while not stifling creativity?

Prof Heng: I would hope that in terms of research, they would look at what kind of office setting will be good for creativity. What kind of setup will trigger a higher level of interaction? Is there a ratio to how big is the office for the numbers of employees coming in? I think such research will be interesting for companies to look at how they want to redevelop their offices. Number two, research into the most productive hybrid work arrangements. Is there an ideal number of remote working days in a country or a culture that will lead to the most productive results?

Q: Do you believe that this future can and will happen? 

Prof Heng: I think the future is already here, the fundamental question is, will it last? My personal take is, yes, it will last. I have encountered people looking specifically for jobs that offer hybrid work. So companies will start to adopt it one way or another. It's just a matter of time. 

That said, I believe the companies need to know the objective as to why they want to implement remote work, whether it be for cost saving reasons or to attract talent.

To summarise, remote work will stay and it will get even more popular with even smaller companies. I think companies in the city area and in Asia will start to adopt it even more, but they need to know the fundamental reasons for doing so.