Telecommuting - Taking the work to the worker, not the workers to work

2 
 
 Therefore, telecommuting is not a solution in search of a problem, but a 
response to precise management challenges. As any other solution that deals 
with multiple dimensions--technological, human resources, psychological, 
economical, and managerial--telecommuting requires a precise implementation 
strategy that depends on the industry and the field of application.  
  
 Since telecommuting is a relatively new field, there is still some 
experimental work to be done as technology and demographics evolve rapidly, 
but times are mature for attempting to rationalize and capitalize on others' 
experiences in an orderly manner. 
 
 According to a research by Jonathan N. Goodrich, in the United States in 
1990 some 16 million corporate employees--14 percent of the United States 
(U.S.) civilian labor force--work at home. Of these, about 3.4 million have formal 
work-at-home arrangements with their employers
1
. These figures greatly differ 
from those published in 1988 in reports by OTA and the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics  of 30,000 and 15,000 teleworkers, respectively
2
. These differences are 
partly explained by different definitions of telecommuting and different research 
methodologies. 
                                                          
1
 Jonathan N. Goodrich. "Telecommuting in America." Business Horizons July-August 1990: 32 
2
 Peter A. Susser. "Modern Office Technology and Employee Relations." Employment Relations Today 
Spring 1988: 13 
3 
 Regardless of the current numbers, both industries and workers can 
benefit from telecommuting arrangements under specific conditions, as long as 
the program is set up under a precise set of rules and rationales that greatly 
depends on the industry and the worker's profiles.  
 
 This study will review the literature and  analyze the results of a leading 
pilot program, in order to support the thesis that management must apply specific 
methodologies  in developing and implementing telecommuting programs. 
Moreover, a group of Information Systems (I.S.) professionals who telecommute 
has been surveyed on specific aspects of their experience.  
 
 The author's survey shows that most interviewed telecommuters are 
involved in informal programs.  Many managers think that by simply adopting a 
specific technology they can keep their workers at home  while effectively 
achieving the organizational objectives. When this is true, it is true by accident or 
by exceptional circumstances. 
 
 
4 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 
 
 Studies on the issue of telecommuting have been published mainly on 
periodical journals, circulated among internal departments of major corporations, 
or written about in academic papers. A library search revealed at least seventy-
five references in the U.S. periodic literature alone, in the last three years. 
Moreover, at least a dozen pilot programs have been conducted by U.S. 
companies and public agencies.  
 
 Nonetheless,  a comprehensive document that would cover the entire 
spectrum of issues related to telecommuting was lacking. This study attempted to 
gather all these raw information and present them to managers outside of the 
Management of Information Systems (M.I.S.) department of large corporations, 
so that a larger community of managers and workers may benefit from telework 
arrangements. 
 
 There are four basic dimensions to telecommuting: 
 
 (1) Human resources and labor relations 
  What are the motivations of both the employee and the 
  employer for developing a telecommuting program? What 
  types of job are ideal for telework, what types are not? 
  What social and labor forces oppose or favor telework? 
 
 (2) Technological 
  What technologies are available to the manager and 
  what can they do? 
5 
 
 (3) Managerial 
  How can performance  be monitored? How can the 
  manager keep a geographically scattered group of  
  workers focused on the departmental goals? 
 
 (4) Socio-economic 
  What are the social and economical advantages and 
  disadvantages of telecommuting for the employee, the 
  employer, and the community at large? 
 
 In the following chapters these four perspectives will be analyzed and 
integrated, and finally presented as a whole in an attempt to define a generic set 
of rules and tools for evaluating and implementing telework programs.  
 
 This becomes increasingly important as "There seems to be a widespread 
agreement that as many as half of all information sector jobs will soon be 
potentially location-independent."
3
 Since we live in the information-age society, 
this makes a large number of jobs that carry a potential for telecommuting in the 
most developed countries.  
 
                                                          
3
 Barbara J. Risman and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. "The social Construction of Technology: 
Microcomputers and the Organization of Work." Business Horizons May-June 1989: 72 
6 
CHAPTER 2 
 
THE RESEARCH  
 
 Attention was focused on periodic literature, because the technology of 
telecommuting moves so rapidly that only periodicals could guarantee up to date 
and current information. Much of the literature mentioned that at least twelve U.S. 
companies and public agencies had developed pilot programs for telecommuting 
their workforce.  Therefore, this author became interested in analyzing the 
outcomes of these projects. Of all twelve companies that were contacted, Pacific 
Bell was the one that provided the most comprehensive case study on 
telecommuting. Their project was helpful in providing a very practical perspective 
to this study. 
 
 One article clearly stated that "Information Systems managers appeared 
to be far ahead of their peers in the volatile issue of telecommuting"
4
 . Therefore 
the idea of collecting data from I.S. professionals developed, also because the 
author--a part-time telecommuter himself-- had access to a worldwide computer 
network used by a large numbers of various computer professionals; network 
and system managers, programmers, analysts, software developers, and system 
administrators. 
                                                          
4
 J.A. Savage. "Taking the place out of the workplace." Computerworld 14 May 1990: 67 
7 
THE SURVEY PROCESS 
 
 The survey found in appendix A was designed to balance the need of 
gathering as much information as possible with the need of keeping the survey 
small and manageable in order to maximize the number of surveys returned. All 
questions were designed to generate a measurable set of quantitative answers, 
even when qualitative questions were asked.  
 
 Also, questions were formulated in order to minimize the risk of 
misinterpretation. An accompanying cover letter explaining the purpose of the 
survey (also in appendix A) was attached. The cover letter also explained the 
definition of telecommuting for this study, so to avoid responses from individuals 
who did not qualify as telecommuters. The survey was broadcast via 'internet' 
and 'usenet', two world-wide non-profit computer networks used by military, 
commercial, and academic institutions.  
 
 Seventy-two valid surveys were returned, mainly from the United States of 
America (U.S.A.) and the European Community (E.C.). Throughout this study, 
the reader should be aware that the results of this survey apply specifically to a 
restricted population of Information Systems professionals, not to telecommuters 
at large. As revealed later, non computer professionals face a number of 
additional difficulties in telecommuting--when it involves using computing 
equipment--that slow down the development of telecommuting and also explain 
why I.S. professionals are ahead of the game. 
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CHAPTER 3 
THE SURVEY RESULTS 
 
 The following population profile emerges out of the seventy-two valid 
responses to the survey received through Internet:  
 
 Country   # of valid surveys returned 
 United States of America 53 
 European Community 9 
 Canada   6 
 Australia   3 
 South Africa  1 
 
 Average age: 33 years 
 Gender: 72 males, no females 
 
 The relatively young age of the sample and its being an all-male group 
reflect the fact that  Information Systems jobs are traditionally held by young 
males. Therefore, no generic conclusion should be drawn that telecommuting is a 
male-only work arrangement. The country distribution is also a consequence of 
the media used to perform the survey, rather than a reflection of a geographical 
distribution of the interest for telecommuting. Internet, as most other computer 
networks, is mainly used by North American and European professionals who 
have access to the technological infrastructures needed to be part of a world-
wide network. It is interesting to note that such infrastructures will likely favor a 
development of telecommuting in those countries. The complete set of results to 
the survey can be found in appendix B.   
9 
 
 The questions asked may be grouped in the four dimensions noted above-
-Technological, Human Resources, Managerial, and Socio-economic. Readers 
will note that this author has reiterated and embedded some of his survey's 
results in the chapters usually devoted to the review of the literature . Although 
unconventional for a thesis paper, this structure has allowed  the author to keep 
essential information in context for better clarity and understanding.  
 
 In the technical dimension the following questions were asked: 
 
 - What kind of job do you primarily do at home? 
 - What equipment do you use to work at home? 
 - What software do you use regularly? 
  
 The first question also belongs to the Human Resources (H.R.) dimension 
for H.R. managers need to consider jobs and functions best fit for telecommuting.  
Computer  programming is the most performed activity by I.S. professionals 
when telecommuting (almost 46 percent of all activities mentioned from 
respondents include programming). Electronic mail and systems maintenance 
are the other two significant activities that are performed by the surveyed I.S. 
professionals (27 and 16 percent respectively). These findings agree with the 
theory of other scholars who contend that these I.S. functions could be easily 
performed in a location independent fashion
5
. 
 
                                                          
5
 J.A. Savage. "Taking the Place out of Workplace." Computerworld 14 May 1990: 67 
10 
 The type and variety of hardware and software used by the respondents 
for telecommuting shows a significant fragmentation. PCs and regular voice lines 
dominate the hardware list, PC terminal emulators and 'others' dominate the 
software list, but no significant mainstream can be identified. This is challenging 
for technocrats and managers for they will have to decide on a case by case 
basis what technologies best fit the organizational and the teleworkers' needs. 
 
 The question "What are your main reasons for working at home?" belongs 
to the H.R. dimension as well as  to the Socio-Economic dimension. The survey 
responses indicate that there is a fragmented variety of employees' motivations 
toward telecommuting, but a mainstream cannot be identified. This is another 
challenge for managers who will need to decide on a case by case basis how to 
set up specific teleworking arrangements. 
 
Elderly and child care--indicated by other studies as one important motivator 
toward telecommuting--is insignificant in this much more field-specific research 
as it totals a little more than 3 percent.  
 
 All the remaining questions that deal with productivity, socialization, 
career, costs, and structure of telecommuting programs pertain both to the H.R. 
and  managerial dimensions--refer to appendix B for the specific questions. 
  
 The surveyed I.S. telecommuters do not feel particularly impacted by the 
telework arrangements as far as socialization, career , exploitation, and  team 
work are concerned. Sixty percent of them feel they are sufficiently self-
disciplined to accomplish specific tasks without the need for direct supervision. 
Forty-seven percent indicated that they work better alone than as part of a team. 
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Only 5.5 percent of them think that their career is impacted by telecommuting, 
but some 7 percent responded that they are not interested in a career anyway. 
The same individuals who responded that they were not interested in a career 
also indicated that they are not interested in socializing at work either. 
 
 This kind of responses reflect both a mentality that is common among I.S. 
professionals and the objective fact that most I.S. related tasks require little 
interaction with others and actually suffer from the interruptions and the 
distractions that are typical of the office environment. In fact, all of those who 
responded that they have more control when telecommuting, also indicated "less 
distractions than at the office" as one of their motivations for telecommuting.  
 
 Most respondents assess themselves as more productive (or at least 
equally productive) when teleworking versus when working at the office (72 
percent), while 63 percent of them feel more in control of their environment and 
their work-style when telecommuting. Seventy-two percent of the respondents 
feel that their managers are not concerned about the lack of control over 
teleworkers, but only 4 percent have  a formal procedure in place to assess 
productivity and performance of teleworkers.