78

BOOK REVIEW

Daniels, K., Lamond, D.A., & Standen, P. (Eds.) (2000)
ManagingTelework: Perspectives from Human Resource Management
and Work Psychology, London: Thomson Learning Business
Press.

Reviewer: Fiona Donald, Department of Psychology, Univer-
sity of theWitwatersrand.

This book aims to assist organizations in managing telework-
ers by examining salient issues and developing a framework
for understanding telework. The editors are academics at
prominent institutions in the United Kingdom and Australia,
forming the basis for a well-researched book.The book begins
with the comment that one cannot assume that all telework is
the same or similar, and o¡ers a classi¢cation of telework based
on the dimensions of the degree of knowledge intensity, intra-
and extra-organizational contact required and the location of
the teleworker.This classi¢cation is likely to prove very useful
to future researchers and managers as the discussions throug-
hout the book are based on the issues and possible solutions
related to the various types of telework.

Chapter one provides an overview of trends regarding tele-
work, highlights the key issues and o¡ers a framework for
managing teleworkers. Broadly, the framework covers aspects
relating to the nature of the telework itself that is performed,
the organizational context, the management systems required,
managing individual teleworkers and the outcomes involved.
Each of these key areas contains a number of issues that are ex-
plored in subsequent chapters.

The second chapter examines telework in its national context
and makes the point that macro labour market conditions in
di¡erent countries act to support or hinder telework. Speci¢c
aspects include the information society context, employer’s
and individual’s attitudes to teleworking, and the role of
government, industrial relations and trade unions. In many in-
stances teleworkers do not ¢t conventional categories of em-
ployees or self-employed people and, depending on the
legislative and company response to this, people are either en-
couraged or discouraged from entering this form of work.The
relatively high or low incidence of teleworking also seems to
be associated with nations’perceptions of the role of work and
cultural aspects and the status of teleworkers.

Most previous research regarding teleworking has focussed on
the telework itself and the forms it takes, rather than on orga-
nizational contexts or structures that could facilitate it. Chap-
ter three provides an overview of organizational structure and
the implications for teleworking, and then focuses speci¢cally
on teamwork and co-ordination. The discussion of organiza-
tional structure is brief and focuses on key issues such as organ-
ic versus mechanistic structures, and the di¡erence between
organizations that include a degree of teleworking versus
those that have been shaped around it.The discussion regard-
ing teams focuses onvirtual teams.The author makes the point
that the type of work required (high or low knowledge) and
the degree of communication needed by the teleworking team
members is crucial in in£uencing their interaction as a team.
The question is also raised as to whether teleworking will be
a voluntary or mandatory form of work in the future.

The chapter devoted to organizational culture and telework illu-
strates how society, regulatory bodies, managers and co-workers
have traditionally perceived work, with an emphasis on the
manager’s control over workers and the visibility of work being
performed, and a commitment to the organization as a physical
place, among other aspects.These perceptions often form part of
the organizational culture and are unlikely to support telework.
Bycontrast, aculture that values outcomes, empowermentof the
individual and more holistic jobs in likely to be more conducive
to teleworking. The reasons for organizations using telework,

the role of occupational status and a framework for describing
cultures in teleworking organizations are also covered in this
chapter.The impact of teleworking on organizational culture is
also discussed, such as the potential for teleworking to liberalize
and dilute the culture.

While various mechanisms are available to socialize physically
present newcomers into the organization, the processes in-
volved in socializing ‘invisible’employees are not as obvious.
However, the ¢t between the individual teleworker and the
organization remains an important aspect of ensuring that em-
ployees who are not physically present acts in organizationally
approved ways. In view of the lack of research into the sociali-
zation of teleworkers, the author of chapter ¢ve examines re-
search regarding the socialization of o⁄ce workers and
extrapolates this to teleworkers. Various issues regarding the
measurement of person-organization ¢t are raised and practi-
cal recommendations are o¡ered.

Chapter six focuses on how distributed teams use and adapt
technology to suit the particular task that they are facing. It is
based on an eighteen-month study of work practices in a dis-
tributed design and manufacture centre with sta¡ in the UK
and the USA.The purpose of the research was to examine the
role of various teleworking technologies involving di¡erent
types of real-time video connections. It was found that partici-
pants chose to use di¡erent technologies depending largely on
the type of task they were working on, such as decision-
making versus problem solving issues. In other words, the de-
cision as towhich technology to use was often based on factors
that were not related to the technology itself, but to the type of
work that needed to be done at that moment and the ways in
which the sta¡ could adapt the technology to suit their needs.
The criteria used to make these decisions were often very
subtle.This is an interesting chapter that examines aspects that
are not the traditional domain of the industrial psychologist,
but which could have a signi¢cant impact on the performance
of teleworkers.

The relationship between personality and telework is exami-
ned in chapter seven.The classi¢cation of telework (presented
in chapter one) is used as a starting point, as the type of person-
ality suited to a particular type of telework is likely to be rela-
ted to the nature of the work and its context. The author
provides an overview of the ‘Big 5’ model of personality and
of the Myers BriggsType Indicator and how these relate to job
performance. He then presents hypotheses as to how these
¢ndings could relate to teleworkers, bearing in mind the
initial point about how the demands placed on teleworkers
di¡er according to the nature of their work. He concludes
with comments about teleworkers, personality and virtual
teams and provides some useful pointers for managers.

In chapter eight, the author examines the relationship between
job features and psychological well being. Research regarding
this relationship for workers in general is summarized, and
then extrapolated to teleworkers. Once again, the di¡erent
types to telework are referred to, as some are more susceptible
to certain problems than others are. Speci¢c job features that
are commented upon include the opportunity for control,
the opportunity to use one’s skills, variety at work, balanced
work demands, job and organizational clarity, the availability
of money, good physical conditions, social contact and inter-
personal support and the holding avalued social position. Pos-
sible interventions are recommended, but the author notes
that any intervention should begin with an assessment of the
job’s features and their relationship to well-being in order to
identify the job features need to be altered and whether any
particular groups are at risk.

For home-based teleworkers, managing the interface between
home and work is often an issue. In chapter nine, the author

SAJournal of Industrial Psychology, 2002, 28(1),78-79
SATydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 2002, 28(1),78-79



provides an overviewof research into home based workers and
the issues involved, including spillover and compensation
theories, physical, temporal, work/family, and work/com-
munity boundaries. Although many of these issues need to be
managed by the teleworker him/herself, other issues can be
more directly in£uenced by employing organization, such as
autonomy, equity in relation to o⁄ce based employees and
the social value attributed to home-based telework.

The psychological contract between organizations and tele-
workers is likely to be complex. Although it may include
many of the expectations held of o⁄ce workers, the basis for
the contract may di¡er in some ways and the potential for per-
ceived breaches seems tobe large. In chapter ten, the concept of
a psychological contract is reviewed, followed by a summary
of certain agreements negotiated with employers on behalf of
teleworkers. Pertinent issues are raised, such as the degree of
control that organizations have over the decoding of psycho-
logical contracts, the creation of normative contracts, the po-
tential impact on virtual teams and areas where breaches of the
psychological contract are likely to occur with teleworkers.
This is a forward-looking chapter with much food for
thought.

In view of the fact that the managers of teleworkers cannot
physically observe the teleworkers working, there is a shift in
the emphasis of the managerial role.While the management
style required is not necessarily fundamentally di¡erent from
that required for other forms of work, a greater degree of trust
is needed. More importantly, the management style that is
deemed most appropriate will be related to the features of the
telework being conducted such as location, information and
communication technologies, knowledge intensity and intra-
and extra-organizational communication.

Omari and Standen, the authors of chapter eleven, argue that
it is important to look beyond the attributes of the individual
when selecting teleworkers.The more obvious aspects such as
personality, skills and motivation contribute to the success of
teleworkers, but aspects such as the continuity between the
task performed and the organization’s technical systems, the
social relations between the teleworkers and other members
of the organization and clients and the suitability of the re-
mote environment are also important. Further, some organi-
zations perceive teleworkers as short-term ‘¢x-it’ solutions to
problems, while others embrace them as an aid to organiza-
tional strategy and as an innovative work process. These
organizations approach the selection of teleworkers in very
di¡erent ways.

Managers of teleworkers are faced with the challenge of includ-
ing the teleworkers in organizational learning despite their geo-
graphical distance and lesser visibility. In chapter thirteen, a
simple but pertinent overview of organizational learning is pro-
vided.This is followed by a systematic analysis of the barriers to
learning that could apply to teleworkers. Many practical tips are
provided and an integrated approach to including teleworkers in
the processes of organizational learning is o¡ered. On a similar
theme, chapter fourteen discusses the training and development
of teleworkers. Acase study is covered, providing useful insights
and an overview of the processes involved.

Assessing and managing the performance of traditional wor-
kers is often problematic and the same tends to hold true of
teleworkers. The author of chapter ¢fteen criticizes the exist-
ing literature regarding the management of the performance
of teleworkers as frequently being prescriptive and being
based on inconsistent principles. As an alternative to this he
o¡ers a theoretically grounded approach based on principal
agent theory. The di⁄culties typically encountered in mana-
ging the performance of people who work at a distance are
discussed. Recommendations are made for speci¢c types of
job environments.

Organizations are facing numerous changes, of which tele-
working is only one. These changes have major implications
for managers, the teleworkers themselves and human resour-
ces practitioners. Some people will be required to develop a
broader and deeper range of competencies and will need to
challenge the assumptions underlying the way in which they
have operated in the past. Chapter sixteen examines these is-
sues and suggests ways of preparing people and organizations
for teleworking.The ¢nal chapter looks at the future prospects
and perspectives of teleworking and emphasizes the need for
an integrated approach to all aspects covered in the book.

The usefulness of this book lies in its theoretical grounding com-
bined with the authors’ability to adopt a systemic and holistic
approach to the issues. Although recommendations are made,
they are not prescriptive or o¡ered in the form of a ‘quick ¢x.’
Rather, managers are urged to analyze their particular situations
and to examine the broad context of issues before deciding upon
solutions.Where the existing research is sparse, the authors have
successfully examined the implications of related research and of-
fered tentative comparisons and suggestions.This book is easy to
read and the theoretical introductions to each chapter are easily
accessible to line managers from various disciplines.The authors
have struck a sound balance between accessibility to managers
and the book’s research and theoretical grounding.

BOOK REVIEW 79