Reframing the infomated household-workplace

Abstract

Ellen Baker is an Honorary Associate in the School of Management at the University ofTechnology, Sydney, in Australia. Prior to that, she had been on the academic staff there for 20 years. She has published widely on management implications of communication and information technologies. Her current research interests include home-based working, and the application of collaborative technologies to innovation teams and media production. ABSTRACT"Reframing", a managerial tool for understanding organizational complexity (Bolman and Deal, 1997), is applied to Australian households that possess a large amount of information and communication technology (ICT). Applying reframing to interviews conducted in households indicates that major changes, including some contradictory changes, are occurring as a result of adopting ICT and home-based working. Viewed through the structural frame, boundaries between work and home are blurring, while simultaneously attempts are being made to reinforce the separation of these activities.The human resource frame indicates ICT is improving communication, convenience and recreation, but hampering relationships and increasing interference and distractions.Looked at through the political frame, power shifts and new ICT-related conflicts occur, but members are also empowered by having their own ICTs to achieve individual goals.Finally, symbolism arises from the very presence of ICT and work activities in the home, enabling the emergence of dual identities, "household" and "workplace". The findings are discussed in the context of contradictory organizational consequences of ICT reported in other situations. In relation to remote working, it is suggested that the household is a vital third element, in addition to the employer and employee, and that reframing can be used by those considering home-based working, to help them understand the likely impacts on their household and to facilitate the transition to home-based working.

‘Chained to my work'? Strategies to manage temporal and physical boundaries among self‐employed teleworkers

“…Indeed, most studies have found that individuals working from home are dissatisfied if they do not have a separate room where work takes place, because carving out a work space in the bedroom or living room can prove problematic (Halford, ; Marsh and Musson, ). Individuals may struggle to redesign their boundaries while working from home, in particular those unable to have a dedicated work area in the house (Avery and Baker, ).…”

The relevance of social issues in ubiquitous computing environments

“…Many households have become primary workplaces [1]. Thus, work can be performed anytime, anywhere as long as workers can maintain contact with other employees, customers, and share data via ubiquitous computing technologies.…”

Sharing as a postwork style: digital work and the co-working office

“…Another dimension of digital sharing as the formal rendering of work in the city lies in the enhanced possibilities for mobile workplaces. Building on the trends towards 'teleworking', 'telecommuting' and the 'home office' (Steward 2000;Avery and Baker 2002;Greenhill and Wilson 2006;Johnson et al 2007, Laurier 2004Mokhtarian et al 2004), the office is understood as a 'plural workscape' for the ways that it can be produced at distributed sites (e.g. airports, cafes, trains), each of which exhibit varied 'task-space relationships' (Felstead et al 2005;Hislop and Axtell 2009).…”