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Telework rationale and implementation for people with disabilities: Considerations for employer policymaking
Abstract
Telework has been promoted as a viable workplace accommodation for people with disabilities since the 1990s, when information and communication technologies (ICT) had developed sufficiently to facilitate its widespread adoption. This initial research and accompanying policy recommendations were prescriptive in nature and frequently aimed at employers.
This article adds to existing policy models for facilitating successful telework outcomes for people with disabilities. Drawing upon two studies by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Workplace Accommodations, we expound on employee-side considerations in the implementation of telework.
Our policy model utilizes established typologies for policy evaluation to develop a process model that considers rationales and implementation factors for telework among people with physical disabilities.
Telework may be used as an accommodation for disability, but employee rationales for telework are more complex, involving work-life balance, strategies for pain and fatigue not formally recognized as disability, and expediency in travel and transportation. Implementation of telework as a component of workplace operations is similarly multifaceted, involving non-technology accommodations to realize job restructuring left incomplete by telework.
Our model grounds new empirical research in this area. We also renew our call for additional research on effective telework practices for people with disabilities.
The full-text of this article is available from the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) by request at: https://search.naric.com/research/redesign_record.cfm?search=2&type=all&criteria=telework&phrase=no&rec=131030&article_source=Rehab
... In Europe, the literature reports that 64% of French workers with disabilities turned to telework during the pandemic, compared to 53% of the general working population [7]. Although the pandemic has caused the employment rate of people with disabilities to drop [8], teleworking remains an option for these workers to maintain their employment during this time, particularly because it has become a viable work delivery method and a means of accommodation for these workers since the 1990s [9,10]. Employers who did not previously offer teleworking to their employees have had to adopt it due to the pandemic, a situation not without impacts on the work experience of teleworkers with physical disabilities. ...
... According to Davis's study, teleworking also saves time by avoiding travel, a definite benefit to workers' quality of life, especially those with disabilities [15]. The ability to work in an environment that is familiar also favors this type of workers [16] because it eliminates architectural barriers in the workplace or in transportation [9,14]. Their home usually already provides people with disabilities with the necessary accommodations to meet their needs, an added value to their work experience [17]. ...
... Studies show that the cost of living for teleworkers with disabilities decreases, particularly due to reduced transportation costs [13,18]. Technological barriers remain an issue for people with disabilities who are teleworking, particularly technological tools not adapted to workers' abilities [9]. Finally, feelings of isolation and decreased social contact may represent issues for the health of teleworkers with disabilities, as these individuals are already likely to experience more social isolation than the general population [15,19]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous changes in work environments. Thousands of workers quickly found themselves having to telework without being prepared, which had consequences on their work experience and health. Authors proposed telework practices that promote the healthy work experience of workers in a pandemic context, but less attention has been paid to consider the realities and needs of individuals with physical disabilities. Purpose This study aimed to explore the influence of telework during the pandemic on the work experience of people with physical disabilities. Methods Following an interpretive descriptive research design, interviews were conducted with 16 workers with physical disabilities (i.e., motor, or sensory). The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis strategy. Results The results revealed 15 factors that influence the work experience of teleworkers with physical disabilities. These factors are related to interactions between three spheres of the worker's life: the individual, the organization, and the environment. Ten recommendations are proposed to consider the reality and needs of individuals with physical disabilities in the telework practices. Conclusion Given that telework has expanded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely continue to remain a widespread modality of work delivery, it becomes even more important to expand knowledge about it, to benefit the work experience of teleworkers with physical disabilities.
... From an economic perspective view, it increases the competitive advantage of organisations by adding value to profit Karia & Asaari, 2016) and favours the global competitiveness of companies (Kanellopoulos, 2011). Telework also has many advantages in terms of the social life of teleworkers , such as facilitating better work-life balance (Moon et al., 2014). Finally, from an environmental point of view, telework plays an important role in the reduction of CO2 by avoiding the air pollution generated from commuting (Zhu & Mason, 2014). ...
... They also include intangible tools (Asadi & Khosravi, 2017) such as software, automation and communication services and remote access to servers. Moreover, telework requires the use of technology, organisations need to ensure that they have the appropriate technology to sustain telework (Iwaniuk et al., 2021;Mello, 2007;Moon et al., 2014). Therefore, Topi (2004) suggests that the appropriate technological environment for teleworking requires an efficient and effective telecommunications infrastructure for the voice, video and data. ...
... According to some authors, ergonomics and the immediate environmental working conditions, such as noise and temperature, can influence the success of telework (Bhattacharya & Mittal, 2020;Nakrošienė et al., 2019). Finally, non-technological materials also consist of devices that facilitate the convenience of work for people with disabilities (Moon et al., 2014), which includes adjustable furnishings, suitable lighting and a soundproof home office. Mello (2007), a successful telework programme requires the involvement of management and managers. ...
Advances in information and communications technology have contributed to the spread of telework, which has been underway since the early 2000s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telework became more than just an alternative to the traditional office: it became a strategic means of survival for many companies. Given its importance, in the last two decades, the scientific community has shown increased interest in the factors that affect successful telework. However, knowledge on this subject remains fragmented and disparate. This study aims to synthesise the literature on successful telework and consolidate its success factors into a framework that provides conceptual and holistic knowledge on the topic. Our findings demonstrate that telework is affected by factors categorised into five groups: technological materials, non-technological materials, teleworkers, teleworker work environment and teleworker family environment. A number of these factors has causal links, while some have become irrelevant and given way to new factors over time. Some have been confirmed to have an overall positive effect on telework. In addition to proposing a theoretical perspective and future research avenues, this study presents some HRM implications to help managers and policymakers make telework more effective.
... option for these workers to maintain their employment during this time, particularly because it has become a viable work delivery method and a means of accommodation for these workers since the 1990s [9,10]. ...
... According to Davis's (2018) study, teleworking also saves time by avoiding travel, a de nite bene t to workers' well-being, especially those with disabilities [15]. The ability to work in an environment that is familiar also favors this type of worker [16] because it eliminates architectural barriers in the workplace or in transportation [9,14]. ...
... Technological barriers remain an issue for people with disabilities who are teleworking, particularly technological tools not adapted to workers' abilities [9]. Finally, feelings of isolation and decreased social contact may represent issues for the well-being of disabled teleworkers, as these individuals are already likely to experience more social isolation than the general population [15,19]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous changes in work environments. Thousands of workers quickly found themselves having to telework without being prepared, which had consequences on their well-being. Authors proposed telework practices that promote the well-being of workers in a pandemic context, but less attention has been paid to consider the needs of disabled workers.
Purpose. This study aimed to explore the effects of telework during the pandemic on the well-being of people with disabilities.
Methods. Following an interpretive descriptive research design, interviews were conducted with 16 workers with disabilities (i.e., motor, or sensory). The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis strategy.
Results. The results revealed 15 factors that influence the well-being of teleworkers with disabilities. These factors are related to interactions between three spheres of the worker's life: the individual, the organization, and the environment. Ten recommendations are proposed to consider the reality of disabled individuals in the telework practices.
Conclusion. Given that telework has expanded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely continue to remain a widespread modality of work delivery, it becomes even more important to expand knowledge about it, to benefit the well-being of disabled teleworkers.
... It would be an understatement to suggest that work patterns have changed since the outbreak, and the questions is whether these economic changes will remain, or whether the workforce will return to previous work structures. For some groups, such as people with disabilities, they become much more vulnerable in scenarios when level of income is reduced, and when work changes or when unemployment results [6][7][8][9][10][11]. On the other hand, given reasonable accommodations (e.g. in accordance with the American with Disabilities Act or other applicable legislative components), people with disabilities can successfully and meaningfully engage in telework because technology can act as mediating factor [12,13]. For persons with disabilities, a myriad of health and employment-related challenges and opportunities have arisen from the pandemic. ...
... Telework: In turn, opportunities may arise for people with disabilities with regards to telework (i.e. the practice of working from home, using information and communication technology (ICT) such as email, telephone and communication or videoconferencing platforms). Since the 1990s, telework has been promoted as a viable and reasonable workplace accommodation for people with disabilities [13]. Yet, the prevalence of telework among people with disabilities did not increase at the same pace as the general population, despite the potential human right benefits [12]. ...
... By developing the needed reasonable accommodations and the structural conditions for people with disabilities to telework, one would be seizing on the opportunity which has emerged out of this surge of necessity. If properly supported, telework can level the playing field in terms of employment opportunities for people with disabilities [12,13]. ...
Background:
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that emerged in late 2019, and later become a global pandemic, has unleashed an almost unprecedented global public health and economic crisis.
Objective:
In this perspective, we examine the effects of COVID-19 and identify a likely 'new normal' in terms of challenges and opportunities within the fields of disability, telework, and rehabilitation.
Methods:
We use a systems thinking lens informed by recent empirical evidence and peer-reviewed qualitative accounts regarding the pandemic to identify emerging challenges, and pinpoint opportunities related to health and changing employment infrastructure of people with disabilities and rehabilitation professionals.
Results:
From our interpretation, the key leverage points or opportunities include: (1) developing disability-inclusive public health responses and emergency preparedness; (2) enabling employment and telework opportunities for people with disabilities; (3) addressing the new requirements in rehabilitation service provision, including participating as essential team members in the care of people with infectious diseases such as COVID-19; (4) embracing the added emphasis on, and capacity for, telehealth; and (5) developing greater resilience, distance learning, and employability among the rehabilitation workforce.
Conclusions:
The COVID-19 pandemic has become increasingly challenging to the lives of people with disabilities and rehabilitation professionals; however, key challenges can be minimized and opportunities can be capitalized upon in order to 'build back better' after COVID-19.
... ,Moon et al. (2014),Baker et al. (2006),McNaughton et al. (2014). 2. The impact of telework on job satisfaction, productivity, and lessened absenteeism, which varies depending on factors such as age, education level, type of job, and company size.Linden and Milchus (2014), Giovanis and Ozdamar(2019), Moon et al. (2014), McNaughton et al. (2014). ...
... ,Moon et al. (2014),Baker et al. (2006), McNaughton et al. (2014.Post-Covid-19 global studies on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of home-based work, including social isolation, work-life balance, intersectionality, pay gaps and disability-inclusive policies.Schur et al., 2020;Igeltjørn and Habib (2020), Giovanis and Ozdamar (2019),Morris (2021),Das et al. (2021). ...
This research represents one of the first literature reviews of remote work opportunities for persons with disabilities. Given the fact that persons with disabilities represent almost 15% of the total world population and that this category of people is facing huge challenges in terms of employment inclusion and risk of poverty, it is obvious that remote work arrangements provide excellent employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. This argument, in combination with the enormous growth of remote work platforms and digital entrepreneurship, represents a key reason for the rising interest of the research community in this topic. The aim of this research was to identify the current state of the academic literature in the area of remote work opportunities and persons with disabilities and to identify gaps in the current body of knowledge as a basis for future research recommendations. Insight, critique, and transformative redefinition of the current academic literature on remote work and persons with disabilities were applied to analyze and synthesize the literature. In total, around 80 articles were analyzed by theoretical focus, methodology, time, and geography. Google Scholar search was conducted during December 2022 using a comprehensive search strategy built around the following major topics: 1. persons with disabilities in the labor market, 2. remote work and the persons with disabilities, and 3. remote work capacity of the persons with disabilities. The results of this research show that the research on the remote work capacity of persons with disabilities is fragmented and that more studies covering different aspects of remote work opportunities for persons with disabilities are needed, especially those that will be quantitative in their nature and more integrative. This research has contributed towards a better understanding of the literature gaps in regard to remote work opportunities for persons with disabilities and points to some future research directions such as skills and competencies of persons with disabilities for remote work, the challenges of remote work for persons with disabilities, and the requirements of the remote work platforms and other remote work opportunities.
... Cross-cultural studies of telework business practices for PwD. Tang (2021), Moon et al. (2014), Baker et al. (2006), McNaughton et al. (2014). ...
... ,Moon et al. (2014),Baker et al. (2006),McNaughton et al. (2014). 2. The impact of telework on job satisfaction, productivity, and lessened absenteeism, which varies depending on factors such as age, education level, type of job, and company size.Linden and Milchus (2014), Giovanis and Ozdamar (2019), Moon et al. (2014), McNaughton et al. (2014). ...
This research represents one of the first literature reviews of remote work opportunities for persons with disabilities. Given the fact that persons with disabilities represent almost 15% of the total world population and that this category of people is facing huge challenges in terms of employment inclusion and risk of poverty, it is obvious that remote work arrangements provide excellent employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. This argument in combination with enormous growth of the remote work platforms and digital entrepreneurship, represents a key reason for the rising interest of the research community in this topic. The aim of this research was to identify the current state of the academic literature in the area of remote work opportunities and persons with disabilities and to identify gaps in our current understanding of this field, as a basis for some future research recommendations. Insight, critique and transformative redefinition of the current academic literature on remote work and persons with disabilities was applied to analyze and synthesize the literature. In total, around 80 articles were analyzed by theoretical focus, methodology, time, and geography. Google Scholar search was conducted during December 2022 using a comprehensive search strategy built around the following major topics: 1. persons with disabilities in the labor market, 2. remote work and the persons with disabilities, and 3. remote work capacity of the persons with disabilities. The results of this research show that the research on remote work capacity of the persons with disabilities is fragmented and that more studies, covering different aspects of remote work opportunities for persons with disabilities are needed, especially those which will be quantitative in their nature and more integrative. This research has contributed towards better understanding of the literature gaps in regards to remote work opportunities for the persons with disabilities and pointing to some future research directions such as skills and competences of the persons with disabilities for remote work, the challenges of remote work for persons with disabilities, and the requirements of the remote work platforms and other remote work opportunities.
... The term life administration [47] was coined to flag the many issues people have to deal with, in particular, people not fitting a given norm. It is argued that disabled people experience three types of life admin: medical admin, benefits admin, and discrimination admin (disability admin) [48] as well as telework [87]. Burnout is linked to quality of life outside work [88]. ...
... Many external factors impact how the workplace is experienced [76,77,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93]425]. The term life administration [47] was coined to flag the many external issues people have to deal with, in particular, people not fitting a given norm. ...
Equity, equality, diversity, inclusion, belonging, dignity, justice, accessibility, accountability, and decolonization are individual concepts used to engage with problematic social situations of marginalized groups. Phrases that put together these concepts in different ways, such as “equity, diversity and inclusion”, “equality, diversity, and inclusion”, “diversity, equity and inclusion”, “equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility”, “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion”, and “equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization” are increasingly used, indicating that any one of these concepts is not enough to guide policy decisions. These phrases are also used to engage with problems in the workplace. Universities are one workplace where these phrases are used to improve the research, education, and general workplace climate of marginalized students, non-academic staff, and academic staff. EDI policy frameworks such as Athena SWAN and DIMENSIONS: equity, diversity, and inclusion have been also set up with the same purpose. What EDI data are generated within the academic literature focusing on EDI in the workplace, including the higher education workplace, influence the implementation and direction of EDI policies and practices within the workplace and outside. The aim of this scoping review of academic abstracts employing SCOPUS, the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST and Web of Sciences, was to generate data that allow for a detailed understanding of the academic inquiry into EDI. The objective of this study was to map out the engagement with EDI in the academic literature by answering seven research questions using quantitative hit count manifest coding: (1) Which EDI policy frameworks and phrases are mentioned? (2) Which workplaces are mentioned? (3) Which academic associations, societies, and journals and which universities, colleges, departments, and academic disciplines are mentioned? (4) Which medical disciplines and health professionals are mentioned? (5) Which terms, phrases, and measures of the “social” are present? (6) Which technologies, science, and technology governance terms and ethics fields are present? (7) Which EDI-linked groups are mentioned and which “ism” terms? Using a qualitative thematic analysis, we aimed to answer the following research question: (8) What are the EDI-related themes present in relation to (a) the COVID-19/pandemic, (b) technologies, (c) work/life, (d) intersectionality, (e) empowerment of whom, (f) “best practices”, (g) evaluation and assessment of EDI programs, (h) well-being, and (i) health equity. We found many gaps in the academic coverage, suggesting many opportunities for academic inquiries and a broadening of the EDI research community.
... Moreover, telecommuting can be also beneficial to society by creating a barrier-free workplace for persons with disabilities, chronic pain, or fatigue conditions (Moon et al. 2014;Mello 2007). However, a study by Linden and Milchus (2014) reported that a high percentage of persons with disabilities who engage in telecommuting are dissatisfied with this kind of work mode, indicating that it presents other employment-related barriers. ...
... However, a study by Linden and Milchus (2014) reported that a high percentage of persons with disabilities who engage in telecommuting are dissatisfied with this kind of work mode, indicating that it presents other employment-related barriers. However, more research on this topic is needed in order to better inform policy maker on this issue (Moon et al. 2014). ...
The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic puts an extreme strain on health care professionals, who are at a high risk of psychological distress and other mental health problems. Contributing factors include facing uncertainty, the often unbearable workload, shortages in personal protective equipment and treatments, an overwhelming flow of information, and changes in habitual roles and tasks. Existing studies show that in similar situations, they also experience stigmatization, as well as fear of infection for themselves and their families. This article summarizes the existing research on the mental health issues in health care professionals in this context, including risk factors, and interventions that can be implemented to promote mental well-being in front line professionals.
... Moreover, telecommuting can be also beneficial to society by creating a barrier-free workplace for persons with disabilities, chronic pain, or fatigue conditions (Moon et al. 2014;Mello 2007). However, a study by Linden and Milchus (2014) reported that a high percentage of persons with disabilities who engage in telecommuting are dissatisfied with this kind of work mode, indicating that it presents other employment-related barriers. ...
... However, a study by Linden and Milchus (2014) reported that a high percentage of persons with disabilities who engage in telecommuting are dissatisfied with this kind of work mode, indicating that it presents other employment-related barriers. However, more research on this topic is needed in order to better inform policy maker on this issue (Moon et al. 2014). ...
According to WHO, violence against women tend to increase during any type of emergency, such as the COVID19 outbreak, impacting not just women but also children and their families health . Although data on family violence during crisis is scarce, existing reports from China, UK and USA already suggest an increase of intimate partner violence. As social distancing measures are taken and people forced or encourage to stay at home, we could expect that the increase of tension at many homes will unfortunately end up in new cases of family violence or exacerbations of existing ones. Such context of an overloaded health system facing the crisis may imply in extra challenges for victims to seek help. This article aims to summarize the existing evidence regarding family violence during crisis and the resources available that can help to mitigate the impact of violence.
... Some researchers question whether telework as an accommodation for workers with disabilities runs counter to the objectives of mainstream inclusion and accessibility as set out in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar legislation [49,50]. It is argued that telework arrangements may result in increased social exclusion and diminished social capital for workers with disabilities if not actively addressed [51]. ...
... It is argued that telework arrangements may result in increased social exclusion and diminished social capital for workers with disabilities if not actively addressed [51]. Telework accommodations for workers with disabilities often remove physical barriers for participation in the labor market, while the negative side may include isolation and limited opportunities for advancement [49]. ...
Purpose Flexible work arrangements are growing in order to develop resource-efficient production and because of advanced technologies, new societal values, changing demographics, and globalization. The article aims to illustrate the emerging challenges and opportunities for work disability prevention efforts among workers in alternate work arrangements. Methods The authors participated in a year-long collaboration that ultimately led to an invited 3-day conference, “Improving Research of Employer Practices to Prevent Disability,” held October 14–16, 2015, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. The collaboration included a topical review of the literature, group conference calls to identify key areas and challenges, drafting of initial documents, review of industry publications, and a conference presentation that included feedback from peer researchers and a roundtable discussion with experts having direct employer experience. Results Both worker and employer perspectives were considered, and four common alternate work arrangements were identified: (a) temporary and contingent employment; (b) small workplaces; (c) virtual work/telework; and (d) lone workers. There was sparse available research of return-to-work (RTW) and workplace disability management strategies with regard to alternate work patterns. Limited research findings and a review of the grey literature suggested that regulations and guidelines concerning disabled workers are often ambiguous, leading to unsatisfactory protection. At the workplace level, there was a lack of research evidence on how flexible work arrangements could be handled or leveraged to support RTW and prevent disability. Potential negative consequences of this lack of organizational guidance and information are higher costs for employers and insurers and feelings of job insecurity, lack of social support and integration, or work intensification for disabled workers. Conclusions Future studies of RTW and workplace disability prevention strategies should be designed to reflect the multiple work patterns that currently exist across many working populations, and in particular, flexible work arrangements should be explored in more detail as a possible mechanism for preventing disability. Labor laws and policies need to be developed to fit flexible work arrangements.
... Despite its emerging from a crisis, telework is a work-delivery modality that appears to endure over time [3]. Previously considered an exceptional accommodation for certain individuals, such as workers with physical disabilities [4], it now has wide recognition and acceptance, allowing those who benefit from it to be less marginalized. Thus, telework represents an option that can be advantageous for certain populations of workers with needs that differ from those of the majority. ...
BACKGROUND
Telework is increasingly prevalent and holds the potential to serve as an accommodation, facilitating inclusion and promoting healthy participation among various segments of the workforce, such as aging employees, individuals with chronic illnesses or those living alone with one or more dependents. Nevertheless, this promising avenue presents management challenges that remain underexplored in the literature.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to identify the challenges in telework management related to accommodations, inclusion and the health of workers with life situations entailing specific needs.
METHODS
We conducted a descriptive interpretative study grounded in Social Exchange Theory, by collecting data through interviews with 9 managers and conducting focus groups involving 16 workers. We used a thematic-analysis approach to analyze the data.
RESULTS
We identified seven overarching themes encapsulating management challenges that relate to accommodation (e.g., maintaining a balance between the benefits for the worker and the impacts on the organization) inclusion (e.g., maintaining team cohesion) and health (e.g., managing teleworkers’ emotions).
CONCLUSIONS
The findings underscore the significance of fostering robust social exchanges across hierarchical levels, and they highlight the necessity of equipping managers with the requisite tools to navigate the ethical quandaries arising from accommodation requests.
... Home care medical needs, disability related sensitivities to light, scents, noise, crowded spaces, commuting barriers, fatigue, chronic pain, and much more can all be accommodated through telework options. However, while the efficacy of these types of workplace accommodations are substantial, they have largely been denied as unreasonable or counter to organizational culture (Kaplan et al. 2006;Moon et al. 2014) despite a 1999 ruling in the US that telework may be a form of reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (EEOC 2002). ...
This paper navigates the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on the disability community. In particular, how shifting resources within workplaces and educational institutions change the expectations imposed on disabled employees and students.
... Opportunities with regards to telework may also arise for people with work disabilities. In fact, telework for people with disabilities has been promoted since the 1990s [35]. Yet, working from home may require adjusted workplace accommodations and specific guidance from the workplace. ...
Background
The consequences of restrictive measures during the COVID-19 outbreak have potentially been enormous, especially for those in a vulnerable position in the labour market. This study aims to describe the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on work status, working conditions and health among people with (partial) work disabilities—with and in search of work—during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.
Methods
A mixed methods design was used, combining a cross-sectional online survey and ten semi-structured interviews with people with a (partial) work disability. The quantitative data included responses to job-related questions, self-reported health, and demographics. The qualitative data consisted of participants’ perceptions about work, vocational rehabilitation, and health. We used descriptive statistics to summarize the responses, conducted logistic and linear regression and integrated our qualitative findings with the quantitative findings, aiming at complementarity.
Results
Five hundred and eighty-four participants (response rate 30.2%) completed the online survey. The majority of participants experienced no change in work status: 39 percent remained employed, 45 percent remained unemployed, six percent of respondents lost their job, and ten percent became employed during the COVID-19 crisis. In general, the results showed a deterioration in self-rated health during the COVID-19 outbreak, both for participants at work and in search of work. Participants who lost their job during the COVID-19 crisis reported the highest deterioration in self-rated health. Interview findings revealed that loneliness and social isolation were persistent during the COVID-19 crisis, especially among those in search of work. Additionally, employed participants identified a safe work environment and the possibility to work at the office as important factors for overall health.
Conclusions
The vast majority of study participants (84.2%) experienced no change in work status during the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, people at work and in search of work encountered barriers to maintaining or (re)gaining employment. People with a (partial) work disability who lost their job during the crisis appeared to be most affected in terms of health. Employment and health protections could be strengthened for persons with (partial) work disabilities in order to build resilience in times of crisis.
... Other authors report the added value of telework in promoting inclusion and health for all worker populations [26,27], especially such marginalized populations as aging workers. While telework had been an exceptional accommodation for some workers (eg, workers with physical disabilities) from the 1990s until the late 2010s [28,29], workplace stakeholders more widely accept and recognize it now, resulting in less marginalization of workers who benefit from it. ...
Background:
Aging workers constitute a growing population in many countries and form an indispensable and qualified resource, especially in the context of the labor shortage. Despite work's many benefits for individuals, organizations, and societies, it also presents several risks and challenges that may lead to occupational injuries. Thus, rehabilitation professionals and managers working with this emerging and unique clientele during their return to work after an absence often lack the tools and skills to support them, especially in the changing world of work that includes the rise of telework. Indeed, as an increasingly present work arrangement, telework has the potential to be used as an accommodation modality that can facilitate inclusion and healthy participation in the workplace. However, the implications of this topic for aging workers require study.
Objective:
This paper presents the protocol of a study that aims to develop a reflective telework application guide to support the accommodation, inclusion, and health of aging workers after an absence from work. Specifically, this study will (1) explore the experience of aging workers, managers, and rehabilitation professionals regarding telework and its impact on accommodation, inclusion, and health; (2) use a validated logic model to design a reflective application guide; and (3) test and evaluate the guide.
Methods:
Following a 3-phase developmental research design, individual interviews with aging teleworkers, managers, and rehabilitation professionals will enable the collection of qualitative data to be used in generating a logic model of levers and good practices, leading to the creation of a reflective application guide. Validation of this guide by workers and managers to measure its acceptability and applicability in daily life will precede its implementation.
Results:
Data collection began in spring 2023 and initial results are expected in fall 2023. This study aims to generate a concrete tool-namely, the reflective telework application guide-that rehabilitation professionals could use to support managers and aging workers during their return to work through the healthy use of telework. All phases of the study include conducting dissemination activities to share the results of the project and increase its sustainability potential (ie, publication through social networks, podcasts, conferences, and scientific publications).
Conclusions:
As the first of its kind, this project aims to produce innovative impacts at several levels, including practical, scientific, and societal impacts. In addition, the results will provide healthy solutions to the labor shortage in a changing world of work, where digital and teleworking are becoming increasingly important.
International registered report identifier (irrid):
DERR1-10.2196/46114.
... Working from home was the least frequently endorsed item on the JLS, as data from this study were collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and many of the workers in this sample were performing essential functions that would not have allowed working from home. For workers with disabilities, telework has been a recognized accommodation strategy [42], but with the large number of those presently working from home or with hybrid working arrangements, telework may also represent a major form of job leeway for many workers for the first time. If home working arrangements continue to be a source of flexibility for many workers, a potential improvement to the JLS would be the addition of more items assessing job leeway in this new context and reality of working from home. ...
Purpose Evidence suggests that workers manage health-related challenges at work, in part, by using available leeway to perform work differently. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Job Leeway Scale (JLS), a new 18-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess worker perceptions of available flexibility and latitude to manage health-related challenges at work. Methods Workers seeking assistance for workplace difficulties due to chronic medical conditions (n = 119, 83% female, median age = 49) completed the JLS along with other workplace and health measures. Construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and concurrent validity was assessed by associations with related measures. Results Mean item scores ranged from 2.13 to 4.16 within a possible range of 0–6. The EFA supported three underlying factors: organizational leeway (9 items), task leeway (6 items), and staffing leeway (3 items). Internal consistency (alpha) ranged from 0.78 to 0.91 for subscale scores and 0.94 for the total score. The JLS showed moderate correlations with other work outcome measures including work fatigue, self-efficacy, engagement, and productivity. Conclusion The JLS is a promising new measure with initial support for its reliability and validity to assess worker beliefs of available flexibility to manage health symptoms at work, and this construct may have organizational implications for worker support and accommodation.
... Following the whole analysis, it highlighted that participants had digital skills to carry out their professional activity. This confirms that teleworking favored people with special needs to be able to work efficiently without having to move elsewhere [74]. Moreover, the participants highlighted the importance of separating the workplace from the remaining home spaces, although some participants had to share them, above all to favor family conciliation. ...
One of the highest risk groups the highest during COVID-19 were chronic patients. In addition to being a population at risk, in the lockdown they had to combine the pandemic with their own disease. Through a qualitative study of visual-emotional analysis, the perception of patients and their social environment (immediate support network) about the domestic confinement in Spain was requested during the State of Alarm in the Spring of 2020. For this, 33 participants filled out an online questionnaire with narratives and images describing their experiences. They were asked to share their experiences about quarantine from several perspectives of the housing spaces: the workplace (or alternatively, if they did not work, the most used occupational space), the least pleasant spaces or aspects of the dwelling and the most pleasant or comfortable area. The results suggested the importance for participants of natural and adequate lighting in spaces and tidiness, with both being linked to well-valued spaces. Moreover, rest was the activity most undertaken, for those who did not telework. Likewise, the narratives provided by participants were mostly positive, despite their condition, maybe due to their own coping with the disease. Dwellings were the adaptive means to tackle the situation of physical isolation as a place of protection against an external threat. The living room and bedrooms were chosen as the most prominent places. The characteristics of the dwellings conditioned the experiences lived during the quarantine of chronic patients.
... The benefits of working from home have previously highlighted that remote work can be used as a strategy to reduce pain and fatigue [30,31]. Our results suggest it would be novel and pertinent to now compare symptoms of fatigue across work sectors and style of work (i.e., home-based versus in-person) when describing associations between symptom outcomes, work, and work-productivity. ...
Background:
In 2019 and 2020, over 17 million hectares of Australia burned, and half of the Australian population was affected by toxic bushfire smoke. Then in 2020, restrictions designed to curtail the spread of COVID-19 resulted in significant changes to healthcare access. There is no Australian emergency management standard for persons with disabilities, including those with multiple sclerosis (MS). Persons with MS often require multidisciplinary and complex care, with continuity of treatment essential to prevent disease progression.
Objective:
To identify limitations in access to healthcare from the perspective of persons with MS as well as MS care providers during recent crises and make recommendations for policy to improve MS healthcare access during a crisis.
Method:
In mid-2020, we undertook online surveys and interviews with persons with MS, their carers, healthcare professionals and staff of MS service providers (i.e., care providers). We used descriptive analysis for quantitative, and a general inductive approach for qualitative data.
Results:
One-hundred and thirteen persons with MS and a total of 63 MS care providers, who were close carers, healthcare professionals and service providers provided survey responses. For participants with MS, limited access to general practitioners and medical tests were of the most significant concern during the bushfires and the pandemic. In contrast, during the pandemic accessing physiotherapy was another top concern. Twenty-nine people participated in in-depth interviews, revealing that reduced healthcare access during the bushfire and the pandemic caused concern. The use of telehealth received both positive and negative reviews. All participants indicated a need for preparation and planning for healthcare access before a crisis. Persons with MS recommended centralised information sources, prioritised access to healthcare and increased levels of MS nurses and other allied healthcare. Care providers recommended centralised information sources, more nursing and mental health care access, and increased opportunities for multidisciplinary telehealth delivery.
Conclusions:
We recommend the involvement of the MS community in creating and designing disaster preparation plans, which should cater to a range of disaster types, to improve disaster preparedness in a community that is vulnerable to increasingly common community crises.
... This attitude has led to the development of remote working arrangements designed to discourage workers from requesting them, apart from the few driven by compelling needs. This approach often has implications for employees with disabilities, as companies try to avoid making adjustments in the workplace (Moon et al., 2014). Under such conditions, the choice of teleworking is the consequence of the lack of other options and exposes people to the risk of isolation, loneliness and social exclusion, with negative effects on workers (Houseman and Polivka, 2000). ...
Smart working is a new approach to work organization, based on flexibility and autonomy in the choice of work spaces, times and tools in a context of greater responsibility of workers for results.
The chapter aims to provide some reflections on how changes in work organization can have cascading effects on the organization of cities, influencing people's quality of life and more generally the quality of the environment. In addition to illustrating some of the main features of the new work organization models functional to company and worker purposes, the paper shows the impact of smart working on mobility, the urban environment, territorial development, livability and socio-relational aspects.
This paper is based on the evidence and body of work available at the end of 2020.
... A study surveyed 373 working persons with impairments and found that the main benefits of flexible employment schemes, such as teleworking, are removing pain-and fatiguerelated impediments of regular employment [51]. Similar to our study, Moon et al. [52] found that employees generally view telework as a way to achieve outstanding worklife balance and as a strategy for reducing pain and fatigue not formally recognised as disability-related. This finding is relevant to our research because, in addition to hearing impairments and injuries, we investigate workers with health problems such as muscular pains in the limbs, neck, and shoulders, headaches, eyestrain and anxiety. ...
Over the past 30 years, the workplace has witnessed significant changes. The fast growth in the use of information and communication technologies and changes in working hours and agreements radically changed the nature of the job. One such change is flexible employment schemes, which can provide alternatives for employees with disabilities and health problems, giving incentives to increase their productivity and job satisfaction. This study examines the relationship between those schemes and labour outcomes, such as job satisfaction, job quality and absenteeism in this group of people. Furthermore, the objective is to explore the role of flexible employment for carers of people with impairments. The empirical analysis relies on the European Working Conditions Survey from 2000 to 2015. The findings show that employees with disabilities and health problems working under flexible employment schemes are more likely to report higher levels of job satisfaction and lower absenteeism rates than their counterparts working under fixed employment schemes. Moreover, carers’ job satisfaction and organisational loyalty are significantly improved when flexible employment schemes are in place. The policy implications suggest efficient implementation at the state and corporate levels of flexible employment systems that can promote job satisfaction, reduce turnover intentions and, thus, increase productivity.
... Opportunities with regards to telework may also arise for people with work disabilities. In fact, telework for people with disabilities has been promoted since the 1990s [35]. Yet, working from home may require adjusted workplace accommodations and speci c guidance from the workplace. ...
Background: The consequences of restrictive measures during the COVID-19 outbreak have potentially been enormous, especially for those in a vulnerable position in the labour market. This study aims to describe the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on work status, working conditions, and health among people with (partial) work disabilities—with and in search of work—during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.
Methods: A mixed methods design was used, combining a cross-sectional online survey and ten semi-structured interviews with people with a (partial) work disability. The quantitative data included responses to job-related questions, self-reported health, and demographics. The qualitative data consisted of participants’ perceptions about work, vocational rehabilitation, and health. We used descriptive statistics to summarize the responses, conducted logistic and linear regression and integrated our qualitative findings with the quantitative findings, aiming at complementarity.
Results: Five hundred and eighty-four participants (response rate 30.2%) completed the online survey. The majority of participants experienced no change in work status: 39 percent remained employed, 45 percent remained unemployed, six percent of respondents lost their job, and ten percent became employed during the COVID-19 crisis. In general, the results showed a deterioration in self-rated health during the COVID-19 outbreak, both for participants at work and in search of work. Participants who lost their job during the COVID-19 crisis reported the highest deterioration in self-rated health. Interview findings revealed that loneliness and social isolation were persistent during the COVID-19 crisis, especially among those in search of work. Additionally, employed participants identified a safe work environment and the possibility to work at the office as important factors for overall health.
Conclusions: The vast majority of study participants (84.2%) experienced no change in work status during the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, people at work and in search of work encountered barriers to maintaining or (re)gaining employment. People with a (partial) work disability who lost their job during the crisis appeared to be most affected in terms of health. Employment and health protections could be strengthened for persons with WD to better prepare them for the next crisis.
... Telework allows individuals to work remotely or at a centralized office using information and communication technologies and can promote the retention of employees, increase productivity, and minimize employer costs and fees (Moon et al., 2014). Telework was recommended as a disability accommodation long before the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, but it was not until the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that telework options were widely implemented (Schur et al., 2020). ...
Trainees with disabilities are chronically underrepresented in psychology and face many barriers throughout their training. Directors of Clinical Training and supervisors within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), one of the largest employers of trainees with disabilities, have a unique opportunity to address this area of critical need. However, they must first understand the barriers facing psychology trainees with disabilities in VHA settings, including discrimination in trainee selection, barriers to obtaining reasonable accommodations, and attitudinal and cultural barriers. In this article, we illustrate how those barriers may present in VHA settings specifically and provide suggestions and frameworks for how the VHA can create accessible, disability-affirmative training environments in which trainees can truly thrive.
... However, there is a dearth of literature investigating the utility of telework as an accommodation practice for these workers. In general, employees recognize telework as a means to alleviate work interference with family and also manage pain or fatigue not associated with disability [110]. Meanwhile, some workers are utilizing telework as an accommodation practice through their employer [111]. ...
Telework (also referred to as telecommuting or remote work), is defined as working outside of the conventional office setting, such as within one’s home or in a remote office location, often using a form of information communication technology to communicate with others (supervisors, coworkers, subordinates, customers, etc.) and to perform work tasks. Remote work increased over the last decade and tremendously in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this article is to review and critically evaluate the existing research about telework and worker health and well-being. In addition, we review and evaluate how engaging in this flexible form of work impacts worker health and well-being. Specifically, we performed a literature search on the empirical literature related to teleworking and worker health and well-being, and reviewed articles published after the year 2000 based on the extent to which they had been discussed in prior reviews. Next, we developed a conceptual framework based on our review of the empirical literature. Our model explains the process by which telework may affect worker health and well-being in reference to individual, work/life/family, organizational, and macro level factors. These components are explained in depth, followed by methodological and fundamental recommendations intended to guide future research, policies, and practices to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms associated with telework, and offer recommendations for future research.
... The benefits of working from home have previously highlighted that remote work can be used as a strategy to reduce pain and fatigue [30,31]. Our results suggest it would be novel and pertinent to now compare symptoms of fatigue across work sectors and style of work (i.e., home-based versus in-person) when describing associations between symptom outcomes, work, and work-productivity. ...
Purpose:
The Australian multiple sclerosis (MS) community experienced two recent major crises, widespread bushfires and the COVID 19 pandemic. We aimed to understand the needs of persons with MS during times of crisis.
Materials and methods:
A consumer-directed mixed-method study. We included an online survey, semi-structured interviews, and a workshop with persons with MS, carers, healthcare professionals, and disability advocates. Data were collected via: (1) 176 people completing online surveys to identify crisis concerns and communications, (2) 29 people completing online interviews on bushfire and pandemic impact, and (3) 13 people participating in a crises-priorities workshop. Descriptive data were calculated for survey response, and a general inductive analytical approach was taken with interview and workshop responses.
Results:
The most significant concerns were bushfire smoke exposure and disease-modifying-medication and susceptibility to COVID-19 (66% and 63% mean concern score, respectively). Interviews indicated crises experiences from the bushfires, and the pandemic overlapped respective of changes in mood and symptom stability. For bushfires, a need for future preparations, and for the pandemic, the benefits of social restrictions, disclosing personal health information and increased care burden were important.
Conclusions:
Multiple crises challenged the MS community but offered lessons for healthcare in future crises. Continued progress in centralised crisis information, with considered use of telehealth and rural healthcare support, is needed.Implications for rehabilitationThe MS community showed high concerns for the effect of toxic smoke from the 2019/2020 Australian bushfires and, separately, for the disease-modifying-medication and susceptibility to COVID-19.The MS community placed priority on a crisis management plan for individuals.Reduced social activity due to restrictions was beneficial for MS symptom self-awareness and may help overall fatigue management.Healthcare system preparation must prepare to alleviate increased carer workload at times of crisis.
... One area of PT that we did not discuss in this paper is the rising popularity of telemedicine or virtual PT, where the physical therapist and the individual receiving care meet on video call for diagnosis and to receive care [16,59]. Similar to reflections on virtual workplaces [34,41,44], a new, virtual setting for PT can improve some accessibility issues while introducing new challenges. Telemedicine can alleviate some aspects of the physical inaccessibility of in-person PT, such as removing the need to find transportation and the risks of exposure for people with weakened immune systems. ...
Many individuals with disabilities and/or chronic conditions (da/cc) experience symptoms that may require intermittent or ongoing medical care. However, healthcare is an often-overlooked domain for accessibility work, where access needs associated with temporary and long-term disability must be addressed to increase the utility of physical and digital interactions with healthcare workers and spaces. Our work focuses on a specific domain of healthcare often used by individuals with da/ccs: Physical Therapy (PT). Through a twelve-person interview study, we examined how people's access to PT for their da/cc is hampered by social (e.g., physically visiting a PT clinic) and physiological (e.g., chronic pain) barriers, and how technology could improve PT access. In-person PT is often inaccessible to our participants due to lack of transportation and insufficient insurance coverage. As such, many of our participants relied on at-home PT to manage their da/cc symptoms and worked towards PT goals. Participants felt that PT barriers, such as having particularly bad symptoms or feeling short on time, could be addressed with well-designed technology that flexibly adapts to the person's dynamically changing needs while supporting their PT goals. We introduce core design principles (flexibility, movement tracking, community building) and tensions (insurance) to consider when developing technology to support PT access. Rethinking da/cc access to PT from a lens that includes social and physiological barriers presents opportunities to integrate accessibility and flexibility into PT technology.
... The flexibility of working from a comfortable place has been already found to offer salient advantages for people with disabilities (Moon et al., 2014). Despite these positive prospects, accessibility issues in existing remote collaboration tools and ableist organizational norms have been also highlighted . ...
Purpose
The rich qualitative study builds on 11 semi-structured interviews with nine neurodivergent employees and two business professionals supportive of neurodiversity to understand the lived experiences of dealing with crisis in a remote working environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of the reported research is to understand how neurominorities experience remote working in the times of crisis and what the implications of this are for human resource (HR) professionals.
Findings
Moving to remote work resulted in a lack of routine, distractions and working long hours, which can all be difficult for line managers to monitor. Further problems with communication in a virtual environment and lack of understanding by others were found to be particularly burdensome to neurodivergent individuals. On the positive note, remote working in the times of crisis allowed for avoiding sensory overwhelm and was seen as an important step in creating a healthy work–life balance (WLB).
Practical implications
The findings of this study point HR practitioners' attention towards building a more neurodiversity friendly post-pandemic workplace and prompt employers to offer working arrangements, which better suit employees' domestic and personal circumstances.
Originality/value
This study addresses the lack of research on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on neurominorities. In doing so, it answers recent calls to move away from universal HR as a route to positive employee outcomes and facilitates a more accurate reflection of organizational reality for disadvantaged members of society.
... A European study finds that telework is linked to higher job satisfaction and lower absenteeism among workers with disabilities [34]. In addition to viewing telework as a form of disability accommodation, Moon et al. [35] find that employees in general see telework as a way to achieve greater work-life balance and as a strategy for reducing pain and fatigue not formally recognized as disability-related. In turn, employers view telework not only as a disability-related accommodation, but also as a way to achieve broader job restructuring goals [36,37]. ...
Purpose The COVID pandemic was a severe blow to all workers, but it may ultimately have a silver lining for some workers with disabilities if it makes work from home easier and more acceptable. In addition, the pandemic is shaking up traditional workplace structures and causing employers to rethink how essential tasks can be done, which may broaden their views of workplace accommodations. We assess the potential for the pandemic to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Methods This article analyzes pre-COVID data on disability and home-based work from three representative data sources—the American Community Survey, American Time Use Survey, and Current Population Survey. We employ both cross-tabulations and regressions to predict work at home. Results We find that workers with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities both to work primarily from home and to do any work at home. This is true for both employees and self-employed workers. Workers with disabilities face similar wage gaps in on-site and home-based work, indicating that while increased availability of home-based work may create more employment opportunities for workers with disabilities, it is unlikely to erase wage disparities. While workers with disabilities are currently more likely to be working primarily from home, only 34% are in occupations with high potential for home-based work, compared to 40% of workers without disabilities. Conclusions Workers with disabilities are currently more likely to work from home and many may benefit from expanded work-at-home opportunities, but the types of jobs they hold constrain this potential. Research is needed to see how home-based work evolves as the economy recovers from the pandemic over the next several years.
... Data indicate older workers are twice likely to have these conditions, which can interfere with physical mobility, than younger workers (Griffiths, 2000). Moon, Linden, Bricout, and Baker (2013) found that blended work could extend working life in disabled older workers by reducing pain and enhancing reliablity since work-related travel would be lessened. ...
Because of population aging, the consensus among policy makers is that employment in older workers must increase. However, methods for attaining this are uncertain. Blended work, which consists of working anywhere and anytime with information and communication technology, may help achieve this goal. The article focuses on 4 topics related to older workers and blended work: the benefits, risks, individual- and organizational-level barriers, and organizational and government interventions and policies designed to remove these risks and barriers. Legislation to protect against age discrimination and disability associated with age is also reviewed. The objectives are to discuss the literature on blended work and the older worker and highlight some consequences the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and American with Disabilities Act may have on blended work. Delaying retirement through blended work could promote older workers’ health and well-being, but risks and barriers at individual- and organizational-levels are not inconsequential. At the individual level, these include social isolation, and managements’ loss of control over employees at the organizational level. Potential interventions include developing blended work as an employee benefit to replace long distance travel. Federal policies include providing subsidies to state and local governments to reduce costs of upgrading broadband fiber-optic cables. Specific subgroups of workers are more likely to benefit from blended work. Older white collar professionals with good technological and computer skills and who can work independently are one subgroup that might fit a blended worker personality.
Remote work has been suggested as a potential reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities (EWD). However, organizations may hesitate to offer such an accommodation without more data on the outcomes of such a decision. Using our unique position as a global management consulting firm to look at aggregated data across a number of organizations and demographics, we explore remote work and whether it offers unique advantages to EWD. Findings suggest that EWD do experience greater psychological benefits of remote work than peers. We also find common "costs" of remote work may be fading.
Discretionary rewards can motivate employees but increase social inequity. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, when supervisors had substantial discretion over whether and how frequently U.S. federal employees teleworked, those who did so several times a week liked most aspects of their jobs more than those who teleworked less, especially those who were denied telework. Though telework became a necessity rather than a reward during the pandemic, supervisor discretion is increasing during the return-to-the-office period, making unequal access to telework a potential site of social inequity. Using logit analysis on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) before and during the pandemic, we examine how race, sex, disability status, and sexual orientation affected who was denied telework and how job characteristics affected those decisions. Black, Latino, and younger employees and employees with disabilities were more likely to have telework requests turned down; differences by gender and sexual orientation barely existed.
Objectives
The aim of the study is to describe the most common medical grounds for requesting or extending teleworking and to examine which requests are typically approved. This study also investigates whether there is a correlation with gender, age, or job location.
Methods
A prevalence study of 33,190 Spanish employees found that last year, 106 teleworking requests were addressed exclusively for medical reasons.
Results
The most frequent cause was musculoskeletal issues (30%). Of all the requests, 58% were denied, 33% were temporarily approved, primarily for musculoskeletal reasons (p < 0.05), and 8% were indefinitely approved. Requests were predominantly made by women (p < 0.05). Indefinite approvals were more prevalent among male employees (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
Musculoskeletal reasons were the primary cause for teleworking applications and for the temporary granting of teleworking. Teleworking appears to be associated with gender and job location.
Purpose
This article aims to find the important factors responsible for developing people with disabilities (PwD) to be successful teleworkers, subsequently identify the interrelationship between the factors, and finally, prioritize the factors.
Design/methodology/approach
This study has adopted preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology for systematic literature review. Then nominal group technique (NGT) was used to find out the crucial factors and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to obtain the cause-and-effect relation of variables.
Findings
Trust (TR), Top Management Support (TMS), Organizational Commitment (OC), Training and Education (TE), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Job Satisfaction (JS), Flexibility and Autonomy (FA) and Job Productivity (JP) found to be the crucial factors responsible for making PwD successful teleworkers.
Practical implications
This study will benefit both organizations and PwD teleworkers if the factors mentioned in this study are focused. Policymakers in organizations can use this study to focus on prioritized factors to reap the benefit of teleworking by developing PwD.
Originality/value
This study is unique because of its innovative methodology, in-depth interviews with experts, emphasis on inclusivity and use of DEMATEL analysis. Taken as a whole, these elements add significant value to our understanding of teleworking for individuals with disabilities, which is not done in earlier disability inclusion studies.
Scholars have investigated numerous barriers to accessible software development tools and processes for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) developers. However, the research community has yet to study the accessibility of software development meetings, which are known to play a crucial role in software development practice. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 BLV software professionals about software development meeting accessibility. We found four key themes related to in-person and remote software development meetings: (1) participants observed that certain meeting activities and software tools used in meetings were inaccessible, (2) participants performed additional labor in order to make meetings accessible, (3) participants avoided disclosing their disability during meetings due to fear of career repercussions, (4) participants suggested technical, social and organizational solutions for accessible meetings, including developing their own solutions. We suggest recommendations and design implications for future accessible software development meetings including technical and policy-driven solutions.
Emerging social media platforms and online marketplaces introduce new ways for individuals to sell and distribute handmade or custom items. This new landscape of online tools has the potential to provide work opportunities for people who are excluded from traditional workplaces due to inaccessible environments and work expectations. The present study involves an analysis of the work practices of 44 disabled creators who sell and promote their goods via online marketplaces. Through an analysis of publicly available content on Etsy and social media platforms, complemented with semi-structured interviews with a subset of creators, we report on the ways disabled sellers create, share and provide support through their practices. Our analysis reveals that creators move their work to an online space seeking more accessible ways to earn income, yet find themselves navigating access barriers that are enacted through platform norms, reward structures and algorithms. We discuss how online marketplaces present unique opportunities and challenges to participation for people with disabilities.
Many individuals with disabilities and/or chronic conditions (da/cc) experience symptoms that may require intermittent or on-going medical care. However, healthcare is an often-overlooked domain for accessibility work, where access needs associated with temporary and long-term disability must be addressed to increase the utility of physical and digital interactions with healthcare workers and spaces. Our work focuses on a specific domain of healthcare often used by individuals with da/cc: physical therapy (PT). Through a twelve-person interview study, we examined how people’s access to PT for their da/cc is hampered by social (e.g., physically visiting a PT clinic) and physiological (e.g., chronic pain) barriers, and how technology could improve PT access. In-person PT is often inaccessible to our participants due to lack of transportation and insufficient insurance coverage. As such, many of our participants relied on at-home PT to manage their da/cc symptoms and work towards PT goals. Participants felt that PT barriers, such as having particularly bad symptoms or feeling short on time, could be addressed with well-designed technology that flexibly adapts to the person’s dynamically changing needs while supporting their PT goals. We introduce core design principles (adaptability, movement tracking, community building) and tensions (insurance) to consider when developing technology to support PT access. Rethinking da/cc access to PT from a lens that includes social and physiological barriers presents opportunities to integrate accessibility and adaptability into PT technology.
To understand the lived experience of how people with disabilities telework in the United States, 25 people were interviewed. The participants included people who are blind or low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, neurodiverse, have limited mobility/dexterity, and have chronic health issues. The interviews focused on how they used video calling, screen sharing, and collaborative editing technologies to accomplish their telework. The interviews found ways in which design choices made in telework technologies interact with people's abilities, especially those who are blind or low vision, since the tools rely heavily on the visual channel to enable remote collaboration. A central theme emerged around how design choices made in telework technologies affect the digital representation of people's online activities in the video call interface: those who turn off their video (because they are blind or do not want to expend the cognitive effort to present themselves over video) are relegated to a static icon on a blank video frame with their name while those who are deaf and speak silently through a sign language interpreter never show up in interfaces that use active speaker detection to choose which video streams to display. Users with disabilities may avoid using screen sharing and collaborative editing tools which "leak" cues that disclose their disabilities. Because the interviews were conducted during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic response, they also provided a preview of how the sudden shift to pervasive teleworking affected their telework experience.
Working from home has become a mainstream work practice in many organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. While remote work has received much scholarly and public attention over the years, we still know little about how people with disabilities engage in remote work from their homes and what access means in this context. To understand and rethink accessibility in remote work, the present paper studies work-from-home practices of neurodivergent professionals who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) and psychosocial disabilities (e.g., anxiety, depression). We report on interviews with 36 US-based neurodivergent professionals who have been working from home during the pandemic. Our findings reveal that while working from home, neurodivergent professionals create accessible physical and digital workspaces, negotiate accessible communication practices, and reconcile tensions between productivity and wellbeing. Our analysis reconsiders what access means in remote work for neurodivergent professionals and offers practical insights for inclusive work practices and accessibility improvements in remote collaboration tools.
Introdução/ enquadramento/ objetivos
A possibilidade de realizar trabalho em casa remonta há vários séculos; contudo, o desenvolvimento tecnológico permitiu a criação de novos postos de trabalho nele alicerçados e eventualmente totalmente executados fora das instalações do empregador. Para além disso, a situação de Pandemia associada ao SARS-COV-2 (vulgo COVID-19) incentivou muitas instituições a iniciar ou intensificar o Teletrabalho. Pretendeu-se com esta revisão resumir o que de mais relevante se descreveu sobre o tema, em contexto de Saúde Laboral.
Metodologia
Trata-se de uma Revisão Bibliográfica, iniciada através de uma pesquisa realizada em abril de 2020, nas bases de dados “CINALH plus with full text, Medline with full text, Data base of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Nursing and Allied Health Collection: comprehensive, MedicLatina e RCAAP”.
Conteúdo
O Teletrabalho consiste em trabalhar em casa ou, pelo menos, fora das instalações convencionais do empregador, mas em local previamente estipulado e aprovado, usando tecnologia.
Nesta revisão foram resumidos dados relativos à evolução histórica do trabalho, realçando as diversas Revoluções Industriais. Foram também incluídas algumas estatísticas nacionais e sobretudo internacionais em contexto de Teletrabalho. De forma sucinta também se descrevem os principais subtipos de Teletrabalho e quais as caraterísticas desejáveis em teletrabalhores e telegerentes. Por fim, realçam-se as principais vantagens e desvantagens deste regime laboral, mencionadas na bibliografia consultada.
Conclusões
De forma generalista, a perceção das vantagens e desvantagens depende das caraterísticas do funcionário (como personalidade, flexibilidade, autonomia, competência, necessidade de socialização, postura e empenho perante o trabalho); caraterísticas do empregador (gestão, maleabilidade, valorização dos recursos humanos, meios e procedimentos); tarefas em si (facilidade ou não de serem teletrabalhadas); caraterísticas da família (número de elementos, idade dos filhos e qualidade relacional); domicílio (tamanho, iluminação, mobiliário, equipamentos, área reservada ou não para o Teletrabalho); trânsito, poluição e segurança urbana; bem como consequências para a relação com a empresa, trabalho e vida pessoal (família e sociedade); ou seja, um mesmo aspeto tanto pode ser considerado uma vantagem, como uma desvantagem, em função do contexto global. Para além disso, na realidade, o Teletrabalho tem tanta diversidade de condições e caraterísticas, que conclusões consensuais não são possíveis.
É necessário que cada instituição analise as vantagens e desvantagens de inserir o Teletrabalho e, caso decida avançar, tenha uma noção de quais são os fatores que podem potenciar e comprometer o sucesso do projeto.
This paper presents a review of the existing literature on the subject of home-based telework from an inclusion and diversity perspective, with a particular focus on workers with disabilities and workers who have family members with disabilities. The review aimed to map research articles that provide insights into the issues of work-life balance, work-life conflict and work-life enhancement. The articles were screened based on publication date, relevance and research contribution. The selected articles after the screening were synthesized, and their main themes organized in five groups: 1) employment; 2) work patterns and accommodations; 3) performance, 4) policy, and 5) work-life balance and enhancement. The article concludes with an overview of the implications of the findings of the survey for future research directions and highlights the need for a greater focus on diversity and inclusion when studying home-based teleworking and issues of work-life balance, work-family conflict and work-life enhancement. Suggestions as to how this can be achieved are presented, for example in considering new research designs that would include more diverse populations of teleworkers among informants or respondents.
If homeworking becomes more common, there are dangers and benefits both for the organizations and the individuals involved.
This paper presents the results of a preliminary study to determine attitudes towards teleworking at a leading IT organization in Singapore. The impact of teleworking on the propensity to leave the organization, events influencing the decision to telework, perceived advantages and disadvantages of teleworking to individuals and organizations, supervisor and work colleague support, and equipment and bill support are examined. Issues and recommendations pertaining to organization, individual and work environment perspectives are discussed.
Purpose
– Telework is an alternative work relationship with demonstrated positive benefits for individuals and society, yet it has not been implemented with enthusiasm by most organizations. This could be due to the lacking, consolidated evidence for management regarding whether or not telework is a good thing for the firm. The purpose of this paper is to integrate multidisciplinary literature that reports effects of telework on organizational outcomes with the aim of providing a clearer answer to the question: is telework effective for organizations?
Design/methodology/approach
– Meta‐analytical methods were used, beginning with an interdisciplinary search for effect sizes in eight databases. Limited to scholarly journals and dissertations, results included 991 articles scanned for inclusion criteria. The independent variable is telework, measured as a dichotomous variable. Dependent variables are outcomes of interest to organizations: productivity, retention, turnover intention, commitment, and performance. In total, 22 studies were double coded and meta‐analyzed using Hunter and Schmidt's approach, followed by five exploratory moderator analyses: level of analysis, level of the employee, response rate, proportion of females, and country of the study. Significant results are discussed.
Findings
– Review and meta analysis of 32 correlations from empirical studies find that there is a small but positive relationship between telework and organizational outcomes. Telework is perceived to increase productivity, secure retention, strengthen organizational commitment, and to improve performance within the organization. In other words, it is indeed beneficial for organizations. All five hypotheses are supported. H1 (productivity), rc=0.23 (k=5, n=620), (95% CI=0.13−0.33). H2 (retention), r=0.10 (k=6, n=1652), (95% CI=0.04−0.16). H3 (commitment), r=0.11 (k=8, n=3144), (95% CI=0.03−0.18); moderator analysis shows sample age is significant (F(1,4)=4.715, p<0.05, R2=0.80). H4 (performance), r=0.16 (k=10, n=2522). H5 (organizational outcomes), r=0.17 (k=19, n=5502), (95% CI=0.1−0.20).
Originality/value
– To the authors' knowledge, this is the first meta‐analysis of telework research at the organizational level, providing a unique contribution to the field in filling the gap between research on effects to the individual and society. Additional contributions resulted from the moderator analyses: first, in finding that the relationship between telework and performance is moderated by whether or not the sample was one individual per firm, or many individuals from one; and second, in finding that the relationship between telework and organizational commitment is moderated by age. Thus, the paper provides unique contributions with both scholarly and practical implications.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to serve as a reminder that all work arrangements, including the present case of distributed work, have their costs and benefits.
Design/methodology/approach – In addition to a literature review, the paper presents concrete recommendations and guidelines for practicing managers about how to avoid pitfalls in distributed work arrangements and how to manage teleworkers.
Findings – The diffusion of telework has been a slower process than anticipated, among other reasons because the most vital businesses are largely concentrated in the biggest growth centres. Growth centres can offer a diverse range of both jobs and amenities that outweigh the quiet and safety of rural areas. Apart from geographical realities and regional policy issues, another factor that has decisively contributed to the slow diffusion of telework is the absence of an established contractual framework and “culture” of teleworking.
Originality/value – Telework has the best prospects of success if from the outset all the people involved know what to expect and are prepared to deal with any problems and fears associated with the new work culture. It is also important that distributed work arrangements are designed in compliance with national labour legislation. To avoid potential risks, a part-time telework arrangement is advisable for most organizations.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of demographic, technology, individual and organizational factors on perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 199 usable questionnaires are collected and analyzed by means of factor analysis and stepwise linear regression analysis.
Findings
The results highlight the crucial role of individual and organizational factors in influencing the perceived productivity of Egyptian teleworkers. In addition to the emergence of job security as a key determinant of perceived teleworking productivity, the role of satisfaction, commitment, work flexibility and management support is also emphasized. Surprisingly, the impact of demographic, attitudes and technological factors are barely observable.
Practical implications
The paper has important implications for managers and practitioners to boost teleworking productivity. Managers must ensure teleworkers' job security, work flexibility, and satisfaction. Also, addressing the efficient use of IT combined with user training should be based on clear understanding of teleworkers' need, knowledge and skills.
Originality/value
The paper is one of the first studies that examine determinants of perceived teleworking productivity. Also, the paper highlights teleworking productivity in an Arab world context, which is barely examined in teleworking research.
Telework has been the subject of study for longer than a quarter century, yet its causes and consequences are poorly understood. A key reason for this shortcoming is that scholars define and use the concept in many different ways. This article presents a taxonomy of telework, distinguishing among three distinct forms: fixed-site telework, mobile telework, and flexiwork. It then offers a series of research questions about the associations among these three types of telework and a variety of other factors. Using data collected in a national telephone survey of more than 1,200 U.S. computer-using workers, the authors empirically demonstrate that the three types of teleworkers are unique along key dimensions regarding their individual characteristics, organizational and technological contexts, and the impacts on their work.
Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers' willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees' motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms' side, managers' reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Millions of employees now use portable electronic tools to do their jobs from a “virtual office” with extensive flexibility in the timing and location of work. However, little scholarly research exists about the effects of this burgeoning work form. This study of IBM employees explored influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance as reported by virtual office teleworkers (n = 157) and an equivalent group of traditional office workers (n= 89). Qualitative analyses revealed the perception of greater productivity, higher morale, increased flexibility and longer work hours due to telework, as well as an equivocal influence on work/life balance and a negative influence on teamwork. Using a quasi-experimental design, quantitative multivariate analyses supported the qualitative findings related to productivity, flexibility and work/life balance. However, multivariate analyses failed to support the qualitative findings for morale, teamwork and work hours. This study highlights the need for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative elements, when studying telework.
The physical and perceptual dimensions of commuting travel impedance were again found to have stressful consequences in a study of 99 employees of two companies. This quasi-experimental replication study, which focuses here on home environment consequences, investigated the effects of physical impedance and subjective impedance on multivariate measures of residential satisfaction and personal affect in the home. Both sets of residential outcome measures were significantly related to the two impedance dimensions. As predicted, gender was a significant moderator of physical impedance effects. Women commuting on high physical impedance routes were most negatively affected. Previously found subjective impedance effects on negative home mood, regardless of gender, were strongly replicated with several methods and were buttressed by convergent results with objective indices. The theoretical conjecture that subjective impedance mediates the stress effects of physical impedance was supported by the personal affect cluster but only for one variable in the residential satisfaction cluster. Traffic congestion has increased in metropolitan areas nationwide, and commuters, families, and organizations are absorbing associated hidden costs. The results are reviewed in terms of our ecological model, and the moderating effects of gender are discussed in terms of choice and role constraints.
Curb cuts are the ramps set into sidewalks to make buildings more accessible to persons in wheelchairs. With forethought they are easy to install, they provide access for persons with physical impairments, and at the same time they may be used by able-bodied persons for pushing strollers, shopping carts, and the like. Just like curb cuts in the physical community, telework in the virtual community may be used to break down barriers of access for persons with disabilities. This paper addresses how and why telework may be used as a work-place accommodation. It takes as a point of illustration a program initiated by the U.S. Department of Defense to extend telecommuting arrangements to its employees with short- and long-term disabilities. Recommendations are given for how to represent the needs of persons with disabilities in the design of telework enabling technologies
A company's sales workforce must be able to present their products and services using state-of-the-art personal computer technology. To communicate effectively with the company's main office, a salesforce working in the field must also be able to collect and transmit order data from remote locations. The authors studied how a company combined salesforce automation with a telecommuting program to create two new business strategies designed to improve organizational performance. The authors not only describe a successful "telework" program, but they also provide a framework for conducting a cost/benefit analysis. They conclude that the start-up cost of the telework program was high because the IT infrastructure was not current, however, the direct costs and savings offset each other within 3 to 4 years. In addition, they report that ongoing costs declined rapidly, depending on the number of new teleworkers joining the organization. The telework program enhanced accountability because the new software applications allowed managers greater oversight of employee activities, Productivity also increased. After learning how to increase the speed and accuracy of internal operations. the salesforce spent more time with customers and generated more sales. By integrating technology into business processes, the telecommuting program also spurred organizational adjustments and cultural change. Gradually, business managers adjusted policies and procedures to conform to the program's technical and business needs. They shifted from managing by attendance to managing by results, which depended on a reliable IT infrastructure and technical tools for communicating with their employees. The telework program quickened the pace of IT adoption at this company by linking IT improvements to the organization's mission and survival. This mobilized the salesforce, the information systems staff, and middle managers to adapt to and accept the new business environment.
Much of the discourse on the digital divide focuses on issues of information disparity and accessibility, frequently in socioeconomic terms. This perspective overlooks an important aspect of the digital divide, the lack of access and missed opportunities faced by persons with disabilities, referred to here as the "disability divide." Barriers to access and knowledgeable use of information and communication technology (ICT) represent more than simple exclusion from information to encompass social segregation and devaluation. At its most insidious, barriers to ICTs limit full community engagement in employment activities. This chapter examines the ramification of the impact of digital divide on the nature of employment and participation in the workplace, using ICT to conduct telework, and explores challenges to social policy with respect to 'reasonable' accommodations. In the absence of practices, structures, and policies targeting the distributive work environment, telework is much less likely to close the digital divide for persons with a disability. This suggests the need to explore and develop potential policy options to close the disability divide.
The author places his faith in work done through telecommunication, thereby avoiding the need to travel to meetings or to waste time reporting findings through lengthy reports. He foresees the development of a whole new cottage industry - working at home.-T.O'Riordan
This article points to regressive effects that may result from uncritical interpretations of technology's role in achieving the employment goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Historical perspectives on reasonable accommodation, the emergence of new technologies, and the construction of public problems offer insights for planners as we consider how an information society could unintentionally subvert social policies that now tilt towards reducing physical barriers for people with disabilities. This article explores the extent of the phenomenon and urges planners to join the conversation about reasonable accommodation in the information age.
Based on boundary theory, this study analysed the cues and rituals home‐based teleworkers use to facilitate transitions between work and home roles. Qualitative findings revealed that teleworkers primarily engage in strategies aimed at segmenting work from home roles, although some utilise cues to integrate work and home. Teleworkers used time, space, technology and communication as cues to aid role transitions and manage the work–home boundary. Overall, teleworkers appeared to grapple with the tension between the desire for flexibility and the need for structure, and use cues and rites of passage in order to facilitate this balance. Female teleworkers were more likely to use segmenting cues relative to male teleworkers. Teleworkers with children living in the home were less likely to integrate work and home roles. Extensive teleworkers used space more frequently than less extensive teleworkers, but otherwise, both groups reported similar use of cues.
This study provides baseline data from a nationwide sample of telecommuting programs in organizations with facility managers. Based on Rogers’ Adoption/Diffusion Theory, the two-phase study revealed a 38% telework adoption rate. The data describe the telecommuting programs, their attributes, and resultant off-site work environments and central office changes. In conclusion, among U.S. organizations that employ facility managers, the rate of adoption of telecommuting is growing steadily, primarily in large, reengineered, and services-oriented firms. The perceived attributes of these programs are (a) their relative advantage as an effective informal method for organizations to attract and retain valued employees and (b) their compatibility with theorganization’s corporateculture. Thus far, thesamplefacility managers’limited involvement in the corporate decision to adopt telecommuting and in evaluating work environment outcomes may constrain their potential effectiveness as telework change agents.
The level of interest in telecommuting has increased dramatically, but it is not clear exactly how much telecommuting is occurring. Part of the problem is confusion over definitions, which this paper attempts to remedy. Then, using a variety of independent sources, the paper estimates the amount of telecommuting that is occurring in California and demonstrates the difficulties faced in interpreting and reconciling available data. Telecommuting penetration (the percent of workers who telecommute) is distinguished from telecommuting levels (based on the number of telecommuting occasions). Finally, the paper explores the role that planners have played in encouraging and sometimes in inhibiting telecommuting and the possible impacts of telecommuting on development patterns, and suggests what planners should be doing to encourage and respond to telecommuting.
With many individuals telecommuting from home, the boundary between home and work is made very thin. As a result, a person's family structure may impact how stressful telecommuting is for the individual. One hundred and nineteen individuals participated in a mailed survey to determine which family structures provide the least stress and highest quality of life for telecommuters. In this study, eight family structures were examined according to gender, presence of other adults, and presence of dependents in the household. Comparisons were also made between telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Organizational support was an important factor affecting stress: higher organizational support resulted in lower reported stress levels. Also, stress had a strong inverse relationship with both quality of work and non-work life. Comparisons between telecommuters and non-telecommuters showed that in most instances similar levels of stress were reported. However further exploration revealed that the sources of the stress were different.
Job satisfaction and productivity were compared for 34 in-house employees and 34 telecommuters performing data-entry and coding. Job satisfaction was measured on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire and a five-item work arrangement subscale. Group productivity was measured by data-entry transactions per hour. No between-group differences were found on over-all job satisfaction and subscale scores; however, seven individual items relating to concerns about work-at-home differentiated the groups. Significantly different between-group ranks of importance on 12 of the 25 questionnaire items were found. Despite important limitations in our experimental design, the results suggest that telecommuting tends to increase satisfaction with specific work arrangements and that telecommuters are likely to be more productive than in-house workers on structured, repetitive tasks.
Purpose
Telecommuting continues to be a topic of interest for practitioners and researchers alike. There are significant numbers of employees currently involved in telecommuting around the globe. Organizational implications, global workforce implications and the scarcity of scholarly publications make this research topic one that warrants our further investigation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the literature to identify the substantive work, examine the state of this phenomenon as of to date, particularly the failure and success factors, provide valuable insight to the practitioners and research directions to researchers
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive literature review was conducted in an effort to identify the significant, substantive work to date. We reviewed two major business data bases and limit our review to refereed journals because of the rigorous review process that these articles go through before publication.
Findings
A schema was identified to help categorize topics found in the literature. A framework model is proposed to further explore the relationships between the motivating factors for telecommuting and the resulting outcomes from telecommuting programs.
Practical implications
The literature review and the model should be useful information for both practitioners and researchers in a variety of disciplines including management, communication, and information technology.
Originality/value
Few published papers have attempted to thoroughly review the telecommuting literature. Many of the articles concentrate solely on the individuals who telework. This review, looks at many facets of the telecommuting phenomenon like the workers, their managers, the organization as well as the technological and environmental issues.
Discusses and attempts to anticipate the changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors which may result from the growing importance of digital information technology. Based on a survey conducted among early adopters of the technology, the “telecommuters”, finds a high incidence of pet ownership among telecommuters, rejection of some forms of computer shopping, and long working hours interlaced with long breaks, etc. Suggests the need to further investigate ways to capitalize on these future trends for the businesses of: banking, finances, travel, video rental, pet supply, grocery and retail trade.
Despite many potential benefits for both the employer and the employee resulting from telework arrangements, this innovation has not been adopted and diffused as expected. This study uses innovation theory as a foundation to study the growth of telework by empirically testing the strength of the relationship between facilitator variables and the adoption and diffusion of telework. Strong relationships were found for both general innovation facilitator variables, such as top management support and a champion, and innovation-specific facilitator variables as suggested by the telework literature. These results suggest that to obtain a more complete model of the relevant factors in the adoption and diffusion of innovations, characteristics of the specific innovation must be considered. Also, these findings have implications for the future growth of telework and can guide those wishing to champion telework in their organization
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between teleworking adoption, workplace flexibility, and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical survey of a representative sample of 479 small- and medium-sized firms. Data gathered through interviews with company managers using a structured questionnaire. A t-test used to analyse the mean differences of flexibility dimensions between companies, and a regression analysis used to study the impact of teleworking and other flexible workplace practices on firm performance. Findings – Firm performance is positively related to the use of teleworking, flexitime, contingent work and spatial decentralisation. Teleworking firms use more flexitime, have more employees involved in job design and planning, are more intensively managed by results, and use more variable compensation. The relationship of teleworking and external workplace flexibility is not so conclusive. Measures of external flexibility like subcontracting or contingent work are not associated with teleworking but spatial decentralisation is positively associated. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of this research is the measurement of flexibility at the firm level and the use of cross-sectional data. To the extent that organisations may obtain functional and numerical flexibility by means of their relations to other organisations in networks, the most appropriate unit of analysis may be the network which it has implications for future longitudinal studies. Practical implications – Flexibility is a source of competitive advantage. Enhancing flexibility may be costly in the short run, but it gets easier over time. Firms become more flexible because their managers emphasise the importance of flexibility and because they practice being flexible. A self-reinforcing process then begins. The relationships between the different forms of flexibility are important to understand the interaction between the dynamic control capacity of management and the responsiveness of the organisation. Originality/value – The article analyses the relationship between teleworking adoption and other flexibility dimensions.
Now that all over the western world the Welfare State is presenting the bill, the social security system as we know it begins to weigh down more and more heavily on our national economies. And this pressure has af-fected our attitude towards it, and even the way we talk about it. Terms like ‘disability’ and ‘unemployment’ are no longer primarily associated with human suffering: they have become matters of facts and figures. The days are long past when the position of the disabled arid the unem-ployed belonged to the domain of the social worker only; his concern is now shared by the economist and the politician, though perhaps not for quite the same reasons.
This article describes telework and its use as an accommodation for employees with disabilities. Potential barriers to using telework as an accommodation are presented, as well as potential funding sources for technology. Two case studies of successful accommodation through telework are presented.
This article describes the growth of telecommuting as an employment
This article presents the findings from research to identify key barriers and opportunities in the provision of workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities in the United States. Using the policy Delphi method, a multiround, iterative polling technique used to assess key stakeholder perceptions, the study probed on five areas: awareness, policy/regulatory, economic, technology, and social. For each of these areas, the Delphi panel was asked to comment on the reliability of forecasts, importance of issues, desirability of goals, and finally, the feasibility of policy options. The Delphi study concluded with a set of 22 policy options to address barriers to the provision of workplace accommodations. Many of these options take a collaborative approach, but they emphasize involvement of federal agencies such as the Office of Disability Employment Policy in the U.S. Department of Labor and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Task Force of the U.S. Department of Justice.
This paper uses data collected in 1999 and 2001 from over 20,000 employees and 6,300 workplaces by Statistics Canada and HRDC as part of their Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) to provide quality estimates of the number of teleworkers in Canada at the turn of the millennium. Characteristics of companies who offer telework arrangements and the employees who use them are also explored. These data will allow Canadian companies to benchmark their use of telework arrangements to national and international data. Such information is critical to both public and private sector employers, as abundant evidence exists to suggest that organizations that support the use of telework and other alternate work arrangements will be more able to attract and retain knowledge workers.RésuméLa présente étude est une évaluation du nombre des télé-travailleurs au Canada en ce début de millénaire. Elle se sert des données collectées en 1999 et 2001 par Statistique Canada et la DRHC auprès de 20 000 employés et 6300 lieux de travail. L'étude examine également les caractéristiques des entreprises qui offrent des régimes de télétravail et des employés qui les utilisent. Les résultats permettront aux entreprises canadiennes de comparer leur utilisation des régimes de télétravail aux régimes nationaux et internationaux. Ces résultats seront d'autant plus utiles aux employeurs des secteurs privés et publics, que d'après plusieurs recherches les entreprises qui utilisent le télétravail et les autres régimes de travail de rechange seront plus en mesure d'attirer et de retenir les travailleurs intellectuels.
By modifying the spatial and temporal framework of work, telework involves a reorganisation of the conduct of work that affects the employment relationship in different ways. In this paper, we focus on control issues. Based on the empirical study of two experiences led in the public sector, we illustrate the necessity to redefine the rules of control and to recast managerial practices and role.
This study employs a grounded theory methodology to compare the impact telecommuting has on public and private employees perceptions of professional isolation. It relied on 93 semi-structured interviews with telecommuters, non-telecommuters, and their respective supervisors in two high technology firms and two city governments. These organizations had active telecommuting programmes and a strong interest in making telecommuting a successful work option, providing an opportunity to investigate the challenges of telecommuting that existed even within friendly environments. The interviews demonstrated that professional isolation of telecommuters is inextricably linked to employee development activities (interpersonal networking, informal learning, and mentoring). The extent to which telecommuters experience professional isolation depends upon the extent to which these activities are valued in the workplace and the degree to which telecommuters miss these opportunities. Public respondents appeared to value these informal developmental activities less than private employees. Therefore, we stipulate that telecommuting is less likely to hinder the professional development of public sector employees than that of employees in the private sector. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Due to the changing demographics of the American workforce, telecommuting programmes for mid-level corporate workers are receiving a great deal of attention. This research presents factors that firms have found to be most significant when considering telecommuting policies. Results show that telecommuting programmes increased productivity, decreased absenteeism and turnover, and decreased in non-salary related expenses to the firms. Attachment of telecommuters to the corporate culture of the organization was an initial issue of concern and was explicitly addressed through a set of similar policies by all the organizations. The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews to investigate questions of interest to firms considering telecommuting programmes. This approach provided candid, inside views into some of the most successful telecommuting programmes in the USA.
Today's telecommuting workforce encompasses all categories of workers including managers, professionals and other knowledge workers. While organizations have the choice of mandating telecommuting or offering it as an option, individuals also have the choice of participating or not when telecommuting is optional. This research investigated whether individual factors, such as age, skills, identification with organization, or job category influenced these individuals' decisions to telecommute or not. A survey of telecommuters and non-telecommuters was conducted in two large work groups working for a high technology organization. Job category and gender showed a significant difference between telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Age, years with organization, and computer skills did not show significant differences. Reasons provided by respondents for opting not to telecommute are discussed. In addition, a comparison of perceived productivity, performance, sense of personal control, and satisfaction between telecommuters and non-telecommuters was performed. Differences were found between telecommuters and non-telecommuters in their ratings of personal control and productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for practitioners and recommendations for future research.
This paper discusses the relationship between policy research and policy change, and it provides examples of the policy research
outcomes informed by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for People with Disabilities’
(Wireless RERC) policy research process. In 2005 and 2006, the center conducted empirical research, using the policy Delphi
polling methodology, to probe key stakeholders’ opinions on the most significant issues surrounding the adoption and use of
wireless communication and information technologies by people with disabilities. Drawing on the results of three rounds of
polling, the Wireless RERC developed a set of policy options, and “fine-tuned” them using participating stakeholders from
the disability community, wireless industry, and policymakers.
Accurate forecasts of the adoption and impacts of telecommuting depend on an understanding of what motivates individuals to adopt telecommuting and what constraints prevent them from doing so, since those motivations and constraints offer insight into who is likely to telecommute under what circumstances. Telecommuting motivations and constraints are likely to differ by various segments of society. In this study, we analyze differences in these variables due to gender, occupation, and presence of children for 583 employees of the City of San Diego. Numerous differences are identified, which can be used to inform policies (public or organizational) intended to support telecommuting. Most broadly, women on average rated the advantages of telecommuting more highly than men—both overall and within each occupation group. Women were more likely than men to have family, personal benefits, and stress reduction as potential motivations for telecommuting, and more likely to possess the constraints of supervisor unwillingness, risk aversion, and concern about lack of visibility to management. Clerical workers were more likely than managers or professionals to see the family, personal, and office stress-reduction benefits of telecommuting as important, whereas managers and professionals were more likely to cite getting more work done as the most important advantage of telecommuting. Constraints present more strongly for clerical workers than for other occupations included misunderstanding, supervisor unwillingness, job unsuitability, risk aversion, and (together with professional workers) perceived reduced social interaction. Constraints operating more strongly for professional workers included fear of household distractions, reduced social and (together with managers) professional interaction, the need for discipline, and lack of visibility to management. Key constraints present for managers included reduced professional interaction and household distractions. Lack of awareness, cost, and lack of technology or other resources did not differ significantly by gender or occupation. Respondents with children rated the stress reduction and family benefits of telecommuting more highly than did those with no children at home. Those with children were more likely than those without children to be concerned about the lack of visibility to management, and (especially managers) were more likely to cite household distractions as a constraint. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Technology is enabling employees to work away from the office as teleworkers, where they experience increased flexibility to manage their work and personal lives. The last several decades have seen telework rapidly expand as a work mode, which offers both new opportunities and challenges for employees and corporations alike. This paper covers a brief overview of telework research and practice, in the hopes of providing a better understanding of this rapidly emerging form of virtual work. The paper first describes its growing popularity and the types of telework being practiced, and then reviews some key findings in prior research by examining alterations in the work–family interface, job satisfaction, and organizational identification. Present-day factors spurring telework's growth and factors holding it back are then discussed, including issues of technology acceptance, business continuity, and carbon footprint, as well as challenges such as isolation, co-worker resentment, and managerial reluctance. The paper then briefly explores some crucial issues facing telework in the future if it is to remain a successful work practice, including knowledge sharing, individual differences, and the way organizational policies and practices are enacted. Finally, some proscriptive recommendations for managers are offered in the hopes of helping practitioners harness the potential of this form of technology-enabled virtual work.
Today many organizations, including AT&T and IBM, are pioneering the alternative workplace--the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that is beginning to supplement traditional offices. This is not a fad. Although estimates vary widely, it is safe to say that some 30 million to 40 million people in the United States are now either telecommuters or home-based workers. What motivates managers to examine how people spend their time at the office and where else they might do their work? Among the potential benefits for companies are reduced costs, increased productivity, and an edge in vying for and keeping talented employees. They can also capture government incentives and avoid costly sanctions. But at the same time, alternative workplace programs are not for everyone. Indeed, such programs can be difficult to adopt, even for those organizations that seem to be most suited to them. Ingrained behaviors and practical hurdles are hard to overcome. And the challenges of managing both the cultural changes and systems improvements required by an alternative workplace initiative are substantial. How should senior managers think about alternative workplace programs? What are the criteria for determining whether the alternative workplace is right for a given organization? What are the most common pitfalls in implementing alternative workplace programs? The author provides the answers to these questions in his examination of this new frontier of where and how people work.
Return-to-work is an area of critical concern for individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI), because of the psychological, psychosocial and economic benefits of employment. Although the majority of individuals with SCI are employed pre-injury, they are impeded from maintaining those jobs due to personal, organizational and systems level barriers. Telework, which permits home-based work through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), alleviates many of return-to-work barriers for individuals with SCI, including job demands, mobility limitations, transportation needs and fatigue imposed by medical complications. For telework to fulfill its potential as a return-to-work strategy, rehabilitation professionals and employers must assess and enhance the readiness of the individual, workgroup and organization within the context of a disability management program. Strategies for successfully implementing telework as a return-to-work strategy for individuals with SCI are discussed, along with implications for future research.
Telecommuting, whether full time, part time, or over short periods when the need arises, can be an important accommodation for employees with disabilities. Indeed, telecommuting may be the only form of accommodation that offers employees whose disabilities fluctuate a means to stay consistently and gainfully employed. This article describes one employer's experience in considering a request for telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation for a particular employee. Drawing on real-life examples, both positive and negative, this article provides a win/win framework for decision-making that can help employers evaluate the use of telecommuting as a possible accommodation and facilitates open and ongoing communication between employer and employee.
Teleworking, a restructuring of the manner in which work occurs, based on information communication technologies (ICTs), is a promising way of further integrating people with disabilities into the workplace. In contrast to telecommuting, in which the work is primarily shifted in locale, telework is a restructuring of the tasks to be accomplished within the larger work setting which could result in "work" being done remotely, or collaboratively with coworkers (remotely or not) using ICTs. Drawing upon a review of the literature, this paper explores the relationship between telework and people with disabilities. While the advent of telecommuting and subsequently "teleworking" might open increased opportunities for the hiring of people with disabilities, it may also place severe constraints on the type of work, workplace environment and interactions, and accumulation of social capital for people with disabilities. Whereas much of the prevailing literature on telework and disability is often proscriptive in nature and is written with an audience of employers in mind, it is just as important to consider policy options from the standpoint of the employee as well. This paper proposes a number of policy approaches for the creation of an inclusive work environment for teleworkers with disabilities that can minimize, as much as possible, the social isolation faced by teleworkers with disabilities while maximizing their participation within the workplace community. Policy objectives for enhancing telework for people with disabilities fall into three general categories: 1) research, 2) outreach, and 3) interventions.