Work life balance issues in mobile enabled work environment

Work Life Balance Issues in Mobile Enabled Work Environment Page 1

TECHNICAL REPORT

ON

WORK LIFE BALANCE ISSUES IN MOBILE ENABLED WORK ENVIRONMENT

BY

MAYANK BAHETI 1RV09IM024

RISHAB SHETTY 1RV08IM060

SUNAYAN MUKHERJI 1RV09IM043

KSHITIJ PURI 1RV09IM019

SUBJECT NAME: Management Practices For Business Excellence

SUBJECT CODE: 07IM764

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

R.V.COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(An Autonomous Institution Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum)

BANGALORE-560059


TABLE OF CONTENTS

SL.NO TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. Introduction 3

1.1. Work patterns are changing 3

1.2. The workforce is changing 5

1.3. The workplace is changing 6

1.4. Flexible work environments 6

1.5. Distributed work environments 6

2. Literature Review 8

3. Work Life Balance Issues in Mobile enabled Environment 13

3.1. Technology and the mix of jobs 15

3.2. The organization of work 17

3.3. Benefits of work life balance in mobile work 22

3.4. Suitability for mobile work 22

3.5. Security in Mobile Work 22

3.6. Steps For Establishing a Mobile Environment 23

3.7. Some techniques of implementation of mobile work 23

3.8. The Changing Work Environment in IBM 25

3.9. Work Life Strategy 25

4. Case Study 26

5. Conclusion 46

Reference 47


1. INTRODUCTION

Zedeck and Mosier (1990) and more recently O’Driscoll (1996) note that there are

typically five main models used to explain the relationship between work and life outside

work. The segmentation model hypothesizes that work and non-work are two distinct

domains of life that are lived quite separately and have no influence on each other. This

appears to be offered as a theoretical possibility rather than a model with empirical

support. In contrast, as pill over model hypothesizes that one world can influence the

other in either a positive or negative way. There is, of course, ample research to support

this but as a proposition it is specified in such a general way as to have little value. We

therefore need more detailed propositions about the nature, causes and consequences of

spillover. The third model is a compensation model which proposes that what may be

lacking in one sphere, in terms of demands or satisfactions can be made up in the

other. For example work may be routine and undemanding but this is compensated for

by a major role in local community activities outside work. A fourth model is

an instrumental model whereby activities in one sphere facilitate success in the

other. The traditional example is the instrumental worker who will seek to maximize

earnings, even at the price of undertaking a routine job and working long hours, to allow

the purchase of a home or a car for a young family. The final model is a conflict model

which proposes that with high levels of demand in all spheres of life, some difficult

choices have to be made and some conflicts and possibly some significant overload on an

individual occur.[26]

1.1 Work patterns are changing

In response to this demand for rapid innovation, work has become more flexible,

distributed and collaborative. Remember the elusive promise of more leisure time thanks

to technology innovations? That was obliterated when companies “reengineered” and

“right-sized,” causing surviving employees to face ever-increasing demands for

productivity. Although this productivity increase was meant to come from continuous

process improvement, workweeks of sixty hours or more became common. Job

requirements, enabled by advances in communication, have blurred the distinction

between work and personal time. Specific hours, location, and dress codes are rapidly

becoming obsolete. Anytime/anywhere has become the norm.

Management styles have become less hierarchical, job security has become an historic

artifact, and work is organized around collaborative teams, often geographically

dispersed. The Hollywood model of bringing together free agents for a project and then

disbanding has long been used in the construction industry and is now being adopted in a

business context. Employers hire and retain employees based on short-term


needs. Outsourcing and contracting are replacing traditionally in-sourced functions,

providing employers increased flexibility.

1.2 The workforce is changing

Companies are shopping globally for high-quality services at the lowest price by off-

shoring, near-shoring and seeking low-cost domestic labor markets. Nearly

instantaneous, low-cost communication has enabled the globalization of work. India,

the Philippines and many other countries are emerging as suppliers of highly skilled

workers due to their educational standards, language skills and low wage

rates. Managing this highly diverse workforce remotely across cultures requires new

skills and heightened awareness of differences. Providing the right processes, technology

and environment for these far-flung enterprises is critical to their success.

Profound shifts in the domestic workforce are also inevitable based on current

demographic trends. The Baby Boom generation is nearing retirement age and there are

not enough workers in the 25-44 age range to replace them. For example, even though

companies will continue to seek low-cost labor markets globally, the U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics projects a shortfall of 10 million workers in the United States by the year

2010. In response, companies will seek to attract talent that they may once have by-

passed including older workers, women and minorities. They will also depend more on

free-agents and contract employees. Attracting and retaining skilled workers will be

highly competitive.

Employers are beginning to appreciate the wisdom of keeping critically important skills,

knowledge, relationships and experience from walking out the door. They are

considering flexible retirement options that allow mature workers to continue on their

own terms, with much more control over their schedule and location. In a Harvard

Business Review article called “It’s Time to Retire Retirement,” Ken Dychtwald says,

“The concept of retirement is outdated and should be put out to pasture in favor of a more

flexible approach to ongoing work. People are living longer, healthier lives. Motivated

both by a desire to work and by economic necessity, many older workers are eager to

take advantage of these options.

As a result, many more generations will be in the work force simultaneously. Younger

workers’ priorities include creating a balance between work and personal time. Their

expectations of their employers extend beyond salary to issues such as flexible hours,

amenities (day-care, fitness centers, food service, etc.), the latest technology tools and the

quality of the work environment. They tend to choose companies with values that are

closely aligned to their own.


The number of women and minorities will better reflect the population. Women, already

constituting nearly 50% of the workforce, will be better represented across levels and

functions. Gender, cultural and racial workforce diversity offers employers competitive

advantage in many ways. For example, as the workforce begins to mirror their customers,

companies are better able to anticipate and meet customer needs. Diversity also brings

multiple, overlapping and, possibly, conflicting values, traditions, needs and desires into

the workplace. Careful attention must be paid to meet these needs.

Competition for key talent will be stiff. Employers will be constantly challenged to

attract and maintain a staff with the skills that are critical to the organization’s

success. Highly talented individuals will wield a good deal of discretionary

power. Richard Florida, professor at Carnegie Mellon, author and theorist, labels this

type of worker “the creative class”. Speaking as one of them, he writes “In addition to

being fairly compensated for the work we do and the skills we bring, we want the ability

to learn and grow, shape the content of work, control our own schedules and express our

identities through work. And companies of all types, including large established ones,

are adapting to this change by striving to create new workplaces that are more amenable

to creative work. In this, they have no choice: Either they will create these kinds of

environments or they will wither and die.”


1.3 The workplace is changing

While changes in work patterns and the workforce are occurring rapidly, changes in the

workplace are taking place at a much slower pace. Investments in buildings, furniture and

equipment remain on the books for long, fixed periods. As a result, work environments

are likely to reflect outdated work patterns. Because many companies are still trying to

shed excess space due to corporate mergers and staff downsizing, they may have little

appetite to embark on new initiatives even if the investment would lower operating

costs. As we have seen, competitive pressures and the impending labor shortage will

require that companies adapt their work arrangements to support workers, to help them

connect and to build a sense of community.

1.4 Flexible work environments

The work environment must be responsive to multifaceted requirements. This does not

mean that the workplace will be tailored to individuals or processes, since they are

continually changing. While work tasks may be more specialized than ever before, tools

are becoming more generic. The architect’s drafting table, the scientist’s lab and the

researcher’s library are no longer specialized spaces or hardware – just software and

access to information.

A corporate reorganization no longer foreshadows a series of staged moves and costly

refits. With phone number portability, the ability to log on to any device and flexible

furniture, this becomes a matter of moving boxes at most. The need for mobility has

provided the incentive to reduce extra baggage, print less and have fewer personal items

on hand, thus challenging long-standing assumptions about storage needs.

Teams need the ability to form and disband quickly and easily in response to project

requirements. The key is flexibility, accomplished by providing a variety of spaces (quiet

space, meeting rooms, gathering places, etc.), adaptable furniture configurations and

technology tools to link geographically dispersed team members.

1.5 Distributed work environments

Mobility has already happened even without formal policies. Whether someone is in the

office, on the road or working from home has become largely irrelevant. Non-traditional

workplaces include home offices, airports, workplace clubs, satellite offices, libraries,

coffee shops and any wireless hot-spot. Historic sites and rural locations that could not

function effectively when everything needed to be hardwired are now finding new

uses. Wireless voice and data are making workers increasingly independent of a fixed

location, even within the corporate office.


Work is coming to the worker. Employers go where they find qualified labor at the best

rates. Skilled workers are more in control of their location. Work can even follow the

sun. For example, at the end of the work day in Los Angeles, a team can pass work

electronically to colleagues in Singapore, who then pass it on to a team in Scotland, for

24-hour productivity.

Off-shoring and near-shoring trends will continue and accelerate. Employers are actively

seeking ways to best manage and support all remote workers in order to make the most of

the potential productivity gains and cost savings. McKinsey & Company’s tomorrow lab

co-founders, George Goldsmith and Cory Lefebvre, found four factors that lead to an

efficient and effective virtual team: a shared vision and process, great people, effective

communication and appropriate technology. By providing remote workers with the tools

and infrastructure they need, perceived distances are reduced.


2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Bettina Beurer-Zuellig et.al. [1] explains that the smartphones have the potential to

improve and accelerate work processes through timely provision of information,

enhanced reachability and the simplification of coordination processes. This study treats a

present organizational issue related to increasing the productivity of the mobile

workforce.

Torsten L. Brodt et. al. [2] explains the nature and practice of managing mobile work in

Europe. On basis of empirical analysis of five selected case studies from a large

European research project, a number of enablers and barriers for the successful

introduction of mobile work initiatives are presented and discussed. So far, research in

the area of mobile work is limited to a few, often singular, case studies and lacks a

systematic assessment of current types, practices and applications.

Jan Kietzmann, [3] explain the increasing popularity of mobile information systems, the

actual processes leading to the innovation of mobile technologies remain largely

unexplored. This study uses Action Research to examine the innovation of a mobile

RFID technology. Working from Activity Theory, it departs from the prevalent product-

oriented view of innovation and treats technology-in-the making as a complex activity,

made possible through the interaction of manufacturers, their organizational clients and

their respective mobile workers.

Johanna Koroma et. al. [4] explains the way of working with no fixed workplace, instead

mobile employees travel using ICT (information and communication technologies) for

communicating and collaborating with others from different locations.

T. Alexandra Beauregard et. al. [5] suggest that the business case may therefore need to

be modified to reflect the number of additional routes by which work-life balance

practices can influence organizational performance, including enhanced social exchange

processes, increased cost savings, improved productivity, and reduced turnover.

Val Jones et. al. [6] explains that the main objective of the MOSAIC project is to

accelerate innovation in mobile worker. Support Environments by shaping future


research and innovation activities in Europe. The modus operandi of MOSAIC is to

develop visions and illustrative scenarios for future collaborative workspaces involving

mobile and location-aware working.

Nikals Johansson et. al. [7] their research is concern about usability of mobile

technology, they are mainly interested in usability of mobile IT systems used in a

professional work context. Such work support systems are found in various work settings,

e.g. in health care, in technical maintenance and in sales and consultant organizations. IT

systems support mobile work activities and are sometimes necessary for making work

mobile.

Nick Bloom et. al.[8] Many critics of free-market liberalism argue that higher product-

market competition and the “Anglo-Saxon” management practices it stimulates increases

productivity only at the expense of employees’ work-life balance (WLB). After

controlling for management practices, however, we find no additional relationship

between WLB and productivity. WLB practices are also not reduced by tougher

competition, suggesting no deleterious effect of competition on employees’ working

environment.

E. Jeffrey Hill et. al. [9] Millions use electronic tools to do their jobs away from the

traditional office. Some labor in a ‘‘virtual office’’ with flexibility to work wherever it

makes sense and others telecommute primarily from home. Perceptions, direct

comparisons, and multivariate analyses suggest that the influence of the virtual office is

mostly positive on aspects of work but somewhat negative on aspects of personal/family

life. The influence of the home office appears to be mostly positive and the influence of

traditional office mostly negative on aspects of both work and personal/life.

Htwe Htwe Thein et. al. [10] ‘Work/family balance’ has recently come to the fore in

public policy debate and academic inquiry across the industrialized world. However, this

issue has been relatively under-explored in the context of Asian business and society.

Data from focus groups were used to explore how women in these countries perceive

work/family balance and the role of family, government and other support structures in

managing this aspect of their lives.


Masao Kakihara, [11] explains the concept of mobility, particularly in contemporary

work contexts. With support of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in

general and mobile technology in particular, contemporary work activities are

increasingly distributed and dynamically conducted in various locations. In such an

emerging work environment, maintaining a highly level of ‘mobility’ is becoming critical

for contemporary workers, particularly for mobile professionals.

Maria C. W. Peeters et. al. [12] The aim of the present study was to make a clear

distinction between work and home domains in the explanation of burnout. A model was

tested that delineates how demands in both life domains are related to occupational

burnout through work_home interference (WHI) and home_work interference (HWI). In

doing so, the partial mediating role of WHI and HWI was examined.

Seamus Tyler-Baxter, [13] Tells about work-life balance is an important topic that is

worthy of study and is becoming increasingly popular among researchers. There is a lack

of knowledge contributing to the work-life balance issues for new graduates. This study

seeks to explore how graduates in their first year of post-university study, experience

work-life balance.

Diane Perrons, [14] Given the varied claims made about the new economy and its

implication for the organization of work and life, this article critically evaluates some

conceptualizations of the new economy and then explores how the new media sector has

materialized and been experienced by people working in Brighton and Hove, a new

media hub.

The President Council of Economic Advisers, [15] explains that the Flexible workplace

arrangements can be in terms of when one works, where one works, or how much one

works (including time off after childbirth or other life events). They include a variety of

arrangements such as job sharing, phased retirement of older workers, and

telecommuting, that allow workers to continue making productive contributions to the

workforce while also attending to family and other responsibilities.

Australian Institute of management, [16] said that Across Australia there is a growing

demand for more flexible work arrangements. Working part time, staggering start and


finish times, teleworking, taking extended leave, staging retirement or phasing a return

from leave—all these and more are finding their way into workplaces.

UN women at Expert Group Meeting, [17] finds that a flexible work culture

encompasses, but goes beyond, the provision and use of flexible work practices. It is one

where employees feel comfortable working flexibly. It is a culture where managing

flexibly is a required management ability, where employees are empowered to challenge

notions of where, when and how work gets done, and where the business case for

flexibility is well understood and support for flexibility is characterized by clear and

visible leadership.

Vodafone white paper, [18] key concept of paper is mobile and flexible working is an

irreversible development, a shift that is not just about complying with development with

legislation but also about achieving social, economic and environmental benefits for your

employees.

Niharika doble et. al. [19] paper addresses work-life balance across genders. Both men

and women reported experiencing work life imbalance. Organizational efforts at

providing a supportive work environment are appreciated as they goes a long way

towards enhancing work life balance.

Jennifer Redmond et. al. [20] said that Work-life balance policies, workplace culture,

childcare and maternity issues can have a special resonance for those who are facing a

crisis pregnancy. those who feel that they can successfully combine work and parenthood

are more likely to continue with an unplanned pregnancy and parent their child.

Helen Lingard et. al. [21] A survey was conducted to determine the work-life

experiences of the employees of one large Australian construction firm. The

questionnaire was designed to elicit information about employees’ demographic

characteristics, feelings about work, family relationship quality and preferences for work-

life balance initiatives.


Hon Ruth Dyson, [22] said that participation in paid employment has become more

common, there has been increasing concern about how to achieve a work-life balance. It

is probably fair to say that everyone encounters issues of combining paid work with the

other things that matter to them at some stage of their lives. It is also clear from the

stories summarized in this report that some people face significant barriers to achieving

balance in their lives.

Nancy R. Lockwood, [23] concluded that the Work/life programs have the potential to

significantly improve employee morale, reduce absenteeism, and retain organizational

knowledge, particularly during difficult economic times. In today’s global marketplace,

as companies aim to reduce costs, it falls to the human resource professional to

understand the critical issues of work/life balance and champion work/life programs.

Bettina-Johanna Krings et. al. [24] concluded that the workplace are interconnected with

work-life balance in a changing environment, this relationship seems to be an important

topic in current political debates in Europe. Due to enormous processes of economic

upheavals, technological transformation and the dominance of service employment

provoke major changes not only on the labour markets but also in the social structure of

societies. Without doubt these changes also imply societal issues like ageing societies,

shortage of public health care or the ongoing integration of women into the labour

markets.

Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Saif et. al. [25] explained the relationship of employee work

satisfaction (job satisfaction) and prevalence of work life balance (WLB) practices in

Pakistan. A sample of 450 layoff survivors, gathered via stratified sampling, provides the

basis for analysis. The layoff survivors are working in two big organizations operating in

Pakistan.


3.Work Life Balance Issues in Mobile enabled

Environment

The various aspects of mobile enabled environment on work life balance is

discussed below . New technologies—especially advances in telecommunication and

information technology—have had profound impacts on the mix of jobs in the economies

of the industrialized nations, on how work is organized, and on people’s experience at

work.

The nature of these effects on the work-family interface is contested. Technology

is sometimes portrayed as a force enabling the successful integration of multiple life

roles. According to this line of reasoning, technology can provide opportunities for

people to balance their responsibilities at work with family duties and other interests. A

recent television commercial epitomized this optimistic vision of technology’s effects of

work-life integration: a working mother phoned into a conference call via cell phone

from the beach while her children stage-whispered, “Shh! Mommy is in a meeting.” To

other observers, however, technology is viewed as a vehicle for enslavement to work and

subjugation of the non-work domain to the job. In this vision, workplace technology has

the potential to invade workers’ lives. Employers could apply advances in

communication and information technology to monitor employees incessantly, render

them ever-available for work, and reduce their latitude to balance the realms of work and

non-work. One version of this vision was depicted in a film which showed an exhausted,

pajama-clad stockbroker hunched over his laptop in the middle of the night. Since

technology had enabled him to follow the progress of overseas stock markets in other

time zones during the North American night, he was no longer permitted the luxury of a

full night’s sleep.

Despite the plausibility of the arguments on both sides of this debate, however,

empirical examinations of the relationship between technology and work-life integration

have offered relatively few consistent findings. Generally, technology variables

considered devoid of context tend to explain little of the variance in other phenomena to

which they may conceivably be connected, such as workers’ attitudes or workplace skill

structures .In this sense, work-life balance is not unusual: few studies of individual

workers have turned up much evidence that the technologies workers use have effects on

work-life balance, whether in enhancing work-life integration or in exacerbating conflict.

In this chapter, we argue that a meaningful examination of this relationship must take into

account the many contextual factors that lie between technology and the integration of

work and life. Technology per se has few implications for work-life integration. Rather,

configurations of technology in organizational, individual, and family contexts may

exacerbate work-life conflict, or, in contrast, provide people with opportunity to balance

their work and non-work lives successfully.


Work-life integration is “a perceptual phenomenon characterized by a sense of

having achieved a satisfactory resolution of the multiple demands” of work and non-work

domains . People whose work and non-work (especially family) lives are well integrated

function effectively at work and at home, feel a sense of satisfaction with both domains,

and experience minimal levels of conflict between work and family. As this definition

suggests, work-life integration is a multifaceted construct. Researchers interested in

work-life integration have modeled multiple outcomes under the conceptual umbrella of

work-life or work-family integration or balance, including job satisfaction, family

satisfaction, work interference with family, family interference with work, work-family

conflict that is time-based, strain-based or behavior-based, role overload, and

psychological distress or well-being. It is plausible, and indeed has been demonstrated

empirically, that technology can have differential effects on different components of

work-life integration; for instance, by increasing people’s autonomy and work

functioning while simultaneously increasing their felt conflict between work and family

or by increasing both their reported spillover from work to family and their sense of

personal mastery. In this chapter, we employ a contextual approach in our examination of

the effects of technology on work-life integration in order to illuminate the sometimes

contradictory nature of the relationship.

The term “technology” evokes a number of images; its most general definition

refers to know-how that is objectified independently of specific actors.The interplay

between managers and workers in implementing technology, the goals of each party and

their relative power in the workplace influence outcomes, as do the characteristics of

workers and their home environments, including the relationship of the worker to other

members of his or her family unit.

In the current discussion we identify two main ways in which technology, in

conjunction with features of the workplace and the non-work domain, has effects on

work-life integration. First, technology influences the overall mix of jobs and the sets of

tasks that jobs comprise. To the extent that jobs in themselves differ in the ways in which

they influence the relationships between work and family life, technology has the

potential to affect work-life conflict and integration. Technological change leads to the

disappearance of some kinds of jobs, creates others, and in doing so, changes the

relationship between work and life outside work.

The exact nature of these changes, however, can only be fully understood by

considering the second mediating path, that is, how technology in use affects the

organization of work. Through technology, managers choose and constrain the tasks

associated with particular jobs and the conditions under which those tasks are performed.

Automation of production technologies typically reduces employees’ work autonomy and

skill discretion. Technology can also enable close and continual scrutiny of workers by

managers. Of particular consequence for the relationship between work and other parts

of workers’ lives is the fact that technology provides the means for redistribution of work


tasks across time and space. As we will see, the reorganization and redistribution of

work across time and space is associated with increased permeability of the boundary

between the work and non-work domains, which has numerous—and sometimes

contradictory—implications for work-life integration.

3.1 Technology and the mix of jobs

To a certain extent, the quality of individuals’ work-life integration reflects the

sorts of jobs and occupations in which they work. Therefore, understanding where

particular jobs fit into the production process, taking into account the amount of market

power held by their incumbents, and analyzing the extent to which these jobs provide

autonomy in scheduling and other activities will yield insight into the relationship

between technology and work-life integration.

The trajectory of technological development underlies the relationship between work and

the rest of life, and concerns over the tendency of technological change to exacerbate

work-life conflict have a long history.1 Prior to the advent of the factories that emerged

with the industrial revolution, work and other aspects of life were relatively tightly

integrated. In contrast to their agrarian and artisanal predecessors, modern workplaces

uprooted workers from their homes and families and subjected them to extensive, rigid,

and closely monitored working hours. Work no longer responded to the dictates of family

and home life; instead, life outside the workplace came to be something that was fitted

around work.

Technological progress in the twentieth century promised to reverse these effects of the

industrial revolution. Some authors even suggested that as the march of technology

automated work and eliminated jobs, societal problems might stem not from the inability

to integrate work with other aspects of life, but from dealing with displaced workers and

from attempts to fill in the hours that were once spent working. However, there is little

evidence of this trend. In the second half of the twentieth century, even as technology

advanced rapidly, the American economy found jobs for millions of new workers

(participation by women in the labor force, for example, increased from about 33% in

1950 to over 60% by 2000). Instead of a reduction in working hours, the period from

1976 and 1993 saw an increase in the average weekly work hours for both men and

women between the ages of 25 and 54. Technological advances, rather than reducing

employment to a sideshow, seem to be associated with an intensification of work.

Though technological change has neither liberated nor dislocated people from work, the

mix of jobs in which people are employed has changed significantly over time, and these

changes have ramifications for work-life integration. To take the most dramatic example,

about 38 percent of the U.S. labor force worked in agriculture at the turn of the 20th

century. In 2001, agriculture employed about 2 percent of the labor force. Similarly,


manufacturing employed over one-third of U.S. workers in 1950; half a century later,

fewer than 15% of workers were employed in manufacturing.

The assembly line and the factory floor were once the exemplars of the split

between work and the rest of life. Marx, for example, famously observed of the worker

under industrial capitalism that “life begins for him where [work] ceases.” The decline in

the share of workers employed in manufacturing and concomitant increases in service-

sector employment suggest that workers have moved into jobs that – in some instances –

permit more freedom of movement and communication outside the workplace, allow

more flexible scheduling, and provide other opportunities to achieve effective integration

between work and the rest of life. For example, U.S. service-sector employers are more

than half again more likely than manufacturing establishments to offer flex-time and job

sharing to their employees.

The share of people employed as managers and professionals has also increased

steadily. In 1940, fewer than 15% of American workers outside the agricultural sector

were managers and professionals; by 2003, this category encompassed nearly a third of

all workers. The increase in the share of workers with supervisory responsibility or

professional standing suggests a concomitant increase in the autonomy and discretion

enjoyed by workers, and research has established that job autonomy is associated with

increased opportunity to exercise control over the relationship between work and non-

work and with lower work-family conflict. Additionally, the research on workplace

accommodation of work-family concerns generally finds that workers with more

bargaining power, not those with greater need, are more likely to be the recipient of

favorable policies and benefits. This trend favors managers and professionals, who

possess more valuable and marketable human capital than do their lower-skilled,

nonsupervisory counterparts in the labor market.

This is not to say that successful work-life integration is easily achieved by white-

collar, managerial, or professional workers, despite the relative autonomy they may enjoy

in comparison with non-supervisory workers. In fact, much of the scholarly attention

given to the challenges associated with work-life integration is directed at managers and

professionals. Even as technological progress has led to increases in the share of jobs in

which individuals ostensibly direct and control their own schedules and working hours,

concerns have focused on the fact that people in these groups seem to be working, on

average, more than ever, and are having a great deal of difficulty in balancing their

responsibilities at work with the rest of their interest. In addition to working longer

hours, managerial and professional employees also tend to have a higher level of

psychological involvement with their jobs than do working-class employees, which

places them at higher risk for work-family conflict. It was found that job involvement

was positively related to work-to-family conflict among white-collar workers, whereas

these two variables were unrelated among blue-collar workers. In addition to reflecting

occupational differences in job involvement, this finding may signal the greater tendency


of white-collar work to spill over into the family domain, an effect that has been

intensified by the increasing use of a variety of communication technologies (e.g., cell

phones, laptop computers, and internet connections) among white-collar workers).

Differences in the nature of production technology across industries are associated

with differences in the ability of members of various occupations to integrate work and

family. For instance, research suggests that in industries such as manufacturing and

health services, work may be tied to machinery that is not portable and that may need to

be operated on an inflexible schedule, with the result that work schedules are determined

by the location and scheduling of the technology itself, rather than by workers’ needs.

Other industries that rely more on flexible, portable forms of information technology

(e.g., the use of laptop computers and cell phones among sales professionals or

consultants) offer greater opportunities for the integration of work and family demands

because workers have more ability to control how, where and when they deploy the

technology.

3.2 The organization of work

The second mediator in our model is work organization. The implementation of

technology in organizations represents a set of strategic choices made by managers.

Technology is implemented in the context of and in concert with sets of work practices

which, together with the technology itself, shape how work tasks are organized and how

employees experience work. Assessments of the relationship between technology and

work-life integration should thus consider the various ways in which the implementation

of technology influences the organization of work tasks. Since the same technology can

be used in different ways, it is difficult to make blanket predictions about the effect of

technologies on the work-life interface. Rather, it is critical to examine variations in how

technologies are used within and across workplaces. We discuss relevant moderating

factors in the subsequent section of this chapter.

Technology in use defines workers’ tasks. An assembly line under mass production, for

example, permits workers little control over the content of their work, its pace, or the

order in which they do particular tasks. The effects of automation are not limited to

manufacturing; service environments such as telephone call centers can feature never-

ending queues of customers and relentless pressure to handle calls. Technology deployed

in this fashion has long been held to have invidious effects on workers, underlying, for

example, the upward-sloping portion of Blauner’s famous “inverted-U” relationship

between technology and workplace alienation (1964). Automation has the potential to

raise obstacles to effective work-life integration. To the extent that technology controls

the pace of work and is combined with discretion-reducing managerial practices, it can

diminish workers’ ability to engage, both physically and psychologically, in other life

activities (Barnett, 1998). Work on assembly lines or in high-volume telephone call

centers requires that breaks be approved by supervisors or carefully scheduled in


advance. To take a simple example, automation-governed work can limit access to spur-

of-the-moment telephone calls to or from baby-sitters, teachers, or family members, and

restricts workers’ discretion in scheduling times to take or make such calls.

In addition to reducing autonomy, technology can also place workers under closer

managerial scrutiny by facilitating extensive monitoring of employees’ work. For

example, sophisticated computer systems are replacing mechanical time clocks and are

extending managers’ ability to track when employees start and stop—a capacity

previously applied primarily to working class employees—to more highly skilled

workers. For example, lawyers and members other occupational groups that are

responsible for “billable” hours may be required to have software on their computers that

tracks exactly when they log on and log off, as well as the number and length of periods

of inactivity. Instant messaging can serve the same purpose; when employees log off, or

even fail to respond promptly, it is apparent to others that they are not at their desks.

Many companies have installed monitoring software that tracks their employees’ usage of

the Internet and records all keystrokes made by employees. Telephone call center

workers are subject to some of the most sophisticated electronic monitoring technology

currently in use. Monitoring systems record the number of calls taken by each worker,

the length of each call, the amount of time callers are placed on hold, the number of rings

before the call is answered, and so on. The systems allow managers to monitor the extent

to which workers comply with specified work procedures, as in the case of operators who

are required to limit the number of keystrokes they use when searching the database for

telephone numbers. The monitoring system identifies those operators who are entering

more keystrokes than the number specified for optimal productivity. Research suggests

that electronic monitoring is a source of stress for those workers who are subject to it and

that it can have deleterious consequences for work-life integration. Electronic monitoring

has been identified as a predictor of emotional exhaustion, an aversive state which is

likely to spill over into the non-work domain. Evidence from a study of call center

workers shows that the intensity of monitoring is positively related to work exhaustion

and negatively related to satisfaction with work-life balance. It is likely that these

negative effects are most pronounced where monitoring technology is used in such a way

as to reduce workers’ discretion and to make them feel as if they are being constantly

scrutinized.

Consistent with our contextualist approach, we offer three reasons to be cautious in

hypothesizing direct links between the use of command-and-control production

technologies (those which restrict worker autonomy) and the undermining of work-life

integration. First, similar “hard” technologies can be deployed to quite varied effect. For

example, that the computerized automation of tasks in bank branches has very different

effects on wages depending on whether such automation is undertaken in conjunction

with high-involvement work practices, or, in contrast, with practices that reduce workers’

discretion. Information technologies can be deployed in such a manner as to render


workers independent from or interdependent with one another. When workers are

organized into self-managing groups and overlap in task assignments, they may be able to

take at least temporary responsibility for one another’s work when needed, thereby

allowing individual workers to accommodate needs arising from the family domain.

Indeed, a recent study of some 4000 manufacturing workers found that membership in a

self-directed work team was associated with greater work-family balance.

Second, a service or production context rarely invokes a single dominant technology. For

example, alternatives to assembly line and mass production technologies such as “flexible

specialization” and “lean production” rely more heavily on teamwork, worker skills and

decision-making. In services, too, firms may organize work more or less restrictively.

Call centers, for example, have been alternatively characterized as the “dark Satanic

mills” of the New Economy and as a setting for a variety of approaches to the

organization of work. In either case, the point is that the organizing logic of the

workplace is neither dictated by the environment nor fixed by design; rather, technologies

are deployed by managers (and this deployment may be contested by workers). One

question that has received almost no attention in field research is the extent to which

work-life integration is a consideration in managerial choices or in workers’ responses.

A third point is that not all automation has the same kinds of effects. A key distinction in

the literature addressing the effects of automation on job content is between equipment

that is designed with the goal of minimizing errors and reducing reliance on workers’

discretion, and that which is aimed at enhancing and leveraging workers’ skills and

abilities.

Technology provides supporting tools for non-routine activities that require high levels of

skill and worker engagement. Software applications such as spreadsheets, word-

processing, and sales-supporting technologies automate sets of tasks ranging from the

routine to the very complex, providing workers with the means to do higher-level

activities more efficiently. On the one hand, to the extent that such technologies provide

tools for workers to do their jobs more effectively, effects on work-life balance come

from possible increases in discretion, decreases in required time at work, and,

particularly, in freeing work across time and space, a topic to which we turn below.

Alternatives to command-and-control technologies, however, also create new threats to

work-life integration, particularly where processes have been designed to be tightly

coupled and to minimize buffers. The elimination of redundancy in processes means that

every worker’s role may be vital; the leaner the process, the more tightly linked its steps,

the more difficult it is for workers to exercise the sorts of discretion that would take them

away from focus on their work tasks. The effects of these kinds of technologies on work-

life integration thus depend especially heavily on the context in which they are deployed;

for example, we would not expect individuals’ use of word-processing per se to have

direct effects on work-life integration.

Technology and the redistribution of work across time and space


In terms of its potential impact on work-life integration, the most fundamental and

prevalent change brought on by advances in information technology is arguably the

redistribution of work across time and space. This occurs most notably through

teleworking, in which workers use information technologies including computers, e-mail,

telephones, pagers, fax machines, modems and other networking devices—combined

with servers that allow files to be accessed from and transmitted to remote locations—to

perform some or all of their work at home (or in another location away from the main

office). Related advances include policies such as flexible scheduling, which have been

facilitated through the implementation of technology that frees workers from a fixed,

standardized schedule for the completion of their work tasks. Additionally, even when

employees do not work from home for some portion of their regular work hours, the

increasingly pervasive use of communication and information technologies often brings

work into the home domain, particularly for information workers. Research suggests that

use of portable information and communication technologies is associated with increased

negative spillover from work to family, even when controlling for occupation, work

hours, and commuting time.

Although estimates of the number of telecommuters in the U.S. vary due to

definitional differences, the numbers are clearly substantial, ranging from 10 million to

nearly 30 million. According to the International Telecommuting Advisory Council

(2002), 28 million Americans reported teleworking at least part time in 2001. This figure

includes people who work at home, at a telework center or satellite office, on the road, or

some combination of the above. Approximately one-fifth of working Americans report

working some portion of their working hours at home (International Telework

Association & Council, 2002). Under a more restrictive definition of telecommuters as

“employees who engage in work at home on a regular basis two or more days per week

for an outside company,” the Institute for the Study of Distributed Work provides the

current low-end estimate of 10.4 million telecommuters. Compared to non-teleworkers,

teleworkers are significantly more likely to be from the Northeast and West, male, have

higher education and income, work in professional or managerial occupations, and be

employed in smaller and larger organizations.

Telecommuting is pervasive across work organizations, with 37% of all

employers and the majority of the Fortune 1000 firms currently offering telecommuting

to their employees. The occupational penetration of telecommuting is wide as well, with

telecommuters currently represented throughout the spectrum of jobs performed by

information workers.

Teleworking and other forms of redistribution of work outside the workplace and

beyond (or short of) the traditional working day are related to work-life integration

differently than are other workplace technological innovations. These, uniquely, may be

implemented by managers and workers who have as primary goals influence over the

balance between work and family life. With regard to teleworking, for example, early


views suggested it as a way to help women hold down jobs while managing their family

responsibilities effectively, and teleworkers were stereotyped as women with young

children. Indeed, although telecommuting was initially conceived as a strategy to make

firms less vulnerable to fuel shortages during the OPEC oil crisis in the early to mid-

1970s, most telework arrangements prior to the 1990s were established to accommodate

the family needs of individual employees.

Seeking technological solutions to enhance work-life integration is not, however,

the only force underlying telework arrangements. By the 1990s, more kinds of

teleworkers emerged and a number of organizational rationales for teleworking were

offered, including reduction of real estate and labor costs, efforts to increase productivity,

customer proximity, complementary with the required mobility of many client-focused

workers, compliance with regulations such as the Clean Air Act and the Americans with

Disabilities Act, and the desire to contract activities out to workers who are not

employees. Individuals, too, have a variety of reasons for telecommuting, including

increasing their productivity, gaining greater control over the environment in which they

work, reducing the amount of time spent commuting and avoiding office politics, as well

as more effectively integrating the demands of work and family. However, it can be

difficult to distinguish between those who work remotely by choice, and those who do so

involuntarily , as many companies have systematically moved certain groups of workers

into telecommuting programs.

Teleworking is clearly associated with increased permeability of the boundary

between work and non-work domains. The spatial, temporal, social, and psychological

aspects of the work-non-work boundary are all affected by the movement of work into

the home. Physically, work and non-work activities now take place in the same location.

Temporally, telecommuters often report interleaving work and family activities, for

instance, by occasionally performing housework or child care during the work day.

Whereas the social roles that people occupy at work and at home are generally separated

in a post-industrial society, telecommuting causes these roles to overlap. Finally, the

movement from home to work and vice-versa involves crossing a psychological

boundary; this aspect is also changed when people work at home. Indeed, telecommuters

often develop rituals to facilitate crossing the role boundary from family to work,

including such actions as putting on work clothes, reading the business section of the

newspaper, saying goodbye to the family before entering the home office, and taking files

and work implements out of cabinets . Nonetheless, work and family life are both more

susceptible to intrusions when they are carried on in the same location.

Evidence on the impact of technology and telecommuting on aspects of work-life

integration is equivocal. In a series of studies of IBM employees in professional

occupations, Hill and colleagues found that telecommuters reported higher levels of

work-life balance and success at personal/family life than did employees who worked in

a traditional office setting . Other studies indicate that work intrudes on and interferes


with the family and personal lives of telecommuters. Says one respondent in

Mirchandani’s study, “I was feeling very keenly a sense of intrusion into my

house…couriers showing up, a telephone line ringing, a fax machine going in the middle

of the night…this was not a pristine environment; I had sullied it.” The net effect of

bringing more work into the home may be to help individuals to integrate across different

spheres, while creating a work environment in the home that intrudes on family life. It

was found that more extensive use of information technologies was associated with more

perceived control over managing work and family, but also with higher levels of work-

family conflict.

There are a number of contextual factors that affect the strength of the

relationship between technology and work-life integration.

3.3 Benefits of work life balance in mobile work

Mobile work can have significant benefits for organisations, employees and for the

community. These include:

• improved attraction and retention of key staff;

• more flexibility and better work life balance for employees;

• reduced absenteeism;

• greater job satisfaction;

• increased trust between employers and employees;

• reduced office space and car parking costs;

• reduced travelling expenses (fuel, wear and tear on vehicle, fares) and environmental

costs;

• the organization being recognized as a good corporate citizen.

3.4 Suitability for mobile work

Definable tasks which involve minimal face-to-face contact or are time specific are most

suitable for being done at home. These may include:

research

computer design and programming

projects

policy writing

report writing

planning.

3.5 Security in Mobile Work

Work equipment and intellectual property can be safeguarded through the following

security measures:

authorization and security clearance of mobile employees


general physical security of employee’s homes

arrangements for the transportation and disposal of official documents and papers

directives for appropriate use of email and internet use

protection of home computers and their links

guidelines on access of family and friends to work materials

the appointment of an employer security supervisor

employees' obligations to report security incidents

3.6 Steps For Establishing a Mobile Environment

Consider suitability for (employees, duties, work site)

Assess expenses and cost effectiveness

Consider taxation requirements

Establish security measures for equipment and documentation

Consider insurance liability for mobile equipment

Consider occupational safety and health requirements

Consider workers compensation regulations

Develop performance control measures

Develop a procedure for review

Create written agreement or equivalent

3.7 Some techniques of implementation of mobile work

Virtual Private Network

Fig:1 Virtual networks

In this technology, users can access their companies private networks via the internet in a

secure manner using VPN tunnels.


Cloud Computing

Fig:2 Cloud computing

In this technology the companies infrastructure is accessed can be accessed by laptops,

mobile phones, tablets remotely. These devices purely act as thin clients showing only

the display where as all the actions happen on the servers in the company.

Mobile Usage scenario’s

Fig:3 Mobile usage


As shown in the figure above the company network can be accessed both within the

company premises and outside at various locations.

3.8 The Changing Work Environment in IBM

1998 2010

Fig:4 chart Work Environment in IBM

The pie chart above shows the change in work environment in one of the biggest

technology companies IBM. We can observer that percentage of home has increased

from o.4% to 8%, Similarly mobile workers ghave increade from 10.6% to 21%. This

amply illustrates the trend in technology companies.

3.9 Work Life Strategy

• helps employees sustain peak performance on the job and enables organisations to

become

more productive.

• improves employee engagement – the higher employee engagement is, the more willing

employees are willing to go the extra mile to contribute to their organisation’s success.

• improves attraction and retention of talent – this in turn leads to cost savings from

reduced

labour turnover.

• reduces stress related to work and work-life conflicts, therefore leading to lower

health-related costs.

• improves customer satisfaction indirectly (through happy employees) and directly

(through more customer-friendly business processes).


4. CASE STUDY

CS:1. Do Mobile Technologies Enable Work-Life Balance? Dual Perspectives on

BlackBerry Usage for Supplemental Work

Introduction:

This chapter explores the usage of mobile communication devices to support

supplemental work. The ‘anytime, anywhere’ functionality of the devices provides

enormous convenience for users, and is thought to enhance their work productivity, while

facilitating work-life balance. But their always-on nature can lead to conflict when family

members or others outside the users’ work environment feel that work is spilling over

into the users’ non-work life. Using texts from newspapers and magazines, the chapter

investigates usage of a popular mobile device, the BlackBerry, from the perspectives of

users’ families and friends, and of the users themselves. The contradictory interpretations

are striking. Indeed, the very acts that define balance for BlackBerry users are clear

signals of imbalance to those around them, resulting in strong opposition to the devices

among non-users. Described as BlackBerry orphans (Rosman, 2006) and widows (Sokol,

2006; von Hahn, 2004), non-users express ‘chagrin,’ ‘aggravation’ ‘disapproval,’ and

‘ire’ about the use of the device in their homes (and elsewhere). The chapter shows how

the behaviours that users adopt to increase their work-life balance result in the

materialization of work, and taunt those in the non-work environment with ‘absent

presence.’ As` the usage of ‘mobile work extending technologies’ like BlackBerries is

expected to rise in the future, the chapter outlines questions that should be addressed to

help reduce the potential for work-life conflict.

Work, Mobile Technologies and Work-Life Balance:

There is a vast literature on telecommuting and telework, which provides the foundation

for 2more recent studies on mobile work. ‘Telecommuting’ refers to a specific

arrangement to work at home, reducing or eliminating the need to travel (commute) to

work (Nilles, 1976). ‘Telework’ is used to describe “remote work [that] involves the use

of information and communication technologies” (Sullivan, 2003, p. 159). Many

researchers consider the terms telework and telecommuting synonymously (Ellison,

1999). What is important in this context is that an explicit arrangement (voluntary or

involuntary) is made between an employee and an employer that relocates some or all of

his or her tasks to the home, from an office location(Felstead, Jewson, Phizacklea, &

Walters, 2002; Fleetwood, 2007). These arrangements represent a substitution in the

work environment, where employees give up some time in their offices and replace it

with time spent working at home (Kraut, 1989). But the mobile work behaviours

described here are not generally part of a formal, intentional relocation of work from one

environment to another. Employees are not giving up their office space, instead they are


extending their work environments to include spaces beyond the office. This is an

important distinction (Kossek, Lautsch, & Eaton, 2006), yet the supplemental nature of

such work practices is not always reflected in studies on location of work (e.g. Felstead,

Jewson, & Walters, 2005; Hill, Ferris, & Martinson, 2003).Bailyn (1988) describes this

extension of work into home as ‘overflow,’ and notes that people have been bringing

work home from the office for many, many years. New technologies allow knowledge

workers to access, edit and create files, communicate with colleagues or clients, search

for information and conduct other tasks from many locations outside their offices. Brown

and O’Hara (2003, p. 1575) observe that mobile work ‘makes place,’ rather than ‘taking

place,’ suggesting that any location can be made into a work place by virtue of the fact

that someone chooses to work there. The portability of work, and of technologies, allows

employees to carry out ‘supplemental work at home’ (Venkatesh & Vitalari, 1992) but

also extends the potential workplace to anywhere within the reach of mobile technology.

In the past decade, supplemental work at home has given way to supplemental work

anywhere.The practise of working anywhere could easily be described as mobile work.

Hislop and Axtell (2007) point out that mobility is not considered in the existing telework

literature, but argue that mobile telework is becoming “an increasingly important form of

work” (p. 35). Mobile teleworkers move between home, office and “locations beyond

home and office” (p. 46), which include client premises and places visited for business

travel. However, Hislop and Axtell do not appear to identify these spaces as locations for

supplemental work. Other studies of mobile work (e. g. Brodt & Verburg, 2007; Brown

& O’Hara, 2003) also exclude explicit discussion of mobile work conducted outside

usual working hours. Thus, while there are existing literatures on supplemental work at

home, and on mobile work, it appears that there has been limited academic attention paid

to date to the phenomenon of mobile technologies being adopted in ways that allow

supplemental work to move beyond the boundaries of home. One exception is Duxbury,

Thomas, Towers and Higgins’s (2005) research on ‘work extension.’ Their definition of

work extension recognizes that much work is now done outside office hours (anytime)

and at multiple locations outside the office (anywhere). Thus, extended work is

supplemental work, but the definition no longer limits the location of supplemental work

to the home. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, mobile email devices

(e.g. BlackBerries) and home PCs are all considered work extending technologies, and

the technologies are becoming more prevalent among managerial and professional

workers (Towers, Duxbury, Higgins, & Thomas, 2006).As more people adopt extended

work patterns, work is imposed on spaces and at times that 4were previously ‘work free,’

thus increasing the potential for role conflict. Conflict between work and non-work

environments is not new (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; Lewis, Gambles, & Rapoport,

2007) and it is addressed by an extensive literature (see Edwards & Rothbard, 2000, for a

review of key concepts). However, much previous work on ‘work-life’ or ‘work-family’

balance in a telework environment (e.g. Golden, Veiga, & Simsek, 2006; Hill et al., 2003;


Madsen, 2003; Shumate & Fulk, 2004) does not reflect the pervasiveness or ubiquity of

mobile technologies, nor does it fully reflect the supplemental nature of work that is

extending beyond office hours and office boundaries. When supplemental and mobile

work convergence to create an anytime, anywhere, always-on work environment, the

potential for conflict and imbalance is exacerbated (Menzies, 2005). Balance means

different things to different people, and the distinction between ‘work’ and ‘life’ is

problematic. The description of ‘family’ as being the core of life outside work is too

narrow (Ransome, 2007), while focusing on family alone as the key component to life

outside work excludes leisure and other non-family, non-work responsibilities (e.g.

contribution to local communities) (Guest, 2002). For expediency however, in this

chapter participants in the nonwork sphere of individuals’ lives are referred to as ‘friends’

and ‘family,’ and the non-work sphere is simply referred to as ‘life.’

In North America, the BlackBerry has become the device of choice for mobile email.

First attracting public notice for providing communication in New York City on

September 11, 2001 after much of the telecommunications infrastructure failed (see for

example “Downtown BlackBerry E-Mail Repository”), the BlackBerry experienced slow

but steady growth in subscriptions for its first few years. By early 2004, there were more

than 1 million BlackBerry subscribers, and by mid-2005, 3 million people had subscribed

(Research in Motion, 2004; Research in Motion, 2005) to this “iconic pocket-sized e-mail

device” (Economist Staff, 2005). A patent dispute in 2006 that threatened to shut down

BlackBerry service caused much 7consternation among users as they faced the potential

loss of their devices (Parks, 2006; Smith, 2006). Although rare, disruptions in service are

headline news (e.g. Vascellaro, Yuan, Sharma, & Rhoads, 2007). As of late 2007, there

were more than 10.5 million subscribers (Research in Motion, 2007), with growth

estimated at 1 million subscribers every three months (Sorensen, 2007). The

BlackBerry’s reputation, and continued success, rests upon its highly reliable, secure and

user-friendly email service – “It’s small and it works” (Estates Gazette Staff, 2005). The

device is a PDA and a mobile phone, and provides ‘push’ email functionality, delivering

messages as they are received without the need for users to take action to connect to the

internet. In many countries, before even stepping off an airplane, travelers can send and

receive email effortlessly by just turning on their BlackBerries. This simple device has

become indispensable for legions of business users around the world. It allows people to

check their email anywhere, and to respond to messages in an unobtrusive manner. It also

makes it very easy for individuals to carry their work with them, and to engage in work

activities in locations and at times that were previously ‘off limits.’


BlackBerry Usage Data:

The data that follow are drawn from popular press accounts of BlackBerry usage in the

past two years (2005-2007), as catalogued in the Factiva database. After a search on the

term 8‘BlackBerry’ yielded almost 60,000 ‘hits,’ the more restrictive term ‘Crackberry’

was used. While this approach excluded relevant articles about BlackBerry usage that did

not mention the word Crackberry, it does provide a good sample of articles that address

the tensions created as mobile technologies enable work to spill over into other aspects of

people’s lives. From a starting point of more than 1000 articles, a research team removed

duplicates and irrelevant articles, resulting in a final compilation of just over 200 articles

that discussed various aspects of BlackBerry (and other mobile device) usage in

individuals’ daily lives. The team then indexed the articlesin a bibliographic software

program and exported the texts into a qualitative data analysis program for thematic

analysis using a semi-structured coding protocol. It might be argued that BlackBerry

usage behaviours deemed newsworthy are extreme ones, and not representative of

‘ordinary’ BlackBerry users going about their daily lives. But the vivid examples

presented here do show the conflicts inherent in adopting mobile technologies to extend

supplemental work practices, and provide a focal point for discussing the implications of

continued uptake of work extending technologies. While the results may not be

generalizable, the anecdotes provided here are consistent with descriptions of BlackBerry

usage in a small scale study of Canadian BlackBerry users conducted in 2005 (Middleton

& Cukier, 2006; Middleton, Scheepers, & Cukier, 2005), and provide insights into users’

and non-users’ experiences of ‘mobile work extending technologies.’ In the section

below, data are presented to show how BlackBerries are used for supplemental work

away from the office. Descriptions of how the devices enable work-life balance for the

users are provided, followed by evidence from non-users that offer a contrary perspective

on the device’s role in balancing the work and non-work spheres.

Location of Use

BlackBerry users are described as “the ones hunched over like squirrels with a walnut,

thumbs flying manically, even at weddings, funerals and the movies.” A “devoted” user

reported using his BlackBerry during his wife’s stepfather’s funeral, a Congressman was

observed spending “a great deal of time on his BlackBerry during [Ash Wednesday]

service and prayer, both reading emails and sending emails.” Some users take their

BlackBerries into the shower (“keep[ing] it within view but dry”), and there are reports of

people who “accidentally dropped the device in the toilet.” One user described how he’d

“fallen asleep with it in his hands, read it as he ate, watched TV, waited in line, and while

playing soccer with [his] son.”

In describing the factors that led up to his divorce, a man says “the thing that really

brought it home to me was we were in an intimate moment in bed, and I lifted up my


head and I caught my wife checking her e-mail on the BlackBerry.” Not an isolated

incident, a doctor reported being asked by a patient “whether he thought it was abnormal

that her husband brings the BlackBerry to bed and lays it next to them while they make

love.” A woman describes a dream “about squirrels eating acorns. …And then I woke up,

and it was my husband, the tap, tap, tap, tap on the BlackBerry.” A man reports that

BlackBerry is “the last thing I check before going to sleep and the first thing I touch in

the morning.” Some people even use it in the middle of the night, including one man who

regularly checked email while getting up in the night with his newborn daughter. There

are many reports of drivers using BlackBerries (“It is actually scary to see people driving

in their cars receiving and sending e-mails”), and the devices also accompany their users

on vacation. BlackBerries can be found on the golf course, poolside or at the beach. A

man took his BlackBerry to Maui for his 10th anniversary celebration, and another “went

to Disneyland last year accompanied by his wife, their two children and his BlackBerry.

According to his wife, the BlackBerry drained much of the magic from the Magic

Kingdom.”

User Perceptions of Work-Life Balance

BlackBerries provide their users with a ‘24/7’ connection to their offices, and there is a

strong sentiment that the devices help provide balance in users’ lives. “I like to be

connected,” says a small business owner. “I don’t know what I would do without it. And

I’m much more likely to take vacation because of it. I have more work/life balance

because I carry my Treo [a Palm Pilot product with similar functionality to the

BlackBerry]; I feel less need to be in the office.” A lawyer describes how his BlackBerry

allows him to “go places and do things and still stay on top of my work… keep[ing] tabs

on the office, while hanging out with his kids.” BlackBerries allow their users to be

efficient, while spending time with friends and family – “If we’re standing in line for 40

minutes waiting for a ride [at Disneyland], I don’t see why I can’t answer my e-mail,”

says one user. When his son made the Little League all-star team, a man enthused that

“the BlackBerry allowed me to go to the game and still deal with some realtime issues we

had in the office.” A 2006 survey by recruitment firm Korn/Ferry found that “More than

one-third of 2,300 executives surveyed in 75 countries believed they spent too much time

connected to communications devices. But more than three-quarters, or 77 percent of

respondents, said they believe mobile communication devices primarily enhance their

work/life balance rather than impede it.”

An Alternative Perspective on Work-Life Balance

Many people, especially friends and family of BlackBerry users, do not share the belief

that BlackBerries create balance. This quote expresses a common sentiment – “She hates

that he’s a BlackBerry fiend, especially when he argues that using it leaves more time for

family.” The important people in users’ lives are not shy in expressing their opinions


about BlackBerry use in their environments. While a four-year old expressed her

displeasure at her mother’s BlackBerry 12usage by simply hiding the device, her seven

year old brother was more sophisticated in trying to flush it down a toilet. Immersing

BlackBerries in water seems to have broad appeal. “The winner of the British version of

The Apprentice, a reality TV show, has admitted that his wife has threatened to flush his

BlackBerry down the toilet,” a threat repeated by other users’ spouses. One wife “wanted

to pick it up and throw it into the swimming pool” (while on vacation) while another

“tried to throw it off the boat when [they] were on [their] honeymoon.” The Alex comic

strip regularly captures the frustrations of BlackBerry users’ families, as seen

below.Throwing the BlackBerry out a window was also suggested by an irate wife who

felt ignored by her husband. A husband remarked that he would not use his BlackBerry at

Christmas, for fear of watching his “BlackBerry crackling away on the fire along with the

Yule log.”

In some households, family members have adopted ‘rules of engagement’ for BlackBerry

use. This may mean a ban on using the BlackBerry on weekends, or a ban on use in

restaurants and the bedroom. Children help to discourage their parents’ BlackBerry

usage, “begging” them to stop using it at the table. One woman was surprised when her

daughter “literally applauded her decision to leave her BlackBerry behind when

vacationing.” Nevertheless, some people continue to use their BlackBerries, even when it

is very clear that such usage is not acceptable to others. Fearing discovery, users hide

their devices from spouses or family members but insist their behaviours are justified.

One user explains that “his BlackBerry actually alleviates maritaltension by allowing him

to secretly check his email and get work done during vacations with his wife.” Another

individual reports that checking his BlackBerry on vacation (while hiding in the

bathroom to do so) resulted in “A relaxed me, an unsuspecting girlfriend, a holiday

success.”

Analysis:

The data presented here show the pervasive usage of BlackBerries, and demonstrate the

conflicting assessment of the value of such devices. BlackBerries do enable people to be

Connected to their work from anywhere, at any time. This connectivity provides users

with great Comfort because it allows them to remain in contact with their jobs while

attending to other aspects of their lives. While there is no doubt that many users feel

pressured to remain connected to work at all hours, with some organizational cultures

reinforcing and validating this expectation (Middleton, 2007), users are adamant that

their BlackBerries allow them freedom, and contribute to work-life balance by allowing

them to spend more time with friends and family. But their friends and family often

resent the presence of the BlackBerry, seeing it as a means for users to extend their work

into spaces where work is not welcome. Rather than interpreting this as worklife balance,


friends and family view anytime, anywhere BlackBerry usage as always-on work. Rather

than experiencing less conflict as a result of being able to better manage their work and

life commitments, BlackBerry users may face increased conflict, as their friends and

family actively resist the device. BlackBerries have been successful because they can turn

any place into a work place, which is exactly the reason why they are reviled by those

who want to contain work within well-defined agreed upon boundaries.Clark’s (2000)

work/family border theory (described earlier) offers some insights to help understand the

data presented above. Of interest in this chapter is the border crossing from the work

domain into the family (non-work) domain, where work-family spillover is possible. The

14data show that when BlackBerry users cross from the work to the life (non-work)

sphere they frequently bring their BlackBerries ‘over the border.’ They are met by the

border-keeper, usually a spouse or significant other, as well as other domain members

(e.g. children). It is expected that upon crossing the border (which may be physical,

temporal or psychological), “domain-relevant behavior” (Clark, 2000, p. 756) takes

place.Applying the concept of border crossing to the data presented above generates

insights related to two themes. The first theme is described as the materialization of work,

in which a specific artifact, the BlackBerry, permeates the work-life border to bring work

into what is understood to be a non-work environment. The second theme relates to the

idea of ‘absent presence’ (Gergen, 2002), and can be seen here as a form of taunting.

Given its visibility and popularity, the BlackBerry has garnered more attention than other

devices, and it is likely a harbinger for more widespread uptake of mobile work

extending technologies. It is suggested that the observations made here are not device

dependent, but apply wherever mobile technologies are adopted to facilitate anytime,

anywhere supplementary work.

Materialization of Work:

Border theory suggests that there are acceptable behaviours for each sphere, and that

when a person crosses the border, he or she transitions to the norms of the sphere just

entered. Ashforth, Kreiner and Fugate (2000) note that these crossings involve exiting

one role and taking up another. The adoption of mobile technologies reduces the

likelihood that such role exit will actually occur when moving across the work-life

border, as the demands of the work role can continue to be met by using mobile

technologies in the life sphere. As such, a BlackBerry can be understood as a very visible

manifestation of work and of permeable work-life borders. When the device is taken

across the work-life border, it provides a clear indication that the user remains 15linked

to the work domain even though he or she is physically present in the non-work domain.

Even if the user leaves the device turned off, its mere presence signals that work is

possible. Users argue that this provides them with the flexibility to attend to their non-

work lives without neglecting work duties, but from the perspective of the domain

members this materialization of work shows that users have not left the work domain.


Prior to the widespread adoption of mobile devices, it was easier to contain work within

physical and temporal boundaries. While spillover of work into the non-work domain has

always been a potential source of conflict, what has changed with the uptake of mobile

work extending technologies is that temporal and physical boundaries are more easily

breached. It is easy to take a BlackBerry to a social event (dinner party, baseball game) or

to check email while lying in bed or while sitting by the pool on vacation. Users view

such behaviours as freeing themselves from the physical constraints of the office, but for

their friends and family, work is now visibly occupying times and spaces in the non-work

domain that were previously off-limits. The device that enables this extension of work

acts as a ‘lightning rod,’ attracting attention to the presence of work. Despite users’ best

efforts to be discrete when using BlackBerries in ‘inappropriate’ settings, its presence

draws attention to work. Because it is so pervasive, and provides a persistent visual

reminder that work has infiltrated the non-work domain, the BlackBerry has become an

obvious target for criticism and a flashpoint for work-family conflict. The device may

well act as a proxy for broader dissent about differential expectations regarding work-life

balance, increasing the intensity of resistance to the device and explaining why its very

appearance can provoke such ire and emotion from users’ friends and families.

Absent Presence: How Mobile Devices Taunt Non-Users:

Not only does the BlackBerry bring a visible manifestation of work into the home and

other 16non-work environments, it can also psychologically remove users from the non-

work environment and return them to a work mindset. As has been mentioned,

BlackBerry users feel that the device allows them to balance work and life domains,

because they can attend to work needs while outside the workplace. But although

physically present in the non-work domain, whenever users engage with their

BlackBerries, they are removing themselves from their present environment and focusing

their attention elsewhere. Described by Gergen (2002) as ‘absent presence’ and by

Fortunati (2002) as ‘present absence’ this behaviour taunts those around the user by

providing the appearance of attention to, or participation in the non-work domain, while

actually remaining grounded in the work domain. Users pride themselves on the fact that

their BlackBerries allow them to at ttend events and participate in activities that they

would have missed in the days before mobile technologies, yet arguably, they are still

missing such events by engaging with their devices, rather than with their physical

environment. In the past, people with heavy work commitments would have met these

commitments by staying at the office to complete the work, or by confining their work to

a specific location within their non-work domain (e.g. a home office), and not

participating in the non-work domain. BlackBerries allow the work to be done anywhere,

satisfying users that they are achieving balance, but frustrating their friends and family by

making it more obvious that work is spilling over into non-work times and spaces. Given

the particular reactions that BlackBerry use in the non-work domain provokes, . In the


name of participating in activities with families and friends, BlackBerry users join the

non-work environment, and promote the appearance of being engaged with it, but can at

any time ‘step out’ of the environment to return to work. From the perspective of

BlackBerry users, the guilt of missing an activity is removed or at least mitigated, but

from the perspective of family and friends, it appears that the BlackBerry exacerbates the

awareness of work-life imbalance.

Discussion and Conclusions:

The anecdotes of BlackBerry usage presented here show how actions that knowledge

workers take to balance their work activities with their personal lives can result in

conflict. By materializing work, mobile work extending technologies like BlackBerries

can become the centre of attention when used outside the office, and provide a focal point

for discontent among friends and family members. Likewise, efforts at being present in

the non-work environment are not always met with approval. Although the workers make

a special effort to engage with their friends and family by participating in events and

activities, the fact that they bring their BlackBerries with them triggers resentment.

Rather than appreciating the worker’s presence in the non-work environment, attention is

focused on the absences created when the worker engages with his or her job through a

mobile device.It is likely that the workers do not fully understand their friends and family

members’ disdain for their devices (and equally likely that friends and family do not

understand the demanding nature of the work environment that does expect workers to be

connected and available outside business hours). Towers et al. (2006) found that heavy

users of work extending technologies believed that their families understood their need to

work during family time, and although they recognized that heavy usage could be

problematic, individuals felt that they were doing a good job of controlling the extent to

which their technology use was spilling over into their personal lives. This justification of

individual work practices indicates that workers believe their approach of combining

work and non-work activities is both effective and appropriate. This approach to work-

life balance is comparable to the ‘integrating the self’ repertoire identified by Golden and

Gessler (2007), in which PDA users explicitly used their devices to transcend, rather than

contain, work-life boundaries. Felstead and Jewson (2000) identify segregated and

integrated approaches to creating work-life boundaries. The integrated approach, which

was adopted by the BlackBerry users described here, is based on weak temporal and

spatial separation of work and non-work domains. In their study comparing different

types of mobile work, Hislop and Axtell (2007) showed that an integrated approach

provided less worklife balance than a segregated approach. This study provides no point

of comparison to determine whether a more segregated approach to BlackBerry adoption

would have resulted in less work-life conflict, but it does show that the integrated

approach that was adopted did not sit well with friends and family. This is an interesting

finding, because one of the key affordances of mobile work extending technologies like


BlackBerries is that they allow users to integrate their home and work lives, and to

maintain open boundaries between the two. This study suggests that while this works for

the BlackBerry users, it may not work for those around them. It is possible that the covert

uses are a response to the shortcomings of an integrated approach, allowing individuals to

avoid disapproval and conflict by reverting to absence and secrecy to conduct their work

in non-work domains.

BlackBerries and other mobile work extending technologies are still relatively new, and it

is likely that the ways in which they are used will evolve over time. There is some

evidence of users adopting more structured approaches to keep their work and personal

lives in balance (Jackson, 2007), but the usage patterns portrayed here are the dominant

ones at present. As noted earlier, for many users the appeal of the BlackBerry or other

mobile devices is that they do enable anytime, anywhere work, functionality which has

been constructed by users as a means of controlling their busy, demanding lives and

enhancing work-life balance. As such, it is expectedthat the usage patterns documented

here and the conflict such usage engenders will continue. This raises a number of

questions to be considered by those adopting mobile technologies to support

supplemental work, and by researchers interested in the intersection of mobility and

supplemental work.

• What are the longer-term implications of work-life conflict that is exacerbated by the

adoption of mobile devices? Are there ways of mitigating the conflict? What actions

could be taken to achieve better fit between the users’ real needs to remain connected to

work while away from the office, and the demands of their non-work environments? Can

users learn to temper their addict-like attention to their devices, while those around them

accept that some usage is necessary? Are there alternatives to covert use that meet the

needs of users and their friends and families?

• What are the broader forces driving users’ compulsive attachment to mobile work

extending technologies? Are the devices truly addictive, or do users exhibit signs of being

addicted to their work? What can be learned from an extensive reading of the literature

on workaholism (see for example Burke, 2006; Kofodimos, 1993; Porter, 2006)? e.g. Do

choices that users make with respect to favouring their work domains over non-work

ones suggest deeper issues regarding their relationships with each domain?

• What are the broader cultural and societal forces driving such behaviours? Why do

organizations support uses that can have negative impacts on their employees’ personal

lives (and potentially reduce overall productivity and effectiveness)? Why do employees

feel such compulsion to remain connected to their offices and to work all the time? To

what extent is supplemental work really necessary? This chapter contributes to our

understanding of technology enabled mobile work by providing insights into the usage of

mobile technologies to support supplemental work. By definition, supplemental work


occurs outside the office, and with the advent of ubiquitous, user friendly communication

devices, it can be, and is, done from anywhere, at anytime. The chapter shows that claims

that mobile technologies facilitate work-life balance are one-sided, and applies border

theory to explain how current uses can increase work-life conflict by materializing work

and taunting family and friends with absent presence. Given that the adoption of mobile

work extending technologies is expected to increase, it is important that all those affected

by their usage consider how to make such usage more favourable to all. There are more

questions than answers at present. The convergence of supplemental work and mobile

technologies raises complex issues that require much more nuanced analysis and a greater

grounding in the literature than can be provided within a single book chapter. Issues of

gender and power were not addressed here but must be considered. It is also important to

determine the extent to which individuals and organizations are willing to move toward

an environment of always-on, anytime, anywhere work. What do people really want, and

how can they ensure that their needs are not subsumed by corporate agendas and

unfettered, uncritical adoption of technologies? In 1988, Bailyn wrote that “Information

technology makes it possible to free work from the constraints of location and time” (p.

149). Today the challenge is to free location and time from the constraints of work.


CS:2. Managing Mobile Work - Insights from European Practice

Introduction

The success of organizations depends to a large extent on the effort and performance of

their workforce. Knowledgeable, productive, and flexible employees contribute

significantly to firm competitiveness. In order to achieve flexibility, many companies

adopt ICTs that support mobility, context- and location-awareness, networking and

ambient interfaces. Mobile communication technology proves to be the most popular

application with the most dynamic growth rates in the last decade. Better quality (e.g.

mobile broadband connectivity and specialised mobile work solutions) and decreasing

costs, paved the way for the emergence of the so called mobile (tele-)worker in the

workforce of the European Union. The share of mobile (tele-)workers is already more

than 6% in Finland and over 5,5% for Germany.

The introduction of new mobile work environments in practice, attracted the attention of

scientific researchers from various research disciplines, such as information systems

research, management research as well as social theory and architecture and design. So

far, research on mobile work is in its early stages and definitions and concepts of mobility

are still emerging. Early work has focused on the geographical or spatial mobility of

workers, which is criticised for being a too narrow focus. Andriessen and Vartiainen

extended the concept of mobility to virtual mobility, which includes stationary actors

moving "with the help of ICTs in a virtual working space". Kakihara and Sørensen

postulate three interrelated aspects of worker mobility: location mobility concerned with

the workers’ extensive geographical movement, operational mobility in relation to

flexible operation as an independent unit of business, and interaction mobility associated

with their intense and fluid interaction with a wide range of people. As such, aspects of

collaboration can also widely change due to new qualities of ICT.

Objectives :

The objective is to provide a systematic and comparable overview of current mobile work

practice. Enablers and barriers for the adoption of these new innovative work practices

are discussed. The research takes on a user centric perspective, involving the

organisational decision makers and users of mobile work applications.

Methodology :

In-depth case studies were conducted. Whenever possible, we used triangulation to

validate the interview outcomes by interviewing strategic level representatives, process

owners and users. In order to compare the cases of researchers in the different countries

an interview guideline was developed on basis of our work environment benchmarking

framework .


The benchmarking framework consists of eight dimensions: 1) technology

progressiveness, 2) mobile value proposition, 3) mobility concept, 4) size, 5) social

impacts, 6) change efforts in implementation process, 7) enablers / barriers, 8) near term

developments. Each dimension was defined in detail and broken down to specific sets of

questions for the personal interviews. Dimensions 1 to 4 were used for the comparative

analysis of the cases. The dimensions were further defined in specified criteria sets and

rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Dimensions 5 to 8 helped the authors to identify issues

related to the success of mobile work environments. A "technology-value-matrix" was

used to visualize dimension 1 to 4 of the comparative analysis. Four specific sectors of

the matrix have been defined and a set of characteristic and implications per sector is

used to categorize the cases.

Case Analysis

The case studies range from small to medium enterprises to large corporations from

different industries and include private as well as public organizations. The cases stem

from various countries in Europe and deal with a variety of mobile work applications.

This article features selected cases, dealing with mobile sales force, mobile emergence

response applications and mobile patient data. For extended documentation of cases

please refer to [18]. Table 1 provides an overview of the cases.

Hero Food Vendor

Hero focuses on branded retail business and selected b2b markets for packaged food. Its

major products include fruit-marmalade, fruit-juices, fruit-bars and baby food. The

company generates revenues of ~1 bn. €. In Switzerland the company employs 270

people. The mobile sales force (MSF) solution is based on SAP "mobile sales" and tablet

PCs. It is a so called “offline MSF solution” – requiring wired synchronization via DSL.

It has no permanent online connectivity. In total 27 sales representatives are supported in

Switzerland. They serve restaurants, specialist retail sales points, totaling to 40.000

Switzerland. Each sales representative covers between 600 and 1.200 customers in a

dedicated region. The employee works from home, in the car and at the client site. A

presence in the company's office is not required. The company makes use of standard

technologies that are combined into a working solution. However, certain shortcomings

can be recognized; e.g. a lack of integration with companywide software environment, a

dynamic upgrade of the electronic product catalogue according to customer profile and

new marketing campaigns. The software solution is also not easily scalable to an

international level, since it has been adapted to the specific Swiss sales organization.

Both facts limit the generation of scale effects. The benefits of the solution include a

more advanced appearance of the sales people in front of the client. The improved

customer records allow for central marketing planning and controlling compare to the

former situation where most of the customer knowledge used to be stored in the heads of


the sales men. As a result, sales representatives can be better controlled and rewarded.

The company does not realize more customer contacts per person because daily updates

of customer base data compensate time gains from faster customer information access.

However, the customer contacts can be planned better with improved targeted product

and cross selling offering. The improved sales process allowed the company to acquire

sales activities from other companies in the same market. An integration of the external

sales data was only possible due to the use of the digital sales and marketing database. In

summary this case shows a mobile work environment that enables the company to gain

revenue by the acquisition of customers business. As such, it is one example for a

strategic benefit, compared to the other cases, that resemble mere operational efficiency

gains. Accordingly, the case scores high on the mobile value axis. The technology

progressiveness however, yields below average scores since it not based on current soft-

and hardware versions and lacks full system integration.

Customs Agency

This case study concerns the external control of trade goods. In 2004 an experiment was

performed with a few custom controllers in each of the four geographical sectors of the

Customs Agency in the area of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The controller’s task is to

perform customs related controls at premises of clients, on roadside trucks, at Rotterdam

harbour or Schiphol Airport. At present, controllers come each day to the office where

they get assignments on paper, which they execute that day. Completed forms are

brought back to the office after the controls. In future, the allocation of assignments is

delivered via GPRS to PDA’s or laptops; during control digital forms are filled in and

central databases may be consulted on-line, filled-in forms are returned electronically.

The purpose of the experiment was to develop a more automated and streamlined work

processes and to test the use of certain devices (laptops, smartphones, tablet PCs) for the

controllers. The work process implies that assignments are generated by planners and

send to central control rooms. In the control rooms the assignments are allocated to the

controllers. Their tasks are differentiated according to planned and ad hoc assignments,

known and unknown clients. Controllers may be specialized in certain areas such as

strategic goods, weapons, drugs or textiles. The customs agency relied on proven

technology for the mobile work solution. Standard internet connectivity and access

gateways where used in the case. The organization tested different end-devices as

personal equipment for the controllers to be used in different physical environments.

Relying on proven technology resulted in limited technical problems and moderate need

for employee up-skilling. However, the experiment identified some technical issues in the

area of data transfer speed, battery duration, and certain ergonomic conditions, e.g. use of

the tools in rough environments like freeze-cabins. The mobile work solution allows for

better control of and more efficiency in work processes by immediate remote data

exchange. The solution also allows for higher flexibility of task assignment and


execution, and a higher probability of discovering frauds. As a result, goods can be

cleared much faster for the client with fewer disturbances of client logistics.

In summary, the new work solution increased employee motivation and is expected to

improve the outside image of the agency. Profit and loss implications have not been part

of the experiment. We rate the overall value impact fairly high, since the set up of a

running solution, and the reduction of the administrative work generates a well-perceived

motivation- and image-impulse for the agency. The technology progressiveness can be

characterized as below average since it is based on proven applications and has

improvement potential regarding personalization or localization and systems integration.

Nuon

Nuon is a national distributor of gas and electricity in The Netherlands, generating 4.9 bn.

€ in 2004. The company employs 9,638 people. This case study involves the unit

Disturbances and Maintenance (343 employees). This is a special case in the area of

mobile working as the unit responds to (unplanned) emergencies to more than 65%.

Currently, the response team of maintenance employees starts their work at the office.

From the office they go out to their various assignments of their team of usually 14-20

people. Support is possible by means of telephone contact with a central helpdesk for

municipal information on power cables. The helpdesk is also consulted for arranging the

responsibilities when solving e.g. a power failure and to make optimal use of individual

expertises. The introduction of the new mobility work concept enables members of the

response team to start their work from their own home. The distribution and allocation of

the various assignments is done through a smart allocation system. The new system takes

various aspects into account, such as the skill and clearance levels of the employee,

location specific information, etc. Employees may choose to use either a PDA with less

functionality or a more advanced Tablet-PC with GPS and GPRS (later on UMTS) for the

more advanced and critical assignments. Through these devices the field service

employees can check for power grid layouts or installation schemes themselves.

On basis of GPS information the device enables field service engineer to locate the right

power switch in public areas. When the switch is located the device enables a direct link

to the right scheme for the switch in the database. This functionality reduces the risk of

accidents due to possible failures of the field service employees. Nuon uses a special

custom made application since adjusting an of-the-shelve software package would take

more effort to fit in the organizational back office applications, and would incur higher

cost. A connection is planned to be made to the Web-GIS, providing actual location-

based information on power lines and other underground infrastructure. Web-GIS has

been set up as a portal application that encompasses all the other Nuon Information

Databases (e.g. repair schemes). For Nuon the mobility concept is vital for maintaining

their service levels to their customers. As response times to power outages are regulated


by European Law, mobile solutions are necessary to obtain these target response time.

The following three reasons for the introduction of mobile work at Nuon were stated:

• Increasing safety of employees when solving power failures

• Centralization of failure-registration and solving time in order to build problem history

• Improvement of response times to increase network quality

The rating in terms of technology progressiveness and mobile value proposition in is

above average, resembling Nuon's substantial investment in custom-built but thoroughly

integrated mobile field force solution. Response team to start their work from their own

home. The distribution and allocation of the various assignments is done through a smart

allocation system. The new system takes various aspects into account, such as the skill

and clearance levels of the employee, location specific information, etc. Employees may

choose to use either a PDA with less functionality or a more advanced Tablet-PC with

GPS and GPRS (later on UMTS) for the more advanced and critical assignments.

Through these devices the field service employees can check for power grid layouts or

installation schemes themselves. On basis of GPS information the device enables field

service engineer to locate the right power switch in public areas. When the switch is

located the device enables a direct link to the right scheme for the switch in the database.

This functionality reduces the risk of accidents due to possible failures of the field service

employees. Nuon uses a special custom made application since adjusting an of-the-shelve

software package would take more effort to fit in the organizational back office

applications, and would incur higher cost. A connection is planned to be made to the

Web-GIS, providing actual location-based information on power lines and other

underground infrastructure. Web-GIS has been set up as a portal application that

encompasses all the other Nuon Information Databases (e.g. repair schemes). For Nuon

the mobility concept is vital for maintaining their service levels to their customers. As

response times to power outages are regulated by European Law, mobile solutions are

necessary to obtain these target response time. The following three reasons for the

introduction of mobile work at Nuon were stated:

• Increasing safety of employees when solving power failures

• Centralization of failure-registration and solving time in order to build problem history

• Improvement of response times to increase network quality

The rating in terms of technology progressiveness and mobile value proposition in Fig. 2

is above average, resembling Nuon's substantial investment in custom-built but

thoroughly integrated mobile field force solution.


Emergency Medical Service

The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is an organization of 70 employees focusing on

emergency and patient transports. The service area comprises the city and agglomeration

of Basel - a 40 km service area with 250.000 inhabitants in the north of Switzerland. The

organization operates 11 rescue cars and handles about. 20.000 incidents per year, of

which 50% are emergency cases. The mobile work solution includes a digital dispatch

station in the control centre (3 seats) and a mobile fleet management application. The

control centre records incidents and assigns jobs to the rescue teams in the vans. The

mobile data transport is done via GPRS to the vans. A mobile order confirmation back-

reports the status of the rescue process. The entire solution consists of four main parts:

the on board unit, the network and server infrastructure and the dispatch centre work

station. The on board unit in the car consists of a touch screen, an easy login and user

identification with a personal batch of the team leader, a printer, the GPS system and the

GPRS radio. The GPRS network covers the entire service area. In the control room, the

organization operates three fully equipped dispatch terminals. The dispatch and fleet

management solution has improved the operation of the EMS at reasonable operational

expenses. The OPEX is less than 10 € cents per incident. At the same time the

information availability in the car improved (incident description, location and routing

information). This goes together with higher speed and accuracy, the data exchange

between mobile ambulance man and dispatcher happens almost in real time. The system-

response-time is below two seconds. Further, the organization better complies with

regulatory requirements (e.g. incident documentation, response times, etc.). For ex-post

case analysis, the system makes detailed statistics available in central office (e.g.

performance controlling). Bottom line, however, accounting for the investment in

hardware and technology the new process resulted in a zero sum game. Furthermore, as

an early technology adopter the implementation process became longer than planned.

Frimley Park Hospital

This case study was conducted at the National Health Service Trust hospital serving the

Surrey area in southeast of the UK. The hospital treats 75,000 patients per year, manages

700-beds, employs a staff of around 2,500 and generates an annual turnover of almost

150 million €. The Frimley Park Hospital introduced a mobile online access to patient

data for medical staff whilst working in the hospital premises. The solution is available

for both doctors and nursing staff. In total some 60 devices located at nurse station are

used as required by approximately 200 doctors and nurses. WLAN technology is used as

access bearer. The system has been tested in a series of pilot trials carried out in August

2004. At present, the system is up and running and widely used in 12 wards. The hospital

is characterized as an early adopter of the mobile work solution in the health industry.

The main motivators lay in a need to increase quality and cost of the X-ray procedures


and the need to comply with government regulations. Because the resolution of the digital

image is now high enough to ensure quality of the X-ray diagnosis and cost effective it

was decided to upgrade the X-ray procedure. Changing the process provided an

opportunity to look at new technology to deliver a better IT service to both the medical

staff and to the patient. The second driver for change was the upcoming requirement for

web based NHS Care Records Service to be harmonized across the UK and accessible

from anywhere. The mobile data access solution was well adopted by medicals staff,

resulting in a number of benefits:

• Indirect collateral benefits - better bed usage, patient release five hours earlier

• Time saved in accessing data and information per treatment

• Comply with the stringent government requirements for reporting

• Motivated workforce – seen that they are provided with top quality IT and that it works

• The mobile technology costs were offset by update to Digital X-ray process.

Due to the technological advance and the cost benefit generated by the case, we rank it

clearly above average on both dimensions.

Results - Status Quo of Mobile Work

Figure 2 depicts the assessment of the cases along their technology progressiveness and

their mobile value proposition. The individual ratings have been discussed in the section

4. For further illustration, we highlight and explain the extreme-ratings along each

dimension. All but the hospital and the Hero case allow for global mobility of the work

force, since they are based on GPRS connectivity. The medicines in hospital are

restricted to in-house areas, that are covered with WLAN and Hero sales men need to

synchronise their data by use of a fix-net broadband access, which is in most cases done

in their home offices. The investments in the mobile work environment range from below

50.000 € in the pilot at the customs agency to over 500.000 € at Nuon and Hero.

Regarding technology progressiveness, Nuon ranges higher then the other cases, since the

soft- and hardware solution have been selected and customised to Nuon's specific

requirements, determined mainly by the existing software line-up. The customs agency

copied a proven mobile field force system from another company and set it up as an

island solution, i.e. without integration with existing back-office applications or

database.In terms of value generation, the Hero case ranges highest since the mobile

sales application enabled the company not only to introduce a sophisticated central

marketing and sales planning, which helped them to stabilise revenues in a decreasing

market but also acquire additional sales activities from another company in the market. In

contrast, the rating of the mobile response solution at the emergency service is lowest in


our assessment. The following sub-chapters will elaborate on the two main dimensions of

the assessment.

Technology

Mobile technology turns out to be generally used to further improve the automation of

work processes. Developments in mobile work are part of a steady move towards further

automation – however, technology is far from being well implemented. Most of the

illustrated mobile work environments provide further potential for integration with

adjacent systems. This is caused by a lack of holistic planning for business processes or

by a lack of technical functionalities. The lack of technical functionalities appears in

early adopter cases, where the compatibility to adjacent software systems could not be

achieved as planned. This notion is confirmed by market research, where "integration

complexity with linked ERP, email, legacy applications, [and challenges of] business

process re-engineering" are ranked as second most important restraint for mobile sales

force applications [19]. In terms of human interface design none of cases utilised

advanced hard- or software for mobile working. Regarding connectivity, companies do

use GPRS and to a certain extend UMTS connectivity. However, some of the

organisations prefer to connect via faster and more cost efficient solutions, such as

WLAN or fixed broadband connectivity. Finally, contextualisation, which is one of the

long discussed features and advantages of mobile technology [20] is rarely used in

current practice of mobile work.

Mobile Value

Today's mobile work environments do create value. However, most value is created

within selected functions or divisions – value chain integration is seldom found. Most of

the mobile work environments support employees that have worked mobile in one or the

other way before. Thus, the way of working was not subject to a radical change. The

investment in mobile work environments of the reported cases vary y and show different

approaches of implementation managment. Most of the interviewees, independent from

that fact if they were early or late adopters, found it challenging to quickly make a mobile

work solution beneficial to the organisation. However, as soon as a mobile work solution

is up and running, the organisations report clearly positive effects on the motivation of

employees and image of the company. An early user involvement and a strong top

management support has repeatedly been stated an important factor for success. Profound

performance controlling could not be identified in any case.

Business Benefits - Near term value driver

The analysis of cases shows that adequate skills, sufficient commitment and a systematic

preparation are key enablers to the success of mobile work environments. This applies to

the planning and implementation of the mobile work solution and also to the operation,


which includes the usage as well as support activities. Based on the current practice

assessment, we postulate distinct areas for improvement to increase sustainability of

mobile work designs. To achieve a stronger mobile value propositions, adopters should

address:

• Integration along value chains, including the development of mechanisms supporting

cross company integration of m- and e-work to avoid silo solutions. Objectives should be

improved system and organisation interfaces and a balanced collaboration incentive

structure.

• Faster organisational adaptation: Management should increase flexibility of processes,

organisations and regulation and address the determinants of ICT competencies among

employees [21] to adapt faster to technological opportunities.

• Maintain workforce motivation: It is imperative to maintain social cohesion and the

“thinking” employee for critical tasks. Automation should be pursued when appropriate

(e.g. repetitive and low involvement tasks) and alternative tasks should be promoted for

compensation. To increase technology progressiveness, technical solutions should allow

more flexible integration with adjacent systems (e.g. the seamless use of GPS information

in mobile work processes) and a less complicated deployment across divisions, functions,

and countries.


5. Conclusion The transition to the digital economy is fuelled by technology. However it would be

unwise to focus solely on the technology. A focus on mobile technology rather than

mobility would be to miss the point. The digital economy is about people. How to

maximize human potential must be the focus. And given that humans are social animals

then technologies that support collaboration are very important.

This is a fascinating period in man’s history. As we transition from the industrial to the

digital economy, we are witnessing a return to work-life integration. Eventually

employers will embrace this new model to everyone’s advantage. It is likely that

historians will look at the industrial era as a blip in the history of mankind when he was at

his most disconnected.

On basis of our detailed case analysis we have identified key enablers and possible

barriers for the success of mobile work environments. Providing adequate skills to the

mobile workforce and having sufficient commitment are important factors. Another

source for success is to allocate sufficient time for a systematic planning. Potential

barriers are the threat of organisational fragmentation, a possible increase of

administrative activities due to the nature of digital devices, limitations of decision

capabilities and self management due to the “automation of humans”, and a lack of

employee autonomy, which in turn will reduce employee motivation. Further research is

needed in order to identify the different enactments of the various mobile practices within

different cultures and industries. Through such analyses companies will be able to adapt

their mobile work practices more carefully and designers of mobile solutions may benefit

from the detailed lists of requirements which comes forward from the growing research

into mobile work in practice.


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Education

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