The management of teleworkers in Moroccan SMES in the covid-19 era

what modalities of control and which degree of autonomy? results of an empirical study

Résumé

Telework has emerged as a practical solution to ensure business continuity for companies in periods of coronavirus. This new organizational practice is a response to the contextual constraints related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Telework makes it possible to reconcile a double imperative: health and economic. SMEs are increasingly adopting telework as a new working method. The management of telework differs from the traditional management of face-to-face work in that it gives more importance to the notion of autonomy, which requires a change of tools and controls by the company leaders. Telework describes a wide variety of work situations, and therefore it is difficult to defined scope. It challenges the traditional role of the manager and defines new methods of control.

This article suggests a reflection on the conditions of the application of telework through the notions of control and autonomy. Thanks to a qualitative study carried out with 56 respondents (4 HR specialists, 8 managers and 44 employees), we study the way in which the teleworker's activity is organized, which is subject to a double imperative: autonomous work and control of its activity. The proposed analysis illustrates the various teleworking situations (common points and points of divergence) and the teleworkers' attitudes towards these situations. To answer the problems raised, a set of modalities has been proposed describing the way in which a manager of Moroccan SMEs can manage his teleworkers during the Covid-19 era.