Content area
Full Text
Keywords
Telecommuting, Teleworking
Abstract
The phenomenon of telecommuting has implications for individuals and organizations, and society generally. Examines the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting to the parties involved and affected by it. Key advantages to individuals are increased autonomy and flexibility; to organizations, increased human resource capacity and savings in direct expenses; and to society, a reduction in environmental damage, solutions for specialneeds populations, and savings in infrastructure and energy.
Advantages are weighed against disadvantages: to individuals, possible sense of isolation, lack of separation between work and home; to organizations, costs involved in transition to new work methods, training, and damage to commitment and identification with the organization; finally, society is faced with a danger of creating detached individuals. Discusses implications of the suitability of individuals to telecommuting.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraidinsight.com/0043-8022.htm
Introduction
The information technology "revolution" has brought about far-reaching changes, affecting almost every aspect of life in the modern world. The relative ease of obtaining and using information has led to radical shifts in organizational structures and individuals' work methods. Among the new flexible work arrangements is telecommuting, or e-work, the practice of working from a distance - usually from home.
Working from home is not a new phenomenon. Before the industrial revolution, most work was carried out at home or nearby. The real change, then, is not the advent of telecommuting or that work takes place at home but that telecommuters work at home but within the structure of an organizational framework. The worker-organization interaction takes place primarily through modern technological channels of communication.
Several basic processes that evolved near the end of the twentieth century, especially in its last decade, may account for the origin of the telecommuting phenomenon. The main catalyst accelerating telecommuting is the development of on-line technology. The industrial revolution took people out of their homes into factories; advanced information technology removes the need for physical presence, and sometimes the need for simultaneous working. This removal of location and time constraints allows a return to home-based working - it is no longer imperative to travel to and from the...