Telecommuting, aka Tele-working - Research Paper Example

? Telecommuting, aka Tele-working Section Definition and explanation of telecommuting Nonnan & Glass has defined telecommuting as a task which is frequently performed at home. Telecommuting is also termed as telework and work system where people do not need to travel in a central workplace. In American workplaces, telecommuting has accomplished a significant attention. Telecommuting is demarcated as a substitute method of finishing tasks and at the same time providing a range of benefits to the organizations, companions, societies and the environment. Telecommuting has significantly altered the traditional offices through the introduction of phones, computers and other telecommunications tools at off-site locations. Golden (2001) stated that the formation of telecommuting has been explored through several terms such as telework, distance work, remote work, flexi work and home based work among others. However, there are no clear definitions that exist regarding the term telecommuting. Several authors have provided varying definitions regarding telecommuting. For instance Olson (1987) denoted telecommuting as an organizational work which is executed outside of the company premises. It is augmented by information technology (IT). Telecommuters are employees who habitually spend about two to four days in a week, performing their tasks at home. Korte & Wynne (1996) recommended that there are three dimensions of telecommuting namely location, implementation of IT and communication network. In the US, telecommuting is referred as teleworking while in Europe telecommuting is denoted as distance working and off-site working. Hamilton (2002) stated telecommuting as a schedule where employees conduct their work at home for a certain percentage of core working time. The place of work can be at home, at a remote office location or some other places which are outside of main office premise. Considering this aspect, it can be stated that telecommuting is an alternative method of work system where employees spend a consistent amount of time at a location other than office, essentially working from home through using computer and telecommunication system. According to Cross (2013), telecommuting means performing work at a location away from workplace and then sending the outcome of the performed work through the electronic medium. The following figure depicts the telecommuting work system: Fig 1: Telecommuting Work System Fig 1: Cross (2013) From the above figure, it can be stated that telecommuting usually supplements different office based functions. Green, Lopez, Wysocki & Kepner (2003) defined popular terms which cover telecommuting as a remote work, ‘location independent tasks’ and ‘home distributed data processing’ among others. Telecommuting is basically preformed on a terminal which is connected by modem and telephone line to mainframe computer of office. Telecommuting is also performed through personal computer systems where the competed tasks are transmitted over telecommunication media to the organizations’ computer facilities (Green, Lopez, Wysocki & Kepner, 2003). Telecommuting work provisions have a range of procedures depending on the requirements of employees and organizations. For instance, part time telework permits employees to avoid regular travels to the main office, which may or may not be conveniently reachable. Part time telework comprises work of editors or designers who frequently perform as outworkers. On the other hand, full time telework allows employees to perform as a part of virtual teams who assemble through electronic media from different locations in order to conduct organizational tasks. An example of full time telework comprises medical transcriptionists who perform their tasks at home for an established organization (Green, Lopez, Wysocki & Kepner, 2003). Current telecommuting technologies Successful telecommuting necessitates a number of technologies which permit employees to efficiently communicate with coworkers, supervisors and clienteles. A few of the important technologies which are vital for telecommuting include computer, telecommuting applications, headphones, printers and scanners, modems and fax machine. The following figure depicts the technologies that are used in telecommuting: Fig 2: Technologies used in telecommuting Fig 2: (Cross, 2013) From the above figure, it can be stated that in telecommuting, a remote computer system is connected to organizations’ network where employees can use technologies such as electronic mail or other software in order to upload the digital files. Many employees can work through telecommuting simultaneously. It is worth mentioning that telecommuting does not necessarily denote working from home or using a computer to connect with the office network, rather offices which are positioned at a long distance from the headquarter, i.e. in any work center or any hotel room can also be considered as telecommuting (Cross, 2013). Section 2 Impact and Scope of Telecommuting In the present day context, there are growing numbers of organizations that provide telecommuting work options for employees. There are a number of industrial segments with jobs conducive to work from remote locations. Telecommuting has a wider scope, and it applies to information technology and education among other fields. Telecommuting can have both positive as well as negative impacts on employees and organizations. On the positive side, telecommuting provides time saving opportunities for employees. Furthermore, the other positive impact of telecommuting system for employees is better independence and flexibility of work. For instance, it helps employees to attend external activities such as family requirements while reducing disruptions to the workday. As a result, the independence and flexible working practices of telecommuting can lead to increased efficiency and satisfaction to the employees (Hamilton, 2002). For organizations, telecommuting has several positive impacts. For example, employees who work from remote areas are unaffected by usual office environment interruptions. This facilitates an increased emphasis towards work for more concerted period of time. Providing telecommuting work also allows organizations to derive the access of a superior talent pool, because in telecommuting geographical distances become less important and potentially impudent (Hamilton, 2002). The other positive impact of telecommuting for organizations is the minimization of overhead expenses. Since an increasing number of employees can work from home or from other distant locations, organizations can minimize their expenditures on office premises, parking places and other physical sites (Hamilton, 2002). Apart from these positive impacts, telecommuting can also have certain negative impacts on employees. An important negative impact of telecommuting for employees is the lack of separation between work life and home life. Employees who work through the mode of telecommuting can find it challenging to create apparent distinctions between work time and private time. As the ability to work can become omnipresent, employees at times might find themselves working strenuously such as on weekends or during vacation periods (Hamilton, 2002). The other negative impact of telecommuting for employees is the sense of social isolation. Absence of face-to-face interaction with the co-workers can make employees to feel lonely. This feeling can manifest in different forms. For instance, job accomplishments can appear as less stimulating. Furthermore, certain tasks can appear as daunting if employees feel isolated from supporting resources such as experienced colleagues or supervisors who are eager to provide their supports, feedbacks and guidance. Besides, in office environment, employees can informally learn, which would also be missed if employees perform through the mode of telecommuting (Hamilton, 2002). With respect to the organizations, telecommuting can have a major impact on the process of observation of performance of employees along with determining employees’ productivity. It also influences cooperation and teamwork amid colleagues. In telecommuting environment, it is difficult for organizations to establish mutual trust and understanding relationship among employees who infrequently make face-to-face communication (Hamilton, 2002). Prevailing Issues of Telecommuting Telecommuting has a considerable impact upon employees and organizations as a whole. However, it also raises several issues which must be addressed in order to gain sustainable benefits from it. Privacy and security Telecommuting permits employees to connect with the office computer system via home computer system. Since, organizations have less control on the security of employees’ home computer atmosphere than the office atmosphere, there might arise certain security along with privacy related risks which must be addressed. For instance, employees might not install the requisite software and may not check the home computer system frequently for potential threats such as viruses, Trojan horses and spyware among others. Besides, other persons in the household apart from employees can access the computer system and infect it or can track confidential information such as usernames and passwords. The other important security issue for telecommuting is physical protection of computer system. The home computer system of employees is vulnerable owing to the incorporation of several physical storage mediums such as portable hard disks, flash drives and DVDs among others. Besides, the computer system or storage devices of employees can also be stolen in case of any break-ins incidents (State of Illinois, 2007). Necessity for high-level communication As described earlier, telecommuting has certain negative impacts on team synergy in an organization. When certain employees perform their work from distant locations, it can have adverse implications on their social connections. Telecommuters can miss any important communication which occurs in the office during spontaneous conversations with colleagues. Thus, it is vital for organizations to decide whom they will like to allow for remote work. There must be clear guidelines, requirements and objectives that must be satisfied no matter where employees are conducting the office activities. Organizations also need to provide certain level of infrastructure and support in order to reach the remote employees and communicate regarding office activities. Supervisors and employees in the telecommuting environments must maintain high level of communication by using tools such as email, phone or video conferencing among others (Hamilton, 2002). Supervising employees remotely One of the key difficulties faced by organizations in telecommuting environment is to supervise the employees, regarding determining their productivity, forming trust and managing the performances, who are not present in the office floor. Several supervisors believe that unless they directly discern the employees’ working, they are incapable to assess their performances and cannot provide positive responses. Supervising the telecommuting performances necessitates a mindset which is based on faith and measurement of outcome (Hamilton, 2002). Evolving workplace Telecommuting has developed as a new way of working, thus the key issue that arrives is that whether quality works can be achieved within deadline through the new workplace system. Several employees observe telecommuting as a flexible method of working and it also allows employees the luxury to deal with several family and household related responsibilities while fulfilling the job responsibilities. As a result, it can help to make proper balance between personal as well as professional life. It can also have a positive impact on office space effectiveness and quality of life. In the new working environment, office becomes more like a hotel for conducting tasks while taking short breaks when needed (Hamilton, 2002). Supervisor/worker and worker/customer One the prevailing issues of telecommuting is maintaining positive relationships with supervisors and customers. In telecommuting, difficulties can arrive in disseminating the organizational culture to remote employees and developing an environment of trust amid the employees with the supervisors and customers. Supervisors who have worries in terms of trusting employees can find the telecommuters tremendously challenging. Furthermore, for telecommuting to be successful there is a need for providing quality services as well as sincere attention to the customers. Although telecommuting provides individuals the required flexibility in working, the employees must organize the timetables to be well matched with the requirements of customers. It is particularly vital for telecommuters to communicate the time of their accessibility to the customers and make them-selves available during those periods (Hamilton, 2002). Section 3 Emerging technologies Essentially, the vast array of sophisticated new communication technologies and computerized equipment has spurred the growth of telecommuting. With the introduction of faster, reliable, transportable and friendly devices, organizations have been able to prolong the communication network at the home environment. Besides, since the cost of personal computers has reduced, they have become extremely popular technology to be used in homes and in offices. In telecommuting environment, Local Area Network (LAN) enables the office and remote employees to use the file servers, printers and other peripheral devices. Personal computer is valuable for performing remote work activities and also enables the employees to conduct the business activities at home. In present days, small portable computers have increased considerably which has an exceptional influence on telecommuting development. Portable computers also allow the remote employees to become familiarized with telecommuting system (Rodgers & Teicholz, 2000). Apart from portable computers, other evolving technologies such as teleconferencing and other different communication software have dramatically influenced information flow and work practices in organizations. In addition, continually upgraded computer hardware and applications, satellites, local area network (LAN), digital technologies and radio systems also contribute to the development of telecommuting area. These tools have become an ideal way for organizations to organize seminars, training conferences, inspire the development of new products along with providing exhibitions or virtual tradeshows to the people (Rodgers & Teicholz, 2000). Telecommuting has also been reinforced by devices such as iPad, tablets and touch screen equipment. These devices can facilitate to easily manage the digital data and can help to perform different tasks from remote systems. In telecommuting arena, the other important evolving technology is cloud computing. Cloud computer platforms involve a huge number of computers via real time communication network particularly the internet. Organizations can greatly be promoted from this technology as it makes it simpler for supporting a remote workforce. Cloud computing also assists telecommuters to accomplish their jobs in a productive and effective way. The improvement of hosted virtual desktops also has encouraged the development of telecommuting. Virtual desktops are hosted websites which provide several services in order to bridge the communication gap between employees and their offices. At the fundamental level, the services provide employees with facilities of chat, document management and email among others. Apart from this, it also offers the ability to share information from home to office computer systems. Virtual desktop system comprises every component which is required for an employee to establish personal virtual infrastructure. As a result, it provides a great experience and allows employees to access organizational resources from numerous devices such as iPad and Tablet among others (Ochalla, 2011). Future Applications Nowadays, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have evolved to a certain degree which can facilitate employees’ the access to virtual space and physical space through telecommuting. In particular, telecommuting is anticipated to change the preferences of people towards work. Telecommuting provides several advantages such as money saving, the ability to recruit people who are homebound and other environmental benefits. Furthermore, because of increasing prices of transportation, it is likely that in future many organizations will provide the telecommuting facilities to the employees (Ochalla, 2011). In present days, several vendors of traditional business solutions are moving their operations completely on internet which in sequence will enable remote employees to access organizational applications via browsers. Several technologies are evolving in order to support the improvement of telecommuting. These trends will accelerate owing to the improvements in the areas of wireless communication, high-speed internet, high expenses of living in urban areas and traffic congestion. These aspects will help organizations to develop their plans by including telecommuting (Ochalla, 2011). The basic principle behind the use of telecommuting is decentralization of work procedure and increased automation. In future, organizations will be required to manage ever-increasing amount of information in an efficient manner. These aspects along with evolving technologies will drive the development of telecommuting work system in future for organizations. References Cross, T. B. (2013). The future technology of working green. Retrieved from http://techtionary.com/books/telecommuting/index.pdf Golden, T. D. (2001). Telecommuting optimization: An investigation of influential factors during technology-reliant interactions. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, pp. 1-158. Green, K. A., Lopez, M., Wysocki, A., & Kepner, K. (2003). Telecommuting as a true workplace alternative. Retrieved from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR02100.pdf Hamilton, E. (2002). Bringing work home. Retrieved from http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/cwf/research/publications/pdf/BCCWF_Telecommuting_Paper.pdf Korte, W. B., & Wynne, R. (1996). Telework: penetration, potential and practice in Europe. Washington: IOS Press. Nonnan, M. C., & Glass, J. L. (2012). The hard truth about telecommuting. Monthly Labor Review pp. 38-45. Ochalla, B. (2011). Re-thinking telecommuting. Credit Union Management 34(4), pp. 38-40. Olson, M. H. (1987). Telework: Practical experience and future prospects. Technology and the transformation of white collar work pp. 135-152. Rodgers, C., & Teicholz, E. (2000). Telecommuting and the computer…here today, home tomorrow. Retrieved from http://www.graphicsystems.biz/gsi/articles/Telecommuting_00January.PDF State of Illinois. (2007). Telecommuting security risks. Central Management Services Monthly Cyber Security Tips 2(7). Read More