Telecommuting and Co-Working Communities: What Are the Implications for Individual and Organizational Flexibility?

Abstract

In recent years, telecommuting has increased exponentially, although rates vary across different countries. The US has one of the highest rates of tel- ecommuting adoption in the world, with approximately 16 million US employ- ees working from home at least 1 day per month—about 10 % of all employees (Shieh and Searle SOAC 2013: 6th State of Australian Cities Conference. State of Australian Cities Research Network, 2013). In Australia, it has been esti- mated that in 2013, 5.6 million adult Australians aged 18 years and over were ‘digital workers’—that is, they use the internet to work away from the office (Di Gregorio Home is where the work is: Research snapshots, 2013). This represents 51 % of the total employed workforce in Australia. Telecommuting environments vary with regard to the life and work opportunities provided for telecommuters (Shieh and Searle SOAC 2013: 6th State of Australian Cities Conference. State of Australian Cities Research Network, 2013), as well as the range of advantages and disadvantages telecommuting can provide for both workers and organizations. Consequently, this chapter reviews existing literature in order to explore how tel- ecommuting can either contribute to, or detract from individual and organizational flexibility. The emergence of co-working practices is also examined as a telecom- muting environment that has the potential to overcome some of the issues that tel- ecommuting poses both from the individual and organizational perspectives