Working Anywhere and Working Anyhow?

Working from anywhere relies heavily on information communication technologies (ICT). Scholars are increasingly utilizing a tension-based research lens to investigate organisational paradoxes which are rooted in opposite tendencies that might negate one another. Thus, computer-mediated communication can be both demanding and resourceful. The aim of this chapter is to present an analytical framework integrating three distinct but interrelated perspectives (task, medium and individual) to account for individuals' perceptions of job demands and job resources associated with the usage of ICT when working from anywhere. This chapter draws on insights from theories of media choice and communication performance, the self-determination theory and the job demands-resources model to better understand the impact of communication in the remote setting.

The Social Relations of Anywhere Working

The idea of anywhere working provides opportunities to utilize non-traditional work spaces and new employment relationships. However, the new employment relationships ensuing from the work practice have implications for both employees and employers. While thinking about the nature of anywhere working tends to focus on macro-level issues and micro-level practices, the social relations of anywhere working is a peripheral concern. This chapter reviews some of the images and meanings attached to work through the ages. Subsequently, the dominant ideas in the anywhere working literature emerge as employee centric, employer centric and technology centric themes. The notion of a sociological paradigm frames the discussion and analysis of anywhere working in its broadest context. Given its rapid spread, anywhere working may be represented as a watershed in employment relations and work practices. In this light, new ways of thinking about the social relations and the nature of work itself are required.

Management Skills and Capabilities in an Era of Technology Disruption

This chapter examines the literature relating to information and communications technology (ICT) and management skills and capabilities relating to anywhere working. The workforce is becoming more global, and workers can work from anywhere and still be connected with colleagues and collaborators. Although ICT is an enabler of anywhere working, sustainable anywhere working requires specific management skills and capabilities. Globalization of work requires organizations to manage workers ranging from full-time employees through to freelancers working in different locations including a central office, co-working center, from home and other flexible options. The chapter concludes by proposing a research agenda and conceptual framework to identify the management skills and capabilities required to successfully manage anywhere working (other terms include telework and telecommuting). The proposed conceptual framework will inform researchers and managers on best practice for adopting sustainable anywhere working to achieve strategic business objectives.

Working Anywhere for Telehealth

Clinicians (general practitioners, specialists, and allied health professionals) are experts in medicine, not technology. The delivery of health care using technology includes changes to the way the clinician works; in effect, they work from anywhere. This study examined telehealth adoption from the perspective of clinicians. Data was collected from 44 in-depth interviews undertaken with a variety of Australian clinicians. The findings show that telehealth is a complex endeavour involving multiple stakeholders. While the potential of telehealth service provision is significant, the realities of delivering telehealth services involve many challenges for clinicians. These include technology-related issues; lack of funding and financial incentives for telehealth; the changing skills and capabilities required by clinicians who engage in telehealth consultations; as well as changes to business processes resulting from the introduction in a complex environment. A conceptual model for the adoption of sustainable telehealth is proposed for better understanding of these complexities.

Telework and People with Disabilities

People with disabilities face unique challenges to access work and participate in a work culture and environment. The increasing uptake of telework is promising from a digital inclusion perspective for people with disabilities. This qualitative study explored barriers and problems of including people with disabilities through telework in Australia. The study focused on management and worker perspectives and findings indicate that both parties face unique challenges to accommodate and include people with disabilities in telework arrangements. Worker barriers to access telework relate to management attitudes, physical and infrastructure problems, social isolation misconceptions, lack of management trust, insufficient telework opportunities and inadequate management knowledge of IT support and reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. Management issues involve cultural intolerance towards diversity and disability in general, as well as a lack of policies and processes that create a supportive environment for people with disabilities who wish to telework.

Leading Anywhere Workers

As organizations continue to adopt anywhere working, it remains critical to address the leadership and management challenges of leading anywhere workers. Through interviews with experienced anywhere leaders from several different organizations, this chapter clarifies how leaders meet and overcome those challenges. Building on existing behaviorally-based models of leadership, the authors propose a hierarchical taxonomy of anywhere leadership effectiveness behaviors. The taxonomy is composed of four metacategories (Relationships, Flexibility, Productivity, Culture) and fourteen subcategories, which detail the behavioral capabilities necessary for anywhere leadership. In doing so, this chapter provides a common framework for understanding anywhere leadership, lays the foundation for the assessment and development of anywhere leaders, and is a starting point for further research.

Aged Care, ICT, and Working Anywhere

This chapter examines how information and communication technology (ICT) and working anywhere was adopted in a not-for-profit aged care organization in Australia. The aged-care and services sector has grown over the last decade leading to shortages of skilled and experienced workers. At the same time, the sector is dealing with significant changes relating on how services are funded, an increase in competition from both not-for-profit and for profit providers, a rise in demand for services, changes in technology as well as variations in government regulations Using ICT to streamline operations, communicate and collaborate has become critical for delivering efficient and effective services in both residential aged care and community care sections of the aged care and services sector. The not-for-profit case study in this chapter shows how a first mover in ICT adoption and utilizing working anywhere (telework) can support cost savings, provide the ability to respond to the changing regulatory environment as well as attract, recruit and retain skilled and experienced workers.

Telework

Anywhere working has been a subject of interest to researchers for decades. With the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), policymakers, practitioners, and researchers have a renewed interest in this phenomenon. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the relationship between disability, work/family balance, and flexibility by examining the impact anywhere working has on disabled online instructors. This research identified “flexibility” as the main theme that was important to the disabled teleworker and was identified as the most positive outcome of anywhere working. By taking advantage of flexibility and benefits of telework, all participants indicated that they were better able to balance work and family obligations. This chapter concludes with a discussion on possible research opportunities to further study how anywhere working affects people with disabilities.

A New Way of Working

This chapter provides evidence of the practical implementation of an aspect of ‘new ways of working', that is, flexible work arrangements (FWA) in the Australian accounting profession. It reports and analyses the results of interviews of twenty accounting professionals conducted in 2014. FWA refers to the interrelationship between temporal and spatial flexibility which are facilitated by technology. In this chapter, evidence is provided of the public rhetoric regarding FWA by accounting firms, particularly the Big Four firms. This is contrasted with anecdotal testimony from the interviews to reveal the success with which these goals have been adopted and implemented across the accounting profession, and the impact they have on work-life balance (WLB). The findings reveal inconsistencies and prejudices still in place in Australian accounting firms and suggest that, although there has been some success in this area, some conservative views still need challenging.