The attitude of knowledge workers and their employers towards distant work: The comparison of Russian and international experience

Abstract

Presented study aims to reveal perceptions of knowledge workers and their employers towards distant work in a complete and coherent way. 3 perspectives were covered. 1. International perspective in order to understand applicability of foreign scientific findings in Russia through comparison of perceptions of people from Russia and Western countries. Results of the study did not reveal any significant barriers to apply western studies in Russia. 2. Job position perspective in order to identify gap between perceptions of knowledge workers and managers of those which can be source of conflicts and other hardships while applying distant work. Results of analysis showed that both knowledge workers and managers of those estimate perceptions of other groups wrong. In fact gap in differences is relatively small and suggests that companies who initiate open discussion regarding distant work might find way to apply it that will be beneficial for every participant. 3. Experience perspective in order to understand if application of distant work extensively changes perceptions of people and if yes – in what way. It turned out that people who have significant experience in distant work do not see a way how it can improve personal relationships among people at work and also believe that parties involved in distant work have more control over possible reasons to oppose application of distant work. Exploratory part of the study also revealed some interesting thoughts of people regarding advantages and disadvantages of distant work.