REMOTE WORK AS A CRISIS HR STRATEGY DURING GEOPOLITICAL CRISES: IMPLICATIONS OF WORKFORCE CONTINUITY IN MULTINATIONAL FIRMS

Abstract

Multinational organizations are facing growing challenges to their operations, mobility, infrastructure and employee safety due to geopolitical crises. Although remote work was widely examined during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons learned from public health crises are not relevant to geopolitical shocks, which have unique localized security risks, political unrest, sanctions, and infrastructure disruptions. This paper seeks to fill this void by creating a conceptual framework that explains how remote work can help to maintain workforce continuity and employee well-being during geopolitical crises. The framework is based on a synthesis of the literature on crisis and combines Organizational Resilience Theory (ORT) and Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory. These theories are complementary: ORT describes the macro level adaptation and continuity of organizations, while COR describes the micro level adaptation and preservation of physical and psychological resources of employees. The proposed framework indicates that strategic remote work utilization can help to prevent resource depletion and is likely to have a positive impact on workforce stability. This conceptual novelty is the explicit linking of macro-level organizational adaptability with micro-level employee resource preservation in the unpredictable setting of geopolitical volatility. Practically, the framework provides HR practitioners with a theoretical basis for crisis preparedness and offers distinct propositions for future empirical validation.