Journal Review 1: Does Telecommuting Improve Productivity?

Butler, E. Sonny, Cheryl Aasheim, and Susan Williams. "Does Telecommuting Improve Productivity?." Communications of the ACM 50.4 (Apr. 2007): 101-103. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 24 July 2008 .

E. Butler, Cheryl Aasheim, and Susan Williams, professors in the department of information technology at Georgia Southern University did a case study on an organization to see if telecommuting really does improve a company’s productivity. The authors stated that many studies on this topic had been short termed, and based on self-reported data instead of actual measurements. Because of this reason, the authors believe that any previous finding can be called into question. To make their work more credible, they performed a longitudinal test nearly over five years on the Kentucky American Water Company (KAWC). During this time, the researchers studied the cost over time and the productivity of both telecommuter employees and regular office employees.

The method of conducting their test was that of the classic scientific method. They made a hypothesis that teleworking did increase overall employee productivity in the long run and that it was not a placebo or Hawthorne effect as many other researcher questioned in previous short term studies. Afterwards, they conducted their experiment, which was in two phases during the five year period with ten months of data missing between the two test phases. Afterwards they were able to analyze the data which they collected and come to a conclusion which they explained in their report.

After the conclusion of their test, they found many different effects teleworking had on the KAWC. The first thing they stated was that the total cost of implementing the telecommuting systems was less than the total saving which means that the company net benefit increased and did not have a negative effect on the company. Also, the selection process used to choose telecommuter employees was not based solely on performance, but the company also took into consideration the quality of two-way radio communication as well as the proximity to the employee’s home.

The first finding they claimed that telecommuter did increase employee’s productivity. 13 months after the implementation of the system, the average telecommuter productivity increased by 154%. In the following year, productivity increased from 9.4 calls per hour, to 10.5 calls per hour, but dropped to 10.2 calls per hour in the third year. It then increased to 11.1 calls per hours in the final three months of operation. They also found that telecommuters worked 3.98 hours more than non-telecommuters per month. They considered this to be a very small value, and did not believe it had an effect on absenteeism on KAWC. They also stated that while productivity of telecommuting did increase, it seem to have a negative effect on office employees whose productivity dropped by 13.3%. In their conclusion, they believed that telecommuting did increase overall productivity for the company, but did not want to make a generalization as there have not been similar test cases to date, and that this might only be applicable to the KAWC.

I thought that this was an interesting study. I like how they performed a longitudinal study as it also crossed my mind that these short term benefits may have been cause of the Hawthorne effect. The research they did made a lot of sense to me, and their precision on their measurements were nice and exact. I wonder though if the test subjects knew at all if they were being tested for the past five years, or if it was totally a secret. They also stated that the average calls per hour of the selected employees for telecommuting was 3.3 calls while the office average was 6 calls. I wonder if they had chosen some of their best employees, would the effect have been smaller as there is a limit to what a human person can do. It seems to me the system help improve average employees, but may not have had a big effect on employees who are already working at their full potential.

The work itself does not seem to be interdisciplinary. All of the professors were from Information Technology section of the same college. Also, the professor merely observed the whole project. They did not give KAWC any advice on how they could have implemented the telecommuting system, nor how to choose their employees for the system.

This article was useful to me to learn more on how exactly telecommuting systems are chosen, and what are some of the important aspect and question needed to implementing such as system. Concepts such as employee distance from home, and their productivity prior to the implementation of the new system was something I had not originally considered. I also did not think that there was a negative effect on employees who continued to work in the office. This paper gave me a lot of insight into how I should implement my proposed system.