SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF TELEWORKING ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE

Transcription

1 ALBERTIANA ISSN ; VOL. 8; SPECIAL ISSUE; PP SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF TELEWORKING ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE FATEMEH ABOLMA'ALI* *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Department of Management, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT Today's world is absolutely complex and complicated which affects on employees performance and may cause job stress. Also human resources can be considered as the most important ones in the organizations and managers try to create calm workplace to make them more motivated. The purpose of writing the current paper is to survey the influence of teleworking on employees' performance in cooperation, work and social security ministry. The research is applicable from goal view and descriptive from data collection. Also data gathering method is library and fieldwork. A questionnaire in two parts was designed for data collection and distributed among participants after proving its validity and reliability. For measure employees' performance six main dimensions include organizational commitment, cost saving, motivation, promotion, job satisfaction and concentration were utilized. The results of applying Pearson correlation test illustrated that there is positive and significant correlations between teleworking and employees' performance. Also Regression test results indicated that teleworking affect significantly and positively on employees' performance and its dimensions. Meanwhile organizational commitment, motivation and job satisfaction were selected as the most important ones. KEYWORDS: TELEWORKING; PERFORMANCE; HUMAN RESOURCE. 1- INTRODUCTION It is increasingly difficult in the information society to define and demarcate working hours and places of work, to draw precisely the boundaries of national labour markets, and to draw distinctions between commodity and service production. Purely, virtual organizations still remain rare, but many larger businesses employ virtual teams to some degree (Hertel et al., 005; Hinds and Kiesler, 00). Available research also suggests that mobile telework and other forms of distributed collaboration are on the increase (Andriessen and Vartiainen, 006). Efforts to oppose climate change will probably accelerate this trend towards flexible distributed organizations (WWF, 009). Therefore, the possible advantages of distributed work arrangements are worth considering, not only because recent developments in ICTs hold promise for enabling more flexible, cost-effective and eco-friendly ways of working, but also for the reason that individual telework has once again surfaced as an important topic in labour market policy. As is well known, the idea of telework or telecommuting is far from novel. Since the dawn of history, people have searched for means to overcome spatial and temporal barriers (King and Frost, 00; O Leary et al., 00). Recently, ICTs continue the long-since established tradition of communicating over distance, albeit having raised the speed and volume of information flows to a Received at 3 February, 015 Revised at 10 May, 015 Accepted at 6 June 015

2 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp level unimaginable just a mere generation ago. By modern definition, distributed work arrangements encompass many different alternatives to working at the traditional office, including satellite and neighborhood work centers, flexible work arrangements, generic offices (or hoteling), and telework (Be langer and Collins, 1998). If we take a closer retrospective look at traditional individual telework, it is quite clear that this, one of the most vividly discussed forms of distributed work, has failed to live up to its initial promises. In the most advanced countries like Finland, for example, official statistics indicate that 8 per cent of the active labor force in 008 did some form of telework, the definition being paid work done outside the regular workplace under an employment contract (Lehto and Sutela, 009). In the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics, the corresponding figure for 005 also was 8 per cent (Ruiz and Walling, 005). Whilst there are some discrepancies between these studies, the statistics do show that telework has increased, but the reality remains far removed from the early forecasts in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Huws, 1991). The tone of this article is critical, but it is not intended here either to dispute the benefits of distributed work or to uncritically defend traditional work arrangements. The motive of the analysis is simply to assess the costs and benefits of this evolving form of organizing work (Morgan, 004; Pyo ria, 003; Taskin and Edwards, 007). Moreover, the article emphasizes the importance of labor legislation in designing a formal telework contract, an often neglected aspect in the research literature as well as in practice. Thus, the focus of the paper is on individual telework (done under an employment contract) and the managerial implications of its implementation. Informal telework practices are beyond the current analysis. -LITERATURE REVIEW In 1973, Jack Nilles developed the terms teleworking and telecommuting to define the practice of working in a location that is outside of a traditional office space (JALA International, 007). Since that time, as technology has advanced with remarkable speed, teleworking has become increasingly prevalent in the workplace. In 1990, the federal government introduced an initiative called Flexplace, which was designed to address potential problems in recruitment and turnover among federal positions (Joice, 000). In 008, 17. million Americans were found to be teleworking at least one day per month (Telework Trend lines, 009). When business owners and contract teleworkers were taken into consideration, this number jumped to 33.7 million (Telework Trend lines, 009). In 011, it was reported that forty-five percent of U.S. employees were teleworking at least part of the week (Lister & Harnish, 011). The most common location in which teleworking occurs is the employee s home, though cars and customers place of business are also cited as being common telework locations (Telework Trend lines, 009). Interestingly, in an examination of fifteen cities, San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos was indicated has having the highest number of teleworkers, 4.% (Lister & Harnish, 011). Teleworking is beneficial to employers and employees due to a variety of factors. Overall, a strong case has been made for teleworking in terms of its potential benefits to agencies, employees, and the environment. For the employer, telework has been found to contribute to reduced company costs related to office space and parking, decreased turnover rates, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism and tardiness (Baffour & Betsey, 000). Providing options for teleworking also gives agencies a means to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Baffour & Betsey, 000). For the employee, benefits include factors such as decreased commute time, more flexible scheduling options, and the option for providing care to dependents while working (Baffour & Betsey, 000; General Services Administration, 006a). Additionally, teleworking has been shown to be beneficial to the environment in terms of reduced fuel emissions and reduced use of electricity (Kitou & Horvath, 008). This was the expectation of the 19

3 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp Clean Air Act, which was instituted in order to help reduce the carbon footprint of the United States (Kumari & Raina, 1998). The Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources (1994) created the Massachusetts Telecommuting Initiative to study how telecommuting impacted 300 Massachusetts employees from 50 organizations. The authors addressed the following aspects of telecommuting: organizational approaches; operational impacts; the impact on the homes and quality of life of telecommuters; and societal impacts. Moreover, five different populations were the focus of the study: telecommuters; non-telecommuting co-workers of telecommuters; supervisors of telecommuters; individuals responsible for the administration of telecommuting programs; and non-participating organizations. In the questionnaire survey undertaken by Gilleard and Rees (1998), the issue of alternative workplace strategies in Hong Kong was explored. The authors concluded that in order for the impact of workplace redesign and onsite/on-premises strategies to be more favored, it has to be compared with off-site/off-premises strategies. The survey by Beasley et al. (001) investigated the similarities and differences between men and women in the IT industry in terms of their motivations to telecommute. The authors discussed the implications for managing IT professionals and came to the conclusion that it is important for IT managers to understand the differences between men and women in terms of how they perceive professional and domestic roles. They further stated that these managers also had to understand how to utilize technology to accommodate these roles if they wished to attract and retain highly skilled IT professionals. In their case study, Bentley and Yoong (000) reported on how knowledge workers in two New Zealand organizations adopted telework as an alternative arrangement for work. The findings indicate that these workers prefer to work at the office for the most part, using telework only as an adjunct to work that is done during normal working hours. Beise et al. (1996) presented a case study of an organization that was forced to plan and implement telecommuting in order to continue normal business activities after being forced to vacate its premises during the summer Olympics of According to Riley and Weaver (1996), a telecommuting pilot study was conducted by GTE from January to June 1993 with 10 employees. This initiative was done in order to discover what the outcome of a one-day-per-week telecommuting work arrangement would be like. The study presented the results from the pilot study as well as literature that related to the positive and negative outcomes of telecommuting. Masland (003) suggests top tips for telecommuters. She concluded that telecommuting is not for everyone because it can be a dream come true for some people, yet for others it can be their worst nightmare. All this, she says, depends on the situation and the people involved. Masland believes that the best telecommuters require minimal supervision and are good problem solvers. Patrickson (00) examines the possibility of telecommuting being an employment opportunity for those in the workforce who have traditionally been marginalized. The author pays particular attention to how telework can open doors for older workers, even though she believes that they are unlikely to get a foot in the door due to employer attitudes and practices. Apgar (1998) found that more employees are working in non-traditional ways. He specifically looked at the situation with AT&T and IBM workers. Over 3,000 AT&T workers are now actively involved in telecommuting, which has significantly reduced costs and freed up over $550 million in cash flow. Through its alternative workplace program called the Mobility Initiative, IBM has managed to save over $100 million yearly in its North American sales and distribution unit alone. A total of 87 per cent of IBM workers believe that their productivity and effectiveness on the job has been 130

4 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp greatly enhanced by the Mobility Initiative. Apgar (1998) points out that telecommuting is not for everyone as such programs can be hard to adopt, even for organizations that are well suited to this program. Figure below illustrates conceptual framework of the research. In the model, teleworking include is independent variable and performance along with its dimensions include organizational commitment, cost saving, motivation, promotion, job satisfaction and concentration are dependent ones. Teleworking Performance FIGURE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Organizational commitment Concentration 1- Teleworking affects significantly on employees' performance. I. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' commitment. II. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' cost saving. III. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' motivation. IV. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' promotion. V. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' job satisfaction. VI. Teleworking affects significantly on employees' concentration. 3-RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study was done in a society involving 630 employees of cooperation, works and social security ministry. As this number seems to be too much, so sampling strategy was done: NZ pq 1 n ( N 1) Z (1.96) (0.5) pq 69 (0.05) (1.96) (0.5) 39 So the number of statistical society decreased into 39 employees. The current research can be considered as a descriptive survey if to view from data collection aspect and as an applied research if to investigate the goals of the research. To collect the data library method (to refer to books, articles, libraries, etc...) and fieldworks (questionnaire) was being utilized. For gathering data, a questionnaire was designed in two parts: teleworking and performance. To analyze the data SPSS 19 and Kolmogorov, Pearson and Regression tests were utilized. The management experts were being asked to evaluate the validity of questionnaires. For this mean, the questionnaires were given to some professors and experts in management field, and after their modifications were being used and they confirmed it, the questionnaires were given to the statistical society. To determine the questionnaires' reliability, the 'Cronbach Alpha technique' was utilized. For this purpose, 35 people were chosen by random (from the participants) and the questionnaires were given to them. The 'Cronbach Alpha' values for all variables were calculated as Table 1. Variables Questionnaire Organizational Comm Concentration TABLE 1: THE RESULTS OF RELIABILITY Cronbach's alpha These values support the reliability of questionnaires, because the calculated results for Cronbach s alpha are more than (0.7). 131

5 Albertiana 015; Vol. 8; Special Issue; Pp DATA ANALYZING 4-1-KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV TEST To survey normality of statistical society, Kolmogorov- Smirnov test was utilized: As Table 4 shows teleworking affects positively and significantly on performance dimensions in which organizational commitment, motivation and job satisfaction were selected as the most important ones. TABLE : THE RESULTS OF APPLYING KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV Variables Results Teleworking 0.18 Normal Performance 0.4 Normal As the sig amounts for both variables are more than research error (0.05), so normality of statistical society was accepted. Therefore to test hypotheses, some parametric tests were utilized. 4--PEARSON TEST To survey the relationship between teleworking with performance and its dimensions, Pearson correlation test was applied. The results are shown in Table 3: Relations TABLE 3: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING PEARSON TEST Questionnaire Organizational Comm Statistic Results As Table 3 shows there is positive and significant correlation between teleworking with performance dimensions. 4-3-REGRESSION TEST To survey the influence of teleworking on performance dimensions, Regression test was applied: Variables TABLE 4: THE RESULTS OF USING REGRESSION TEST Constant Organizational Comm UnSt St. St. err B T CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS The current paper with the purpose of surveying the influence of teleworking of performance was done in a society includes 39 employees of employees of cooperation, works and social security ministry. The results show that teleworking affects positively and significantly on performance and its dimensions. Attending to the results managers are advised to: Establishing a culture to protect changes all around the organization in personal and managerial levels Obvious formulating goals and how to measure employees' performance Measuring employees' performance in terms of their abilities not the processes Making periodic meeting among teleworkers and managers Formulating organizational policies in terms of organizational goals not personal ones Making educational courses for teleworkers to remove their stress Utilizing float hours for more flexibility Improving communications and teleworking website REFERENCES [1] Andriessen, J.H.E. and Vartiainen, M. (Eds) (006), Mobile Virtual Work. A New Paradigm?, Springer, Berlin. [] Apgar, M. (1998), The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work, Harvard Business Review, May/June, pp [3] Baffour, G., & Betsey, C. (000). Human resources management and development in the telework environment. Telework and the new workplace of the 1st century. Washington: Department of Labor. 13

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