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What is Teleworking or Telecommuting (as defined by the father of Telecommuting/Teleworking, Jack Nilles)?
Teleworking, also known as telecommuting, replaces travel to, from and for with telecommunications technologies. It refers to working at home or another location on a full or part time basis.
Telecommuting is a form of teleworking; all telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. It is basically moving the work to the workers instead of moving the workers to work; periodic work out of the principal office, one or more days per week either at home or in a telework center. The emphasis here is on reduction or elimination of the daily commute to and from the workplace.
Teleworking on the otherhand, includes such variations as home-based businesses that use telecommunications to work with their customers, as well as those who may commute every day to some traditional location but use information technologies to deal mostly with people in other cities, states, or countries.
The Father of Teleworking/Telecommuting
The term telecommuting was coined by Jack Nilles and was first used in the United States. Jack Nilles, a physicist and an engineer at Lawrence University, Ohio State University and UCLA, he began his professional career as an officer in the US Air Force at the Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory of Wright Air Development Center in Ohio. He was a consultant to President Kennedys and Johnsons Science Advisory Council, the National Science Foundation and other federal departments. Later, he joined the University of Southern California as Director for Interdisciplinary Research and began his formal research on telecommuting and teleworking, terms he coined in 1973. With USCs Center for Futures Research he led a number of studies of the present and future impacts of information technology and created the standards by which major telecommuting projects are judged. Now known internationally as “the father of telecommuting/teleworking,” he founded the management consulting firm, JALA International, Inc., in 1980. He retired from USC in 1989 to devote full time to JALA.
How People Make Decisions (Case on Telecommuting)
Principle 1: People Face Tradeoffs (understanding the options available to make good decisions -“guns & butter”; efficiency (size of the economic pie) versus equity (how the pie is divided).
Setting a balance between work & personal life.
Principle 2: The Cost of Something is What You Give Up to Get It (opportunity cost -giving up something in order to obtain some item)
Disadvantages:
Yearning for cubicles
Worries about missing advancement opportunities
Suffer from lack of space or needed office support services such as copying or shipping
Feeling of loss -proximity with friends (camaraderie with co-workers) -Ms. Bleyer
“To have a little structure & to see people doing work.” -Mr. Bono
Principle 3: Rational People Think at the Margin (marginal changes -small incremental adjustments to a plan of action; marginal benefits versus marginal costs) -WALA AKONG MAI-RELATE / ISIP DITO.
Principle 4: People Respond to Incentives
Reduced travel time and costs
Less disruption to family life Reduces the need for relocation to take up “career moves” and other job changes.
Better balance of work and family life Even though the teleworker may put in more hours of effective work, he or she can still expect to see more of the family.
Flexible hours (maybe for other teleworking programs -not so true in the given articles!)
How People Interact (Case on Telecommuting)
Principle 5: Trade can make everyone better off (trade allows each person to specialize in activities he/she does best, & by trading w/ others, people can buy a greater variety of goods & services at a lower cost.
Cost savings The main savings are in premises costs, office overheads and labour.
Increased productivity Teleworkers avoid travel time and the interruptions of an office environment. Both teleworkers and their managers consistently report significant productivity gains.