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Journal of Business Ethics

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03.02.2017 | Original Paper

An Orchestrated Negotiated Exchange: Trading Home-Based Telework for Intensified Work

verfasst von: Dharma Raju Bathini, George Mathew Kandathil

Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics | Ausgabe 2/2019

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Abstract

In this paper, we explore a popular flexible work arrangement (FWA), home-based telework, in the Indian IT industry. We show how IT managers used the dominant meanings of telework to portray telework as an employee benefit that outweighed the attendant cost—intensified work. While using their discretion to grant telework, the managers drew on this portrayal to orchestrate a negotiated exchange with their subordinates. Consequently, the employees consented to accomplish the intensified work at home in exchange of telework despite their opposition to the intensified work in the office. Thus, whereas the extant studies consider work intensification as an unanticipated outcome of using FWAs, we show how firms may use FWAs strategically to get office-based intensified work accomplished at home. While the dominant argument is that employees reciprocate the opportunity to telework with intensified work, we show a discursively orchestrated negotiation that favors management. A corrective policy measure is to frame telework as an employee right.

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The term telework had been used to refer to different work arrangements (see Sullivan 2003; Wilks and Billsberry 2007). Specifically, the term telework emphasizes the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in carrying out work from a remote location (satellite offices, neighbor work centers, mobile work, etc.). The term home-based work, or home-anchored worker (Wilks and Billsberry 2007) on the other hand, refers to paid work carried out from home. This also includes precarious work such as outsourced carpet weaving or toy making requiring lower skill levels. Home-based telework refers specifically to telework carried out from home and is further categorized based on frequency into regular, alternate and occasional. However, many scholars refer to home-based telework, as simply telework (see Sullivan 2003; Wilks and Billsberry 2007). Since the term telework is widely popular, for the sake of communication ease, we will use the term telework from now on, even though we are referring specifically to regular home-based telework among non-managerial employees.

Our empirical context is the Information Technology (IT) industry and is different from IT-BPO services industry—call centers or medical transcriptionist.

This excludes supplemental work at home (using the home space for work but only to carry out unfinished work after office hours). This is in line with our participants’ understanding of home-based telework (participants refer to it as ‘work from home’). Since managers in most IT companies in India carry out supplemental work at home, we decided to focus only on telework among non-managerial employees.

We consider managers as representative of the management since they took decision related to the use of telework on behalf of the management.

According to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database (http://prowess.cmie.com/).

To maintain anonymity, we have used pseudonyms for the research participants and their organizations.

In this particular study, we did not explore the underlying reasons since our specific focus here was on managers’ use of telework and its dominant meanings, and not on employee action per se.

See Footnote 7.

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Titel: An Orchestrated Negotiated Exchange: Trading Home-Based Telework for Intensified Work
verfasst von: Dharma Raju Bathini
George Mathew Kandathil
Publikationsdatum: 03.02.2017
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics / Ausgabe 2/2019
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3449-y

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