Atul Arun Pathak, Dharma Raju Bathini and George M Kandathil
Discusses the suitability of work-from-home policies, especially in information technology companies. Cautions against a one-size-fits-all approach and states that each company…
Abstract
Purpose
Discusses the suitability of work-from-home policies, especially in information technology companies. Cautions against a one-size-fits-all approach and states that each company needs to make a decision based on how closely this important human resource (HR) policy aligns with organizational strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes how a work-from-home policy, if correctly designed and implemented by HR managers and if aligned to the organizational strategy, can promote innovation and thereby provide a competitive advantage. Gives illustrations from various organizations to explain the concepts.
Findings
Argues that working from home is not useful for all organizations and in all contexts. HR managers can play a key role in identifying the suitability of work-from-home in their organization’s context. The HR policy needs to be flexible and to change based on the need for innovation, the nature of projects and the role of each individual in the organization.
Practical implications
Advances the view that IT organizations which focus on high-impact radical innovations may benefit from having their employees work in an office. However, each organization, depending on the type of innovation it is aiming for and the nature of projects that it is engaged in, should consider whether work-from-home is a suitable option or not. HR managers should play a larger role in aligning the work-from-home policy to the organizational strategy. They should also be involved more closely in decisions related to the implementation of the policy on the ground.
Social implications
Concedes that extra effort will be needed from human resource management (HRM) in customizing work-from-home-related policies to ensure effective alignment with ever-changing organizational strategies.
Originality/value
Considers the context of work-from-home. Provides insights into how HR managers can design the policy, align it to overall strategy and implement these HRM practices on the ground.
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Dharma Raju Bathini and George Mathew Kandathil
The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between operations of organization control and workers’ response to them in case of telework, a technology-embedded new way of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between operations of organization control and workers’ response to them in case of telework, a technology-embedded new way of working.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted an interpretive approach to explore control and home-based teleworkers’ response in the Indian information technology industry. Interviews and non-participant observations were analysed using constructivist grounded theory.
Findings
The discourse of “telework as a privilege” served as a basis for normative control, helping managers exercise increased technocratic control. Combined with the discourse of “self-responsibility to client”, it led teleworkers to self-subjugate to long/unsocial work hours. However, the simultaneous exercise of technocratic and normative controls resulted in an inconsistency, creating space for teleworker’s resistance to technocratic control. Nonetheless, resistance to technocratic control ironically reinforced normative control.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the recent discussion on compatibility and coherence of multiple control modes, and their relationship to resistance. The authors show how workers’ selves can be compatible with one control mode while being incompatible with other modes. The authors argue that when workers’ experience incoherence between control modes, they can appropriate the logic underlying compatible control mode(s) to resist incompatible control mode(s). Further, the authors demonstrate how resistance to incompatible control mode(s) can ironically reinforce compatible control mode(s), and thus explicate the micro-processes of control-resistance dialectic. Advancing the emergent understanding of resistance, the authors show that resistance is an exercise of strategic counter-power that seeks to exploit incoherence between control modes and inconsistencies between actions and rhetoric.
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This study aims to explore the influence of contingent factors on the assimilation of the cloud enterprises resources plan (ERP) system in the UAE’s public sector. It explains the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influence of contingent factors on the assimilation of the cloud enterprises resources plan (ERP) system in the UAE’s public sector. It explains the relationship between institutional logics and institutional work while implementing ERP-based cloud computing (CC) to transform the government.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative methods and an interpretive approach to provide an in-depth explanation for a detailed case study in the public sector. The institutional logics framework has been used to inform the integration between ERP system and CC in the public sector case.
Findings
Findings show that the UAE public sector could align institutional work processes with the inbuilt logics of ERP-based CC, resulting in successful assimilation of the cloud version. This study concludes that institutional pressures in highly institutionalized environments will generate organizational responses, but those responses are dependent upon and influenced by aspects of organizational culture. This study found that the organizational culture has led to a radical change by implementing the cloud ERP system and institutionalizing its usage toward transforming government. Moreover, ERP assimilation is the extent to which an organization has developed from understanding the ERP system’s functionalities to mastering and deploying them in their processes.
Research limitations/implications
This study has important implications and contributions to the literature in three ways. First, this study examines an understudied topic, the interaction between CC and institutional logics. Second, this study contributes to the public sector research by providing a fine-tuned interpretation of the organization’s strategic behavior in response to a new information technology (IT) trend. Finally, this study also focuses on this new trend of CC which can influence the global IT industry, and it is worthy of being considered.
Originality/value
Explanatory case study research has a value to the public sector that one might be discovering new phenomena while analyzing the public sector case. The implementation of cloud ERP is one of the best methods of integrating technology with the public sector’s organizational, technical, economic, social, cultural and other environmental domains.
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Pimsiri Aroonsri and Oliver Stephen Crocco
The purpose of this study is to understand the scope and nature of information sharing as a form of workplace learning among gig workers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand the scope and nature of information sharing as a form of workplace learning among gig workers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from public social media communities of gig workers in Thailand. In total, 338 posts and 3,022 comments on the posts were analyzed (data corpus N = 3,360). Thailand was selected for the context of this study given its high level of social media penetration, a high percentage of digital service consumption of internet users and the prevalence of app-based gig workers. This study used thematic analysis using inductive and semantic coding to generate themes.
Findings
Findings showed two overarching themes of information sharing, which included on-the-job experience and inquiries. One surprising finding was the extent to which gig workers used social media to help others even when it potentially undermined their success.
Research limitations/implications
This study adds evidence to the role of information sharing in workplace learning and illustrates how gig workers who do not have access to traditional training and learning opportunities use social media communities to fill this need.
Originality/value
Given the surge of digitalization and internet infrastructure leading to the rise of gig work worldwide, this study provides a closer look at how gig workers are using social media communities to facilitate workplace learning and support one another amid otherwise difficult and insecure working conditions. It also discusses the role that culture plays in facilitating a cooperative rather than a competitive environment among drivers.