A Study on Work from Home, Motivation & Productivity of
Students at IIT Delhi during COVID-19 Pandemic
Keshav Raj: 2017ME10582
INTRODUCTION
The sample in the light of discussion is the student group at IIT Delhi. It is due to the
unforeseen circumstances that has caused IIT Delhi to accept something which it believed to
be extremely infra dig to its reputation and that is distance education. Work from Home has
been the only option for students to continue studying. While several students opted semester
drop due to certain issues, others continued to follow the Online Semester guidelines to carry
on with semester. This is a very specific study aimed to understand the positive and negative
effects of work from home within IIT Delhi for those students who have not opted for
semester drop.
Productivity is very essential to academic activities as the entire process gets tiresome and the
person loses the motivation to further carry on the activity ultimately leading to poor
performance in the course or even course failing. It can be increased by improving the level
of student’s well-being. Working conditions may be worsened and the productivity growth
may reduce employee wellbeing when under pressure.
Researchers have studied motivation extensively in terms of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
and is understood as something done by one person or group to another. One of the key
effects of the use of incentive is that the motivated parties need to be motivated to take some
action or spend a degree of effort that they would not otherwise want to do. Motivation
concerns that “psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of
behavior”.
The theory of motivation by Herzberg (1996)(Figure 1) divides the motivating factors into
two categories:
1. Motivator Factors: They are related to work itself
2. Hygiene Factors: It is related to the surrounding context
One of the psychological views indicates that such a strong engagement and participation in
the work and such a great fit of role difficulty with ability level define very high levels of
intrinsic motivation, that individuals feel some kind of psychological "flow," a feeling of
merging with the operation they are doing (Csikszentmihalyi 1975). As the major
physiological view suggests, intrinsic motivation works opposite to extrinsic motivation
(Deci 1975; Deci & Ryan 1985). Some incentives and promised rewards are something which
drives the Extrinsic motivation. In general, these theorists suggest that, when strong extrinsic
motivators are put to work, intrinsic motivation will decline.
So, being a part of the student community at IIT Delhi, I felt this necessary to probe into the
effects of this COVID-19 situation on the same and present this forward for further
inspection.
METHODS
The present study was a cross-sectional, observational study conducted using a simple
random sampling technique at IIT Delhi. The creation of an online semi-structured
questionnaire was based on Google forms. The questionnaire's connection was sent to several
groups via WhatsApp. The respondents were free to roll out the survey to as many
individuals as possible, but it is highly doubtful they could have done so. The link was then
communicated to the maximum group of individuals. Clicking on the link directed the
participants to fill the form where the participants filled in demographic data. A series of
questions then emerged for the participant to answer sequentially.
Being an online study, only those students who had access to internet could participate. The
sample selected were students studying at home and presently enrolled at IIT Delhi. The data
collection was initiated on 30th November 2020 at 1:00 PM IST and closed on 8th December
2020 at 11:00 PM IST. I was able to collect data from students in different years.
The self-reported online questionnaire was taken from a study to gather data on productivity
during work from home, intrinsic motivation, motivation and challenges encountered
during work from home that influenced productivity exclusively in relation to work during
the COVID-19 pandemic. With multiple choices, the questionnaire was developed. In the
study, descriptive statistics were used to interpret the observations and to predict the study
results. A sample size of 37 volunteers was used in the study.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The results were analysed in four areas:
1. Productivity of students studying from home during COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Intrinsic motivational factors of the students studying from home during COVID-19
pandemic.
3. Methods used by students to motivate others like their subordinate and peer during
study from home in the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Perspective on effect of COVID-19 on study and academic work and in general
5. Challenges faced during work from home
Productivity
Figure. 2 indicates that 29.7 percent of total participants indicated that work productivity
improved in the COVID-19 pandemic during work from home; also, 48.6 percent rejected
any productivity increase. 8.1 percent of participants reported that they were not working
while we collected data for analysis during the previous week, although 13.5 percent of the
participants had no opinion on productivity increase or decrease because the job was less than
normal.
Intrinsic motivation
Illustration 3 indicates that 21.6% of the respondents were unable to deal with work
acknowledging that their career was in a mess. 13.5 percent of the total participants gave
credit for their successful time management during lockdown to motivate themselves, while
8.1 percent of the population assumed that fear of failing was the reason for their motivation
while for 18.9% of the population, the thought of affecting grades was a motivation. 16.8% of
the population believed that the idea of takin one step at a time might work for them while
10.8.% of population assumed it as their responsibility and used it as their motivation.
Motivating Others
Illustration 4 shows that by sharing their work, 43.2 percent of participants motivated their
subordinates and peers, while 27% of participants used Daily calls, ad hoc meetings, emails
and providing updates on a regular basis as a motivator while 10.8 percent of participants
motivated their subordinates and peers by sharing posts, encouragement images, to increase
productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides all this, there was a population of
16.8% participants who acknowledged that they were not working.
Perspective on effect of COVID-19 on work and in general
As illustrated in Fig. 5, 29.7% of the participants felt that the pandemic created a new normal
of work from anywhere while for the other 21.6% of participants, this is a warning that all
humans must heed to and start to respect nature along with living life in the present believing
to be extremely fragile. 18.9% of respondents believed that this will result in poor grades in
courses this year while 8.1% respondents had a fear of failing course. Only 5.4% respondents
had a positive outlook on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nature and relationships
by acknowledging that it is beneficial for earth and other creatures on earth and relationships
as well.
Challenges faced during work from home during COVID-19 pandemic
As shown in Fig. 6, 70.3 percent of respondents expressed addiction to screen time as the
greatest obstacle they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic while functioning from home. In
order to work from home, 10.8 percent of participants with families found it difficult to
involve children. 43.2% of the participants saw cleaning as a challenge, with cooking being a
challenge for 29.7% of them. However, the study found that 37.8 percent of those involved
regarded relationship tension as a difficulty in their work. There were several other problems
as well which were faced by students such as problem with Internet connection and loss of
social life which acted as a major deterrent in motivation.
The Society will face problems in terms of work and productivity during such pandemics and
epidemics. Students’ emotional well-being may be negatively affected as they are obliged to
work in a lockdown. Students' knowledge of fear and anxiety may influence their outlook on
motivation, efficiency and the pandemic's effect on their work in general. This report
therefore attempted to assess the productivity of people working from home during the
COVID-19 pandemic, intrinsic motivating factors of students working from home during the
COVID-19 pandemic, strategies used by them to inspire others in the COVID-19 pandemic,
such as their subordinates and colleagues during work from home, and perspective on the
effect of COVID-19 on work and in general.
Changes such as loneliness, social distancing, self-quarantine, travel restrictions and social
media gossip are also likely to adversely affect mental health. As per our studies, we found
out that 48.6% respondents were unable to increase productivity ultimately leading to work of
21.6% respondents being in complete mess while 29.7% respondents were actually able to
increase their productivity probably due to the fear of failing courses and bad grades along
with an effective time management. One of the effects that was also confirmed by 13.5% of
respondents that the work load has actually reduced. Although motivating oneself can be very
difficult for many individuals, 13.5% of respondents conveyed their intrinsic motivation over
time management. Fear of failing course was felt by 8.1% of respondents as a reason to
increase work productivity during COVID-19 pandemic. While we continue to see all the
positives, there is a major portion of respondents who are extremely uncomfortable with the
present situation and 48.6% of participants acknowledge their work to be in complete mess.
The major reason which can be thought for this can be the addiction to screen time along with
the stress and anxiety experienced by them. However, a large proportion of participants,
around 43.2% were able to motivate others by sharing what they did while 27% participants
felt the need to getting in touch was important for motivating others. At the same time when
10.8% participants shared some articles, videos etc for motivating peers and subordinates
only 2.7% participants created jam up sessions online for motivating others. While there were
29.7% participants who felt that COVID-19 creates a sense that work from anywhere is a new
normal, 21.6% populations believed it to be a warning for humans to respect nature and live
in the present making them realize the fragility of life. 18.9% of students felt that the effect of
COVID-19 would be a direct impact on grades leading to poor grades along with creating a
fear of failing courses in 8.1% of participants.
Introducing concepts of effective time management exclusively for students working from
home can have an increased productivity. Motivating students while they are at institute and
while they are working from home puts forth different challenges. However, we have
obtained quite an even and interesting distributions on almost all the negative impacts of
COVID-19. As we can see from the fig. 2 that a majority of students are in mess and this
clearly points that there is something that is seriously wrong with the system and should be
taken care of. Team of psychologists can introduce such programs for students of IIT Delhi
that contribute in increasing productivity while maintaining mental health.
The study is limited to the people who had access to smartphones, e-mail IDs and WhatsApp
profiles. The study was essentially on students who were studying from home in IIT Delhi.
CONCLUSION
The study concludes that time management is a source of self-motivation to improve
productivity from home during work and improves leadership skills in the form of setting an
example and exchanging information as a motivational tool for others to increase productivity
when working from home but a major revelation for the IIT Delhi student’s society is that
they are unable to cope up with the changes due to COVID-19. The survey indicates a strong
respect for nature and relationships throughout the course of the review. The survey
introduced surface addiction to screen time as a big problem affecting working from home.
Chores such as washing and cooking have also impacted efficiency at home during work.
Several other factors which deterred the work productivity came to surface such as bad
internet connectivity along with the loss of social life.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The present study was inspired by the contribution of MS. Seema Rani B.N, MS. Prettysha
Curtis, Dr. Jayashankar Reddy K. on “A Study on Work from Home, Motivation &
Productivity of Employees in Indian Population during COVID-19 Pandemic”.
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Figures
Figure 1 Herzberg's two-factor model
Figure 2 Productivity increase during work from home
Figure 3 Intrinsic motivation
Figure 4 Motivation of subordinates and peer
Figure 5 Effect of COVID-19 on work
Figure 6 Challenges faced during work from home