Remote work in cities: Assessing the effectiveness of public utility services

Abstract

Remote work is such a reengineering of an organization's culture and management system. Public utility sector organizations are in an extraordinary situation because their primary goal, the current and continued satisfaction of social needs, partly determines innovative behavior. The lack of classic market determinants, such as profit orientation and private ownership, slows the adjustment to the new conditions. That's why organizing remote work is challenging for human resource managers and team leaders in the public utility sector. Therefore, the article assesses the effectiveness of the management in the public utility sector during remote work. The most important conclusions are: (1) The full and effective integration of remote work practices remains an ongoing challenge, (2) The dominant form of goal control is task control (not direct control) during remote working, and (3) The organizational structure is flattened and flexible during remote work implementation.