Central Asian Law

by Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov

Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office, Uzbekistan

ulugbek.abdurakhmanow@gmail.com

Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov conducted research on teleworking during his two-months guest research stay (secondment) at Lund University in the frame of the Central Asian Law project. During his research stay Ulugbek collected rich survey data on teleworking in Uzbekistan. Based on his analysis of this rich survey data, Ulugbek produced a series of blog posts on the concept of teleworking and its relevance and usage in the context of Uzbekistan. In the following blog post, Ulugbek talks about the emergence of teleworking culture following the onset of Covid-19 pandemic. Ulugbek will also reflect on the implications of teleworking for business climate, legal culture and working life in Uzbekistan.

The Covid-19 and the need to introduce teleworking in Uzbekistan

It is believed that telework has diverse advantages for employees, organizations, and the whole society. Despite the expected benefits, the adoption and diffusion of telework have been considerably slow in Uzbekistan compared with other developed countries. This was due to the fact that daily presence in the workplace and face-to-face interactions were essential features of Uzbek working culture. However, things have changed with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic that compelled many working cultures to readjust to new realities. In Uzbekistan too, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the usual work patterns as strict restrictions on movement were imposed which led to the temporary closure of workplace premises. Organizations have had to make provision for staff to operate remotely following the implementation of lockdown regulations. This was when three sides – employees, employers and the whole society for the first time had to rely on teleworking due to the lockdown measures. In this blog post I aim to understand the phenomenon of teleworking from different angles and examine the perceptions and attitudes of workers in Uzbekistan towards this model of work.

In my first blog post, I will present the results of the online survey carried out with first-time remote workers in Uzbekistan. In total, 20,162 employees participated in my online survey. My initial analysis shows that the majority of respondents preferred flexible working arrangements, highlighting its numerous benefits for their own wellbeing as well as for the society in general. However, some respondents may have had an affinity for remote working because of the novelty. Moreover, my results show that the lack of computer and internet access in most rural areas might be a big challenge in implementing teleworking at a large scale.

In the online survey carried out with first-time remote workers in Uzbekistan in total 20,162 employees participated. My initial analysis shows that the majority of respondents preferred flexible working arrangements, highlighting its numerous benefits for their own wellbeing as well as for the society in general. However, some respondents may have had an affinity for remote working because of the novelty. Moreover, my results show that the lack of computer and internet access in most rural areas might be a big challenge in implementing teleworking at a large scale.

1. Teleworking in the global context and implications for Uzbekistan

Since the late 1970s, when computers and digital networks were broadly introduced in work and business, telework has recurrently been a ‘hot’ topic in research, policy and practice (Sturesson, 2003; Hynes, 2014). In the 1970s and 1980s, Jack Nilles and Allan Toffler predicted that work of the future would be relocated into or nearby employees’ homes with the help of technology, called ‘Telework’ and for the past four decades the digitization of conventional workplaces has been among the most discussed topics worldwide through a various lens.

Bill Gates had projected years ago of the emergence of an information society by the year 2050 where about 50 percent of the global workforce will work from home-teleworking (Handy, 2001; Morgan, 2004). He also predicted that the competition to employ the best talent will increase in the coming years and organisations who offer extra work flexibility to their staff will have the edge (Schwanters, 2020). Barack Obama stated that “attracting and retaining employees who are more productive and engaged through flexible workplace policies is not just good for business or for our economy – it’s good for our families and our future” (The White House, 2010).

Many governments, employers, managers of all levels, and even employees despite acknowledging the significance of virtual workplaces, have been either slow on the uptake to change the status quo or refusing the adoption of teleworking programs.

The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 has negatively impacted the organizational life and functions necessitating adjustments in the workplace and the societal benefits and thus made us reevaluate our perception of the way of working. Traffic restrictions, isolation, quarantine, social distancing imposed as a way of handling the spread of the virus have generated new behavior by transferring activities into the virtual environment. As a result, many people experienced their homes becoming their place of work, often with very little warning and limited time for preparation. Lockdown also meant that nurseries, schools and universities closed their doors and education continued or was expected to continue, in the home. These unprecedented actions resulted in many white-collar workers having to adapt to enforced and full-time working from home, while at the same time adjusting to all members of their household being together in the home 24/7. Family members potentially had to share IT equipment (laptops, tablets, printers), internet access and desk, or table-top space for working and studying (Anderson and Kelliher, 2020).

It is noteworthy that the 21st century is characterized by the presence of information technology and its rapid development. Although many have refused the teleworking formula for a long time, it has now become the only possibility to maintain an acceptable level of activity. Accordingly, the number of teleworkers has leveled up significantly since the outbreak of the COVID-19. Within days of the outbreak, working from home, which has been practiced occasionally by companies and organizations, became mandatory – a question of physical and financial survival. To prevent the spread of the virus and protect workers, governments around the world instructed employers to close their offices and enable employees to work from home – to telecommute. It is estimated that more than four out of five people (81 percent) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion have been affected by full or partial workplace closures (ILO, 2020).

Teleworking is an organizational innovation that has created a flexible work-life balance permitting workers through the aid of technological innovations to perform some or all of their official responsibilities from home or at a location alternatively provided for the purpose (de Vries, Tummers & Bekkers, 2019; Caillier, 2012). Research to date has shown that teleworking is gaining momentum in a lot of countries all over the world, with the number of teleworkers increasing every year and expected to double each year (Ramage, 2017). Unfortunately, in the case of Uzbekistan, so far this has been happening slowly.

Before the pandemic, the idea of teleworking was something unrealistic and considered not practicable in Uzbekistan in an employment relationship, and flexible working arrangements might be used only in terms of freelancing, representatives of which are naturally deprived of rights and social protection measures stipulated by the Labour Code. This is because Uzbek organizational culture gives its priority to face-to-face interaction and employers’ physical presence in the office to carry out the job. This has been evaluated as a key factor of effective performance. Besides, personal relationships play an important role in the advancement of the employees in an organization, and promotions are based on experience and personal relationships with the supervisors.

In this regard, the pandemic has also forced Uzbek companies and agencies both in the public and private sector to switch to home-based work during a lockdown, so both sides of the employment relationship had a unique opportunity to experience this form of work for the first time. Although due to ill-preparedness and zero experience there might have been occurred difficulties to handle teleworking, I argue that it is timely to study telework and gather substantiated evidence for further exploring and assessing the possibility of having teleworking programs in Uzbekistan as one of the effective future working models based on experience and perceptions of people involved.

Thereby being one of the first and primary studies in this area in Uzbekistan, I aim to study and analyze teleworking through various angles and try to provide some thoughts about its further development and implementation.

To be continued in the second blog post which will be posted next week.

References

Anderson, D. and Kelliher, C. (2020), “Enforced remote working and the work-life interface during lockdown”, Gender in Management, Vol. 35 No. 7/8, pp. 677-683.

de Vries, H., Tummers, L. & Bekkers, V. (2019). The benefits of teleworking in the public sector: reality or rhetoric? Review of Public Administration, 39(4), 570- 593. DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18760124

Caillier, J. G. (2012). The Impact of Teleworking on Work Motivation in a U.S. Federal Government Agency. The American Review of Public Administration, 42(4), 461–480. doi:10.1177/0275074011409394

Handy, C. (2001). The Elephant and the Flea: New Thinking for a New World. Arrow, London

Hynes, M. (2014), ‘Telework isn’t Working: A Policy Review’, The Economic and Social Review 45, 4, 579–602.

ILO (2020). Keys for effective teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_739879/lang–en/index.htm

Morgan, R. E. (2004). Teleworking: an assessment of the benefits and challenges. European Business Review, 16(4), 344–357. DOI: 10.1108/09555340410699613

Ramage, S. A Leadership Transition: An Examination of the Transition from Face-to-Face Leadership to Remote Leadership in a Retail Sales Context. Ph.D. Thesis, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA, 2017. Schwanters, M. (2020). Bill Gates said you must offer this perk to hire the best workers. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/bill-gates-said-you-must-offer-this-perk-in-order-to-hire-best-workers.html