– To get the opportunity to publish our own research means a lot

In Spring 2022, students in Business Administration Veronica Bollestad and Jon-Sander Amland wrote their master thesis The pros and cons of remote work in relation to bullying, loneliness and work engagement: A representative study among Norwegian workers during Covid-19 , where they studied what impact the use of remote work have had during the pandemic.

Now, their article and study have been published in Frontiers in Psychology, section Organizational Psychology.

Means a lot

– It is, of course, great to have our thesis published. This was a suggestion from our supervisor Espen Olsen and something we agreed to try to attempt, says Jon-Sander Amland, who now is a PhD-student at UiS Business School.

He has learned a lot from this experience, and he thinks this also might have helped him apply for a PhD.

– I've always thought of research as something meaningful, so getting this opportunity means a lot. I believe that this publication process helped me in my application to be a PhD- student.

Many downloads

Veronica Bollestad thinks it's been a good cooperation between herself, Amland and supervisor Espen Olsen. She has landed a job at Felleskjøpet, where she is in charge of purchase, logistics and sustainability.

– This has been very exciting and instructive. Espen has been an instigator all semester and has been a great help, so lots of honour to him who is trying to take new directions to the master thesis.

Bollestad and Amland have also been in the media with their research before it was published. They were interviewed in Rogalands Avis and NRK Rogaland.

– The number of readers is increasing, and many have downloaded it. It will be exciting to see if it will impact further research, says Bollestad.

Not common to get it published

Professor Espen Olsen at the Department of Innovation, Management and Marketing, who supervised Bollestad and Amland, says he got to know them well in the course Leadership and Organisational Change.

– I noticed we had the potential to do something extra out of their master thesis. Therefore I gave them access to a new national survey about working conditions. We started planning the angle early in the study so they got enough time for the different phases of writing the thesis. This was an enjoyable process and a good cooperation with the students. And it's not common for master theses to be published in international journals.

Førebels lite kunnskap om dette temaet til nå

So far, there is not much knowledge about the impact of remote work during the pandemic. But this research builds on previous literature in that they investigated how home offices relate to each other.

The research, that collected data from 1511 Norwegian workers in September 2021, indicated that home offices have had both positive and negative effects.

The study, which collected data from 1,511 Norwegian workers in September 2021, indicates that home offices have had both positive and negative effects. They can potentially reduce and prevent bullying in the workplace. But at the same time, the home office is linked to both loneliness and a lack of commitment in the workplace.

The results also show that those who have been exposed to bullying seem to get the best out of the home office solution because they experienced less loneliness and more work commitment than those who have not been exposed to bullying. The results can therefore have several consequences for personnel policy and management, explains Bollestad and Amland.

Here you can read the full master thesis and research.