Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mobile Teleworking – Its Effects on Work/Life Balance, a Case Study from Austria

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Artificial Intelligence and Bioinspired Computational Methods (CSOC 2020)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1225))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The nature of work, including how, where and when it is done, is changing rapidly these days. Employees are constantly engaging in modern ICT that permits them to work anywhere, at any time and in any way. Remote working, mobile working, flexible schedules and compressed workweeks are some of the many work adjustments or combinations of adjustments in use in different companies worldwide. ICT naturally reduces the need for physical mobility in a globalised world by means of telepresence and videoconferencing in the face of globalisation, which increases the physical mobility needs (consumerism, offshoring, global sourcing and others). Generally, it was found that work/life balance policies are a remarkable tool for the improvement of performance, high productivity, morale and commitment. The aim of this paper is to analyse the initial issue of mobile teleworking as a problem for work/life balance in an international sports company. The method used is Skype interviews with 12 mobile teleworkers. There is gender equality (six males and six females). The main objectives are to understand if issues in the work/life balance are obstacles to mobile working, in addition whether this kind of work is becoming more common and is expanding, and lastly if mobile telework intensifies the delimitation of work and life. Our results show that mobile teleworking involves readiness to travel and is equated with a high level of autonomy in work and self-discipline. Further, work/life balance is endangered by high mobility, which can be decreased when customers are educated. Moreover, mobile life is not a long-term option, and mobile life is a suitable tool to fit in with family arrangements. Generally, focus on work content is more important than the workplace.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. ECaTT Final Report (2000). https://web.fhnw.ch/personenseiten/najib.harabi/publications/books/benchmarking-progress-of-telework-and-electronic-commerce-in-europe. Accessed 21 Feb 2019

  2. Luk, G., Brown, A.: The Global Mobile Workforce is Set to Increase to 1.87 Billion People in 2022, Accounting for 42.5% of the Global Workforce. https://www.strategyanalytics.com/strategy-analytics/news/strategy-analytics-press-releases/strategy-analytics-press-release/2016/11/09/the-global-mobile-workforce-is-set-to-increase-to-1.87-billion-people-in-2022-accounting-for-42.5-of-the-global-workforce#.WeSldBOCxE5m. Accessed 21 Feb 2019

  3. Kurland, N.B., Bailey, D.E.: Telework: the advantage and challenge of working here, there, anywhere, and anytime. Organ. Dyn. Autumn 28(2), 53–68 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Flexible working Studie 2017, Deloitte (2017). https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/at/Documents/human-capital/deloitte-oesterreich-studie-flexible-working-2017.pdf. Accessed 21 Feb 2019

  5. Vyslozil, A.: Leere Kilometer: We weit pendelt, ist unglücklich. https://kurier.at/wirtschaft/karriere/leere-kilometer-pendeln-macht-ungluecklich/400036705. Accessed 21 Feb 2019

  6. Edwards, R., Holland, J.: What is Qualitative Interviewing? Bloomsbury Academic, London (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lo Iacono, V., Symonds, P., Brown, D.H.K.: Skype as a tool for qualitative research interviews. Sociol. Res. 21(2), 12 (2016). http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/2/12.html. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  8. Weller, S.: The Potentials and pitfalls of using Skype for qualitative (longitudinal) interviews. http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3757/1/Susie%20Weller.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  9. Markham, A.N.: The methods, politics, and ethics of representation in online ethnography. In: Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y. (eds.) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, 3rd edn. SAGE Publications, Los Angeles (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  10. 26 Amazing Skype Statistics and Facts, November 2017. https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/skype-statistics/. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  11. Janghorban, R., Roudsari, R.L., Taghipour, A.: Skype interviewing: the new generation of online synchronous interview in qualitative research (2014). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/902c/f289abd362f7304a2971c9065ee90813d7d6.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  12. Nilles, J.M., Carlson, R.F., Gay, P., Hanneman, G.J.: The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff. Options for Tomorrow. Wiley, New York (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Scholefield, G., Peel, S.: Managers’ attitudes to teleworking. NZ J. Employ. Relat. 34(3), 1–13 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Beno, M.: Transformation of human labour from stone age to information age. In: Younas, M., Awan, I., Ghinea, G., Catalan Cid, M. (eds.) Mobile Web and Intelligent Information Systems. MobiWIS 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 10995, pp. 205–216. Springer, Cham (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Liptak, K.: Is atypical typical? – atypical employment in Central Eastern European countries. http://www.emecon.eu/fileadmin/articles/1_2011/emecon%201_2011%20Liptak.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  16. Valenduc, G., Vendramin, P.: Le travail à distance dans la société de l’information. http://www.ftu-namur.org/fichiers/Emerit17.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  17. Vendramin, P.: Telework in the scenarios for the future of work. http://www.ftu-namur.org/fichiers/TW98-pvgv.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  18. Flexible working and work-life balance. http://m.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/3/1/Flexible_working_and_work_life_balance_Nov.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  19. GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com. https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics. Accessed 22 Feb 2019

  20. Eurofound, Sixth European Working Conditions Survey (2016). https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1634en.pdf. Accessed 24 Feb 2019

  21. Fagan, C., Lyonette, C., Smith, M., Saldana-Tejeda, A.: The influence of working time arrangements on work-life integration or ‘balance’: a review of the international evidence. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_protect/@protrav/@travail/documents/publication/wcms_187306.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  22. Ng, F.Ch.: Academics telecommuting in open and distance education universities: issues, challenges, and opportunities. Int. Rev. Res. Open Distance Learn. 7(2), 16 p. (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Grint, K.: The Sociology of Work. Polity Press, Cambridge (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Pettinger, L.: Friends, relations and colleagues: the blurred boundaries of the workplace. In: Parry, J., Taylor, R., Pettinger, L., Glucksman, M. (eds.) A New Sociology of Work. Blackwell Publishing, London (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jeffrey, H.E., Hawkins, A.J., Ferris, M., Weitzman, M.: Finding an extra day a week: the positive influence of perceived job flexibility on work and family life balance. Fam. Relat. 50(1), 49–58 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Beno, M.: Managing telework from an Austrian manager’s perspective. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L.P., Costanzo, S. (eds.) Trends and Advances in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 745, pp. 16–29. Springer, Cham (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Schots, M., Taskin, L.: Flexible working times: towards a new employment relationship? https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal%3A17513/datastream/PDF_01/view. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  28. Peters, P., Den Dulk, L., Tanja Van der Lippe, T.: The effects of time-spatial flexibility and new working conditions on employees’ work-life balance: the Dutch case, community. Work Fam. 12(3), 279–297 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Tremblay, D.G.: Balancing work and family with telework? Organizational issues and challenges for women and managers. Women Manag. 17, 155–170 (2003/2004)

    Google Scholar 

  30. The Guardian, Work-life balance: flexible working can make you ill, experts say. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/02/work-life-balance-flexible-working-can-make-you-ill-experts-say. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  31. Hill, E.J., Miller, B.C., Weiner, S.P.: Influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. Pers. Psychol. 51(3), 667–683 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Lewis, S., Cooper, C.L.: The work-family research agenda in changing contexts. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 4(4), 382–393 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Tietze, S., Musson, G.: Recasting the home-work relationship: a case of mutual adjustment? Organ. Stud. 26(9), 1331–1352 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Duxbury, L.E., Higgins, Ch.A., Thomas, D.R.: Work and family environments and the adoption of computer-supported supplemental work-at-home. J. Vocat. Behav. 49(1), 1–23 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Tavares, A.I.: Telework and health effects review, and a research framework proposal. MPRA (2015). https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71648/1/MPRA_paper_71648.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  36. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/at/Documents/human-capital/deloitte-oesterreich-studie-flexible-working-2017.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  37. Luk, G.: https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/enterprise/mobile-workforce/market-data/report-detail/global-mobile-workforce-forecast-update-2017-2023. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

  38. Global digital population as of January 2019 (in millions). https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/. Accessed 25 Feb 2019

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VSM/CITY University of Seattle, Panonska Cesta 17, 85104, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Michal Beno

Authors
  1. Michal Beno
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michal Beno .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tomas Bata University, Zlín, Czech Republic

    Radek Silhavy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Beno, M. (2020). Mobile Teleworking – Its Effects on Work/Life Balance, a Case Study from Austria. In: Silhavy, R. (eds) Artificial Intelligence and Bioinspired Computational Methods. CSOC 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1225. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51971-1_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation