COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge work

Considerable attention has been paid to employees' experiences when working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic, including their well-being and performance.However, less attention has been paid to how managers experience WFH and how this may challenge them in their new role as distance managers.This study investigates how managers of knowledge work experienced distance management during COVID-19.An international survey was distributed in the first weeks of the Danish national lockdown and collected data from 21 st March to 11 th May 2020.Based on Danish responses from 1053 employees and 290 managers of knowledge work, who had limited prior experience in distance management, our analysis revealed that managers of knowledge work overall found their work during lockdown more challenging than employees did.The results showed managers to experience the situation significantly differently from employees in 12 central opinions about WFH, in particular regarding the advantage of being able to take breaks at will and the disadvantage of being tied to a computer.A content analysis of the qualitative answers showed that the managers' challenges were directly related to distance management tasks.The implications of this study are that research and practice should consider the wellbeing and performance consequences of working from home not only for employees but also for managers, as their experiences differ, and the managers express challenges in their leadership.