Attitudes toward telecommuting: Implications for work-at-home programs
✍ Scribed by Gerardine DeSanctis
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1984
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 415 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0378-7206
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Telecommuting, or working at home through use of telecommunications systems, is receiving increasing attention in the popular literature. MIS managers interested in improving the productivity and job satisfaction of their technical personnel are beginning to consider work alternatives made possible by declining costs of data communications and the influx of microcomputers into homes and offices. Though interest is high, there is little material available which can serve to guide organizations when implementing remote work programs. The research discussed here examines the attitudes of 51 managers and 129 programmers toward working at home. Survey data were collected from 3 divisions in 2 locations of a computer services firm which had experimented with work at home. Results suggest more interest in telecommuting among programmers than project managers; surprisingly, the two groups tend to identify the same benefits and problems. In general, programmers express support for any alternative which would add variability and autonomy to their work, whether it is a change in work location or simply a change in scheduling. The implications of these findings are discussed.