Supporting Telework: Obstacles and Solutions

Recent advances in telecommunications technology and transportation have freed many workers from the traditional model of fixed place of work in two major ways. First, many Americans have become telecommuters - spending at least a part of their regular business hours either in home offices, satellite offices or neighborhood work centers close to their homes, at customer sites, or on the road. Second, it has become increasingly common for work to be performed by virtual teams - where the membership of the team is not limited by the physical location of an employee's primary workplace or a team member's functional unit within the organization. The author first describes common obstacles that organizations and employees face when implementing these types of telework arrangements, and then presents both technological and managerial solutions to alleviate them.     

A Self-Efficacy Theory Explanation for the Management of Remote Workers in Virtual Organizations

Virtual organizations that use email to communicate and coordinate their work toward a common goal are becoming ubiquitous. However, little is known about how these organizations work. Much prior research suggests that virtual organizations, for the most part because they use information technology to communicate, will be decentralized and non-hierarchical. This paper examines the behavior of one such organization. The analysis is based on a case study of the communication structure and content of communications among members of a virtual organization during a four-month period. We empirically measure the structure of a virtual organization and find evidence of hierarchy. The findings imply that the communication structure of a virtual organization may exhibit different properties on different dimensions of structure. We also examine the relationship among task routineness, organizational structure, and performance. Results indicate that the fit between structure and task routineness affects the perception of performance, but may not affect the actual performance of the organization. Thus, this virtual organization is similar to traditional organizations in some ways and dissimilar in other ways. It was similar to traditional organizations in so far as task-structure fit predicted perceived performance. However, it was dissimilar to traditional organizations in so far as fit did not predict objective performance. To the extent that the virtual organizations may be similar to traditional organizations, existing theories can be expanded to study the structure and perceived performance of virtual organizations. New theories may need to be developed to explain objective performance in virtual organizations.     

The effect of office concepts on worker health and performance: a systematic review of the literature

Conventional and innovative office concepts can be described according to three dimensions: (1) the office location (e.g. telework office versus conventional office); (2) the office lay-out (e.g. open lay-out versus cellular office); and (3) the office use (e.g. fixed versus shared workplaces). This review examined how these three office dimensions affect the office worker's job demands, job resources, short- and long-term reactions. Using search terms related to the office concept (dimensions), a systematic literature search starting from 1972 was conducted in seven databases. Subsequently, based on the quality of the studies and the consistency of the findings, the level of evidence for the observed findings was assessed. Out of 1091 hits 49 relevant studies were identified. Results provide strong evidence that working in open workplaces reduces privacy and job satisfaction. Limited evidence is available that working in open workplaces intensifies cognitive workload and worsens interpersonal relations; close distance between workstations intensifies cognitive workload and reduces privacy; and desk-sharing improves communication. Due to a lack of studies no evidence was obtained for an effect of the three office dimensions on long-term reactions. The results suggest that ergonomists involved in office innovation could play a meaningful role in safeguarding the worker's job demands, job resources and well-being. Attention should be paid, in particular, to effects of workplace openness by providing acoustic and visual protection.     

Organizational identity and information systems: how organizational ICT reflect who an organization is

The work reported here contributes to our understanding of organizational identity regarding its influence on organizational action related to the development of information and communications technologies (ICT). The empirical basis of this work comes from case studies of integrated criminal justice information systems (IJIS). IJIS are organizational and technological ensembles created to facilitate inter-organizational information sharing among criminal justice agencies. The focus of these case studies was to examine how organizational identity shapes organizational ICT. This research found that organizational identity shapes an organization’s ICT-related processes and is reflected in the material configurations of an organization’s ICT; and that organizations with different identities exhibit those differences in their ICT. Three implications of this research are that organizational identity serves as both an enabler and constraint on organizational ICT development; organizational identity commitments will likely serve as a barrier to large-scale integration of different organizations’ systems; organizational identity is relatively static and difficult to change.     

Macroergonomic anticipatory evaluation of work organization in production systems

Abstract

The problem of anticipation—awareness of consequences of design alternatives—is structured in a hierarchical scheme of predictive and simulative approaches in work science. For the anticipatory evaluation of work organization sets of dependent and independent variables are connected in analytical and simulative models for control centres and design departments, in procedural and participative approaches to group work in the automotive industry, and in programmatical design concepts for direct manufacturing and assembly departments and for indirect functions in operations planning and scheduling. The analytical, procedural, and programmatical approaches are bound together in a method to evaluate anticipatory group work concepts for production systems.     

Reported occupational injuries at Swedish recycling centres - based on official statistics

Swedish recycling centres are manned facilities for waste collection. There is no special category in the official injury statistics for employees at recycling centres, which precludes a straightforward analysis of reported occupational injuries. This study aimed at identifying the frequency of reported accidents and diseases and the type of events that contribute to such injuries at recycling centres, based on official injury statistics. The employees were identified as being affected by more than three to five times as many accidents compared with the total workforce in Sweden. The reported accidents had occurred during a wide range of situations, but most frequently during manual handling of waste. Reported work-related diseases were mostly associated with musculoskeletal disorders, mainly due to heavy lifting. A more detailed classification of sanitation professions and workplaces in the official injury statistics would facilitate future studies of injuries in a specific professional category, e.g. employees at recycling centres. Suggestions for prevention are given. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The present article describes all reported work accidents and diseases among employees at recycling centres from 1992 to February 2005. It also highlights the problem of identifying new working groups in the official statistics and gives advice for a detailed classification to facilitate such future studies of injuries.     

Investigating the Information Systems Heterarchy

This article assesses how one IS organization is changing in response to the increased globalization of software development and posits the emergence of a new form of multi-national enterprise (MNE)—the heterarchy. Data from two projects create new insights into the structures and behaviors of IS MNEs as they adapt to global systems development. The article identifies four primary dimensions of impact—cultural, economic, operational, and organizational—and suggests how such organizations are evolving.     

The employability of older workers as teleworkers: An appraisal of issues and an empirical study

The aging of the population and, concomitantly, of the workforce has a number of important implications for governments, businesses, and workers. In this article, we examine the prospects for the employability of older workers as home‐based teleworkers. This alternative work could accommodate many of the needs and preferences of older workers and at the same time benefit organizations. However, before telework can be considered a viable work option for many older workers there are a number of issues to consider, including the ability of older workers to adapt to the technological demands that are typically associated with telework jobs and managerial attitudes about older workers and about telework. Through an integrated examination of these and other issues, our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with employing older workers as teleworkers. We also present findings from a questionnaire study that assessed managers' perceptions of worker attributes desirable for telework and how older workers compare to younger workers on these attributes. The sample included 314 managers with varying degrees of managerial experience from a large variety of companies in the United States. The results presented a mixed picture with respect to the employability of older workers as teleworkers, and strongly suggested that less experienced managers would be more resistant to hiring older people as teleworkers. We conclude with a number of recommendations for improving the prospects for employment of older workers for this type of work arrangement. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Whom to talk to? A stakeholder perspective on business process development

Although many organizations operate in a process-driven way, few members are skilled in specifying and developing business processes??a skill that has become crucial for organization development, in particular to establish agile enterprises. This paper shows, on the basis of natural language constructs (subject, predicate, object) and communication patterns between actors (subjects), how individual members of an organization could contribute to coherent and intelligible process specifications. A language and tool supporting Subject-oriented Business Process Management (S-BPM) are introduced, allowing organizations to cope with strategic and operational challenges dynamically. As many organizations already work with BPM concepts and technologies, existing approaches to process modelling are also revisited with respect to representing natural language constructs and standard sentence syntax. Since most of them refer either to subjects, predicates, objects or to a respective combination, a roadmap can be developed for enriching existing modelling approaches. In doing so, organizations can benefit from stakeholder inputs for effective business process engineering re-using existing specifications.     

The impact of information and communication technology on skilled labor and organization types

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affects the global economy and the business world enormously. In particular, the impact of ICT on work organization has been in the spotlight since the widespread introduction of computerized systems two decades ago. However, the relationship between ICT and organizational factors has not been indentified clearly. This study aims to investigate possible complementary relationships between ICT diffusion and organizational factors such as: labor, firm organization, product differentiation and the demand for skilled labor. Utilizing detailed firm-level data in Korea, this research scrutinizes whether the relationship among the organizational factors in Korean firms is different from that of other technologically advanced countries. The results show that ICT demand is complementary to investment in human capital and product differentiation, but not to autonomous organizations. ICT is also found to contribute to productivity and profitability in addition to its effects on these relationships. The results do not show any synergic effect with other factors, however. Investment in ICT should be considered with other organizational factors with attention paid to synergistic effects. The implications could help practitioners as well as academicians in investing in ICT and in studying ICT investment respectively.     

一种新的卫星移动通信系统及其应用

本文综述了卫星移动通信的现状,介绍了一种新的卫星移动通信系统——＂信使＂系统,并把它与现有的全球移动通信系统进行了比较,为我国发展卫星移动通信提供了参考。     

Mobile Technology and Action Teams: Assessing BlackBerry Use in Law Enforcement Units

This research explores the effectiveness of mobile wireless information and communication technologies (ICTs) for law enforcement teams. Law enforcement teams require real-time information access and rapid communication to diagnose potential threats, analyze problems, and coordinate actions. To meet these needs, two U.S. law enforcement organizations implemented pilot trials of RIM BlackBerries for approximately 650 squad members. These trials provided an opportunity to assess acceptance, use, and perceived performance benefits of the technology as well as factors influencing these outcomes. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, user surveys, and system logs. Although the work teams and tasks were similar in the two organizations, the outcomes, while generally positive, differed markedly, with much greater acceptance and use in one organization versus the other. Results show how technical factors, functionality, and implementation processes account for these differences and illustrate how mobile wireless ICT can meet the unique needs for information access and communication in investigative action teams. We expect that these findings will generalize beyond action teams as more mobile workers in a variety of domains adopt wireless handheld technologies.     

Power and the Construction of Independence in ICTD Organizations

How do powerful vested interests continue to influence ICT for development (ICTD) projects? In this paper, instead of adopting a macro-level analysis, I take an in-depth, ethnographic approach to focus on work practices at one NGO involved in producing information and communication technologies for use in developing countries. Staff decisions at this NGO were influenced by particular powerful organizations, and I draw on theoretical insights from organization studies in order to understand this. The approach yields surprising results. Staff members appeared able to “stand back” from the pressures coming from donors and other influential parties, and to critically reflect upon these. Paradoxically, rather than fueling resistance, this sense of independence appeared to reinforce dependency on these powerful organizations. Moreover, the fact that this NGO was engaged in ICTD work further heightened these effects. This study extends existing understandings of how power operates within ICTD organizations, by highlighting the ways in which a sense of independence can paradoxically exacerbate donor influence over work activities.     

From human – machine interaction to human – machine cooperation

Since the 1960s, the rapid growth of information systems has led to the wide development of research on human—computer interaction (HCI) that aims at the designing of human-computer interfaces presenting ergonomic properties, such as friendliness, usability, transparency, etc. Various work situations have been covered—clerical work, computer programming, design, etc. However, they were mainly static in the sense that the user fully controls the computer. More recently, public and private organizations have engaged themselves in the enterprise of managing more and more complex and coupled systems by the means of automation. Modern machines not only process information, but also act on dynamic situations as humans have done in the past, managing stock exchange, industrial plants, aircraft, etc. These dynamic situations are not fully controlled and are affected by uncertain factors. Hence, degrees of freedom must be maintained to allow the humans and the machine to adapt to unforeseen contingencies. A human-machine cooperation (HMC) approach is necessary to address the new stakes introduced by this trend. This paper describes the possible improvement of HCI by HMC, the need for a new conception of function allocation between humans and machines, and the main problems encountered within the new forms of human—machine relationship. It proposes a conceptual framework to study HMC from a cognitive point of view in highly dynamic situations like aircraft piloting or air-traffic control, and concludes on the design of ‘cooperative’ machines.     

When humans need humans: The lack of use of computer-based ICT in distance pastoral care

Computer-based information and communication technologies (ICT) have become a part of many people's working lives. Such technology is used in the form of e-mails and video-conferencing across many sectors of society and these are sometimes claimed to have replaced the need for face-to-face meetings. However, certain areas of work still seem to need face-to-face meetings; this paper focuses on one such area of work, that of Christian pastoral care. The article discusses the needs of clients and carers involved in crisis care within a Christian ethos and assesses why ICT tools seem to be mainly superfluous in situations where crisis caring has to take place at a distance. Caplan's model of crisis is used to indicate typical characteristics of people in crisis. Evidence from the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 in the UK is used to investigate the usage of ICT in a real situation where distance pastoral care was essential. The findings show that the telephone was by far the best ICT tool although e-mail and the Internet were used in more formal business situations     

Organizational Adaptation in Multi‐Stakeholder Crisis Response: An Experimental Study

Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations. We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and resources from organizations other than their own when responding to crises. An experiment was designed with four different organizations in Sweden, which involved decision making concerning whether the participants systematically favoured their own organization over others. Findings indicate that increasing familiarity and expectation of future cooperation with other organizations increased the likelihood that decision makers would be prepared to work with other organizations in joint crisis management.     

Ergonomic and medical aspects of vdu workplaces

VDU's are a new tool in many workplaces. They can produce complaints due to inadequate workplace design, not optimally developed technology, unadapted work organization or psychological attitudes of end-users. Many therapies are available; others must still be studied and developed though therapies are useful only if they are applied.     

Modeling and nonlinear computed torque control of ship-mounted mobile satellite communication system

A mobile satellite communication system (MSCS) is a device installed on a moving carrier for mobile satellite communication. It can eliminate disturbance and maintain continuous satellite communication when the carrier is moving. Because of many advantages of mobile satellite communication, the MSCSs are becoming more and more popular in modern mobile communication. In this paper, a typical ship-mounted MSCS is studied. The dynamic model of the system is derived using the generalized Lagrange method both in the joint space and in the workspace. Based on the dynamic model, a nonlinear computed torque controller with trajectory planning is designed to track an aimed satellite with a satisfied transient response. Simulation results in two different situations are presented to show the tracking performance of the controller.     

Technostress under different organizational environments: An empirical investigation

Today’s pervasive information and communications technologies (ICTs) enable us to get connected almost anywhere at anytime. ICTs such as the Internet, the advanced wireless technologies and mobile communications networks are becoming increasingly indispensable in many aspects of business and everyday life. But to keep up with the fast advancing pace of the new ICTs, employees have to constantly renew their technical skills as well as enduring pressure from a more complex system and higher expectations for productivity. This often leads to ICT related technostress experienced by employees in many organizations. Studies have found technostress to have significant negative impact on employee productivity. Based on large-scale survey responses Chinese employees, this paper investigates the effects of different organizational environment settings on employee technostress levels. The results show that employees from more centralized companies often perceive more technostress. In addition, in organizations that are both highly centralized and highly innovative, the overall technostress level is the highest. On the other hand, in organizations with low centralization and low innovation, technostress is the lowest. This research will provide a foundation for organizations to understand and alleviate technostress, thus improving employee performance.     

Web 2.0-based webstrategies for three different types of organizations

Lately, web technology has gained strategic importance. It can be seen in the growing number of organizations that realize the importance of a proper webstrategy in this globalization era, where distributed work environment, knowledge-based economy and collaborative business models have emerged. The phenomenon of web 2.0 technologies has led many internet companies and communities, such as Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and Facebook, to successfully adjust their webstrategy by adopting web 2.0 concepts to sustain their advantage and reach their objectives. As a consequence, interest has risen from more traditional organizations to benefit from web 2.0 concepts in enhancing their competitive advantage. This paper discusses the influence of web 2.0 concepts in the webstrategy formulation for organizations with differing requirements, characteristics and objectives. The research categorizes organization types into Customer Intimacy, Operational Excellence and Product Leadership, based on the Value Disciplines model.