Telecommuting and Perceived Productivity: An Australian Case Study

Author(s):  
Elsabet Tamrat ◽  
Malcolm Smith

AbstractThe concept of widespread “telecommuting” in a community envisages the presence of large numbers of employees who, instead of commuting to work, perform either all or a significant fraction of their tasks at home. It is widely accepted that large-scale adoption of telecommuting is just a matter of time in those countries with the necessary telecommunications infrastructure.This paper reports on the conduct of a telecommuting project in a large Australian organisation. The data and the analyses demonstrate that, overall, the telecommuting project has been successful and brought benefits to both the employees and the organisation. The results also indicate the presence of strong positive links between the relationship/interactions telecommuters had with their supervisors, and the telecommuters' perception both of their own productivity, and their levels of satisfaction with the telecommuting experience. The tasks which telecommuters performed were also related to the employees' perception of productivity and job satisfaction.

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-69
Author(s):  
Elsabet Tamrat ◽  
Malcolm Smith

AbstractThe concept of widespread “telecommuting” in a community envisages the presence of large numbers of employees who, instead of commuting to work, perform either all or a significant fraction of their tasks at home. It is widely accepted that large-scale adoption of telecommuting is just a matter of time in those countries with the necessary telecommunications infrastructure.This paper reports on the conduct of a telecommuting project in a large Australian organisation. The data and the analyses demonstrate that, overall, the telecommuting project has been successful and brought benefits to both the employees and the organisation. The results also indicate the presence of strong positive links between the relationship/interactions telecommuters had with their supervisors, and the telecommuters' perception both of their own productivity, and their levels of satisfaction with the telecommuting experience. The tasks which telecommuters performed were also related to the employees' perception of productivity and job satisfaction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Hajar Boutmaghzoute ◽  
Karim Moustaghfir

BACKGROUND: This study builds on the little guidance in the existing literature to analyze the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention in a business context, while using Freeman stakeholders’ model as a theoretical research framework. This research also aims to shed light on significant behavioral factors facilitating the relationship between CSR endeavors and turnover rate. OBJECTIVE: This paper builds on the existing research gap in the literature and suggests that behavioral factors, including job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation facilitate the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, which contributes to laying the foundations of a theoretical framework that has the potential to advance both theoretical and practitioner debates and disentangle the complexity of such a relationship, while offering strategically-focused development venues in CSR and HRM fields. METHODS: This research uses a single case study design to ensure an in-depth and detailed analysis of the phenomenon under scrutiny, while relying on a triangulation methodology for data collection, including a questionnaire used as exploratory approach, interviews to generate explanatory data, and archival data to bring confirmatory insights. Data analysis followed the procedures of a deductive approach. RESULTS: The research results show a positive relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, while demonstrating the facilitating role of job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation in moderating such a relationship. The findings also stress the importance of framing CSR interventions within the organization’s strategy and goals, while ensuring employee participation in such decision making processes to maximize the effect of CSR interventions on employee commitment and reduce turnover. CONCLUSIONS: This research has the potential to better clarify the nature of the relationship involving CSR interventions, from an employee perspective, retention, and turnover, while laying the foundations of a theoretical framework linking such constructs and other behavioral factors that underpin and support such a relationship. Building on the study’s findings and assumptions, future research is needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how HR-related CSR actions affect behavioral performance dimensions, resulting in employee commitment and retention. Future research should also consider multiple case study, multicultural, and ethnographic approaches for the sake of generalizability and theory building.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Madison

Assessments of the relationship among law, innovation, and economic growth often begin with one or more propositions of law or law practice and predict how changes might affect innovation or business practice. This approach is problematic when applied to questions of regional economic development, because historic and contemporary local conditions vary considerably. This paper takes a different tack. It takes a snapshot of one recovering post-industrial economy, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. For most of the 20th century, Pittsburgh's steelmakers were leading examples worldwide of American economic prowess. Pittsburgh was so vibrant with industry that a late 19th century travel writer called Pittsburgh "hell with the lid taken off," and he meant that as a compliment. In the early 1980s, however, Pittsburgh's steel economy collapsed, a victim of changing worldwide demand for steel and the industry's inflexible commitment to a large-scale integrated production model. As the steel industry collapsed, the Pittsburgh region collapsed, too. Unemployment in some parts of the Pittsburgh region peaked at 20%. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared. Tens of thousands of residents moved away annually. Over the last 30 years, Pittsburgh has slowly recovered, building a new economy that balances limited manufacturing with a broad range of high quality services. In 2009, President Barack Obama took note of the region's rebirth by selecting the city to host a summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) finance ministers. The paper describes the characteristics of Pittsburgh today and measures the state of its renewal. It considers the extent, if any, to which law and the legal system have contributed to Pittsburgh's modern success, and it identifies lessons that this Pittsburgh case study might offer for other recovering and transitioning post-industrial regions.


Author(s):  
Kathrin Bachleitner

This chapter places collective memory at the source of a country’s values. In that regard, it enquires into the nature of normative obligations arising from memory. Based on moral-philosophical considerations, it finds normativity in the ‘processes surrounding memory’ described in the temporal security concept. Over time, the relationship between collective memory, identity, and behaviour generates a ‘duty to act’ for countries in the sense of ‘ought’. This last and most diffuse impact of collective memory unfolds and persists into the long run. Through it, collective memory, entirely outside the realm of conscious choice, channels behaviour towards one good course of action. To illustrate this, the empirical study picks up the case countries, Germany and Austria, at a late point in time. In 2015, large numbers of refugees arrived at their borders during what became known as the ‘European refugee crisis’. In this ‘critical situation’, both countries were required to react and thus position themselves vis-à-vis the highly normative issue of asylum. With the help of a content analysis of official speeches, the case study demonstrates how German and Austrian politicians came to identify different versions of what a good response entails based on their country’s diverse collective memories.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-261
Author(s):  
Julie Vinck ◽  
Wim Van Lancker

For parents with disabled children labour market participation is difficult since these children require care that exceeds typical parental care. At the same time, disabled children often live in families who belong to social categories that are associated with lower employment probabilities. However, the intersection between disability and social categories is hitherto overlooked in the literature. Drawing on a case study of Belgium, this article empirically examines to what extent parental employment is explained by the child’s disability and/or the family’s social disadvantages. For this, unique and large-scale register data are used. The results show that (1) childhood disability overlapped with social disadvantages; (2) childhood disability inhibited parental employment; but (3) the relationship differed by social category: for single parents, parents with low educational qualifications, and parents having multiple disabled children, disability and social disadvantage reinforced each other.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J Roulet

Previous research has found that a positive relationship exists between favourable perception of a firm and employees’ job satisfaction: the more positively an organization is perceived, the happier are its workers. However, the current literature has overlooked the consequences of a negative corporate image or disapproval of organizations. Building on the concept of organizational identification and the social identity literature, we fill in this gap and counterintuitively argue that employees are more likely to identify and align with their organizations when it faces illegitimate criticism. We test our hypotheses on a large-scale survey collected in France and find that perception of disapproval of an organization has indeed an adverse effect on job satisfaction. However, if employees perceive criticism as illegitimate, job satisfaction is positively impacted. This study suggests the existence of micro-level social identity reactions in case of unjustified disapprobation: employees stick together and hold the line against criticism, strengthening the collective identity and adding positive emotional value to the work experience.


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