Workplaces of Teleworkers

Abstract

Teleworking has become quite popular in developed countries in recent years, but its growth has stabilized. A comfortable work environment at home is often cited as one key advantage of teleworking from home. Little research interest has, however, been focused on the physical conditions of the workspace at home. Research suggests that only a small percentage of teleworkers work full-time from home; most teleworkers work from multiple sites including the organizational workspace, their home, and other public and private spaces (e.g., client’s office and “third places”). This presentation will highlight the results of a literature review of the home offices of teleworkers employed by organizations in any attempt to understand the relationships between the design and physical conditions of home offices and teleworkers’ work behaviours and job outcomes. This review has located no recent studies that focus on the design and conditions of home-offices of teleworkers employed by organizations, but some research has been focused on homeworkers. By integrating research from multiple disciplines in two related areas: homeworking and conventional offices, this review suggests that teleworkers desire similar qualities in their home offices as for conventional offices. Future research needs to examine how the physical conditions of dwellings and family variables affect the effectiveness of home offices as a workplace. Practical implications for the design of home workspace and organizational policies are discussed.