Telecommuting: an Overview of Emerging Macroergonomics Issues

Advances in information technology are allowing selective employees to work “anywhere” and at “anytime.” The work location for some employees is changing from the traditional corporate office to a virtual work location, such as the home, hotel, airport, shared and satellite office, client office and the car. This trend toward “alternative work styles” and the distributed workforce is likely to continue. As these work styles and virtual workplaces continue to emerge, understanding and designing effective work systems using a macroergonomics perspective is essential to achieve the benefits of distributed work and telecommuting. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the major macroergonomics issues associated with telecommuting. First, we present the literature databases used for this paper, a macroergonomics perspective and model. Next, examples of telecommuting programs, including the organizational structure, implementation process and evaluation strategy are given. A review of the existing empirical research concerning telecommuting and its implications are also discussed. Further, a macroergonomics process for managing the health and safety of telecommuters is described. In summary, a discussion of future telecommuting research and program development using a macroergonomics, work system design approach, is given.