Telecommuting's Past and Future: A Literature Review and Research Agenda
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paper_title: Remote office work: changing work patterns in space and time

paper_content:

Remote work refers to organizational work that is performed outside of the normal organizational confines of space and time. The term telecommuting refers to the substitution of communications capabilities for travel to a central work location. Office automation technology permits many office workers to be potential telecommuters in that their work can be performed remotely with computer and communications support. This paper examines some behavioral, organizational, and social issues surrounding remote work, particularly work at home. An exploratory study was conducted of 32 organizational employees who were working at home. Important characteristics of jobs that can be performed at home were: minimum physical requirements, individual control over work pace, defined deliverables, a need for concentration, and a relatively low need for communication. The individuals who worked at home successfully were found to be highly self-motivated and self-disciplined and to have skills which provided them with bargaining power. They also made the arrangement either because of family requirements or because they preferred few social contacts beyond family.
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paper_title: The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work.

paper_content:

Today many organizations, including AT&T and IBM, are pioneering the alternative workplace--the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that is beginning to supplement traditional offices. This is not a fad. Although estimates vary widely, it is safe to say that some 30 million to 40 million people in the United States are now either telecommuters or home-based workers. What motivates managers to examine how people spend their time at the office and where else they might do their work? Among the potential benefits for companies are reduced costs, increased productivity, and an edge in vying for and keeping talented employees. They can also capture government incentives and avoid costly sanctions. But at the same time, alternative workplace programs are not for everyone. Indeed, such programs can be difficult to adopt, even for those organizations that seem to be most suited to them. Ingrained behaviors and practical hurdles are hard to overcome. And the challenges of managing both the cultural changes and systems improvements required by an alternative workplace initiative are substantial. How should senior managers think about alternative workplace programs? What are the criteria for determining whether the alternative workplace is right for a given organization? What are the most common pitfalls in implementing alternative workplace programs? The author provides the answers to these questions in his examination of this new frontier of where and how people work.
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paper_title: Home Is Where the Work Is

paper_content:

Some work full-time and others part-time. Some make a lot of money, and others barely scrape by. But home-based workers are beginning to account for more and more of New York State's economy. Mark Levine and Deirdre Martin have commutes most of us would envy. His is about thirty paces, up two flights of stairs, and takes all of fifteen seconds. Hers is even shorter, up just one flight of stairs. While the rest of us are running around looking for the car keys and trying to get the kids out the door, they're already at work at their computers or on the phone with colleagues in New York City. Levine and Martin, freelance writers of books and magazine articles, work in separate rooms of their home in Ithaca, New York he in a third-floor attic office and she in an office on the second floor. The two are among the more than 20 million Americans who spend at least part of the week working in or out of their homes. According to Ramona Heck, an associate professor of consumer economics and housing and the J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise, they're part of a trend that has grown enormously in the last decade. "Home-based work has increased for three reasons," Heck says. "First, many women in the eighties wanted to work and bring in an income and still have time for their children. Second, the availability of technologies such as computers, printers, fax machines, and high-speed moderns has made it possible to do work at home that before could only have been done at the office. And third, employers are realizing that letting employees work at home cuts down on office expenses and other costs." Heck recently completed a multi-year study of 103 home-based workers in New York Stale to determine the value of home-based work to the state's economy. Her study was part of a larger project involving researchers from eight other universities who studied 796 home-based workers in Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Vermont. Working with graduate student Likwang Chen, Heck estimated the value of home-based work to New York's economy, developed a profile of the average home-based worker in New York State, and compared it with home-based workers in the eight other states. Home-based workers have been the subject of just a few prior studies, none of which focused on New York State workers. The U.S. Census Bureau included information about home-based work in its 1980 census, and the Department of Labor conducted a study in 1985. A follow-up study was conducted in 1991. "One problem is that the definition of what constitutes home-based work differed in all these studies," Heck says. "For our study, we defined home-based workers as people who worked at the home or from the home at least six hours a week throughout the year. They had to have been involved in the activity at least twelve months, and they had to have had no other office from which the work was conducted. We did not include farmers unless they performed a value-added activity to what they grew, such as producing maple syrup or operating a retail market on the farm." The study divided the subjects into two groups: business owners, who operated their businesses in the home or from the home, and wage workers, who worked at home but were employed by someone else. In the New York portion of the study, Heck interviewed 75 business owners and 28 wage workers. The business owners included contractors, arts and crafts retailers, sales and marketing people, and professional and technical people. Among the wage workers, more than half were involved in sales and marketing and another 20 percent were involved in professional or technical occupations. The results of the study indicate that home-based workers have a significant impact on New York State's economy. Based on the sampling scheme, Heck and Chen estimate there are approximately 250,000 home-based workers in the state, exclusive of New York City, and that around 63,000 of them are in rural areas. …
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paper_title: Patterns of telecommuting and their consequences: Framing the research agenda

paper_content:

Abstract While there are over 7 million telecommuters in the U.S. today, there has been little empirical research and virtually no theoretical work on telecommuting. Drawing from the literatures on contingent employment, job design and social isolation, this article presents a theoretical framework for understanding how different constellations of telecommuting arrangements and job characteristics lead to different patterns of employee attitudes and behaviors. After presenting a series of propositions, the article concludes with suggestions for the empirical testing of these propositions and a discussion of the implications for management practice.
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paper_title: Inhibitors and motivators for telework: some Finnish experiences

paper_content:

Nordic countries have traditionally been the forerunners in both usage of telecommunication and restructuring of working life. Both elements are strongly involved in telework so there might be a lesson to be learnt from Nordic telework projects. In this article four Finnish telework initiatives are studied. The reasons for starting them are sought and their results are evaluated. Further factors making the daily telework easier or more difficult are explicated. Conclusions are drawn from the cases, and their characteristics are compared with those of other European telework initiatives.
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paper_title: The experience of teleworking: an annotated review

paper_content:

The paper reviews the contemporary literature on the experience of teleworking. Particular attention is paid to the socializing aspects of work and its comparative absence when working from home; economic considerations, both for homeworkers and for the firms; work satisfaction and motivation; supervision; roles and gender issues in homeworking; the organization of time and space; and, lastly, questions of self-discipline. The evidence reviewed is based on various teleworking trials conducted mainly during the 1980s; this information is supplemented by original research conducted by the authors which investigated the pros and cons raised by British Telecom operators who were due to take part in a teleworking trial. These operators anticipated many of the issues faced by those who actually had teleworking experience.
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paper_title: The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work.

paper_content:

Today many organizations, including AT&T and IBM, are pioneering the alternative workplace--the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that is beginning to supplement traditional offices. This is not a fad. Although estimates vary widely, it is safe to say that some 30 million to 40 million people in the United States are now either telecommuters or home-based workers. What motivates managers to examine how people spend their time at the office and where else they might do their work? Among the potential benefits for companies are reduced costs, increased productivity, and an edge in vying for and keeping talented employees. They can also capture government incentives and avoid costly sanctions. But at the same time, alternative workplace programs are not for everyone. Indeed, such programs can be difficult to adopt, even for those organizations that seem to be most suited to them. Ingrained behaviors and practical hurdles are hard to overcome. And the challenges of managing both the cultural changes and systems improvements required by an alternative workplace initiative are substantial. How should senior managers think about alternative workplace programs? What are the criteria for determining whether the alternative workplace is right for a given organization? What are the most common pitfalls in implementing alternative workplace programs? The author provides the answers to these questions in his examination of this new frontier of where and how people work.
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paper_title: An empirical evaluation of the impacts of telecommuting on intra-organizational communication

paper_content:

Abstract This study represents a preliminary step towards developing an understanding of how telework arrangements affect intra-organizational communication. The following general research questions are addressed: (1) Do telework arrangements change the way in which teleworkers communicate with their superiors, their subordinates, their colleagues and their clients?; and (2) Do telework arrangements change the way in which managers communicate with subordinates who telework? The study, which was conducted at two Canadian federal government departments, was designed to collect information from four groups: (1) teleworkers ( n =36 at Time 2); (2) managers of teleworkers ( n =28 at Time 2); (3) co-workers of teleworkers ( n =27 at Time 2); and (4) a control group ( n =25 at Time 2). Three data collection techniques were used in this study: paper and pencil questionnaires, telephone interviews, and focus group interviews. Data were collected at three points in time: (1) two weeks prior to the start of the telework pilot; (2) three months after the telework pilot had begun; and (3) six months after the start of the telework pilot. Analysis of the data suggests that, with a few important exceptions, part-time telework arrangements have little impact on intra-organizational communication.
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paper_title: A review of telework research : findings , new directions , and lessons for the study of modern work

paper_content:

Summary Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers’ willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees’ motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms’ side, managers’ reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: Information technology as an enabler of telecommuting

paper_content:

One of the most interesting changes in business practices is telecommuting, namely doing work in places other than the corporate offices. The extent of telecommuting has been on the rise during the 1990s and it is expected to rise rapidly during the next few years. A major driving force in the spread of telecommuting is the increased availability of cost-effective supportive information technologies. The tasks performed by telecommuters are expanding. While the early telecommuters performed repeated transactions (such as processing insurance claims at home), today's telecommuters can perform at home, or on the road, almost any task that they do at the office. Thus, their information needs have been changed. This paper examines the various tasks performed by telecommuters and surveys the major supporting information technologies. Special attention is given to electronic mail, accessibility to databases and networks, desk top teleconferencing, personal digital assistants (PDAs), screen sharing, workflow systems, idea generation, and distributed group decision making. Also, Lotus Notes is viewed as a major computing environment that will facilitate telecommuting. Technological developments in an integrated services digital network (ISDN), an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), wireless communication, and local area network (LAN) connectivity will have a major impact on the growth of telecommuting and so will the resolution of managerial issues such as appropriate controls and security, cost-benefit justification, training and ownership and maintenance of the necessary equipment at home.
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paper_title: Work-At-Home and the Quality of Working Life.

paper_content:

Innovations in telecommunications technology increase the possibilities of working from the home. Implications of work-at-home arrangements for the individual's quality of working life are discussed. Included are discussions of several major aspects of the work experience relevant to quality of working life, analyses of the differences along these aspects between working at home and working at a normal workplace, and speculation about the possible consequences for the individual of the transfer of jobs from employers” premises to employees' homes.
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paper_title: Telecommuting in the Public Sector An Overview and a Survey of the States

paper_content:

Every day a growing number of Americans engage in home- based work instead of commuting to a central workplace. This article examines the development of telecommuting and its effect on productivity...
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paper_title: Patterns of telecommuting and their consequences: Framing the research agenda

paper_content:

Abstract While there are over 7 million telecommuters in the U.S. today, there has been little empirical research and virtually no theoretical work on telecommuting. Drawing from the literatures on contingent employment, job design and social isolation, this article presents a theoretical framework for understanding how different constellations of telecommuting arrangements and job characteristics lead to different patterns of employee attitudes and behaviors. After presenting a series of propositions, the article concludes with suggestions for the empirical testing of these propositions and a discussion of the implications for management practice.
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paper_title: Environmental effects of the computer age

paper_content:

This article reviews the effects of the computer age on our environment. Although the usefulness of computer technology is inarguably an asset in today's world, the environmental implications are not yet fully understood by the majority of computer users. The subjects discussed in this article fall in three general areas: the direct effects of computers on the computer user and the workplace (ergonomics and telecommuting); the effects of the use of computers on the environment (consumption of electrical energy and solid waste disposal); and the environmental hazards of producing computers. >
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paper_title: Knowledge creation in the telework context

paper_content:

This paper suggests that 'telework' alters the context within which teleworkers acquire knowledge. Because of sophisticated information technologies, teleworkers have greater access to on–line information and documentation. This access creates the potential for higher explicit knowledge in comparison with the traditional work environment. However, telework increases the physical distance from work and decreases the ability to socialize. Increased physical distance creates a challenge in the teleworkers' abilities to acquire tacit knowledge. Socialization, mentoring, training and documentation practices, therefore, become important for maintaining knowledge in the organization.
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paper_title: Exploring differences in employee turnover intentions and its determinants among telecommuters and non-telecommuters

paper_content:

As telecommuting programs proliferate, a better understanding of the relationship between telecommuting and career success outcomes is required to provide human resources managers, telecommuters, and information systems managers with information to decide the future of telecommuting arrangements. This paper addresses this need by exploring whether turnover intentions and their determinants differ for telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Four hundred salespeople from one large company in the southeastern United States were asked to participate in the study. The organization entry point was the marketing director. One hundred and four telecommuting employees and one hundred and twenty-one regular employees responded, with a total of 225 usable questionnaires. Telecommuters seemed to face less role conflict and role ambiguity and tended to be happier with their supervisors and more committed to their organizations. They also showed lower satisfaction with peers and with promotion. Based on the results, recommendations are proposed for managing the implementation of telecommuting programs and their impact on the rest of the organization's employee population.
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paper_title: Information technology as an enabler of telecommuting

paper_content:

One of the most interesting changes in business practices is telecommuting, namely doing work in places other than the corporate offices. The extent of telecommuting has been on the rise during the 1990s and it is expected to rise rapidly during the next few years. A major driving force in the spread of telecommuting is the increased availability of cost-effective supportive information technologies. The tasks performed by telecommuters are expanding. While the early telecommuters performed repeated transactions (such as processing insurance claims at home), today's telecommuters can perform at home, or on the road, almost any task that they do at the office. Thus, their information needs have been changed. This paper examines the various tasks performed by telecommuters and surveys the major supporting information technologies. Special attention is given to electronic mail, accessibility to databases and networks, desk top teleconferencing, personal digital assistants (PDAs), screen sharing, workflow systems, idea generation, and distributed group decision making. Also, Lotus Notes is viewed as a major computing environment that will facilitate telecommuting. Technological developments in an integrated services digital network (ISDN), an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), wireless communication, and local area network (LAN) connectivity will have a major impact on the growth of telecommuting and so will the resolution of managerial issues such as appropriate controls and security, cost-benefit justification, training and ownership and maintenance of the necessary equipment at home.
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paper_title: TELECOMMUTING: A TRANSPORTATION PLANNER'S VIEW

paper_content:

Although telecommuting may have some role in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, a transportation planner advises promoters of telecommuting to look beyond broad social benefits and focus instead on telecommuting's role as a contributor to a full and financially sound system of distributed work. This way of thinking requires a market-based approach that focuses on the concerns of customers (i.e., employers), particularly their business needs.
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paper_title: Relationships Between Telecommuting Workers and Their Managers: An Exploratory Study:

paper_content:

Employees who had become telecommuters at several corporations in the mid- Atlantic region of the United States were surveyed and interviewed. In inter views, telecommuters consistently reported th...
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paper_title: Business process re‐engineering and teleworking

paper_content:

Summarizes the results of a European Commission project led by the author, which has examined business re‐structuring across Europe and the relationship between business process re‐engineering (BPR) and new ways of working. Found that there are many ways other than BPR for achieving fundamental change and that most exercises being undertaken in the name of BPR are of an improvement nature and in some cases more radical improvements are being achieved by those adopting new patterns of work. Argues that BPR is failing to harness enough of the potential of people. Business processes rather than management support or learning processes are being re‐engineered. People are working harder rather than smarter.
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paper_title: The effect of environmental factors on the adoption and diffusion of telework

paper_content:

A stream of air whose pollution is to be measured is forced between the plates of a first and second air capacitor having a suitable length and applied voltage for furnishing a first and second measurement signal varying, respectively, as a function of small and large positive ion concentration in the air. A divider circuit divides the second by the first measurement signal. The resultant first output signal is added to a second output signal similarly derived from the measurement of negative ions to furnish the final pollution measuring signal.
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paper_title: The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work.

paper_content:

Today many organizations, including AT&T and IBM, are pioneering the alternative workplace--the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that is beginning to supplement traditional offices. This is not a fad. Although estimates vary widely, it is safe to say that some 30 million to 40 million people in the United States are now either telecommuters or home-based workers. What motivates managers to examine how people spend their time at the office and where else they might do their work? Among the potential benefits for companies are reduced costs, increased productivity, and an edge in vying for and keeping talented employees. They can also capture government incentives and avoid costly sanctions. But at the same time, alternative workplace programs are not for everyone. Indeed, such programs can be difficult to adopt, even for those organizations that seem to be most suited to them. Ingrained behaviors and practical hurdles are hard to overcome. And the challenges of managing both the cultural changes and systems improvements required by an alternative workplace initiative are substantial. How should senior managers think about alternative workplace programs? What are the criteria for determining whether the alternative workplace is right for a given organization? What are the most common pitfalls in implementing alternative workplace programs? The author provides the answers to these questions in his examination of this new frontier of where and how people work.
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paper_title: The telecommuting innovation opportunity

paper_content:

Discusses and attempts to anticipate the changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors which may result from the growing importance of digital information technology. Based on a survey conducted among early adopters of the technology, the “telecommuters”, finds a high incidence of pet ownership among telecommuters, rejection of some forms of computer shopping, and long working hours interlaced with long breaks, etc. Suggests the need to further investigate ways to capitalize on these future trends for the businesses of: banking, finances, travel, video rental, pet supply, grocery and retail trade.
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paper_title: Work-At-Home and the Quality of Working Life.

paper_content:

Innovations in telecommunications technology increase the possibilities of working from the home. Implications of work-at-home arrangements for the individual's quality of working life are discussed. Included are discussions of several major aspects of the work experience relevant to quality of working life, analyses of the differences along these aspects between working at home and working at a normal workplace, and speculation about the possible consequences for the individual of the transfer of jobs from employers” premises to employees' homes.
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paper_title: A Gendered Perspective on Access to the Information Infrastructure

paper_content:

This article provides a gendered perspective on access to the emerging information infrastructure. It examines access issues as they affect women; discusses public policy work on gender equity to national information infrastructure initiatives; and provides recommended reforms towards increasing gender equity to the information infrastructure.
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paper_title: What does telework really do to us?

paper_content:

In this paper the results of surveys of about 400 telecommuters in the USA, including transportation impacts, are presented, and whether telecommuting is actually related to any net reduction in travel in general and in car-use in particular is discussed. Findings from trip logs completed by driving age household members for an entire week are given. Teleworking is also shown to have no severe negative socio-psychological effects on either teleworkers or telemanagers, at least short term, provided all parties are properly selected and trained and do not telework full time. Brief mention is made of the differences between teleworkers in the USA and elsewhere.
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paper_title: An empirical evaluation of the impacts of telecommuting on intra-organizational communication

paper_content:

Abstract This study represents a preliminary step towards developing an understanding of how telework arrangements affect intra-organizational communication. The following general research questions are addressed: (1) Do telework arrangements change the way in which teleworkers communicate with their superiors, their subordinates, their colleagues and their clients?; and (2) Do telework arrangements change the way in which managers communicate with subordinates who telework? The study, which was conducted at two Canadian federal government departments, was designed to collect information from four groups: (1) teleworkers ( n =36 at Time 2); (2) managers of teleworkers ( n =28 at Time 2); (3) co-workers of teleworkers ( n =27 at Time 2); and (4) a control group ( n =25 at Time 2). Three data collection techniques were used in this study: paper and pencil questionnaires, telephone interviews, and focus group interviews. Data were collected at three points in time: (1) two weeks prior to the start of the telework pilot; (2) three months after the telework pilot had begun; and (3) six months after the start of the telework pilot. Analysis of the data suggests that, with a few important exceptions, part-time telework arrangements have little impact on intra-organizational communication.
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paper_title: INFLUENCES OF THE VIRTUAL OFFICE ON ASPECTS OF WORK AND WORK/LIFE BALANCE

paper_content:

Millions of employees now use portable electronic tools to do their jobs from a “virtual office” with extensive flexibility in the timing and location of work. However, little scholarly research exists about the effects of this burgeoning work form. This study of IBM employees explored influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance as reported by virtual office teleworkers (n = 157) and an equivalent group of traditional office workers (n= 89). Qualitative analyses revealed the perception of greater productivity, higher morale, increased flexibility and longer work hours due to telework, as well as an equivocal influence on work/life balance and a negative influence on teamwork. Using a quasi-experimental design, quantitative multivariate analyses supported the qualitative findings related to productivity, flexibility and work/life balance. However, multivariate analyses failed to support the qualitative findings for morale, teamwork and work hours. This study highlights the need for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative elements, when studying telework.
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paper_title: The Expert’s Opinion

paper_content:

Keynote address to the 1994 Information Resources Management Association International Conference in San Antonio, Texas by Karen D. Walker Compaq Computer Corporation
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paper_title: The impact of gender, occupation, and presence of children on telecommuting motivations and constraints

paper_content:

Accurate forecasts of the adoption and impacts of telecommuting depend on an understanding of what motivates individuals to adopt telecommuting and what constraints prevent them from doing so, since these motivations and constraints offer insight into who is likely to telecommute under what circumstances. Telecommuting motivations and constraints are likely to differ by various segments of society. In this study, we analyze differences in these variables due to gender, occupation, and presence of children for 583 employees of the City of San Diego. Numerous differences are identified, which can be used to inform policies (public or organizational) intended to support telecommuting. Most broadly, women on average rated the advantages of telecommuting more highly than men – both overall and within each occupation group. Women were more likely than men to have family, personal benefits, and stress reduction as potential motivations for telecommuting, and more likely to possess the constraints of supervisor unwillingness, risk aversion, and concern about lack of visibility to management. Clerical workers were more likely than managers or professionals to see the family, personal, and office stress-reduction benefits of telecommuting as important, whereas managers and professionals were more likely to cite getting more work done as the most important advantage of telecommuting. Constraints present more strongly for clerical workers than for other occupations included misunderstanding, supervisor unwillingness, job unsuitability, risk aversion, and (together with professional workers) perceived reduced social interaction. Constraints operating more strongly for professional workers included fear of household distractions, reduced social and (together with managers) professional interaction, the need for discipline, and lack of visibility to management. Key constraints present for managers included reduced professional interaction and household distractions. Lack of awareness, cost, and lack of technology or other resources did not differ significantly by gender or occupation. Respondents with children rated the stress reduction and family benefits of telecommuting more highly than did those with no children at home. Those with children were more likely than those without children to be concerned about the lack of visibility to management, and (especially managers) were more likely to cite household distractions as a constraint.
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paper_title: The ‘greening’ of organizational change: A case study

paper_content:

Abstract There are many emerging corporate strategies designed to make large, complex business enterprises more responsive to environmental concerns. One major corporate innovation that has a direct environmental impact is the increased use of telework options for employees. These programmes significantly reduce the amount of employee travel, thereby reducing air pollution. However, adoption of telework programmes requires a change in organizational management strategies. The prevailing attitude of “If I can't see them, how do I know they are working” must be changed. This attitudinal change, coupled with the structural move towards the ‘virtual corporation’ can be managed using existing organizational development strategies and tactics. The paper reports the results of several field studies in California which examined the phenomenon of telework. The studies consistently report increases in worker productivity of 16 per cent and a significant reduction of personal automobile travel of between 20–40 per c...
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paper_title: Applying the triple bottom line: Telework and the environment

paper_content:

The “triple bottom line” approach emphasizes not only economic goals, but social and environmental objectives as well. The “telework” option—in which employees work from home or a satellite office rather than from a central location—would appear to advance all three of these aims. But a close look at the specifics of teleworking makes clear that more data are needed to determine its ultimate impact. Moreover, despite its apparent advantages, teleworking is gaining acceptance less quickly than might be expected. For these reasons, telework offers a fascinating case study in the difficulties of applying the triple bottom line concept.© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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paper_title: Patterns of telecommuting and their consequences: Framing the research agenda

paper_content:

Abstract While there are over 7 million telecommuters in the U.S. today, there has been little empirical research and virtually no theoretical work on telecommuting. Drawing from the literatures on contingent employment, job design and social isolation, this article presents a theoretical framework for understanding how different constellations of telecommuting arrangements and job characteristics lead to different patterns of employee attitudes and behaviors. After presenting a series of propositions, the article concludes with suggestions for the empirical testing of these propositions and a discussion of the implications for management practice.
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paper_title: Telecommuting: a test of trust, competing values, and relative advantage

paper_content:

The advent of technologies that enable virtual work arrangements brings with it a challenge to managers: do they trust their employees to work outside of their presence? A perceived loss of control and a sense of being taken advantage of, may be experienced by a manager as employees disappear from the manager's daily gaze. To enable the transition of employees to virtual work arrangements, managers who work in bureaucratic organizations that value a high degree of control and stability may need to change their management style to accommodate new methods of employee communication and interaction. Alternately, corporate cultures well suited for the transition value results and are characterized as having the atmosphere of trust (a shared emotional understanding about who is to be trustee based on compatible values and open communications/attitudes). Telecommuting, as one form of virtual work arrangement, provides a prime opportunity to look into the management attitudes and corporate cultures that may hinder the transition of workers into remote settings. The study of telecommuting among information technology (IT) professionals suggests that management trust of employees, the ability to secure the technology involved, a rational culture, and a group culture, which emphasizes human resources and member participation, facilitate telecommuting implementation. Thus the study offers strong support for the important role of trust, security, and culture in the implementation of virtual work arrangements.
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paper_title: Telecommuting innovation and organization: a contingency theory of labor process change

paper_content:

This paper develops a « contingency theory » of technological work reorganization that addresses organizational, managerial, and job characteristic contengencies in the reorganization of the work process. Sustantively, the focus is on the rationales of top decision-makers in a sample of firms for adopting and designing telecommuting jobs. Following the theoritical model developed in the paper, the AA. find that telecommuting innovation is primarily contingent on organizational constraints (such as bureaucratic inertia) and, on the other hand, upon managerial goals (such as control of the labor process) in interaction with the relative power and status of the target employee group.
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paper_title: A Demand-Side Approach to Telecommuting: The Integrated Workplace Strategies Concept

paper_content:

The juxtaposition of available enabling technologies and low demand for telecommuting focuses attention on the need for businesses to understand how more flexible and innovative workplace strategies can help them gain competitive advantage. The integrated workplace strategies approach leverages settings, technologies, and management practices to support more effective ways of working and achieve the seemingly contradictory goals of reduced costs, improved performance, enhanced flexibility, improved air quality, and reduced traffic congestion.
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paper_title: A review of telework research : findings , new directions , and lessons for the study of modern work

paper_content:

Summary Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers’ willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees’ motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms’ side, managers’ reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: A study on the usage of computer and communication technologies for telecommuting

paper_content:

Today, with the increasing proliferation of telecommuting in firms, information technology managers are confronted with yet another challenge of what telecommuting technologies and services to offer and to whom these technologies and services should be offered. This study intends to identify the telecommuters' patterns of usage of computer and communication technologies based on their background, employment, residential, and occupation characteristics. Based on a sample of 375 responses, this study finds that all of these factors can help to explain the usage of computer and communications technologies. The implications of the findings for researchers and technology managers are discussed.
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paper_title: Telecommuting and organizational change: a middle‐managers’ perspective

paper_content:

Telecommuting programs transform communication patterns, performance management, corporate culture, and potentially the work itself. This study addresses middle managers’ views concerning the introduction of telecommuting programs in their organizations. Middle management views are important, because telecommuting directly impacts their positions, and their support is vital to ensure its successful implementation. The findings indicate that the majority of managers perceived cultural change as the most difficult issue to resolve when introducing a telecommuting program.
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paper_title: COMPARISON OF THE JOB SATISFACTION AND PRODUCTIVITY OF TELECOMMUTERS VERSUS IN-HOUSE EMPLOYEES: A RESEARCH NOTE ON WORK IN PROGRESS

paper_content:

Job satisfaction and productivity were compared for 34 in-house employees and 34 telecommuters performing data-entry and coding. Job satisfaction was measured on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Ques...
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paper_title: Comparing Employees in Traditional Job Structures vs Telecommuting Jobs Using Herzberg's Hygienes & Motivators

paper_content:

AbstractAre the factors motivating present telecommuting employees the same motivating factors found for the workers of the Industrial Revolution according to Herzberg's Two-Factor theory? Herzberg concluded that motivating factors increasing job satisfaction are: achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth. By survey of telecommuters, this article shows that telecommuters are motivated by the same Herzberg factors. Additionally, their newfound flexibility and control over their work, schedule and personal life motivates telecommuters, and that work overload has become a serious “dissatisfier” for the telecommuter.
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paper_title: Communication and coordination in the virtual office

paper_content:

As information technology becomes more pervasive, the structure of the traditional work environment is changing. A number of alternatives are emerging where work is performed at remote locations. Existing work practices and managerial strategies are often not appropriate in this environment. In particular, traditional office communication with coworkers and management, which is often dependent on physical proximity, is disrupted. In this study, individual satisfaction with office communication in the telecommuting and conventional work environments is compared through a study of telecommuters and a comparison group of non-telecommuters in nine firms. We investigate the influence of certain organizational factors, such as job characteristics, IT support, and coordination methods, on satisfaction with office communication in the two work environments. We find telecommuters report higher satisfaction with office communication. Our findings indicate that task predictability, IT support, and electronic coordination have similar influences for both groups. We discuss implications of these findings for research and practice.
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paper_title: Distributed work arrangements : A research framework

paper_content:

Various distributed work arrangements have been enabled by advances in information system and communication technologies. To date, these new arrangements have met with varying success, and it is unclear what outcomes society, organizations, and individuals expect from such new work settings. Moreover, we do not understand how aspects of the work environment, tasks, employees, management, and technology might interact to result in different outcomes. This article attempts to provide an integrative view of research on distributed work arrangements and provides a framework for exploring the impacts of these arrangements.
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paper_title: A review of telework research : findings , new directions , and lessons for the study of modern work

paper_content:

Summary Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers’ willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees’ motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms’ side, managers’ reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: A study on the usage of computer and communication technologies for telecommuting

paper_content:

Today, with the increasing proliferation of telecommuting in firms, information technology managers are confronted with yet another challenge of what telecommuting technologies and services to offer and to whom these technologies and services should be offered. This study intends to identify the telecommuters' patterns of usage of computer and communication technologies based on their background, employment, residential, and occupation characteristics. Based on a sample of 375 responses, this study finds that all of these factors can help to explain the usage of computer and communications technologies. The implications of the findings for researchers and technology managers are discussed.
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paper_title: COMPARISON OF THE JOB SATISFACTION AND PRODUCTIVITY OF TELECOMMUTERS VERSUS IN-HOUSE EMPLOYEES: A RESEARCH NOTE ON WORK IN PROGRESS

paper_content:

Job satisfaction and productivity were compared for 34 in-house employees and 34 telecommuters performing data-entry and coding. Job satisfaction was measured on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Ques...
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paper_title: INFLUENCES OF THE VIRTUAL OFFICE ON ASPECTS OF WORK AND WORK/LIFE BALANCE

paper_content:

Millions of employees now use portable electronic tools to do their jobs from a “virtual office” with extensive flexibility in the timing and location of work. However, little scholarly research exists about the effects of this burgeoning work form. This study of IBM employees explored influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance as reported by virtual office teleworkers (n = 157) and an equivalent group of traditional office workers (n= 89). Qualitative analyses revealed the perception of greater productivity, higher morale, increased flexibility and longer work hours due to telework, as well as an equivocal influence on work/life balance and a negative influence on teamwork. Using a quasi-experimental design, quantitative multivariate analyses supported the qualitative findings related to productivity, flexibility and work/life balance. However, multivariate analyses failed to support the qualitative findings for morale, teamwork and work hours. This study highlights the need for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative elements, when studying telework.
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Title: Telecommuting's Past and Future: A Literature Review and Research Agenda
Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: This section should introduce the topic of telecommuting, its promises, and the distinctions among different forms of telecommuting.

Section 2: Background
Description 2: This section should provide historical context, key milestones, and the growth of telecommuting along with relevant studies and legislations.

Section 3: Scope of Study and Research Methodology
Description 3: This section should describe the criteria for selecting articles, databases used, and the methodology for screening the literature.

Section 4: Classification by Orientation
Description 4: This section should categorize the articles by their orientation (descriptive, conceptual, empirical, and case study) and provide examples for each category.

Section 5: Description of Schema
Description 5: This section should explain the schema used to categorize issues into workforce, organizational, technological, and environmental issues.

Section 6: Workforce Issues
Description 6: This section should explore topics from the employee's perspective, including work/life balance, productivity, job satisfaction, and worker attitudes.

Section 7: Organizational Issues
Description 7: This section should discuss topics affecting organizations, including telecommuting adoption, employee retention, intra-organizational communication, and management practices.

Section 8: Technological Issues
Description 8: This section should cover the role of technology in telecommuting, appropriate technologies for telecommuters, and their impact on productivity and communication.

Section 9: Environmental Issues
Description 9: This section should address the environmental impact of telecommuting, including effects on traffic, air quality, and the regulatory landscape.

Section 10: Results and Discussion
Description 10: This section should summarize the findings of the reviewed articles, including the predominant topics and the implications for organizations, workers, and researchers.

Section 11: Directions for Future Research
Description 11: This section should outline unresolved issues and areas for future research, including standard definitions, measurement difficulties, and the impact on business processes and the environment.

Section 12: Conclusion
Description 12: This section should provide a summary of the overall findings and suggest the importance of continued research on telecommuting, highlighting potential contributions to both scholarship and practice.