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Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Ian Watson and David Joseph Lightfoot

This paper presents a definition of mobile working. The paper looks at mobile and remote working and then the benefits are of these forms of working. It also outlines the…

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Abstract

This paper presents a definition of mobile working. The paper looks at mobile and remote working and then the benefits are of these forms of working. It also outlines the limitations of mobile and remote working. The paper goes on to detail the type of mobile working used by Connexions (an organisation that formerly titled the Tyne and Wear Careers Service) what hardware and software are used by the company and how it is used. The paper concludes by identifying what the future holds for Connexions with this form of working. It argues that the staff expectations are not fully met by the technology now available.

Details

Facilities, vol. 21 no. 13/14
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 November 2023

Ylenia Curzi, Barbara Pistoresi and Gaetano Francesco Coppeta

This article responds to the call for more research on mobile work by exploring how the aspirations of these workers relate to job satisfaction through adaptation to the job…

Abstract

Purpose

This article responds to the call for more research on mobile work by exploring how the aspirations of these workers relate to job satisfaction through adaptation to the job characteristics they experience.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on aspiration theory and the literature on mobile work, the paper examines how mobile workers form aspirations and how this is related to their perception of job satisfaction. The empirical analysis uses a two-tier stochastic frontier analysis and the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey dataset.

Findings

Mobile workers formulate higher aspirations than the working conditions they experience and report lower levels of job satisfaction than other types of workers. They revise their aspirations downwards when they experience autonomy, discretion, performance-related pay schemes, relation-oriented leadership while they increase their aspirations when they experience work intensification and discrimination.

Originality/value

This paper provides new insights into the work perceptions of mobile workers and enriches existing research by highlighting the importance of the study of individual aspirations to advance understanding of the complex dynamics of mobile work.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2022

Curt A. Gilstrap, Srishti Srivastava and Cristina M. Gilstrap

This study aims to investigate the ways mobile hybrid team members make sense of their teamwork.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the ways mobile hybrid team members make sense of their teamwork.

Design/methodology/approach

Using surveys, this study examined 579 US-based mobile hybrid team members as they discussed their professional team activities. Leximancer software determined, through frequency and co-occurrence analysis of survey-resulting unstructured data sets, the themes mobile hybrid team members use to make sense of their teamwork.

Findings

Participants included the concepts Team, Technology, Communication, Context and Time relative to 25 specific content themes within their talk about teamwork. While thematic clusters such as Team and Communication were densely packed, Technology and Time co-occurred more widely in support of other content themes within the mobile hybrid team member data set. This suggests mobile technologies pervade mobile hybrid team members’ sensemaking about their work.

Originality/value

A first of its kind inquiry into how mobile hybrid team members make sense of work and performance within their teams, this study highlights the need to explore further how mobile hybrid team members frame and enact technological processes as integral to their organizational work and team outcomes.

Details

Team Performance Management: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7592

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Article
Publication date: 22 November 2011

Sari Mäkinen and Pekka Henttonen

All organisations may not have the same motivations for investing in records management. For some organisations the benefits of records management are more important than for

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Abstract

Purpose

All organisations may not have the same motivations for investing in records management. For some organisations the benefits of records management are more important than for others. It can be hypothesised that an organisation with a “natural” motivation for records management controls records processes more thoroughly than an organisation without a similar motivation. However, it is not understood how organisational context affects records management. In this paper the aim is to examine what motivations there are for an organisation to invest in records management especially in a mobile working environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Aspects explored were ISO standards, and record users in three different organisations. The empirical data were gathered by interviews with 25 respondents and qualitative analysis of the ISO 15489 standard content. Results from the interviews were compared with the ISO standard. For this purpose, quantitative analysis was used to identify and categorise motivations given in the standard.

Findings

Respondents highlighted information‐based and work‐process related ISO motivations. In general, internal motivations were emphasised and cultural‐societal goals were practically not mentioned at all. For mobile users records management is a tool to manage information and support their own and colleagues' work processes. The organisation's function affects the nature of the records produced, and this has an impact on users' attitude towards and knowledge of records management.

Originality/value

Analysis of motivations in the ISO 15489‐1 standard gives a new perspective to organisational records management. The motivations complement the picture given by studies of records usage in organisations.

Details

Records Management Journal, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-5698

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Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Elisabetta Raguseo, Emilio Paolucci and Paolo Neirotti

The purpose of this paper is to understand the contextual conditions under which mobile forms of work are chosen by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the most relevant…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the contextual conditions under which mobile forms of work are chosen by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the most relevant tensions that these firms should be able to face in order to be successful in the adoption of these forms of work.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey analysis on 304 SMEs and an analysis of a collection of case studies were conducted to answer to the following research questions: what is the role of contextual conditions in shaping the way firms develop and use their mobile forms of work? Which tensions do SMEs need to manage when adopt a particular mobile form of work?

Findings

In this paper, the authors found that SMEs choose different mobile forms of work according to the conditions under which they operate. For example, SMEs that adopt mobile forms of work for operational reasons are more capable of using IT to improve their external orientation. Moreover, the analysis of the configurations of mobile forms of work led to classify in a systematic way the managerial and organizational tensions, and to identify which tensions need to be managed in each mobile work configuration. For example, firms that adopt mobile work given individual employee requests need to manage human resource management tensions.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should analyse in depth the jobs that are frequently engaged in mobility and the operational and strategic reasons of their mobility. Moreover, future research should analyse more in-depth companies’ capability of managing tensions discussed in this paper.

Practical implications

Managers should understand that mobile work is an essential element in the organizational strategy of SMEs, since it is a way to manage more effectively externally oriented business processes. Also policy makers should provide financial support for programmes aimed at promoting the importance of mobile forms of work, since they allow achieving different objectives and saving. Further, demand-oriented policies and experiences about mobile work adoption should be shared.

Originality/value

The authors found scant empirical evidence on understanding the contextual conditions under which SMEs choose different mobile forms of work, and the most relevant tensions that SMEs should deal with when they decide for the adoption of a particular mobile work configuration. The value of this paper consists in filling this research gap.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

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Article
Publication date: 2 March 2015

Karlene Cousins and Daniel Robey

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that mobile technologies play in mobile workers’ efforts to manage the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Previous…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that mobile technologies play in mobile workers’ efforts to manage the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Previous theories of work-life boundary management frame boundary management strategies as a range between the segmentation and integration of work-life domains, but fail to provide a satisfactory account of technology’s role.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply the concept of affordances, defined as the relationship between users’ abilities and features of mobile technology, in two field studies of a total of 25 mobile workers who used a variety of mobile devices and services.

Findings

The results demonstrate that the material features of mobile technologies offer five specific affordances that mobile workers use in managing work-life boundaries: mobility, connectedness, interoperability, identifiability and personalization. These affordances persist in their influence across time, despite their connection to different technology features.

Originality/value

The author found that mobile workers’ boundary management strategies do not fit comfortably along a linear segmentation-integration continuum. Rather, mobile workers establish a variety of personalized boundary management practices to match their particular situations. The authors speculate that mobile technology has core material properties that endure over time. The authors surmise that these material properties provide opportunities for users to interact with them in a manner to make the five affordances possible. Therefore, in the future, actors interacting with mobile devices to manage their work-life boundaries may experience affordances similar to those the authors observed because of the presence of the core material properties.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Cheuk Fan Ng

This purpose of this paper is to review the relationships between the physical and social characteristics of public and semi-public spaces and work behaviors of mobile knowledge…

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Abstract

Purpose

This purpose of this paper is to review the relationships between the physical and social characteristics of public and semi-public spaces and work behaviors of mobile knowledge workers employed by organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a literature review of research from several disciplines on teleworking from multiple settings, particularly in public and semi-public spaces.

Findings

This review suggests that both the physical and social characteristics of public and semi-public spaces can constrain the cognitive work and communication of knowledge workers. The physical characteristics include amount of space, layout, ambient conditions and internet and Wi-Fi connectivity. To be effective, mobile workers perform different tasks at different workplaces that support those specific work tasks. Planning and coordinating work tasks for different workplaces is time-consuming and requires anticipation of constraints and effort to overcome obstacles encountered in these places.

Research limitations/implications

Little empirical research focusing on these new workplaces is available. There is much need for future research that uses larger, representative samples and a diversity of methods. As this paper is based on a review of a small number of studies currently available in peer-reviewed journals written in English, the findings should be considered tentative.

Practical implications

Understanding how the design of the physical workplace, work processes, organizational support and its interface with the virtual space support successful mobile work is crucial for organizations. Corporate real estate and facility managers of public and semi-public spaces should support mobile workers’ needs for internet and Wi-Fi connectivity and provide separate spaces for cognitive work and private business conversations.

Originality/value

This paper extends the research about teleworking from home to working in public and semi-public spaces.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2004

Masao Kakihara and Carsten Sørensen

Fueled by strong market forces as well as by increasingly ubiquitous and pervasive mobile technologies, shifts in working practices and the application of mobile technologies have…

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Abstract

Fueled by strong market forces as well as by increasingly ubiquitous and pervasive mobile technologies, shifts in working practices and the application of mobile technologies have been occurring around the turn of the millennium. One such change concerns the work of professionals. This paper discusses the emergence of the mobile professional, through a field study of more than 60 professional workers in Tokyo during 2002. The paper concludes that one must broaden one's conception of mobility and conceptualize mobile professional work in terms of locational, operational, and interactional mobility. Furthermore, some implications for a new design of mobile professional work and technology use are drawn from the analysis of the field study: ICT as mobility‐booster; maintaining multiple ongoing interactions; the importance of personal networks; and places as material foundations for interaction.

Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Camille Venezia and Verna Allee

To better understand mobile work and the lives of mobile workers from the employee perspective and to identify aspects of mobile work that are working well or could be improved.

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Abstract

Purpose

To better understand mobile work and the lives of mobile workers from the employee perspective and to identify aspects of mobile work that are working well or could be improved.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of 557 respondents involved in mobile work, including managers and workers. Questions focused on how mobile workers identify roles and communicate socially/professionally; how they use space, technology, and collaborative tools; and how they feel about mobile working.

Findings

Identifies the workplace needs of mobile workers. Gaps in mobile workers' stated activities and work patterns are revealed in relation to current thinking about workspace utilisation. Considerable employee disenchantment suggests that office design is not supporting the new roles mobile workers are asked to fulfill.

Research limitations/implications

This report summarises the findings of the first phase of a multi‐year research study which included 557 mobile worker respondents representing 84 world‐wide organisations.

Practical implications

Demonstrates the need to reconfigure physical infrastructure to support the rapid changes in business practices, such as mobile, flexible, and collaborative work. Results are useful to managers under pressure to make better use of existing resources, free up space, or grow without adding space.

Originality/value

The first multi‐year study of global mobile workers. Research has rarely examined the roles mobile workers play, the professional interactions they need to conduct, and differences in their output. Recent applications of network analysis in organisational settings have revealed that different roles can have very different needs for support of mobile work. Providing the necessary infrastructure by evaluating mobile worker roles creates new business opportunities and transforms the provision of space and services.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

Banita Lal and Yogesh K. Dwivedi

Mobile phones are said to enable homeworkers to remain connected for work purposes at “anytime, anywhere”, irrespective of time or location. This paper seeks to argue that…

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Abstract

Purpose

Mobile phones are said to enable homeworkers to remain connected for work purposes at “anytime, anywhere”, irrespective of time or location. This paper seeks to argue that, despite this assertion, little is known beyond the anecdotal literature about whether homeworkers actually remain connected as such.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper aimed to address the issue described previously by conducting semi‐structured interviews with 25 homeworkers who were recruited using snowball sampling.

Findings

The findings show that homeworkers tried to distinguish between “work” and “home” by allocating specific time and space to each domain, but nevertheless remained connected via their mobile phones outside the time and space allocated for work activity. This resulted in work crossing into the home domain and individuals potentially becoming connected and contactable at “anytime, anywhere”. However, the findings identify that homeworkers took various actions in order to control their contactability outside the work domain, which suggests that, despite the potential, remaining connected “anytime, anywhere” is often not the reality. Such actions are discussed in this paper in the context of the existing literature.

Practical implications

Implications for organisations employing homeworking are also presented, together with how the limitations of the study can be overcome in future research.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the less explored and existing homeworking and boundary literature and provides implications for practitioners of homeworking.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

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