An examination of the feasibility of remote working at Kindred

An examination of the feasibility of remote
working at Kindred Group plc, a global Gaming
Company having its Head Quarters in Malta
Student no:
Cristiano Blanco
Date:
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DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY
Student Name:
Student ID:
Programme of Study: 2018-7IM994 Independent Study
I, the undersigned declare that I am the legitimate owner of this dissertation and that this
dissertation is my original piece of work. All information sources and literature consulted to
compile this dissertation are cited and listed on the References section. I also declare that
throughout the whole process, I have abided by the University of Derby Ethics and Research
Committee.
______________________
Signature of the Researcher
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DEDICATION
kikk
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ABSTRACT
Th
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LIST OF FIGURES
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LIST OF TABLES
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration of Authenticity......................................................................................................2
Dedication............................................................................................................................... 3
Abstract................................................................................................................................... 4
List of Figures......................................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables........................................................................................................................... 6
List of Abbreviations................................................................................................................7
Introduction (2,000 words)....................................................................................................11
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 11
1.2 Background on the Organisation..............................................................................11
1.3 Rationale for the Study.............................................................................................12
1.4 Academic Significance of the Study.........................................................................12
1.5 Aim of the Research.................................................................................................12
1.6 Objectives of the Research......................................................................................12
1.7 Structure of this Research........................................................................................12
Literature Review (5,000 WORDS).......................................................................................13
2.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 13
2.2 iGaming (Online Gambling)......................................................................................13
2.3 iGaming in Malta......................................................................................................14
2.4 Remote Working Growth..........................................................................................14
2.5 Differences between remote working and flexible working.......................................15
2.6 Reasons for remote working....................................................................................15
2.7 Benefit for remote working.......................................................................................16
2.8 Limitation for remote working...................................................................................18
2.9 Remote Working, Management and Leadership......................................................18
2.10 Remote Working influence on office space and cost optimization..........................21
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2.11 The role of engagement for employees working remotely......................................22
2.12 Impact on performance for employees working remotely.......................................22
2.13 The role of Technology for remote working............................................................23
2.14 The importance of communication in remote working............................................23
2.15 Literature Gap........................................................................................................24
2.16 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 25
Methodology / Research Design 2,500.................................................................................26
3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 26
3.2 Research Philosophy...............................................................................................26
3.3 Research Approach.................................................................................................26
3.4 Research Methodology............................................................................................26
3.5 Research Strategy...................................................................................................26
3.6 Data Collection.........................................................................................................26
3.7 Sample Size............................................................................................................. 26
3.8 Interview Structure...................................................................................................26
3.9 Interview Questions..................................................................................................26
3.10 Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................27
3.11 Validity................................................................................................................... 27
3.12 Data Analysis / Interpreting the Findings................................................................27
3.13 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 27
Analysis & Results 4,000......................................................................................................27
4.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 27
4.2 Findings................................................................................................................... 27
4.2.1 Thematic area 1....................................................................................................27
4.2.2 Thematic area 2:...................................................................................................28
4.2.3 Thematic area.......................................................................................................28
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4.3 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 28
Conclusion & Recommendation 2,500..................................................................................28
6.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 28
6.2 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 28
6.3 Recommendations...................................................................................................28
6.4 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 28
Personal Reflection 1,250.....................................................................................................28
7.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 29
7.2 Reflections on the research study............................................................................29
7.3 Reflections on the significance of my study venture.................................................29
7.4 Personal and Career Development..........................................................................29
7.5 Appreciation and acknowledgement........................................................................29
References............................................................................................................................ 29
Bibliography.......................................................................................................................... 31
List of Appendices................................................................................................................. 31
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION (2,000 WORDS)
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Remote work is a working style that allows professionals (employed or
freelances) to work outside of a normal office environment. It is based on the main
concept that any kind of work does not need to be done in a specific area or place to
be executed properly. Instead of commuting to an office each day to work from a
desk, remote employees can perform their tasks and achieve their goals from home
or wherever they want. Moreover, people have the flexibility to design their days, this
way both their professional and personal lives can be lived to their fullest potential.
For a few decades people had the opportunity to work from outside of a
corporate office, but only now working remotely is becoming mainstream.
The remote working concept has become an important contributor to the
company's performance. In several industries, a remote working environment
influences capital flow and business operations. However, in the gambling sector,
remote working is not fully embraced yet, including Kindred Group.
Working remotely can help to provide opportunities to improve the operational
processes, minimize costs and guarantee business long term sustainability in
Kindred Group plc. This because the organization allows just a few employees to
work remotely. It doesn't have a structured approach to it.
1.2 BACKGROUND ON THE ORGANISATION
Kindred Group is a Swedish company, public listed, and with an international
customer portfolio of over 24 million, it is among the largest operators in the online
gambling industry around the world, registering an annual turnover of £907.6m in
2018 (Annual Report, 2018). It started the business 20 years ago and now it employs
over 1,500 workers across several offices around the globe (e.g. Malta, London,
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Stockholm, Sidney, New York, Paris, Copenhagen, Tallin), representing over 50
different nationalities work together to deliver the best possible gambling experience
to their customers.
In August 2015, the organisation (formerly known as Unibet Group), acquired iGame
for the value of €59 million as part of its multi-brand strategy to expand into the
Nordic markets. This was the eighth acquisition undertaken by the company, ten
years after its first acquisition. Moreover, Kindred quickly expanded its brand portfolio
to 13 brands through its multi-brand strategy, with growth in most parts coming
through acquisitions, and by 2018 it had reached a market valuation of £2bn.
Kindred Group plc has the objective to become the number one operator in every
market where it operates.
1.3 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
Kindred Group is a Gaming company founded in 1998 in Sweden. It transferred its
Head Quarters to Malta in 2004 and currently employs 1690 employees of whom 470
are located in Malta. In the Malta office there are 72 managers (19.4% of the entire
company) while the rest occupy different operational roles. Kindred Group adopts a
flexible working hours policy, which entails work out of the office at a place that is
chosen by the employee. Such arrangements are however only allowed in
exceptional circumstances and on a non-permanent basis, such as in instances
when an employee has serious health problems and/or for regulatory reasons. For
example, if a good employee gets sick during employment or in instance where
regulations restrict the organization from having a permanent office.
At the moment, only 6 people out of over 1,690 are allowed to work fully remotely (for
the reasons cited above).
The research being undertaken will investigate what is remote working and how it is
applied in different organisations and more importantly within the group. It will also
analyse if remote working has an effect on employees` performance and if it
contributes to an increase in employees’ commitment and job satisfaction. From an
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employer perspective, the research will look into the benefits if any for the
organisation particularly with regards to reduction in operating costs, an increase in
employee loyalty and retention.
As can be understood from the above rational, the results from the research will be of
interest to both the Kindred Group management team and for the researcher whose
role it is to promote work practices that contribute to an increase in employee
performance and staff retention.
1.4 ACADEMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Although statistics show that the number of people who work from home has
increased by 140% since 2005 and 18% of people work remotely full-time (Global
WorkPlace Analytics, 2019), remore working has not been properly embraced by the
gaming industry.
Scholars have identified benefit for both employers and employees in the
organisations where remote working is embraces (Felstead & Henseke, 2017).
However, gaming industry is not responding quickly to this findings. Also, Kindred
Group is not changing the structure to adopt the remote working set up for its
employees. Past researches have shown that some authors have agreed to the benefits of
remote working. In contrast to it, Hopkins and McKay, (2019) argued that remote working
negatively affects the productivity of the employees and the organisation.
Since working from home has both negative and positive impact of remote working, it is
necessary to evaluate the different influences it has on the company and its functions
(Hadgraft et al., 2016). Multiple researches in this field have drawn conclusions and pointed
fingers towards the various issues and challenges that can influence a company to
reconsider the option of remote working in modern organisations (Groen et al., 2018). It
creates a dilemma in understanding whether remote working is suitable for all organisation or
operations have to be evaluated to understand the feasibility.
On the contrary, researches have talked about the benefits of providing a work-life balance
and flexibility provided to the employees. However, meeting deadlines, managing
professionalism and supervisory difficulties are crucial concerns being highlighted among the
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organisation (Abdullahi et al., 2017). There has been significant increase in sophistication
among the employees working in modern small and large organisations where flexibility has
become a necessary requirement for the sustainability of the organisation. However, various
surveys shows that even though flexibility is the new requirement at work, majority of the
organisations are still reluctant to provide flexible working shifts to their employees as they
feel it has negative impact on the productivity of the employees. Hopkins and McKay, (2019)
suggested that working remotely and providing other flexible working facilities results in
increase in operational cost of the business.
In contrast to this, various studies conducted in the United Kingdom, United States and
Germany have shown that more than 50% of the managers are allowed to work from home
atleast once a week. It implies that working from home has become a mainstream practice
for the employees working in any industry (Groen et al., 2018). Moreover, it has been seen
there has been an increasing in flexible work practices in developing countries. However,
increase in work life balance has resulted in two issues, increase in productivity and
profitability (Hadgraft et al., 2016). There is significant difference in business practices
among organisations within a single industry where some of the companies prefer providing
the employees with work from home in respect to others.
The analysis of past studies shows that even though remote working has been seen one of
the key strategies adopted by the companies but there is lack of remote working in gambling
industry. The growth of the online gambling industry has provided opportunities for remote
working jobs such as web design, content, community management, information technology
and technical support (Abdullahi et al., 2017). It shows that shift in focus on the online
platform where remote working has become necessary. Moreover, the analysis of the past
studies shows that there are few studies addressing the concern of remote working in the
gambling industry. It implies that the study has a high academic significance as the results
will help in understanding the benefits and drawbacks of remote working. It will help in
examining the feasibility of remote working in online gambling industry.
1.5 AIM OF THE RESEARCH
The research has aimed to examine the viability of remote working in online gambling
industry where Kindred Group has been chosen as the given case. The research has
explored the concept of remote working and how it has been implemented within the Kindred
Group. It lso aims to examine the way remote working affects the performance of the
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employees. The employees can be both positively and negatively affected or there may no
association between the variables. The study uses a cross sectional database to understand
the statistical significance between remote working and performance of the employees
(Abdullahi et al., 2017). Employee commitment and satisfaction has been included as
another factor affecting the changes within the organisation Organisational commitment and
satisfaction are always necessary for improving the performance of the employees (Hopkins
& McKay, 2019). However, organisational commitment has to be understood on different
levels where normative commitment, continuance commitment and affective commitment has
to be evaluated. On the other hand, job satisfaction and organisational satisfaction are the
dimensions to be considered while evaluating the satisfaction level of the employees.
Therefore, in overall remote working has been evaluated in respect to various factors such
as employee productivity, commitment and satisfaction. It is also related to the aspect of
motivation where motivation of the employees influences their performances, satisfaction and
commitment. It would be interesting to also evaluate the association between employee
motivation and remote working among employees. However, the aim of the study has been
defined through a statement which provides an information regarding the overall scope of the
study. The research aim is as follows:
To investigate the feasibility of remote working for the organization and how it affects
employees within the Kindred Group.
1.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
In light of the past literature, it has been seen that remote working has been considered as
one of the major concerns for modern organisations due to the change in needs and wants of
the employees (Hadgraft et al., 2016). Employees have moved from their basic needs
especially in the developed countries and looking for non-monetary benefits for remaining
motivated and improving their performance. Therefore, the study aims to address one of
these factors affecting the performance of the employees and profitability of the organisation.
Remote working and working from home has been a major area of concern for modern
organisations as implementation of flexibility is one of the key factors of success in firms. The
gambling industry especially, online gambling has been growing effectively in the past few
years which has led to creation of jobs that can be remotely worked. However, concerns of
productivity and profitability has led to the evaluation of the given impact based on the case
study of Kindred Group. There is a requirement of huge amount of workforce in the sector
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which shows that opportunity for progression. Therefore, the study has the purpose of
evaluating the concept of remote working and how it has been implemented in various
organisations. Remote working has been implemented in various organisation which implies
that there has to be benefits of using this strategy. Therefore, the study examines its impact
on employee performance, commitment and satisfaction in detail.
The objectives of the research are as follows:
• To define remote working and describe how it is applied within the organization being
investigated
• To critically evaluate if working remotely has an effect on employees performance
• To research, if remote working increases employee commitment and satisfaction
• To critically analyze if working remotely would lead to a financial benefit for the
organisation
1.7 STRUCTURE OF THIS RESEARCH
This research is structured into seven chapters. Chapter one describes
thebackground of the organisation in which this study takes place, detailing the
rationale of the research problem while also describing the aim and objectives of the
research.
Chapter two covers a detailed literature review of the key concepts comprising
this research field, namely online gambling, remote working advantages and
limitation and its importance of in the context of th modern world.
Chapter three explains the research methodology undertaken to conduct this
study detailing the adopted research philosophy, research approach, research
method, research strategy and research techniques. It also describes the ethical
considerations that were taken into account and the measures taken by the author to
preserve the validity of the research.
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The findings of the research are described in chapter four, where the author
gives a detailed structure account of the findings that emerged from the interviews
and questionnaires conducted with the participants.
Chapter five confronts the research findings described in chapter four with the
literature review in the form of a detailed analysis.
In chapter six the author, presents the research conclusions based on the
research findings while also producing a set of recommendations in line with the
research objectives.
Finally, chapter seven contains the personal reflections on the research
journey, and the positive impact this had on his personal and professional career.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW (5,000 WORDS)
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Remote working is increasingly used across a wide range of industries and business
corporations and it is becoming mainstream. As stated by Felstead and Henseke (2017),
popular researches are calling it a “win-win” for both the workforce and the management. It is
the working style allowing professionals to work outside of the corporate or the office
environment. This is based on the theory that work needs to be accomplished successfully
and the place of work does not matter.
There are several terms which people can define this type of working procedure. Teleworking
is one of them, but some countries of the world use the phrase “work from home” in order to
describe this kind of activity. There are different types of jobs which are easy to adapt to the
concept of remote working or teleworking, for example, the marketing roles, video maker,
writers, website or application designers and customer service departments. The online
companies seem to be prepared to face easily remote working because they have a big part
of their employees performing jobs suitable to remote working.
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Kindred Group is one of the biggest online gaming companies in the world and this
dissertation shall discuss the feasibility of the introduction of the concept of remote working
within the Group. This literature review shall discuss if the concept of remote working will be
feasible in an online gambling corporation reviewing reputed studies and analysis. The
feasibility depends upon diverse categories of factors in terms of the costs, employee
satisfaction, worker's performance and making accurate future predictions.
2.2 IGAMING (ONLINE GAMBLING)
As discussed by Rand and Light (2015), online gambling is one of the faster-growing
industries in the world. Despite the slightly bad reputation around the globe, the request fo
gambling is still very solid. Gaming companies respond to that request. When we talk about
gambling people mean sports-betting, online casino, poker, bingo, lottery and esports. The
companies in this industry offer to the customers those games offer.
The online gambling market has been exploding in terms of revenue in the last years,
but the growth is not over yet. According to the authoritative journal Prnewswire (2019), the
online gambling market is going to evaluate 102 billion by the end of 20205. This means
more customers will be served, and every company will need to spend more money on
human resources, operations and services to be able to fulfill all the requests coming from
the players all around the world.
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Figure 1: Igaming Industry statistics
Source: (Holmes, 2019)
2.3 IGAMING IN MALTA
Malta has been without any doubt a pioneer in the online gaming industry. In fact, the
Country has been the first one to regulate in Europe the online gaming business. The Malta
Gaming Authority, in 2000, allowed the first online betting site to fully operate, under the
Operating of Betting Offices Regulations, to regulate offshore betting companies (MGA
licensee register, 2019).
Following that first stage, Malta started structuring a very solid model of regulation of online
businesses (Legislations Regulations, 2019). This brought the island of Malta to become
one of the main gaming Hubs in Europe, attracting the biggest companies in the world and,
as a consequence, the best talents available in the industry coming from every side of the
world.
According to the Journal Malta Today (2018), online gaming contributes to 12% of the
Maltese economy, generating 700 million. The gambling organisations are over 330
employing and they employ over 9,000 people.
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Figure 2: Structure of the organisation
Source: (mga.org.mt, 2018)
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Figure 3: IGaming industry in Malta
Source: (mga.org.mt, 2018)
2.4 REMOTE WORKING GROWTH
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Remote working started to be considered as early and the internet was created. However,
just in the last couple of decades started becoming a mainstream topic, actually considered
by organisations.
In 2005 the first official co-working space was created in San Francisco, from that moment
the remote work really started to become popular. To confirm this statement we can say that,
in 2010, over 59% of remote workers were working for private companies rather than simply
freelancing (Toptal.com, 2019). On the same source, is possible to see that, in 2018, 70% of
the work population works remotely at least once a week and 53% for at least half the week.
Moreover, is important to note how big was the growth of technologies that support remote
working. In 2019, the video collaboration software Zoom, which is one of the most popular in
the world, reports 50,800 customers (i.e. organisations) with more than 10 employees. This
equals to a 5x increase from 2017 (Toptal.com, 2019).
Figure 4: Remote working growth
Source: (Hering, 2020)
2.5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN REMOTE WORKING AND FLEXIBLE WORKING
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As mentioned by Massa (2016), there are numerous differences between flexible as well as
remote working procedures. The main difference is that with flexible working the office
remains the main environment where the employee will perform his or her tasks. The
employees will be able to have flexible starting times and they can leave the office when they
need to, but in the majority of the cases, they will need to come to the office to work. On the
other hand, remote working implies the possibility of the employee to work permanently from
home or any preferred locations.
Flexible working is growing among employees with personal family commitments or for
employees who want flexible arrangements that reduce the amount of time they spend
commuting to and from work. With the coming of new technology, flexible working is
increasingly possible, and evidence shows that it can reduce absenteeism and increase job
satisfaction and productivity (Cooper & Johnson, 2012).
2.6 REASONS FOR REMOTE WORKING
As highlighted by Mamo, Seychell and Grima (2019), there are numerous reasons for the
incorporation of remote working. The paper helped in understand that a large amount of
money can be saved for both the employers as well as the employees. Lots of time can also
be saved in the first place using remote working. Less stress and more presence in social life
can be the other reason behind the selection of remote working in a business environment.
As elaborated by Mamo (2018), there are different categories of reasons which can
be considered to incorporate the concept of remote working in the online gambling business.
The investigators of this paper critically examined some of the reasons which are enough to
understand why online gambling might opt for the concept of remote working such as the
better maintaining of the work-life balance, savings of the transportation cost and time,
enhanced productivity.
Another main driver to introduce remote working, the scalability and sustainability of
the business. As stated above in Section 2.2, the online gaming industry is growing
massively, and it will require always more resources. It is key to establish new ways of
working. It is important to balance in a better way the performances of the employees, but
also it’d reduce massively the operation costs to allow sustainability of the business.
2.7 BENEFIT FOR REMOTE WORKING
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As elaborated by McLaughlin (2017), the flexibility offered from remote working is one
of the prime advantages of this concept as compared with working in an office. The paper
highlighted that there are diverse categories of additional costs for each of the employee who
is working physically in an office floor, such as the transportation cost and the other
recreational costs which are saved if the concept of remote working is introduced. The paper
helped in understanding that identification of the loyalty of the employees is a lot easier when
they work remotely. Most of the employees who don’t work in an office have lower stress
issues and they can maintain better personal relationships. The employees working
remotely can manage better their hobbies and interests compared to normal workers and this
is influencing positively the happiness of the teleworkers (Schneider, 2015).
Lastly, remote working usually brings advantages to the company as well. In terms of
cost, remote working is being considered highly profitable. If there are teams that can be fully
distributed, the companies can have a decreased overhead (all non-labor expenses required
to operate your business), for example, the money that they save on costs like that of
furniture, facilities, IT, Benefits and bills and rent. Even if the entire team cannot be remote it
can safely be said that Flexjobs calculated that employers can save $22,000 per remote
worker per year, even if the entire team is not remote (Humphreys, et al., 2017).
According to the respected web porta RemoteYear.com (2019) , it is possible to
summarize the benefits of remote working into 2 big areas:
1. Employees benefit
 Flexible lifestyle
When the employees aren’t required to be in an office during a set time frame, remote
employees can focus on the things that matter to them. If a remote worker is also a parent,
he or she can give more quality time to the kids and be more present in their life.
 Better health
Remote employees are much less stressed and have better morale than their in-office
counterparts. In a report published by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK, it was
found that 55% of participants felt more stressed as a result of their commute
(Remoteyear.com, 2019). By eliminating the commute, and letting remote employees work in
an environment that they’re comfortable in, employers became less stressed-out employees.
 A renewed passion for their job
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Remote employees are more inspired by their surroundings and can filter out
environmental distractions as they see fit. In fact, they see it as motivation and are stimulated
to continue to surpass their goals in order to continue living the lifestyle that they love.
Moreover, 69% of remote workers reported lower absenteeism than non-remote employees
according (Remoteyear.com, 2019). Workers didn’t feel the need to skip out on work without
good reason, because they felt engaged and focused within their role instead of stressed or
pressured.
2. Employer benefit
 Higher productivity
Remote employees are more likely to put in extra effort in their jobs, going above and beyond
to get their work done in comparison to in-office employees. According to the State and Work
Productivity Report, 65% of full-time employees believe that working remotely would increase
productivity and their line managers agree (Remoteyear.com, 2019). Two-thirds of managers
who were surveyed reported an increase in overall productivity from their remote employees.
 Cost savings
Flexjobs reported that employers can save $22,000 per remote worker per year, even if their
entire team is not remote.
 Engaged employees
Employers offering remote working keep their employees happy and engaged. Moreover,
remote employees reported that they were happier than non-remote employees and also felt
more valued within their role (Remoteyear.com, 2019).
2.8 LIMITATION FOR REMOTE WORKING
As discussed by Orford (2019), there are some disadvantages associated with the concept of
remote working which was discussed in a detailed manner in this data source. The
investigator of this paper highlighted that isolation from the rest of the employees who are
working in a physical office. The paper has identified that some of the employees who are
working in accordance with the concept of remote working often feel neglected and
dissatisfied as they believe that there are not considered in being a part of the business.
Moreover, the paper highlighted that the lack of participation in the brainstorming procedure.
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This way remote working employees get involved very often when a decision is already
made, instead of being part of the decision process.
Moreover, according to Micallef and Colombo (Micallef & Colombo, 2015), there are
few more limitations associated with the concept of remote working or teleworking. The prime
limitation which was highlighted and discussed in the paper is that some of the employees
have a very bad work-life balance. Decreased employee visibilities are the other drawback
associated with remote working. The paper highlighted that most of the online businesses
have some common issues such as the lack of relationships among co-workers. From a cost
side, is important to mentions that remote working brings the company to invest more in
softwares to allow remote meetings and communication to happen with a high-quality
standard.
There is some financial limitation as well. According to Goodridge and Marciniuk
(2016) , the training costs will also have to be calculated. There will be non-traditional
recruitment costs that will have to be factored in because the employee will need to have
different skills (e.g. self-motivation) and it might be more difficult to find. The cost of having
video-conferencing software will also have to be considered so that people who are working
remotely can connect if necessary. There are costs that cannot be skipped since inconsistent
access and equipment will create a gap in performance and quality. There will also have to
be additional equipment and software that is purchased for Customer Service
Representatives so that the organizational targets can be met.
2.9 REMOTE WORKING, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
According to the father of the Leadership styles theory, the psychologist Lewin (1939)
the leadership styles can be grouped into three categories: Laissez-faire, Democratic and
Authoritarian. Each one of them can be theoretically valid in a particular situation and certain
cultures.
Factors Laissez-faire Democratic Authoritarian
Basic Behaviour The leaders don’t
respond to the
need of the
The leader involves
the followers,
seeks opinions and
The leader does
use strong control
and enforces rules
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followers. collaborates. without regard to
the followers'
opinions.
Goal Settings It allows followers
to set their own
goals.
Involves followers
in setting goals.
Sets goal for the
followers
unilaterally.
Communications Superficial
communication and
avoid discussion to
set policy and
procedures.
Engages in 2-ways
and facilitate
discussion with
followers.
Engage in one-way
and downward
communication.
Interactions Avoids interaction. Solicits inputs. Set procedures
unilaterally.
Feedbacks Provides feedback
(of any kind) not
frequentely
Provides frequent
positive feedbacks.
Provides infrequent
positive feedbacks.
Rewards/Punishments Avoid offering
rewards and
punishements.
Rewards good and
punish as a last
option.
Rewards obedience
and punish
mistakes.
Conflict Managements Avoid Conflicts Mediates conflicts
for group gain.
Use conflict for
personal gain.
Table1. 1 Comparison of leadership styles
James, P. (2017). Organisational Behaviour. Pearson India.
As per Jeyasingham (2016), laissez-faire is the primary concept to enable remote
working. The companies leave the employees to manage work on their own schedule and do
not monitor them round the clock. They just have to get things done no matter where they
decide to work. This is the type of belief that every individual has a self-interest in doing
better.
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As per Faulkner (2017), human beings are striving to do better by their own self-
interest all the time. If there is no external influence or interference it can be said that an
efficient and more natural balance will persist. The laissez-faire management is required
since the employer needs to show that they can trust the employee to figure things out on
their own.
There are employers who will give an employee the space to thrive and the kind of
time that is required for doing that in a working environment.
Figure 1: Laissez-faire style of management
(Source: Berend, 2016)
As per Berend (2016), the laissez-faire working style is convenient when
someone is working with employees who are highly qualified, motivated and know
what they have to do to get on in their fields.
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Figure 2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
(Source: Lee and Hanna, 2015)
As per Lee and Hanna (2015), this is a theory showing that complete
satisfaction cannot be achieved without fulfilling the points highlighted in the above
figure. They are the need for physiological, safety, love and esteem needs. After the
first four needs have been fulfilled the person moves on to the last level that is that of
self-actualization. The workforce can reach the pinnacle of their performance if they
are supported in the first four levels of the needs. The level of self-actualization can
be fulfilled if a person is able to work remotely and the company invests enough trust
in them to let him do so.
2.10 REMOTE WORKING INFLUENCE ON OFFICE SPACE AND COST
OPTIMIZATION
As cited by Krauer (2016), workspace optimization and cost optimization is
one of the prime benefits of remote working in the iGaming industries all around the
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world. The investigators of this paper highlighted that most of the global iGaming
industries are changing their work procedures and work approaches. Each of these is
well supported by remote working. The author of this thesis highlighted that
employees can understand the work procedures in a better way if they are allowed to
work from home. The paper accepted the fact that most of the investors of the
iGaming industry spend millions as the infrastructure cost. Both the tangible as the
nontangible assets are secured using physical or virtual security measures.
The writers of this analysis highlighted that the additional infrastructure costs
be minimized if the concept of remote working is introduced. A huge amount of
money is spent by business organizations in order to manage their workspaces
which can be saved using this concept. The papers were also very much useful to
understand that there are diverse categories of costs which are associated with the
iGaming industries in terms of the cost of each of the non-human resources and
human resources, electricity consumption, and other overhead costs. Each of these
costs can be surely minimized if the concept of remote working is introduced in the
iGaming industry.
2.11 THE ROLE OF ENGAGEMENT FOR EMPLOYEES WORKING REMOTELY
Remote workforce engagement is one of the prime topics of discussion when
analyzing teleworking. Hayes, Douglas, and Bonner (2015) highlighted the fact that
assigning a mentor for each of the new employees is very much useful to improve
the engagement of the employees working. Employee empowerment is also one of
the prime factors which are responsible for enhanced engagement procedure. The
paper highlighted that encouraging the learning procedure can also be very beneficial
to improve employee engagement among each of the stakeholders.
2.12 IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE FOR EMPLOYEES WORKING REMOTELY
According to Grönros and Janér (2018), as well as from the point of view of
different research papers, it can be said that the performance of an employee can be
improved if he is working remotely. The paper was very much useful to understand
that there are different types of interruptions in a job performed in an office
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environment which can be addressed if the remote working is applied. Thus, this
paper successfully highlighted that remote working can help in boosting the
productivity of employees.
As mentioned by Grima (2016), the time management of remote working
employees is much better than the ones working in an office environment. There are
different types of bad habits of an employee who works in corporate culture (e.g.
smoking, talking loud and drinking) which sometimes have a direct impact on the
performance in the lean seasons and it might get reduced if a remote working
procedure is introduced.
2.13 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR REMOTE WORKING
As per Long (2018), there are external factors like technology that is vital for
making remote working happen for employees. The investigators of this paper
highlighted that there are diverse categories of tools that have to be used in the
communication procedure to enable the remote working environment. There are
several software's installed by companies that will allow establishing internet
connections by proxy, so to enable the internet support or remote support of the
devices of the workers. There are other tools for collaboration (e.g.Slack or
Basecamp) allowing the workflow to be streamlined no matter where people choose
to be located. There are tools (e.g. Time Doctor) that will not let time be an issue
when it comes to trusting the employees.
As per Valenduc and Vendramin (2016), there is software that can be easily
installed in any computer that helps the employee to time-track, monitor application
usages, monitor screen movements so that accountability can be tracked to the hilt.
Moreover, George (2017) argued that that social media platforms are
increasingly used by the employees of the remotely working business environment.
Also, the researcher highlighted uninterrupted internet connection must be there in a
remote working environment.
2.14 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN REMOTE WORKING
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According to Fjätström Zetterberg and Schelin (2017), clear communication is
required in order to perform the business operations in a remote working
environment. The investigators of this paper highlighted the use of different
categories of leverage technologies and communication technologies. The paper
emphasized the importance of the communication platforms in order to make the
employees understand what is desired from them and their responsibilities in specific
projects. Pro-activeness on the employee in performing the tasks can be the other
significant contribution of the efficiency of the communication platforms, such as
email and skype. The paper has successfully identified the importance of
collaboration while each of the communication channels is used for different
purposes. Moreover, the paper acknowledged the fact that understanding the
feedback from the supervisors can be a lot easier if a clear communication procedure
is maintained. Thus, the paper helped in understanding that communication is one of
the key reasons behind the success of a remote working environment.
On the other hand, Fernie and Sparks (2018) mentioned that
miscommunication is a huge challenge in most of the remote working environments
all over the world. The investigators of this paper highlighted that the complexities are
solved if there is efficient communication technology. The paper highlighted that
building relationships can be a lot easier if new communication tools are introduced
in a business environment. Moreover, the value of the 1to1 meeting is much higher if
remote working is allowed, because they might have the only moment to have a
proper and valuable conversation with the employee to understands his or her
current situation. The paper was also very much helpful to understand that remote
communication is very much important in most of the online business environments.
Improvement of the teamwork is also one of the significant contributions of
good communication. The paper also hinted that an effective communication
procedure can be very much useful to improve the poor morale of an employee.
Reductions in human errors, as well as the other types of errors, are the other
advantages of maintaining effective communication strategies as discussed by the
investigators of this data source.
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2.15 REMOTE WORKING AND ENVIRONMENT IMPACT
Errichiello and Pianese, (2018) states that the concept of telecommuting has its origin in the
1970s and terminologies like telework, work-from-home, remote work, flexwork and
telecommuting are considered synonymous terms even then they have differences between
them. It offers the employees opportunity to work away from their traditional workplace.
Greenhouse gas abatement has been one of the major areas of concerns and past studies
where the studies show that abatement has high chances and potential of reduction. As
stated by Charalampous et al., (2019), the connected program developed by Dell shows their
telecommuting solution for the employees. This program has improved the operational
efficiency of the company’s operation and significantly controlled the energy footprint. The
employees have witnessed decrease in their carbon footprint due to the decrease travelling
miles and less consumption of gasoline. On the contrary, the employees have witnessed
increase in the consumption of energy at home (Elshaiekh, Hassan & Abdallah, 2018,
November).
Hagl et al., (2019, March) states that the coonected workplace program developed by Dell
has developed an excellent mechanism to measure the environment benefits for information
technology solutions. The majority of the employees have been able to take care of this
opportunity to remotely work. A survey conducted by the International Workplace Group
shows that the findings are quite to workplace dynamics and surrounding environment. The
survey was conducted with more than 15000 business individuals in more than 70 nations
which showed that number of organisation using work flex policies were quite small which
indicates the hesitation of modern businesses to adopt telecommuniting (Errichiello &
Pianese, 2018). Charalampous et al., (2019) performed a study to examine the impact of
telecommuting and remote working on the performances of the workforce which showed that
in complex jobs working remotely improves productivity and allows them to focus them in a
better way away from all the distractions in an office setting.
Peng, Su and Higginson, (2019) evaluated past studies to argue that remote working is the
one of the best ways of reducing ecological footprints in modern organisation which improves
the health of the people and helps in significant reduction in emmission of greenhouse gases
due to transportation. It increases non-motorised transport by more than 77 percent. O'Keefe
et al., (2016) performed a study to identify the positive environment influence of working
remotely has shown environmental gains such as saving of petrol costs of more than $20
million and reduction in global greenhouse emission by 54 million ton annually, decrease in
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traffic, improvement in the quality of the air, reduction of carbon footprint and erergy savings.
Elshaiekh, Hassan and Abdallah, (2018, November) performed a study to suggest that
improvement in online technology has helped the organisations in developing an ecological
environment for working due to the increase in remote working and it has also improved the
performance of the employees.
On the contrary, Raffaele and Connell, (2016) states that even though the advantages of
remote working has been identified by various organisation, its implementing in the global
market is still limited. Various countries have been developing a telecommuting law for the
population for providing added benefits to the organisation, employees and surrounding
environment. It helps people to save their resources needed for transportation and led a
better life by contributing positively to the environment. According to Errichiello and Pianese,
(2018), the number of remote workers have doubled in the past decade which is growing ten
times faster than the traditional workforce but there are lack of laws supporting the rights of
the employees working remotely.
In contrast to this, Hambly and Lee, (2019) stated that there are various drawbacks to
telecommuting and it is like a double edged sword where remote working leads to social
network fragmentation of the workplace and social isolation. It can also lead to overworking
and increases the overhead cost of the employees. Hagl et al., (2019, March) has stated that
employees that are working remotely donot work properly and there is lag in their
productivity. It implies that working in office settings were considered to provide effectiveness
to the work done by the employees. It reduces the quality of the work performed and the
work output. Peng, Su and Higginson, (2019) supports this view by stating it is essential to
measure the results and there is a noteworthy difference between being productive and
seeming productive.
Empirical evidences from the past studies have provided a different perspective about
telecommuting which showed that there was a decrease in commuting trip by 10% between
the year of 1995 to 2005 (O'Keefe et al., 2016). On the other hand, there has been significant
increase in the distance travelled from 8.2 milles to 8.7 miles which shows that there has
been 6 percent increase in the distance travelled (Elshaiekh, Hassan & Abdallah, 2018,
November). The distance travelled in business trips have alsio increased significantly where
the average trip takes 20 miles. Moreover, the time taken for each trip has also increased
significantly which shows it takes 25 minutes to travel in the United Kingdom. It has
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experienced an increase of 13%. The majority of the employees are travelling by minibuses,
vans and cars with the journey varying from 6 minutes to 45 minutes. On the other hand, the
car users take more time than the other travellers.
Raffaele and Connell, (2016) performed a study empirically which showed that teleworking or
remote working reduces the distanced travelled by car on daily basis. Moreover, taking into
account other trips that have to be made by the employees including usage of the vehicle by
others shows significant decrease in the cost of commuting and emission of greenhouse
gases. On the contrary, Hambly and Lee, (2019) states that working from home reduce
energy savings and the study suggest that employees are found to have travelled smaller
distances when compared to office trips. It also reduces the travelling distances of other
members also. On the contrary, Peng, Su and Higginson, (2019) debates the legitimacy of
including travelling rebound effect to understand the impact of remote working. Therefore, in
order to understand the influence of energy reducing due to remote working, it is essential to
considet other traffic measures which prevents the induced impact of traffic. Hagl et al.,
(2019, March) adviced that it would be essential to include other strategies of sustainable
transport along with remote working to save energy otherwise, it will result in erosion of
energy savings.
Ansong and Boateng, (2018) performed a study to state that teleworking can also reduce the
usage of energy at the workplace which can change the working practices within the
organisation. There are very few studies that have evaluated the impact of remote working
on the used energy at home and at workplace. The studies that energy consumed during
working for extra hours at home will be outweighed by the energy saved from travelling. It is
said that of the workplace is redesigned to reduce the space allotted for each of the
employees, it can increase the amount of energy saved at workplace (O'Keefe et al., 2016).
Moreover, if this decision results to change in the location of the workplace, the new location
will determine the impact on used energy as it can change the length of commute and
accessibility of public transport.
Raffaele and Connell, (2016) performed a study to state that average commutes for remote
wokers are greater than the other employees but it does not necessarily mean that remote
working leads to remote living. However, there have been speculations that remot workers
live further from their workplaces and encouragement of remote working will lead to further
moving away from workplace. It will result in a more dispersed form of living among the
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remote workers resulting in more travelling by car. However, there is little evidence tio justify
the impact of remote working on the choice of people to stay at farther places from the office
sites (Hambly & Lee, 2019). On the contrary, there are evidences to suggest that remote
working does not have any impact on location of stay and it may lead to decision of living
farther and staying closer at the same time. Moreover, there is a need for longitudinal study
to evaluate the impact of remote working on living location for the employees over a period of
time. It would help in identifying the changes in behaviour among the employees over a
period of time. However, there are longer travels by the employees which may skew the
results from the studies conducted to understand energy savings.
Peng, Su and Higginson, (2019) states that mobile working is one of the major factors
contributing to the growth of renmote working at workplace. It led to the increase in the
remote working by more than 150 percent. It was due to the increase in people working from
home at various places over the globe. Even though, the companies experienced increase
in telecommuting till early 2000s, the recent increase in remote working has been more for
men than women. The change in the family friend policies have also contributed to the
changes in the statistics (O'Keefe et al., 2016). On the contrary, the results suggest that the
majority of the remote working people are self employed or unpaid as the trend is more
among the people that are unemployed or selfemployed.
Even though promotion of remote working has the potential to reduce traffic significantly and
reduce the emission of carbon, a study conducted by Raffaele and Connell, (2016), have
concluded that depending on the promotion of remote working, the number of people
travelling car can be reduced by 12 per cent within the next ten years. Various surveys
conducted by the employees have shown that employees are interested in remote working
but unfornately majority of them does not have the option as their organisation has not
implemented practice such as remote working for employees at all level (Ansong & Boateng,
2018). However, the potential increase in remote working and development of remote
working jobs in the industry results in more popularity due to the increase in technological
proficiency among modern companies. On the contrary, there are various issues about
telecommuting which needs to be understood for improving the concept of remote working in
modern organisations.
Hambly and Lee, (2019) performed a meta analysis to examine the impact of remote working
on environment, job satisfaction and autonomy perception. It showed that remote working
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results in better balance between personal and professional life with significant reduction in
stress levels among the employees. It also showed that there was decrease in energy
consumption due to no travelling time or cost which posoitively affects trhe corresponding
environment. The analysis of another study shows that remote working in the past decade
have significantly reduced the consumption of fuel contributing to a greener environment
(Ansong & Boateng, 2018). Therefore, the impact on climatic changes are huge due to
remote working but it does not mean that remote working is essential for environment
sustainability but for providing the employees with flexible options of working. It helps them
balance their personal life to that of their professional life and reduces the amount of stress
encountered by them. However, there have been speculations that remot workers live further
from their workplaces and encouragement of remote working will lead to further moving away
from workplace. It will result in a more dispersed form of living among the remote workers
resulting in more travelling by car.
2.16 LITERATURE GAP
Based on the above discussions coming from a wide range of scholars who
have stated their opinion about the feasibility of the introduction of a remote working
business environment it can be said that there are few areas that were not covered
up well in the literature review. None of the papers highlighted emphasize the
significance of the training sessions for each and every employee to fully explain the
concept of remote working and what is required to perform well while working
remotely. Researchers have provided the diverse categories of limitations of this
concept however, but the ways to address each of those challenges were not
discussed by any of the researchers on a practical level. The economic viability of
this concept in the country of Malta was also not addressed in any of the discussions
which were made in this paper.
2.17 CONCLUSION
The remote working environment is getting worldwide acceptance in most of
the global companies all around the world due to the wide range of benefits
associated with it such as better life-work balance, time and cost savings for both the
employers as well as the employees and enhanced productivity. There are different
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challenges such as working in a team, decrease of a healthy lifestyle, difficulties in
tracking performances and happiness.
On the basis of the research conducted from the secondary source, it can be
concluded that the Kindred Group must conduct the feasibility analysis in the first
place, so all the different details (benefits and challenges) are identified and
analyzed. This can be extremely valuable considering the fact, none of the biggest
iGaming companies are currently using a structured approach to the concept of
remote working, whereas some of the other industries have started using
successfully this idea to boost their productivity. As a consequence, this analysis
could potentially turn into a competitive advantage fro Kindred Group.
Thus, it can be recommended that a thorough feasibility plan, a communication plan
and a resource management plan is what Kindred organization needs to enact the
concept of remote working in their working environment and allow each of the
employees to work remotely.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY / RESEARCH DESIGN 2,500
3.1 INTRODUCTION
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
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xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.5 RESEARCH STRATEGY
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.6 DATA COLLECTION
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.7 SAMPLE SIZE
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.8 INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.9 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.10 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.11 VALIDITY
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.12 DATA ANALYSIS / INTERPRETING THE FINDINGS
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xxxxxxxxxxxxx
3.13 CONCLUSION
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS & RESULTS 4,000
4.1 INTRODUCTION
xxx
4.2 FINDINGS
xxxxxx
4.2.1 THEMATIC AREA 1
xxxxx
4.2.2 THEMATIC AREA 2:
xxxxx
4.2.3 THEMATIC AREA
xxxx
4.3 CONCLUSION
xxxxxx
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 2,500
6.1 INTRODUCTION
xxxx
6.2 CONCLUSIONS
xxxxxxxxx
6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
xxxxxxxxxxx
6.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6
PERSONAL REFLECTION 1,250
7.1 INTRODUCTION
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
7.2 REFLECTIONS ON THE RESEARCH STUDY
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
7.3 REFLECTIONS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MY STUDY VENTURE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
7.4 PERSONAL AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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7.5 APPRECIATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix I – Questionnaire Questions (target firm employees)
Do you manage people? Y/N
Gender: M/F
How old are you? ------
Appendix II – Interview Questions (CCO)
1. What does employee commitment mean to you?
2. How would you describe your commitment towards Kindred Group?
3. Did the acquisition have any effect on your commitment towards the company?
a. If it did, how did this effect your commitment?
b. Is there any link between the Acquisition and Employee Commitment?
4. You decided to stay in the organization, following the acquisition. What do you think
are the reasons that motivated you to stay? Name at least three.
5. How would you describe the influence of compensation (salary, bonus and other
incentives) on your commitment towards the company?
6. When it comes to your colleagues from iGame Group who decided to leave after the
acquisition, what do you think were their motives to leave the company? What were
the factors that influenced their resignation?
7. Is there anything that the company could have done to secure their commitment and
alter their decision to leave?
8. What factors would you recommend that Kindred Group should consider for future
acquisitions to secure the commitment of the target firm employees?
a. How would you emphasise these factors in order of priority?
b. If you had to pinpoint one essential factor that Kindred should make sure is in
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place for the next acquisition, which one would it be?
IV
1. How important would you say it is for Kindred to secure the organisational
commitment of the target firm employees during an acquisition process?
2. When it comes to retaining talent and transferring knowledge, the company struggled
to retain employees – do you think this has impacted the success of the acquisition in
terms of harnessing the full potential?
3. What would you say were the factors that positively influenced the iGame employees
to secure their commitment in order to retain them?
4. As the company pursues further acquisitions to achieve its growth targets, how
important would you say career opportunities are to secure the commitment of the
target firm employees and retain talent? Compensation? Work Environment?
5. What efforts and initiatives and incentives did the company do to secure their
commitment?
6. Which efforts were the most effective?
7. What do you think influenced the decision to leave, when it comes to the iGame
employees that decided to leave?
8. Where there any issues that were not anticipated in the due diligence stage, that
Kindred had to deal with in the Post-Acquisition stage? What were they and how did
the company deal with them?
9. Do you think Kindred, could have done more to involve employees in the decisionmaking
processes related to the acquisition?
Links to read
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/business/why-vodafone/expert-advice/better-ways-of-working
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/
pdf_bwow_dft_bis_final.pdf old - but relevant!
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