Case Study: Does Working From Home Harm Your Career? (Amazon)

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Assignment component 2- DIGITAL SKILLS &
RESEARCH METHODS
“Does working from home harm your career? - a case study of Amazon”
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Primary research..............................................................................................................................8
Methodology..................................................................................................................................10
Ethical considerations....................................................................................................................13
Limitations of the study.................................................................................................................14
Results............................................................................................................................................17
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
Appendix........................................................................................................................................24
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Abstract
Aim of this study and objective was defined at first and then the study moved on to performing a
critical review of literature, which found that slacking, communication gap, isolation be major
problems faced by professionals. Therefore, it harms their career, as they do not get any guidance
from managers. Primary research was performed and it took forty respondents from Amazon.
Timeline of this research was set and breakdown of the work was given. Furthermore, analysis
was performed on data to find out the outcome. Recommendation, which is suitable for
mitigating the problem were found from answer of respondents.
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Introduction
Aims
The aim of this research study is to identify and analyse if working from home harms
professional career of a person.
Objective
 To discover benefits of work from home in professional career
 To find out the harmful effects in career by doing work from home
 To find possible ways for mitigating problems faced in work from and recommend it
Background of the study
According to statista (2019), in UK, South West region has most number of people, who are
working from home and it reaches to 8.6 percent. There have been radical changes in workplaces
and especially in IT sector companies.
Figure 1: Percentage of home workers
(Source: statista.com, 2019)
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Work from home is a trend, which has emerged over years due to availability of technology,
which can connect employees and organisations without any delay. The study will be conducted
to understand the possible harmful effects of working from home for professionals. At present
time, in UK there are many employees, who work from home and have complaints regarding it.
This study will analyse those complaints to gain more understanding of these.
Rationale
Some employees, who work from home, have started to conceive ill feeling towards their
organisations. They think that their career is being harmed due to this and they are feeling
tormented due to this. The main problem is coming from lack of professional support. These
remote workers have complained that they do not get enough professional support while doing
work from their home and often have felt isolated, limitation in face-to-face communication.
Furthermore, remote working brings in added expense, as employees have to pay greater bills for
lighting. At present time, many organisations lack from proper structure, which can support
remote workers. These are the reason for which this study is being conducted to find solutions of
these problems (theguardian.com, 2016).
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Literature review
Concept of work from home
According to Reshma et al. (2015), the concept of working from home is simple and it deals with
an employee doing job from home by staying connected to the organisation that person works
for. This is a kind of flexible working method, where employees balance their daily life in
parallel with the work they do for companies. Clark (2018) agrees upon this and says that many
international companies are opting for this method and home-based work has become a trend.
Especially telecommunication and information technology companies are using this method
more at modern time. About 89 percent British employees believe that they are more productive,
if they work from their residence.
Benefits of work from home
According to Canoninco (2016), says that employees, who are work from their home, are more
productive than other employees are. This offers flexible working and it is quite beneficial for
parents, who have newborn babies and people, commute long distances. Therefore, by
eliminating these problems by doing work from home, they can focus more on career. In
contrary, Christensen (2019) says that a person who takes this option of working from his or her
home may minimise sick leaves. It is more applicable to employees having health issues. Rate of
job satisfaction is much higher in employees, who chooses this option and it is found that
employees can have 25 % low stress levels.
Harmful effects in career for doing work from home
Kumar and Aithal (2016) say that supervision become difficult for managers and employees do
not get guidance easily as they are not present in front of manager due to working from home.
Furthermore, at home, employees have tendency to slack and this is bad for career. In contrary,
Rupietta and Beckmann (2018) say that when problems occur during working, employees often
consults with their co-workers during coffee breaks. This is not possible for a home worker, as
there are no chances of confiding with another employee. About 30 percent remote workers in
UK said that they have less status as they are remotely working.
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Possible solutions to tackle harmful effects of work from home
According to Kumar and Aithal (2016), adopting new technologies of communication can
mitigate problems of working from home. This can connect remote workers and employers and
can overcome problems in miscommunication. It will help managers to provide guidance to
employees working remotely and monitor them. Canoninco (2016) have different opinion for
mitigating challenges in working from home. The author says that training should be provided to
workers, who are working remotely. There should be catch- up meetings and video conferencing
to bridge gap between their organisation and home. Remote workers should stay connected with
co-workers, so that they do not slack in middle of work.
Literature gap
There was lack of time to conduct this review, and due to time constraint, some topics were left
unattended. Furthermore, there was shortage in budget and paid articles were not accessible due
to it. In addition, there are many articles on this topic, which was not possible to analyse, as time
was scarce.
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Primary research
1. Mention your age
Options Percentage (%) Number of
respondents
Sample size
24 – 35 75 30 40
40 – 55 20 8 40
Above 50 5 2 40
Table 1: Age
2. What are the benefits of working from home?
Options Percentage (%) Number of
respondents
Sample size
Flexibility 70 28 40
Less expenses for
travelling to office
15 6 40
Minimising sick
leaves
15 6 40
Table 2: Benefits of work from home
3. What causes harmful effects on career by working from home?
Options Percentage (%) Number of
respondents
Sample size
Communication gap 40 16 40
Isolation 45 18 40
Extra expenses of
electricity
15 6 40
Table 3: Shortcomings of work from home
4. What are ways to overcome problems faced in working from home?
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Options Percentage (%) Number of
respondents
Sample size
Providing training 20 8 40
Hosting catch up
meetings
65 26 40
Skype sessions
between employees
and companies
15 6 40
Table 4: Solutions to overcome problems in work from home
5. How many of you agree that these solutions are effective for overcoming problems in
work from home?
Options Percentage (%) Number of
respondents
Sample size
Strongly agree 85 34 40
Agree 10 4 40
Disagree 5 2 40
Table 5: Respondents agreeing and disagreeing to solution
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Methodology
Methodology Methods Explanation
Philosophy Positivism philosophy Positivism is chosen because it
enables in explaining and
predicting outcome of the
research. Hypotheses
development becomes easy
and it becomes empirically
observable. Data are judged
by logic and value of a person
is not counted (research-
methodology.net, 2019). In
this research, the outcome of
the topic related to work from
home can be foresighted.
Design Exploratory design This method helps in
exploring research question
and its adaptable
characteristics helps in making
the research unbiased.
Therefore, finding biased
opinion on work from home
can be shunned. Furthermore,
it establishes a groundwork,
which can be used for future
studies relating to this topic. It
can provide further
opportunities to find out more
information in future. It saves
time, which can complete the
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research faster. These are
reasons behind choosing this
method (Kumar, 2019).
Approach Deductive approach This is idea when time is
short, which is the case here
and risks of faulty research
can be shunned. Concepts can
be measured easily in
quantitative manner and
generalisation is possible for
findings related to home-based
work. Therefore, this approach
is taken to yield these benefits
(Tjora, 2018).
Sampling Probability sampling Systematic error can be
avoided and biasness in
sampling is nonexistent in this
method. It analyses responses
from respondents of Amazon,
which makes it non- biased.
Opinions of various
respondents of different age
and views make it biasfree.
This is the sole reason for
choosing this method (Bacher,
2019).
Data collection Primary data collection
(Quantitative)
Quantitative method is used
by taking a sample of 40
respondents by using survey.
This method uses numeric
data for setting up relationship
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between numbers and theory.
Here 40 respondents have
given different opinions and
theories of authors are
compared to match it.
Therefore, it helped in shaping
up a far advanced concept
from this. Findings of this
research are quite simple to
generalise, as many
respondents agree or disagree
about a factor (research-
methodology.net, 2019).
Table 6: Research methodology
(Source: Created by the learner)
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