Sustainable project performance in remote work settings: learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic–A case study in Malaysia

Purpose The unforeseen disruption in workplaces triggered by COVID-19 has led many organizations to a sudden transition into virtual or remote working. The change posed various challenges to the project management community in managing their project and team members. The study intends to identify those challenges address the gap in current knowledge and literature and apply them as lessons learned for preparation for current and future remote work settings. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative research case study armed with semi-structured interview questions among nine experienced project managers based in Malaysia. Findings The qualitative research case study exposed the challenges faced by the project management community during the pandemic lockdown period and how they strived to deliver results despite the surrounding uncertainty. They did face motivation drops, excess workload and other stressors. The study revealed positive variables that was not detected by past literature, for instance how remote work reduces team conflict. Originality/value In Malaysia, most of such project management and pandemic-related studies focus on the construction industry. This study opens up research across multiple industries. There are not many articles that take the lessons learned from COVID-19 into future sustainability.