Telecommuting

Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or myriad other locations. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting. All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees. This is referred to as management by objectives as opposed to management by observation. Long distance telework is facilitated by such tools as virtual private networks, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP. It can be efficient and useful for companies as it allows staff and workers to communicate over a large distance, saving significant amounts of travel time and cost. As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers have enough bandwidth at home to use these tools to link their home office to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks

Today, telecommuters can carry laptop PCs around which they can use both at the office and at home and almost anywhere else. Telecommuters are linked to their home office by using groupware, virtual private networks, and similar technologies to collaborate and interact with team members. Typical ...

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...social hours.

In our ever changing fast-paced global economy it looks as though telecommuting may be well on its way to transforming the work place and “the office” as we know it.

References

Ellen Baker, University of Technology, Australia, Gayle C. Avery, Maquarie University, Australia, John Crawford, University of Technology, Australia “Home Alone:

The Role of Technology in Telecommuting” Information Resources Management Journal, October-December 2006, Volume 19, Issue 4

Butler, E. Sonny. Aasheim, Cheryl. Williams, Susan. “Does Telecommuting Improve Productivity?” Communications of the ACM April 2007/Vol. 50, No. 4

Iscan, Omer. “Attitudes towards telecommuting: the Turkish case.” Journal of Information Technology (2005) 20, 52-63.

Oppenheim, Richard. “On the Road Again: Gear for a Mobile World” Searcher March 2008; 16, 3; Sciences Module pg. 20