Teleworking in Portuguese public administration during the COVID-19 pandemic

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.2.0119
• Pages: 119-139
• Published date: 17 October 2022
• Date: 17 October 2022
• Author: César Madureira,Belén Rando
• Subject Matter: Teleworking,public administration,bureaucratic culture,work-life balance,advantages and disadvantages,motivation

Work organisation, labour & globalisation Volume 16, Number 2, 2022 119

Teleworking in Portuguese public

administration during the

COVID-19 pandemic

Advantages, disadvantages, work-life

balance and motivation

César Madureira and Belén Rando

César Madureira is an Associate Professor at ISCTE-IUL

University Institute of Lisbon at Lusíada University and

a Senior researcher at the Research Centre of Sociology

(CIES) in Lisbon, Portugal.

Belén Rando is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of

Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP) and a Senior researcher

at the Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies

(CAPP) at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to characterise teleworking in public administration during the

COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on a study that aimed to collect the perceptions

of Portuguese public servants about this phenomenon. Findings show that,

in general, perceptions of workers and managers about teleworking are more

positive than negative. It seems that teleworking in public administration has

succeeded despite perceptions of insufcient equipment supply and some

stigmatisation of teleworkers. The article also sought to investigate whether the

perception of the potential advantages and disadvantages of teleworking, with

special emphasis on work-life balance, varies according to the workers’ gender

and number of dependents. The study found that this was indeed the case.

However, there were also differences relating to workers’ motivation. The study

found that a signicant proportion of Portuguese public servants felt more

motivated when performing their activities as teleworkers.

KEY WORDS

Teleworking, public administration, bureaucratic culture, work-life balance,

advantages and disadvantages, motivation.

DOI:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.2.0119

120 Work organisation, labour & globalisation Volume 16, Number 2, 2022

Introduction

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in parallel with what happened

in all areas of social and economic activity, public administration sought to adapt to

new models of work organisation in order to counter a set of new challenges that arose

with unprecedented speed and demanded a response (Belzunegui-Eraso & Erro-

Garcés, 2020; Vadkerti, 2020; Raisiene et al., 2020). In this way, teleworking was widely

implemented in the Portuguese public administration. Although provided for in articles

68° and 69° of the General Law on Work in Public Functions (approved by Law no.

35/2014, of 20 June), until 2020 teleworking in public administration had a very

residual character.

The policy context had already been set. The XXII Constitutional Government’s

Programme, in the 4th Strategic Challenge: ‘Digital Society, Creativity and Innovation –

the future now: building a digital society’, foresaw the encouragement of remote

working, based on information and communication technologies (Governo de

Portugal, 2019). The government considered that the use of this modality of work could

also be a way to create secure jobs in less populated regions, particularly in the

countryside. It considered that, in addition to the benefits associated with worker

comfort, there were others such as greater proximity to a preferred community, not

travelling and the consequent elimination of costs and prevention of pollution through

emissions. It also identified in teleworking, an opportunity to promote the gradual

decentralisation of public administration, following the logic that the State must set

an example.

With the start of lockdown in March 2020, teleworking was extended to a large

number of public servants, with very precarious (or even non-existent) planning, as an

immediate solution. This was a response to the impossibility of keeping workers in

their physical workplaces, ensuring the safety of workers and their families and

reducing the impact of the lockdown on the productivity of public bodies (Madureira

et al., 2021b).

It is in this context that this article aims to assess the adoption of teleworking in the

Portuguese Central Public Administration during the COVID-19 pandemic and

highlight the main advantages and disadvantages identified in teleworking. To this end,

public servants’/workers’ perceptions about the strengths and weaknesses of

teleworking, its potential benefits and possible threats that may have resulted from its

implementation were collected.

Theoretical framework and research questions

Teleworking: the beginning of a new organisational era

Over the past few decades, the need to reduce costs, the search for increased efficiency

and effectiveness, as well as the deepening of transparency and democracy have been

some of the greatest challenges for public administrations worldwide (Pollitt &

Bouckaert, 2017; Faria, 2009; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992; Hood, 1991; Pollitt, 1990;

Madureira, 2015, 2020, 2021a). However, information technology brought flexibility to

the models of work organisation and management of processes. The private sector was

the first to use teleworking to promote greater efficiency and productivity