Advantages, Challenges and Contradictions of the Transformative Nature of Telework: A Review of the Literature

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have had, and continue to have, a profound impact on the way work is organized, undertaken and managed by organizations and their employees. Telework, in particular, allows employees to work anywhere and anytime. These developments are not simply extending earlier temporal and spatial boundaries of work; they are profoundly changing the nature of work itself. To gain a better understanding of the changing nature of work and the implications for organizations and employees, we conducted a literature review that identified in total 24 different advantages and challenges of telework. We also show that there are inherent contradictions among these advantages and challenges, thus outlining interesting questions and opportunities for future research and alerting practitioners to possible dilemmas arising from telework arrangements.