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OCR for page 125
The Potential of Remote
Work for Professionals
Margrethe H. Olson
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines a profession as "a
calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and in-
tense academic preparation." It does not necessarily imply a for-
mal licensing or certification, and does not prohibit membership
in a formal organization as a full-time employee. My focus here
will be primarily on professionals as organizational members,
loosely defined to include those with a high level of specialized
knowlecige that is applicable across different organizations.
Anyone who works in an organization has some common sense
notion of the difference between professionals and nonprofession-
als or nonexempt employees. First, the professionals' skills are
generally in demand; this gives them bargaining power and privi-
leges within the organizational hierarchy that are unavailable to
others. It also, of course, brings them higher monetary rewards.
This may not be true, however, in the so-called glamour profes-
sions, such as medical research (non-M.D.} and civil rights legal
defense, where a job carries prestige, autonomy, and other perqui-
sites of professional status without high monetary rewards.
The job of a professional also may be characterized by long-
term deadlines and variety as opposed to minute specialization of
Margrethe H. Olson is associate professor of computer applications and information
systems, Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University.
125
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THE FUTURE
labor. It tends to be low on specification of rules and procedures
and high on flexibility and autonomy.
As a consequence, the professional employee may face a high
degree of ambiguity in his or her relationship to the organization.
Criteria for performance tend to be unclearly specified. The pro-
fessional may have a strong sense of autonomy and a strong com-
mitment to his or her profession, particularly in those professions
where barriers to entry are wed clefined. One consequence of both
autonomy and commitment to profession is low organizational
commitment. Professionals, therefore, tend not to be unionized.
Given these characteristics, the work-at-home option is rela-
tively easy to implement for professionals. If their skins are in
scarce supply, their organizations are more likely to respond to
their demands for flexible work options. Performance evaluation
takes place on the basis of long-term deliverables based on gener-
ally ambiguous performance criteria. Remote supervision, then,
is relatively easy to accommodate. Professional employees typi-
caBy may work at home two or three days a week and increase
their productivity substantially because of the ability to concen-
trate in the home environment. Usually they continue with full
salary and benefits and are evaluated on the same, relatively am-
biguous performance criteria as before.
Does this make work at home an ideal option for professionals?
Or do similar problems exist as those Judith Gregory outlines (see
pages 112-124) for clerical workers? The answer is, of course, "it
all depends."
Given the potential of technology to alter traditional work pat-
terns, how might an organization take advantage of its increased
flexibility?
On the assumption that the professionals have skills that are in
demand and therefore have the flexibility to choose from multiple
work options, ~ see three alternative scenarios for organizational
structures emerging: the location-independent organization, the
contract organization, and the human resources organization.
Work at home is a part of each scenario, and each can be analyzed
in terms of its responsiveness to organizational and individual
needs and pressures.
THE LOCATION-INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION
The physical relocation of organizations tends to be guided by
economic constraints of building costs, taxes, and the availability
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TO POTENTIAL OF REMOTE WORK FOR PROFESSIONALS
127
of labor. The existence of telecommunications technology permits
a wider set of choices. Work groups can be formed temporarily,
bringing persons of particular skills together through the use of
electronic equipment, without incurring employee relocation or
travel expenses. This greatly facilitates the low-cost reorganiza-
tion of divisions and authority structures.
At the individual level, location independence is achieved
through communications systems that permit employers and em-
ployees to keep in touch regardless of location. Electronic store-
and-forward message systems and "beepers" are familiar exam-
ples. Many organizations utilize centralized message centers to
reduce the administrative cost of handling communications. One
significant result is the location independence of those whose
messages are handled. Cellular mobile telephones wiB help in-
crease this capacity.
Where will people work when their location is not critical? Most
will continue to work in traditional offices. Those offices, how-
ever, may be physically separate from their immediate work
group or subordinates, resulting in remote supervision. Certainly
they will have a computer terminal or personal computer at home,
but this will be used primarily after regular work hours and wiB
either replace longer hours in the office or reduce the amount of
work lugged home in a briefcase. As now, there will be informal
arrangements or work at home in special cases such as maternity
leaves and long-term disabilities. Others will work at home occa-
sionally as many do now on an informal basis such as once a
month or when facing an imminent deadline. The total amount of
office space required to accommodate managers and profession-
als will not be reduced significantly, although as previously
noted, it may be allocated more efficiently.
THE CONTRACT ORGANIZATION
One response to economic uncertainty is to reduce the number
of full-time salaried employees and purchase particular, special-
ized skills as needed on a contract basis. An ideal contract organi-
zation brings together significant numbers of personnel who
would previously have been full-time employees but now contract
out their specialized skills to different organizations. The em-
ployee benefits through increased autonomy; if the skill is in short
supply, the arrangement can be significantly more lucrative. The
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employee loses the protective benefits and job security of the or-
ganization, however, and income levels may be uncertain.
Retirement takes on a whole different meaning. Although the
organization may benefit from its lean staffing, it loses employee
commitment. Those motivational bases of work that depend on
organizational membership contribution to production of goods
and services, social interaction, and status—are lacking or signifi-
cantly reduced (see Brief, pages 66-751.
Technology permits a significant degree of location indepen-
dence for those providing valued needs and services. Public data
services, such as the Source, con be envisioned providing adver-
tising to match individuals with an organization's requirements
for specialists. This scenario assumes the requisite skills offered
by the specialist and needed by the organization can be provided
through computer and communications technology, or at least
that the results of production can be transmitted electronically.
THE HUMAN RESOURCES ORGANIZATION
In another very different scenario, companies take innovative
approaches to invest in human resources on a long-term basis.
Organizations that are committed to long-term employment seek
out methods of accommodating employees' nonwork needs
through various work options. Work at home, either occasional or
long term, is one option. Others are extended leaves of absence,
job sharing, and flexible hours. Technology plays a significant
part by facilitating that increased flexibility. Location indepen-
dence, too, helps increase flexibility; employees might work at a
regional office closer to home to reduce commuting time or choose
work hours to allow time for nonwork responsibilities such as
child care.
How do each of these scenarios respond to individual and orga-
nizational needs and pressures?
ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS AND PRESSURES
In these times of economic uncertainty, we hear that businesses
are continually seeking ways to increase their flexibility in em-
ployee selection, retention, and termination. Employees with
unique skills are especially susceptible to employment shifts if
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THE POTENTIAL OF REMOTE WORK FOR PROFESSIOI!lALS
129
organizational demand for those skins is not consistent. At the
same time, significant shortages of certain specialized skins, par-
ticularly computer skins, continue to plague management. Many
experiments with work at home are motivated by a need to attract
and build a labor supply that would otherwise be unavailable. Pi-
lot programs are thus targeted to those skins. Finally, as the costs
of facilities continue to rise, companies seek ways to provide
space while minimizing fixed capital costs and maximizing
flexibility.
Aspects of each of the three scenarios provide positive re-
sponses to these organizational needs and pressures. Certainly
the contract organization appears to be an efficient method for
acquiring skills on an as-needed basis, thus improving organiza-
tional flexibility. Facility costs are lower since they are borne by
the individual. The human resources scenario, however, banks on
the improved contributions of existing long-term employees
when organizational commitment to their security is guaranteed.
The location-independent scenario provides significant, organiza-
tionwide flexibility, regardless of geographical location, for the
utilization of employee skins and facilities.
INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND PRESSURES
The United States is a nation in which the majority of two-
parent households have both parents working outside the home,
where women have entered the work force permanently in large
numbers, and the number of single-parent families is steadily ris-
ing. In today's work environment, employees need to accommo-
date the demands of their nonwork lives as wed as the demands of
their work.
In this volume Judith Gregory writes of the female clerical
workers who are trapped within a limited set of less-than-ideal
choices. By way of comparison, do individual professional women
suffer a similar fate? Or do they face a different, also less than
ideal, set of options?
A recent study showed that in the software development pro-
fession, women are significantly underrepresented at middle
management levels and dramatically nonexistent at higher levels
of management.) This is particularly significant when one recalls
that the software industry has always been touted for its lack of
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barriers to entry for women. Other minority groups have more
severe underrepresentation. According to the author of the study
report, "Blacks need not apply."
Another recent study indicates that for professional couples
who both work full time outside of the home, women continue to
bear most of the responsibilities for child care and other aspects of
household maintenance.2 At the same time, equality is expected
in the office women must work as hard as men to get ahead. Is it
any surprise that women are underrepresented at middle and up-
per management levels, when the most important years for career
development (i.e., ages 25 to 35) coincide with the most important
years of childbearing?
What does this have to do with work at home? Clearly, profes-
sionals, especially women with family responsibilities, need
greater flexibility in their work lives. Is work at home a good solu-
tion to this need for flexibility? Is it better than other solutions
such as high-quality affordable day care?
In my own interviews with professionals working at home, ~
found that those who chose the arrangement strictly out of per-
sonal preference were almost exclusively men. They often re-
ported improved relationships with their children, but there was
always someone else (usually a spouse) there full time to "keep the
kids out of Daddy's hair while he's working." All of the women
professionals ~ interviewed considered work at home a trade-off,
reporting that although it is difficult and stressful to hold two
jobs at the same time, it helps them keep their skills up-to-date
and is "better than not working at all." In many cases the money
is not as important as the intellectual stimulation. These women
often live in suburban communities where the commute time,
added to an S-hour workday, would be prohibitive. To ensure the
concentration they need to perform their work at home, most
have full-time babysitters, even live-in help. But the stress from
role overload, role conflict, and social isolation is readily
apparent.
Many professional women choose the work-at-home option or
leave their jobs for a more flexible alternative such as indepen-
dent contract work at the point in their careers when they might
otherwise achieve a higher level of management. In an organiza-
tion where work at home might be institutionalized (as opposed
to, for instance' corporate day-care facilities) another barrier to
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THE POTENTIAL OF REMOTE WORK FOR PROFESSIONALS
131
higher levels of management is created since visibility is still key
to promotability.
What about mixing work and nonwork? Is it healthy for or det-
rimental to families? This is still an empirical question. Today,
however, with the imbalance in the division of responsibilities in a
typical home, integration of work and nonwork activities can be
highly stressful.
I: prefer to think of a more positive approach to the problems of
work versus nonwork for professionals, embedded in the philoso-
phy of the human resources organization. In this view, a cafeteria
of flexible work options are put in place for both men and women;
work at home is only one option and can be combined with others.
Since this sort of organization demonstrates a high level of com-
mitment and trust in the individual, his or her response is to pro-
duce high-quality work without being "policed."
Long-term employment also can facilitate flexibility in career
paths since employees do not have to endure the pressures of a
short-term test of their career potential during critical years for
family growth. Furthermore, true equality between men and
women in our society wiD not be achieved until it is achieved in the
workplace, and the combined scenarios of the location-indepen-
dent and human resources organization can facilitate workplace
equality by providing and encouraging greater flexibility for both
men and women.
CONCLUSIONS
The alternative scenarios presented here are not mutually ex-
clusive. ~ believe that we will see the implementation of moderate
aspects of at least the first two scenarios in most large business
firms.
The degree to which any scenario changes an organization's
structure is of course dependent on many factors besides technol-
ogy primarily economics. The real point of these scenarios is to
demonstrate that remote work at home has a broad interpretation
when applied to professionals as members of an organization.
With integrated computer and communications technology, it
is possible to reduce the intellectual challenge of many jobs, both
clerical and professional, through division of labor, routinization,
and systematic de-skilling. It is also possible to monitor that
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work without the employee's knowledge. In such a work env~ron-
ment, work at home can be an unhealthy extension of manage-
ment tactics that discourage employee motivation and commit-
ment in the office.
On the other hand, new technology makes it possible to effec-
tively decentralize control over work, shifting control to the indi-
vidual or work group. Individuals working on contract enjoy this
autonomy.
In an organizational context, jobs can be designed to provide
variety, enhance skies and knowledge of results and their effect
on the organization, and increase individual autonomy over work
sequencing and scheduling. Many professional jobs already have
these characteristics. When nurtured in a management climate of
openness and trust, work at home can be implemented as a simple
extension of a high-quality work life. Thus, from the point of view
of accomplishment, many potential problems posed by work-at-
home programs are really problems of poorly designed jobs in an
unhealthy management climate.
In an environment where jobs are wed designed and there is a
management climate of trust and openness, implementing work
at home in a positive way is easy. The concerns that ~ have ex-
pressed here also can be alleviated if the positive quality of work
life is embedded in the long-term commitment to employee wel-
fare in the human resources type of organization. IdeaBy, this
high quality of work life and long-term commitment to employ-
ees, in which work at home is a straightforward and positive op-
tion, should be available to ad employees: clerical, professional,
and managerial.
NOTES
1. Kraft, Philip and Steven Dubnoff. Software workers survey. Computerworld,
November 14, 1983, p. ID/3.
2. Blumstein, P., and P. Schwartz. American Couples: Money/Work/Sex. New
York: William Morrow, 1983.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
contract organization
