At home on the electronic frontier: work, gender and the information highway

Bryant, Susan

doi:10.1111/1468-005x.00062

Cited by 42 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Törenli () looked at the internet's role in developing ‘solidaristic’ structures and practices among home‐based employees, and found no solidarity evidenced among them, consistent with earlier studies of online home‐based employees (e.g., Bryant, ). However, self‐employed, home‐based knowledge‐workers’ autonomous, self‐organized work‐structures and self‐regulating practices, allow for professional solidarity and networking to exist online.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…The latter is ‘an aversive psychological state due to a person's perception of lacking satisfactory social relationships’ (Lam and Lau, , p. 4266). Isolated teleworkers tend not to participate in local activities or develop a collectivist sense with others doing similar work, as ‘home‐based work merely further fragments and individualises people's experiences’ (Bryant, , p. 29). Use of asynchronous forms of communication, like emails and voice messages, is associated with low quality interactions for both home‐based teleworkers and management consultants employed off‐site, who feel isolated from colleagues (Bartel et al, ).…”

Section: Literature/conceptual Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility‐Isolation Paradox for Self‐Employed Knowledge‐Workers in the Online Home‐Based Business Context

Daniel

Domenico

Nunan

2017

J Management Studies

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We advance both mobility and paradox theorizing by advocating the new concepts of 'mobility-isolation paradox' and 'paradoxical imagination'. These emerged from examining the nuanced, multifaceted conceptualizations of the mobility-isolation tensions facing home-based, self-employed, online knowledge-workers. We thereby enhance current conceptual understandings of mobility, isolation and paradox by analyzing knowledge-workers' interrelated, multidimensional experiences within restrictive homebased working contexts. We compare the dearth of research and theorizing about these autonomous online knowledge-workers with that available about other types of knowledgeworkers, such as online home-based employees, and the more physically/corporeally mobile self-employed. This research into an increasingly prevalent knowledge-worker genre addresses these knowledge gaps by analyzing home-based knowledge-workers' views, and tensions from paradoxical pressures to be corporeally mobile and less isolated. Despite enjoying career, mental and virtual mobility through internet-connectedness, they were found to seek face-to-face social and/or professional interactions, their isolation engendering loneliness, despite their solitude paradoxically often fostering creativity and innovation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Literature/conceptual Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility‐Isolation Paradox for Self‐Employed Knowledge‐Workers in the Online Home‐Based Business Context

Daniel

Domenico

Nunan

2017

J Management Studies

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“…Indeed, despite management anxieties about the removal of direct visual surveillance (Handy, 1995;Perin, 1998;Kurland and Egan, 1999), there is copious evidence to suggest that 20 New Technology, Work and Employment the relocation of paid work into domestic space results in increased, rather than decreased, productivity (Huws, 1993;Bryant, 2000;Steward, 2000;Brocklehurst, 2001). Whilst this may be reassuring for employers (Mahfood, 1991), it may indicate less positive experiences for homeworkers themselves.…”

Section: Relocation: Homeworkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management

2005

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New information and communication technologies enable the spatial reconfiguration of work opening up possibilities for work to take place across multiple locations. This paper explores the implications of hybrid workspace through a new empirical study. It argues that spatial hybridity changes the nature of work, organisation and management across domestic space, organisational space and in cyberspace. IntroductionOne of the central issues in the study of new technology, work and employment has been the way that information and communication technologies (ICTs) enable the spatial reconfiguration of work, management and organisation. Specifically, there has been wide ranging interest in the (interconnected) possibilities for teleworking and for virtual organisation. In the former case, ICTs are used to enable remote working, usually from home. In the latter case, similar technologies are employed to enable virtual organisational structures and relationships to operate with little or no face-toface contact. In spatial terms, there is a hollowing out of the fixed organisational workspace and a polarisation towards the relocation of work into domestic space on the one hand and the dislocation of work into cyberspace on the other. In both cases, there has been speculation and research suggesting that new organisational, social and personal relationships may accompany these new spatial arrangements, highlighting the entangled interrelations between space, work and organisation.However, research on both homeworking and virtual organisation fails to address directly an important empirical aspect to this re-spatialisation. That is, that significant numbers of people work both from home and from an organisational workplace, using virtual technologies to connect the two spaces. Whilst previous debates about teleworking and virtual organisation are relevant to this group, none explores directly the individual or organisational practices, experiences and implications of this mode of New Technology, Work and Employment 20:1 working. Being employed to work both at home and also in an organisational setting, using ICTs to maintain workloads and relationships across both domestic and organisational spaces raises new questions that lead beyond the sum of existing debates about teleworking and virtual organisation. Specifically, these concern hybrid workspace. These individuals work at home and engage in embodied organisational spaces; they conduct relationships virtually and in close proximity. How does this combination of organisational and domestic spaces, mediated in cyberspace, impact on practices of work, organisation and management?This paper explores these questions, examining working practices, organisational relationships, and managerial techniques in hybrid workspace. Based on a new empirical study of managerial and technical staff, the paper examines the impact of spatial hybridity at both individual and organisational levels. Through the empirical material, the paper shows that spatial hybridity changes the nature of wo...

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“…Betts and Huzey, 2009;Douglas 2009-2010;Mason et al, 2011). Studies that seek to theorise home-based businesses have tended to consider a particular aspect of such businesses, such as gender (Bryant, 2000;Walker and Webster, 2004;Nansen et al 2010) or isolation (Smith and Markham, 1998;Smith and Calasanti, 2005;Golden et al, 2008) and apply specific theories that focus on these singular aspects.…”

Section: Entrepreneurship and Online Home-based Businessesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic entrepreneurs and online home-based businesses: an exploratory study

Anwar

Daniel

2017

J Glob Entrepr Res

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This exploratory, qualitative study considers how online home-based businesses offer opportunities for ethnic entrepreneurs to 'break out' of traditional highly competitive and low margin sectors. Previous studies have found a positive association between ethnic minorities' high levels of entrepreneurship and home computer use in ethnic groups. Despite these associations, previous studies have overlooked the particular opportunities offered by home-based online businesses to ethnic entrepreneurs. The study adopts mixed embeddedness as a theoretical lens to guide interviews with 22 ethnic entrepreneurs who have started online home-based businesses in the UK. We find online home-based businesses offer ethnic entrepreneurs novel opportunities to draw on their ethnic advantages and address the constraints they face. The unique affordances of this type of business allow entrepreneurs to develop the necessary IT skills by self-learning and experimentation and to sub-contract more difficult or time consuming aspects to others. The findings also show that, consistent with the theory of mixed embeddedness, whilst the entrepreneurs are influenced by social, economic and institutional forces, online businesses allow them to exert their own agency and provide opportunities to uniquely shape these forces.

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At home on the electronic frontier: work, gender and the information highway

Cited by 42 publications

References 4 publications

Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility‐Isolation Paradox for Self‐Employed Knowledge‐Workers in the Online Home‐Based Business Context

Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility‐Isolation Paradox for Self‐Employed Knowledge‐Workers in the Online Home‐Based Business Context

Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management

Ethnic entrepreneurs and online home-based businesses: an exploratory study

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