Are we not Reinventing the Wheel?: Reviewing Literature in Social Science Scholarship and the Imperatives of Aligning with Global Best Practices

This exploratory study provides insights into the utility of telecommuting in times of adversity such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is still active globally, and also locally, as Nigerian institutions were shut down since March 2020, avoiding physical, in person contacts within the campuses. Telecommuting, or Working From Home (WFH) is becoming the new normal in pedagogy, as academic staff in some universities continue to exercise their roles in terms of Teaching, Research and Community Service. Utilising the benefits of Contingency Theory, the paper analysed the nature of telecommuting in the context of the unexpected events, the changing dynamics of the workplace and the new future of work. The paper is largely qualitative, relying largely on secondary sources of data and some primary information for analysis. The difficulties and challenges faced by several Public and Private Universities in Nigeria, like inadequate classroom spaces, hostels, infrastructure can be overcome by the introduction of a hybrid form of learning that incorporates Telecommuting and Virtual Online Learning as part of the pedagogy in the academic activities of Universities.