Telework: Family Friendly or Employer Friendly?

Abstract

For the past two decades telework has been given prominence by a number of authors (Tofler 1981; Wilkes, et al. 1994; Berry 1996), by information and communication industries (BT 1995) and by both the UK Government and the European Commission. Many organisations, such as Rank Xerox, Sainsbury’s and BT, have launched telework as part of a range of flexible working practices. A number of authors have reported that some employers have recognised the value of telework and teleworking programmes they have implemented (Caudron 1992; Ford and McLaughlin 1995; Weiss 1994). Employees are also said to gain from this working arrangement and the image of telework portrayed by many authors (Baruch 2000; Burch 1991; Olsen and Primps 1984) has been one of a win-win situation in which both employer and employee benefit. It can be argued that the capacity for individuals to organise their own work time, workspace and work place provides workers with the ability to balance work and family life. Telework, therefore, is seen as one of a number of work/family initiatives popularly known as ‘family friendly’. There have been numerous studies, reports and articles that extol the benefits of telework for both employee and employer (Caudron 1992; Ford and McLaughlin 1995; Weiss 1994). However, there have been few studies that examine telework as a specific family friendly form of work, or examine the benefits claimed for telework and whether these contribute to a successful work/life balance. This chapter examines telework as a family friendly form of work with reference to empirical data using as a case study an organisation well known for its teleworking practices. Furthermore, it examines the specific nature of the benefits that are claimed for telework and who gains from this working arrangement. It is not the intention of this chapter to deny that telework can offer benefits to families, but to refute the idea that these benefits are universal.