The Nomadisation of worklife : advantages and disadvantages of mobile telework

Abstract

In this dissertation I have focused on mobile telework. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this mode of teleworking compared to îtraditionalî home-based telework? I have seen this both from an employer and an employee perspective. The methods I used are a) a review of relevant telework literature, and b) qualitative interviews with sixteen mobile teleworkers employed by five different sales-oriented organisations. Very little academic research is done on mobile telework in particular. That is the reason why I have chosen to compare the home-based and the mobile mode of telework. Through the literature study I identified in all fifteen different advantages and disadvantages of (home-based) telework. I used these to guide my interviews. In addition I have tried to relate telework to theories of technology and the information society. I have shown that popular accounts of and opinions on telework are coloured by technological determinism. Two other theories of technology, namely SCOT (Social Construction of Technology) and ANT (Actor Network Theory), oppose simple deterministic views, and are able to portray telework as a complex phenomenon also including social factors as well as technological. In this study I have focused on only a minor part of all the relevant social groups (SCOT) and actors (ANT) involved in telework. These theories are therefore of limited relevance to my particular focus. Although SCOT could e.g. be used to ask why telework diffusion has been so slow, despite optimistic forecasts. And ANT can shed light on the roles of technology in different telework networks. I have found that telework is a sub-theme of the wider information society debate, and it can be analysed along the same dimensions as the information society: The technological, the economic, the occupational, the spatial and the cultural. According to the results from my interviews mobile telework seems to differ from home-based in the following ways: Mobile teleworkers - may face more severe technical problems - have more office options available: the car, the home office, no office at all - can choose to live further away from the company headquarter - are more accessible for customers - get a raised threshold for being ill in relation to customer visits - may face bigger risk of losing identification with the employer if they are working with one customer for a long time, or are located alone far away from the headquarter - generate more tacit knowledge because of close customer contact - may face a risk of too distant management - may have less control over the pace of work if they work close with one customer for a long time - face more stress when inexperienced in customer-related jobs - may face more trouble balancing their work and private life commitments, because they often work at home in the evenings, when other family members also are present - have less risk of not meeting other people during a work day, but the customer contact is superficial - have less risk of being excluded from promotions, because of high visibility of results in sales organisations - face a greater challenge to draw limits because of their potentially unlimited accessibility. In relation to theories of technology, determinist accounts get little support in my material. Neither is there any evidence of a return to a nomadic lifestyle, nor an invasion of workers in places like the beach, as claimed in popular portrayals of mobile telework. In a SCOT perspective there is little evidence of managerial resistance as the main inhibitor of mobile telework growth. In an ANT context the mobile technologies become obligatory points of passage in relation to productivity. Technology can both reconcile and create conflicts between juxtaposed networks like work and the family. There is little evidence that mobile telework represent a break with the past. It does not seem to be a characteristic of a qualitative different society - the so-called information society. Essentially the ultimate purpose of my respondent's jobs is the same now as 25 years ago - to sell a product or a service. They are mobile jobs that have become mobile telework jobs. This is a likely growth path for mobile telework in the future as well.