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This study extends work from home (WFH) literature by recasting WFH performances that emphasise agents’ manipulation of scene. Drawing on the dramatist paradigm, the study uses Burke’s pentadic criticism to code the social media application Pinterest’s ‘work from home’ and ‘home office’ pinboards for act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose. Pinterest is a social media application that users post pins (images with verbal tags and link to external sites, especially blog sites) and collect pins by subject on an electronic pinboard, which other users can like, follow, and share. Analysis of WFH pins reveals that the agent–scene ratio saturates pins emphasising the agency of WFH agents to control their scenes or home office spaces. The idealism of the agent–scene ratio in pins further demonstrates an unrealistic approach to popular culture’s shift to WFH and a romanticisation of WFH as idyllic working conditions. Scripts for employees and employers are explored to equip them with the rhetorical resources to more closely align their agent–scene ideals with the scene–agent realities.

Theeuwes and Adriaansen (1994), among others, have asserted that activity-based costing (ABC) is inappropriate for operational decision-making. In this article, ABC is modified to reflect separate flexible and committed cost driver rates for an activity. This enables the model to reflect the difference in the behavior of an activity’s flexible and committed costs needed for operational planning decisions. The modified ABC facilitates determining the resources required to produce the product mix developed from the firm’s strategic plan and the excess capacity that will result. The modifications made to ABC aid in determining an optimal product mix when the firm has excess capacity, while the traditional ABC may not. Equally important, it facilitates measuring the financial implications of the resource allocation decisions that comprise the firm’s operational plan. As the operational plan is implemented, operational control is used to ensure that it is performed in an efficient and effective manner. The modified ABC enables the firm’s managers to compute the different types of deviations that arise from using flexible and committed resources at the unit, batch, and product levels of the firm’s operations. This aids in understanding problematic aspects of the firm’s operations and identifying where management resources are needed to improve operational efficiency.

New Ways of Working seems to change the leadership agenda. Activity-based working and home-based work lead to different behaviors of employees. Supervising styles will change from command-and-control toward goal-setting-and-trust. This chapter describes the trend and provides new data on the actual use and effectiveness of these new supervision styles. It appears to be a mix of different leadership styles, such as leading by vision, setting targets and control on output, providing trust.

This chapter applies the Consortium for Advanced Management, International (CAM-I) Activity-Based Cost Management (ABC/M) tool to paratransit. The intent is to enable agencies sponsoring rides to save money through sharing rides and vehicle-time.

Several paratransit cost-allocation models from Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) and other sources are reviewed and one is adapted to the ABC/M methodology, based upon the author’s previous work proportionately allocating ride time among sponsoring agencies at a consolidated human service transportation agency and the price sheets used in contracted operations to minimize financial risk.

Through application of the principles of ABC/M, paratransit providers can properly allocate costs, determine the costs of providing proposed new services, plan for future vehicle acquisitions, and motivate their customers to tailor their transportation needs in a manner that will save them money and boost efficiency.

University-based transportation studies programs may be motivated to apply these strategies to urban and rural paratransit providers that serve several customer agencies.

If agencies sponsoring paratransit rides understand that funds can purchase more rides during off-peak hours or if rides are shared with clients of other agencies, then paratransit resources can be used more efficiently and to the benefit of more individuals.

By enabling the provision of more rides, a greater number of riders will be enabled to reach necessary services and participate in community life.

This is the first application of the ABC/M methodology to paratransit (and transit) and possibly to social services.

Purpose — In this paper we describe a total design data collection method (expanding the definition of the usual “total design” terminology used in typical household travel surveys) to emphasize the need to describe individual and group behaviors embedded within their spatial, temporal, and social contexts.

Methodology/approach — We first offer an overview of recently developed modeling and simulation applications predominantly in North America followed by a summary of the data needs in typical modeling and simulation modules for statewide and regional travel demand forecasting. We then proceed to describe an ideal data collection scheme with core and satellite survey components that can inform current and future model building. Mention is also made to the currently implemented California Household Travel Survey that brings together multiple agencies, modeling goals, and data collection component surveys.

Findings — The preparation of this paper involved reviewing emerging transportation modeling approaches and paradigms, policy questions, and behavioral issues and considerations that are important in the multimodal transportation planning context. It was found that many of the questions being asked of policy makers in the transportation domain require a deep understanding of the interactions and constraints under which individuals make activity-travel choices, the learning processes at play, and the attitudes and perceptions that shape ways in which people adjust their travel behavior in response to policy interventions. Based on the work, it was found that many of the traditional travel survey designs are not able to provide the comprehensive data needed to estimate activity-based model systems that truly capture the full range of behavioral considerations and phenomena of importance.

Originality/value of paper — This paper offers a review of the emerging transportation modeling approaches and behavioral paradigms of importance in activity-based travel demand forecasting. The paper discusses how traditional travel survey designs are inadequate to meet the data needs of emerging modeling approaches. Based on a review of all of the data needs and new data collection methods that are making it possible to observe a full range of human behaviors, the paper offers a total survey data collection design that brings together many different surveys and data collection protocols. The core household travel survey is augmented by a full slate of special purpose surveys that together yield a rich behavioral database for activity-based microsimulation modeling. The paper is a valuable reference for transportation planners and modelers interested in developing data collection enterprises that will feed the next generation of transportation models.

New Ways of Working practices like activity-based working and home-based work lead to different behaviors of employees. Due to these NWW practices, employees choose their own preferred times and places to work – albeit to a certain extent and within certain boundaries. This might have an impact on the possibilities for teamwork. Therefore, we suppose that teamwork and teamwork behaviors might moderate the relationship between NWW and outcomes. Does teamwork behavior have an influence on the relation of NWW and productivity or organizational commitment? And how, is it a positive or a negative influence on these relations? This chapter reports the results of an explorative study on the relationship between NWW practices, teamwork behavior, productivity, and organizational commitment. Quantitative data from the questionnaire will illustrate the main issues: the complex linkages between the four components of NWW, the outcome variables, and the effect of different components of teamwork behavior. This chapter describes the issue of teamwork and provides new data on the actual use and effectiveness of the different components of teamwork behaviors.