An Investigation Study of Challenges in the Transition from Traditional to Virtual Teamwork During COVID 19 in UAE Organisations
In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, many organisations worldwide decided to transfer to remote working. This transition faced different challenges. This research investigates the most emergent challenging factors due to this transition in UAE organisations that affect productivity, motivation, and trust. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the most challenging factors, followed by a questionnaire to achieve the objective. Respondents for the questionnaire were 92 participants from different institutions across the UAE. The questionnaire focused on five main challenges: lack of communication and knowledge sharing; network issues and technological challenges; lack of good leadership practices; lack of coordination and team monitoring; and lack of employee engagement and responsiveness. The questionnaire results were investigated using a t test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) The results show that productivity severely suffered. On the other hand, motivation was affected significantly due to a lack of good leadership practices and employee engagement. Trust was influenced by a lack of employee engagement and responsiveness, lack of communication and knowledge sharing, and lack of good leadership practices. The results show that gender does not affect the respondents' perception regarding the transition from traditional to virtual teamwork on three performance measures.