MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Experiments and Data for Post-COVID-19 Work Arrangements

Almost all leaders and employees are wondering what work and business will be like after the pandemic ends. Now that approved COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out across the globe, we can see some light at the end of the long, dark tunnel in which we’ve all been working and living. But what will the attributes of the business environment post-pandemic be, and how will we decide on them? Work from home or go back to the office? Embrace Zoom for sales calls or head back to airports and business travel? In our view, the pandemic and post-pandemic business environments present great opportunities to question long-held assumptions and answer those questions using experiments and data.

Work arrangements and their impacts on productivity, job satisfaction, fairness, collaboration, and social responsibility should be a primary focus area.

About the Author

Thomas H. Davenport (@tdav) is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, as well as a fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and a senior adviser to Deloitte’s Analytics and AI practice. Thomas C. Redman (@thedatadoc1) is president of Data Quality Solutions, a Rumson, New Jersey-based consultancy, and coauthor of The Real Work of Data Science: Turning Data Into Information, Better Decisions, and Stronger Organizations (Wiley, 2019).

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