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This study focuses on work from home (WFH) issues faced by faculty members of higher education institutes in India during the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic. The study aims to understand the impact of these issues on faculty productivity. The study also analyzes the moderating effect of information technology (IT) training on the relationship between work- from-home issues and faculty productivity.

This study is quantitative. Data were collected from 215 faculty members working in higher education institutes in India. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis have been used to analyze the data.

The analysis revealed that online teaching, lack of technology acceptance, poor working environment and work–life conflict negatively impacts faculty productivity. Thus, IT training work as a moderator plays an important role in reducing the WFH issues mainly Online Teaching, Lack of Technology acceptance & Poor Working Enviornment by increasing faculty productivity. IT training work does not moderate the relationship between work–life conflict and faculty productivity.

This research is limited to the higher education sector; the research limits the generalization of the higher education sector's finding to other sectors.

The findings would help policymakers and educational institutes to explore the use of digital technology to break boundaries of workplace and education institutes to disseminate knowledge to a global level. The findings also help to understand how the workplace is essential for the smooth functioning of tasks of the institute.

The study will also help management, institute, organization, society and individuals to change their mindset that education can be imparted through online mode in a better way with the help of digital technology.

There is a scarcity of research work examining WFH issues in conducting mandatory online classes due to COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19's relation to faculty productivity in the higher education sector. This study contributes to the knowledge regarding the impact of COVID-19 on faculty productivity in the education sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the process of work identity construction unfolds for gig workers experiencing unstable working relationships in online labor markets. In particular, it investigates how digital platforms, intended both as providers of technological features and online environments, affect this process.

The authors conducted an exploratory field study and collected data from 46 interviews with freelancers working on one of the most popular online labor markets and from online documents such as public profiles, job applications and archival data.

The findings reveal that the online environment constrains the action of workers who are pushed to take advantage of the platform’s technological features to succeed. This interplay leads workers to add new characteristics to their work-self and to and to develop an entrepreneurial an entrepreneurial orientation.

The study offers insights to platform providers interested in improving workers’ experiences in online labor markets, highlighting mechanisms for uncertainty reduction and diversifying a platform’s services according to gig workers’ identities and orientations.

The study expands the authors’ knowledge on work identity construction processes of gig workers, detailing the relationship between work identity and IT, and documents previously unexplored antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation in non-standard working contexts.

The study examines how young working women are motivated by online shopping. The study tests the relationship between Internet self-efficacy (ISE), website aesthetics, and purchase intention through perceived benefit. An investigation of the impact of perceived risk on purchase intention is also carried out.

The paper carried out a quantitative study based on a purposive sample of 180 working women from the Delhi-NCR region of India and used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to test hypotheses based on the extended TAM model.

Perceived benefit, website aesthetics, and ISE positively and significantly impact working women's purchase intention. The study also finds an indirect relationship between ISE and purchase intention through perceived benefit. Perceived risk has a negative and insignificant influence on working women's purchase intention for online shopping.

The study finding reflects that perceived website aesthetics fill the gap between offline and online environments. ISE makes shopping easy and increases the shopper's confidence. A mobile-optimized website with ease of navigation would increase women shoppers' conversion rates on mobile devices, leading to a favourable impact on revenue generation for online retailers.

Despite the vast literature on constructs derived from the TAM model, very few studies have researched young women consumers from an emerging economy perspective. The novelty of this research lies in identifying the factors that influence young working women's online shopping intention using smartphone through the glance of ISE and perceived aesthetics in the Indian context.

In this chapter, we theorize about online freelancers’ approaches to work flexibility. Drawing from an ongoing digital ethnography of US-based online freelancers pursuing work on digital platforms, our data question the common conceptualizations around the flexibility of online freelancing. We posit that the flexibility of where to work, not when to work, is the most important attribute of their work arrangement. Our data show (1) the online freelancers in our study prefer the stability and sustainability of full-time work over freelancing when both are offered as remote options; (2) full-time remote employment increases these workers’ freelancing control / flexibility; (3) these workers keep freelance work options open even as they transition to more permanent full-time work arrangements. We discuss how these findings relate to workplace culture shifts and what this means for contemporary working arrangements. Our insights contribute to the discourses on knowledge-based gig work and for what it means to study individuals online.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine the role of online networks in employee engagement and to analyze the factors influencing leaders’ involvement in online social networking.

The study’s participants included team leaders, managers and directors working in Fortune 500 companies in the USA. Data were collected through structured surveys delivered through LinkedIn, professional online networking platform to randomly selected users with leadership roles. Totally, 194 matched questionnaires were returned.

The results indicate that employee engagement is positively associated with the time leaders spend on internal online networking platforms, the code of online networking conduct, and the presence of an open-organizational culture. Furthermore, the study shows that organizations can influence leaders’ use of online social networking platforms through an open culture and training. Finally, the findings also indicate that leaders, who communicate with a higher percentages of employees through internal and external platforms, also spend more time on online social networking platforms than those who do not. Surprisingly, a hierarchical structure and the code of conduct are not an indicator of the number of hours that leaders spend on online networking platforms.

The study has three main limitations. First, it was conducted among leaders working in companies from the Fortune 500 list, because the majority of these companies have already implemented internal networking platforms, which are not yet popular in small and medium enterprises (SME). In the future, companies from the SME sector are also worth studying. Second, the study was undertaken among leaders from the USA, because most of the online networking platforms were developed there and then adopted in other countries. Online networking trends in other countries are also very interesting topics for study in future research projects. Third, the quality of the time leaders spend on online platforms should also be examined in future studies.

The next generation of leaders should pay increasing attention to online social networking platforms so as to be more effective in fostering employees’ social and emotional well-being. Organizations that seek ways to facilitate involvement among their leaders in internal online networking, need to organize training and support leaders and employees in the use of online networking platforms.

The use of online social networking platforms change the way people communicate with others and how companies can use online social networking for the social well-being of their employees.

This research provides a new look at employee engagement in the current working environment as well as organizational features fostering leaders’ involvement in online networking.

The purpose of the paper is to research the stress caused to small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) staff by online collaboration. It aims to investigate online team roles as possible stressors.

The paper is based on research carried out on online collaborative teams by the authors in the Open University Business School, and on existing literature on stress and collaboration. The paper uses MTR‐i™, a commercially used team role analysis tool, and Myers‐Briggs personality types to postulate reasons for stress caused by online collaboration in SMEs.

If team roles are not taken into account then the entrepreneurial members of an SME team may well find online collaboration stressful and so may not be able to fully participate in collaboration, or support others to do so.

The limitations of the research are that so far the research has been carried out on relatively small numbers. A much wider scale study is needed.

The research so far indicates that online collaborative learning in SMEs (whether formal, or informal) needs to take into account the team roles usually carried out by individuals at work if full use is to be made of in order to optimise online collaboration.

This paper links Myers‐Briggs personality types to the ability of SMEs and entrepreneurs to collaborate online. It will inform educators and SME entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of online social networks in experiencing a change in working environment of today's leaders.

The study's participants were managers, directors and CEOs working in different organizations (including Fortune 500 companies) in the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Russian Federation, Australia and China. The data were collected through structured surveys delivered through LinkedIn to the managers, directors and CEOs. A total of 115 matched questionnaires were returned. Statistical analysis, using STATA software, was conducted to assess the research results.

The results indicate that the importance of online social networking environment is growing. Furthermore the study shows that online social networks are more useful for participative and consultative leadership style on social networking platforms than for directive leadership style. A higher number of activities on social networks by leaders is positively associated with the higher number of platforms used by leaders for business purposes. It is also correlated with a lower percentage of people from the same organization in the leader's contacts. Finally, the findings also show that the usefulness of online social networks as a tool supporting leadership, depends on the number of activities, number of platforms and size of the company. Surprisingly, age is not a predictor of the usefulness of online social networks.

Leaders that seek ways in which to foster their leadership, need to recognize the importance of online social networking environment and the possibilities of using online relations in various aspects of authentic and situational leadership.

This research provides knowledge regarding the usage of online social networks by many different leaders all over the world and suggests that a new generation of leaders will have to adjust to new working environment.

Happiness in teaching, termed Eudemonia, comes from a perception of a relationship with students. Such a perception is vital to sustaining teachers in their work in both on- and offline contexts. While the importance of these relationships has been acknowledged, there have not been attempts to account for how teachers pursue relationships and the accompanying sense of happiness. It is in this frame that we discuss findings from a larger study of online teachers working to support students with disabilities in a part-time program at a large virtual school.

The chapter considers expectations for online teachers and sets up a dialogue between same and different as they relate to on- and offline pedagogy. It then asks more questions about these responsibilities in the context of efforts by teachers to feel legitimate in their claims to relationships with students.

Stories that both elicited and threatened Eudemonia are shared and discussed. In particular, the authors learned that online teachers desired relationships with students to such a great extent that they were willing to narrate relationality into most interactions with the students.

These findings suggest the difficult emotional work that online teachers must do in order to consider their work with students as beneficial. More work is needed to think about how relationships between teachers and students online can be leveraged for greater learning and to sustain both teachers and students in their work.

This chapter offers in-depth insight into the teacher work that online learning requires. It also offers a unique theoretical approach in the juxtaposition of stories of relationships with students online and offline.

Skilled graduates delivered through vocational programmes are critical to ensure the future growth of emerging economies. This study explored students' reflections and experiences of online teaching and learning (T&L) during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The study specifically focused on the transferable skills students acquired and their relevance to working in the local retail and hospitality industries.

Following a case study research design, this study retrospectively delved into the multi-perspectives of students enrolled in vocational programmes. A total of 145 students completed reflective questions via a Qualtrics link regarding the topic in question. Student reflections were grouped and analysed for recurring themes using Atlas.ti. Through thematic analysis, two topical themes emerged related to transferable skills development and the usefulness of skills for future work.

The findings suggest that although students had to rely on online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still developed vital transferable skills, including communication, teamwork, organisational, self-management, flexibility, technology, metacognition and problem-solving.

The findings offer valuable input into planning and developing student-centric online courses to facilitate the development of desired transferable skills. Findings could also guide best T&L practices regarding how education and training across digital platforms could be used to ensure that graduates are prepared to navigate the future complexities of working in ever-changing globalised industries.

This study provides new insights into the evolution of T&L and how unexpected situations could provide an opportunity to hone desired skills and prepare students for employment and the 21st century workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how women working in science, engineering and technology use online networking, for career and professional development purposes.

A combined qualitative and quantitative approach is taken, using interviews for the first phase of the research and online surveys for the second. The findings are discussed and presented with reference to theories on career development and in the context of recent work on women's networks and online social networking.

The paper defines a typology of online networks and identifies the motives women have for engaging with the different types. The data imply that women are successfully using online networks to find support, advice and collaboration from women working in similar environments. However, the data only identify a few examples where the use of online networks has led to a specific new job opportunity.

The findings are limited by the samples used, as they were self‐selected. In the first phase of the research, the sample was biased in favour of those using information and communication technologies. In the second phase, women using some form of online network were purposefully targeted in order to understand the motives and benefits associated with these activities.

The paper provides new insights into how professional women are networking online. It extends recent work into women's networks and networking strategies and presents a timely exploration into how these are being affected by the growth of online social networking.