Effective Telecommuting for Working Mothers With Young Children in the United Nations System During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open Access
- Author:
- Lee, Mijin
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 22, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Wesley Donahue, Major Field Member
William Rothwell, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
John Ewing, Outside Unit & Field Member
Hyung Joon Yoon, Major Field Member
Heather Zimmerman, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- Telecommuting
Flexible Working Arrangements
Productivity
Flexibility
Working Mothers
ECIT
COVID-19
Pandemic
Working From Home - Abstract:
- The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Since then, most employees in the United Nations system have been telecommuting unless the employees’ on-site physical presence is required for them to fulfill their duties and responsibilities. Working mothers in particular have been balancing their around-the-clock roles as mothers with full-time work at home. Given that telecommuting has until recently been the default mode of employment, this unprecedented pandemic has given scholars in workforce education and development a chance to explore mechanisms that facilitate the effective telecommuting of working mothers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the helping, hindering factors, and wish list (WL) items that have affected or might affect telecommuting working mothers with young children in the United Nations system and to identify mechanisms that facilitate the effective telecommuting of working mothers by examining their telecommuting experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the enhanced critical incident technique to identify and examine the factors that help and hinder the selected 20 working mothers of young children—including babies (0–12 months old), toddlers (1–3 years old), and preschool-aged children (3–6 years old)—who are employed by the United Nations system and are telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate the presence of helping critical incidents that have allowed working mothers of young children to fulfill their duties and responsibilities effectively while telecommuting, hindering critical incidents that have interfered with working mothers’ ability to telecommute compared to that of other employees who are not mothers, and wish list (WL) items that could have been or could be helpful if they were available, identified, and examined. Participants were recruited using the snowball sampling methodology and interviewed via Zoom. This study earns its significance by identifying mechanisms that have enabled working mothers employed by the United Nations system to successfully telecommute during the COVID-19 pandemic and that may continue to help them in the future. The study’s findings shed light on how telecommuting working mothers could be better accommodated by workplace arrangements; the findings likewise prepare organizations to handle the post-COVID-19 telecommuting arrangements that are likely to be requested by working mothers. This study also has implications for organizations that are seeking to meet the needs of other telecommuting employees in the post-pandemic workplace.