What is the difference between telecommunication and telecommuting

Telecommuting or telecommunication can be categorized as an alternative type of work arrangement, whereby responsibilities or duties are carried out at an off-site location, not to mention that the employees utilize telecommunications technology to connect to the workplace. Scholars have demonstrated diverse factors behind the emergence and development of telecommuting. One of the factors is that several firms are downsizing their operations with the aim of lowering costs through reduction of the office space.

Another factor is that the elevated competition from the United States and even the international scope has forced many organizations to adopt extended workdays together with flexible schedules of work so as to respond better to the needs of their customers.

Furthermore, this concept has emerged due to the fact that there is an elevating affordable and cost effective development of computer and telecommunication technologies. Thus, teleworking has tremendously developed from its diffident beginnings in the early s to achieve unparalleled level today and it is expected to continue expanding in the years to come Kelly et al. The objective of this essay is to discuss the nature of telecommuting, its impact on the individual and the organizations for which the teleworkers work along with its future development.

Notably, telecommuting is encompassed by a significant expansion of the places or locations as well as times that are considered favorable for work Magazine, Research has it that there are three core components of telecommuting which include: utilization of the IT Information Technology , de-localization of work and link with the organization at hand.

First, it should be understood that telecommuting essentially relies on the processing and manipulation of information, not to mention that it depends on information transformation Golden, As a result, Information Technology remains to be one the main constituents of telecommuting since it has the capacity of enabling employees to remain in constant communications with their colleagues. In addition, unlike the independent employees, the telecommuters demonstrate a significant link with the organization involved.

In this sense, telecommuting is not restricted to permanent employees since the employees working on the basis of contracts can also telecommunicate. On the contrary, it has been noted that differences may exist between the telecommuting form; ubiquitous in every group Kelly et al. According to research, different scholars have agreed that telecommunication among the employees that are not permanently employed contains a greater number of challenges compared to permanently employed ones.

This kind of telecommuting has also been observed to normally include clerical work whereby the workers are salaried on the basis of a piecemeal little by little , or even in some cases, on an hourly basis.

Furthermore, research maintains that the adverse effects that are generally accrued to this home-based telecommuting do not usually come from the location itself, but instead from the contractual arrangement nature Golden, Arguably, time and space location does not necessarily constrain telecommuting.

In this sense, work de-colonization assumes four different forms that include: home-based telecommuting telecommuting from home , mobile work and satellite offices along with neighborhood work centers. On the other hand, satellite offices have been noted to assume the form of small managerial affiliates that are generally situated in proximity to areas of residence where a telecommunications link with the headquarters is maintained permanently.

A satellite office is comprised of an interesting complexity for firms that aim at keeping their workers in more conventional environments, though nearer to their areas of residence Kelly et al. One of the major distinctions between neighborhood work centers and satellite offices is the fact that they are not organizational units.

In real sense, these forms of telecommuting are private centers of information that contain tools of telecommunication, which are generally shared by workers from distinct organizations Magazine, Concerning mobile work form of telecommuting, the brick and mortar concept of location is not entertained Golden, In other words, in, the employees are empowered by mobile work form with the ability to carry out activities in diverse locations and in an impromptu manner; for instance, this may take place in a car, hotel room, and classroom or even in a plane.

This form of telecommuting has been observed to contain a significant number of advantages such as making it possible for a better and even more individualized consumer service Magazine, In this case, this happens through allowing enterprises to dispatch representatives of sales directly to the locations of the customers. Melanie Uy. Updated on March 10, Tweet Share Email. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error.

Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Tell us why! More from Lifewire. How to Negotiate a Remote Work Arrangement. Even if you work from the comfort of your home office, you might think twice before calling yourself a telecommuter. But the concept of telecommuting has been around for quite some time.

Jack Nilles, a physicist and engineer, came up with the idea for telecommuting back in As he was designing space vehicles and communications systems for the U. Air Force and NASA, he realized how telecommunications could replace time-consuming commuting for this staff. Generally speaking, telecommuting, remote work, working from home, and telework are all fairly synonymous. But there is a slight difference between them. Telecommuting and telework can mean that there may or may not be some on-site work being done by the worker.

With the ability to truly work anywhere and still stay connected to the company, it stands to reason that telecommuting has seen a huge surge in popularity.

Some of the career fields with the most remote jobs on the site include medical and health, computer and IT, education and training, sales, customer service, accounting and finance, and travel and hospitality. Since the idea for telecommuting has been around for decades now, it makes sense that new words and phrases would come to replace what is, in theory, a not-so-new workplace concept. This post was very helpful.

People who work at home all the time and never commute, people who work in their cars using cellular phones, and banks that relocate their computer centers from downtowns to suburbs are examples of telework that are not telecommuting. However, telework, like telecommuting, changes commuting patterns. In fact, unlike telecommuting, telework may increase travel. They now must work more at home and in their cars with portable computers and phones. These workers are then able to spend more time making sales calls at customer organizations.

The travel effect of changes like these has not been studied, but should be. Telework is only a part of a larger set of telecommunications-driven processes that are altering transportation demand across all trip purposes.

Tele-services such as telephone shopping and cash machines change the location of customer activity analogous to how telework changes worker location. Tele-logistics refers to the ways in which telecommunications changes the movement patterns of freight and goods. A prime example of tele-logistics is the system of radio- and computer-coordinated planes and trucks operated by Federal Express and its competitors.

Enormous and popular retail stores in suburban locations surrounded by huge parking lots, stores like Wal-Mart and Eagle, are another example of transportation impacts from expanding telecommunications.