Abstract: |
Telework is defined as working at home or at other off-site locations that are linked electronically (via computer, fax, etc.) to a central office or principal place of employment. It can be considered as a way of turning the company towards virtuality. In this paper the features of virtuality are withdrawn from the model of dimension of integration of company. There are three dimensions: Durability of relations among partners, Organizational distance with its three components: location distance, information distance and social distance, Need for coordination. Virtual organization is that one which is characterized by temporary relations among partners, short information distance in spite of long physical and social distance among them, and coordination of partners’ activities exploiting mutual adjustment mechanism. The information distance refers to time of reaction on threats and disturbances. The short information distance as well as the mutual adjustment mechanism of coordination is facilitated by use of IT. The concept of virtuality refers to both external and internal aspects of organization. The external aspect relates to networking company when the internal one concerns the organizational structure of the firm. Teleworking is one of solutions creating the virtual organizational structure of company. There are variety of functions performed in the organizational structure of manufacturing company. They can be systematically presented with the help of model of tree of functions. In this paper the model is used to appoint these functions which are susceptible to teleworking. In some sense outsourcing can be considered as an alternative mode of making virtual of the organizational structure of company. By applying both teleworking and outsourcing the company becomes lean. Extremely lean company has very little physical resources and has virtual organization. The model of tree of functions is used to appoint these functions which can be outsourced or performed at off-site location. Working at off-site location (at home) requires IT to link the location to the central office of company. The technology is expected to ensure some functions like: protection against not authorized access, protection the data between off-site location and the corporate network, remote access to the corporation’s files and so on. Depending on the IT configuration there can be different scope of the functions’ fulfillment. In this paper a review of models of IT configuration as well as some products dedicated for teleworking is presented. |