Challenges for monitoring flexible work

trade-offs of formal and informal information systems use

Abstract

Flexible work has become a trend since the pandemic emergency. All around the world, governments have increased the number of civil servants working in hybrid or full-remote work settings. This new landscape of work practices has raised several new challenges to public administrations, including monitoring work activities. Some governments support the idea that flexible work requires new monitoring methods. Instead of controlling timesheets, a new trend towards results management has emerged. Accordingly, new management information systems have been developed to support the management methods. This paper discusses challenges from data use through the new information systems for flexible work monitoring. Based on a Brazilian Federal government case, we raise new questions regarding the levels of formality of the data and its use. We conclude that flexible work information systems can produce more data regarding work practices. However, the level of formality in the use of the information produced may reduce the data availability to improve decision-making.