How telecommuting can negatively impact innovation at work - Essay Example

How telecommuting can negatively impact innovation at work affiliation How telecommuting can negatively impact innovation at workTelecommuting is also known as telework or remote work is an arrangement of work where workers do not travel to a place of work that is central. An individual who telecommutes is referred to as a teleworker, telecommuter and occasionally as a work-at-home or home-sourced employee. The majority of telecommuters work from the comfort of their home or a location distant from the common workplace.

Though telecommuters might be happier, this method might have negative impacts on the organization. Telecommuting has altered the way employees carry out their jobs. As Gajendran & Harrison (2007), points out, telecommuting minimizes feedback, coordination, and supervision. One of these alterations is how employees are supervised. For instance, telecommuting removes the employee from the viewing area of the supervisor and impedes the supervisor from being able to observe the performance of the employers directly.

For another thing, the employee’s dependence on the supervisor is reduced, employees will have to work out more inventiveness and might have to make extra decisions on their own, because a supervisor will not be available to guide them stage by stage. This can bring effects to the organization whenever employees come up with bad decisions. Moreover, telecommuting reduces in-person contacts if your clienteles are adapted to high-level direct contact with the workers that handle their activities.

Additionally, telecommuting reduces the workforce in the office, and this leads to stress in the non-commuting employees. Turetken et al. (2011), states that those workers that stay in the offices tend to feel left out of the advantages of telecommuting, such as flexible hours and feel bitter that their colleagues have the choice of working in a more relaxed place. Also, if there is no update on the communication systems of the organization to replicate a disseminated workforce, the non-telecommuting staff might experience an amplified workload and the weight of the client communication problem.

Telecommuters might have a difficult time building and retaining relationships with their co-workers, which might interfere with the overall job satisfaction and productivity. Since relations often lead to confidence and operational collaboration, telecommuting can deteriorate the complete atmosphere. On the other hand, telecommuting can impair teamwork. Workers who usually work together physically will require ways to present and review work, specifically on a casual level. Therefore, there might be a depression in productivity while the team tends to work in the new structure.

According to Allen et al. (2003), telecommuting has not only altered Workgroup and individual work patterns; it also changes numerous work patterns in the institution as a whole. One of these alterations involves the arrangement of support functions in the institution. This support function should be supple enough to maintain diverse workgroups and individuals situated in different locations. There might be a need to increase the tasks to 24 hours so as to attend to the needs of employees in different time zones.

Also, the institutions also need to make sure supporting supplies and equipment are available for the telecommuters. Thus, telecommuting brings about disadvantages to institutions that do not have capitals to support teleworkers. Finally, institutions will also require investing more capital in network infrastructure and informational technology software and hardware at the telecommuter’s location and the central workplace. Therefore, telecommuting minimizes team communication and socialization that obstructs creativity and the free flow of ideas.

Referencing listAllen, D.G., Renn, R.W. & Griffeth, R.W., 2003. THE IMPACT OF TELECOMMUTING DESIGN ON SOCIAL SYSTEMS, SELF-REGULATION, AND ROLE BOUNDARIES. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 22, pp.125–163.Gajendran, R.S. & Harrison, D.A., 2007. The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. The Journal of applied psychology, 92, pp.1524–1541.Turetken, O. et al., 2011. An empirical investigation of the impact of individual and work characteristics on telecommuting success.

IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 54, pp.56–67.