Book Description
As technology comes to permeate every aspect of work, it liberates organizations and their employees from the physical boundaries of the workplace, yet amplifies many of the interpersonal and cultural challenges inherent to corporate life. Drawing from an in-depth study of two dynamic organizations, along with extensive research on technology and organizational behavior, Nicole Ellison explores the subtle and powerful ways that "distance working" influences management effectiveness, worker productivity, and such intangible elements as social cohesion and trust. Telework and Social Change provides a multi-dimensional perspective on the evolving relationships among technology, geography, and the structural and cultural aspects of work in the digital age.
Telework and Social Change: How Technology Is Reshaping the Boundaries between Home and Work FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Drawing from an in-depth study of two dynamic organizations, as well as extensive research on technology and organizational behavior, Nicole Ellison explores the subtle and powerful ways that "distance working" influences management effectiveness, worker productivity, and such intangible elements as social cohesion and trust." Featuring interviews with executives, managers, and employees, telework and social change illuminates the ways in which access to always-on information and communications technologies - which allow people to work from virtually anywhere - influence their work styles, interactions with colleagues and supervisors, and the ways in which they define the boundaries between work and home.
SYNOPSIS
Ellison (telecommunication, information studies and media, Michigan State U.) uses in-depth case studies of two organizations to develop an understanding of the social shaping and impacts of telework on the organization and the household. At the organizational level, the study examines the effects of the lack of a central office on management and supervisory practices, the transfer of organizational knowledge, and teleworkers' access to information in digital and analog form. At the household and family structure level, the study explores the ways in which employees use communication technologies to encourage and limit the organization's influence on the private sphere of the home. The author concludes with future directions for both telework practice and research. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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