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Challenges Faced by Mandatory-Working From-Home Start-up Teams

Wilmes, Jasper LU and van den Berg, Sofie LU (2021) ENTN19 20211
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has created a novel and unique situation forcing start-up teams to mandatory-work-from-home (MWFH). With everyday life coming to a halt, start-up teams suddenly adjust their ways of working and transform to virtual means of teamwork performed from home environments. Given the novelty and uniqueness of the situation, MWFH has yet to be academically explored within the context of start-up teams. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the challenges that start-up teams face with MWFH. By adopting an inductive approach, seven start-up team cases were researched. Through eight semi-structured interviews with individuals within start-up teams, the transition to MWFH and the period during Covid-19 were benchmarked... (More)
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has created a novel and unique situation forcing start-up teams to mandatory-work-from-home (MWFH). With everyday life coming to a halt, start-up teams suddenly adjust their ways of working and transform to virtual means of teamwork performed from home environments. Given the novelty and uniqueness of the situation, MWFH has yet to be academically explored within the context of start-up teams. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the challenges that start-up teams face with MWFH. By adopting an inductive approach, seven start-up team cases were researched. Through eight semi-structured interviews with individuals within start-up teams, the transition to MWFH and the period during Covid-19 were benchmarked against the period before the outbreak of Covid-19. A thematic analysis of the findings identified a framework of 15 challenges across six categories. The empirical findings show that start-up teams face challenges regarding (1) community building, (2) high degrees of uncertainty, (3) workspace, (4) virtual structures to communicate and collaborate, (5) evolving leadership styles, and (6) merging home-work life. Though highly dependent on one’s situation, MWFH forced new ways of working within start-up teams in terms of structured routines in communicating and collaborating. Establishing a sense of community to stay connected from a distance, and evolving leadership to facilitate trust, performance, and motivation, and creating the appropriate space to work from home shape MWFH start-up teams. The framework of challenges that start-up teams face provide a starting point for future academic work to explore further MWFH and expand this academic phenomenon. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Wilmes, Jasper LU and van den Berg, Sofie LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENTN19 20211
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Virtual Teamwork, Covid-19, Start-up, Mandatory-Working-From-Home, Challenges
language
English
id
9053418
date added to LUP
2021-07-30 15:50:12
date last changed
2021-07-30 15:50:12
@misc{9053418,
  abstract     = {{The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has created a novel and unique situation forcing start-up teams to mandatory-work-from-home (MWFH). With everyday life coming to a halt, start-up teams suddenly adjust their ways of working and transform to virtual means of teamwork performed from home environments. Given the novelty and uniqueness of the situation, MWFH has yet to be academically explored within the context of start-up teams. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the challenges that start-up teams face with MWFH. By adopting an inductive approach, seven start-up team cases were researched. Through eight semi-structured interviews with individuals within start-up teams, the transition to MWFH and the period during Covid-19 were benchmarked against the period before the outbreak of Covid-19. A thematic analysis of the findings identified a framework of 15 challenges across six categories. The empirical findings show that start-up teams face challenges regarding (1) community building, (2) high degrees of uncertainty, (3) workspace, (4) virtual structures to communicate and collaborate, (5) evolving leadership styles, and (6) merging home-work life. Though highly dependent on one’s situation, MWFH forced new ways of working within start-up teams in terms of structured routines in communicating and collaborating. Establishing a sense of community to stay connected from a distance, and evolving leadership to facilitate trust, performance, and motivation, and creating the appropriate space to work from home shape MWFH start-up teams. The framework of challenges that start-up teams face provide a starting point for future academic work to explore further MWFH and expand this academic phenomenon.}},
  author       = {{Wilmes, Jasper and van den Berg, Sofie}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Challenges Faced by Mandatory-Working From-Home Start-up Teams}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}