Barriers to the effectiveness of teleworking in public administration

Purpose: Teleworking under Covid-19 conditions is, for many organizations, a fundamental requirement to ensure continuity of operation.However, it is not a common way of organizing work in public administration entities.In particular, very few studies have examined the effectiveness of teleworking in local administration.The purpose of this paper is to investigate barriers to the effectiveness of teleworking in local administration in Poland.Design/methodology/approach: Literature analysis in the paper was prepared using VOSviewer software.Empirical research allowing us to achieve our objective was conducted using the CAWI method among 136 communes and cities with poviat rights from the Mazowieckie Voivodeship.Findings: We have established that the main obstacle in remote work was technological barriers and lack of appropriate technology in the surveyed entities.As a result of our research, we identified challenges related to insufficient digitalization of services in local administration as the main barrier for teleworking.Research limitations/implications: The paper uses quantitative research, carried out using the CAWI method, on local government entities in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, on a research sample of 136 entities.Practical implications: The results of this research provide important guidance for practitioners and managers of public administration.The results indicate the most significant barriers to implementing remote working in public administration.The benefits of remote working for both citizens and public administration employees are also presented.Social implications: An analysis of the main challenges of remote working enables adaptation to the ongoing changes.Considering the difficulties of remote administration can help improve the functioning of the administration and, as a result, help to achieve widespread benefits for citizens.Originality/value: The research presented here explores the introduction of remote working to an unprecedented extent in the wake of the COVID19 virus pandemic.