Analysis of a Telecommuting Experience: A Case Study

In this paper the use of telecommuting by a large, Austrahan based organization is discussed l3fi employees and twelve managers were involved. These participants completed questionnaires evaluating the method of telecommutingfrom both teiecommuters’ and their managers’ perspectives. The results indicated that since the introduction of tekcommuting: (I) telecommuters’ productivity had increased, (2) in general, there was a positive attitude towards teelecommuting and both the telecommuters and their managers were keen to recommend it to others, (3) an important link was revealed between the quality of supervision of telecommuters and the telecommuters’ performance and attitudes. The strongest predictors of employee productivity were the quality of supervision that they had received and the number of days per week that they were telecommuting. The results suggested that there were certain problems relating to the eflectiveness of communications, feelings of isolation and sense of loss of belonging to the organization, These problems were predominant in the work groups which included some telecommuters who were dissatisfied with the quality of supervision. Introduction and background The promise of telecommuting In recent years advances in telecommunications such as computer networking, electronic mail, facsimile transmissions and tele-conferencing have made communication over both short and long distances increasingly easier, faster and cheaper. These technological advances have already had a profound impact, worldwide, on business and industry and a lot of effort is being devoted to trying to anticipate further impacts of this “telecommunications revolution”. One ‘The f& author acknowledges the support of Telecom, Australia through the Telecom Fund for Social and Policy Reseanh. 1060-3425/96 $5.00@1996IEEE major change that is widely forecasted is the widespread introduction of a practice that has come to be known as “telecommuting”. While the preceding term could be regarded as self-explanatory, there has been some confusion between it and another (closely related) term that is known as “telework”. In order to avoid such confirsion in this paper the following definition (e.g., see Nilles [7}) is adopted “Telecommuting: the partial or total substitution of telecommunications technologies, possibly with the aid of computers, for the commute to work. ” There is already a substantial volume of literature on telecommuting. It would be impractical to attempt to survey it in this paper, instead the reader is referred to a few of the more fundamental or comprehensive works such as: Olson [9], Olson and Primps [lo], Huws, Korte and Robinson [4], Nilles [8] and Fritz, Higa and Narasimhan [2]. often, the contributors to the field can be, roughly, classified into two groups: the enthusiasts and the sceptics. in general, the enthusiasts point to the potential benefits of telecxxmnuting such as: reduction in the need for transportation and the implied relief from traffic congestion, reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions, cost savings for either employers or employees, productivity improvements and higher job satisfaction among employees who would have more flexibility in their work patterns, The sceptics, on the other hand point to the possible disruption of family life, possible reduction in the chances for promotion, potential for worker “exploitation”, or the difficulties in managing telecommuters. Despite the above reservations, there are indications that numbers of telecommuters are increasing, worldwide. In addition, telecommuting appears to be penetrating an increasing variety of businesses and industries. Huws et al. [4] list seventy organizations in the US and Western Europe which undertook telecommuting projects, these range from the high technology companies, through banks and insurance companies to some government agencies. Furthermore, it is clear that new telecommunications technologies are