Asia Pacific Management Review (2002) 7(3), 287-298 Telecommuting : a difference in acceptance of the concept between workers in the East and Kelang Shamshul Bahri * (received December 2001; revision received May 2002;accepted July 2002) The paper studies whether the difference in work locations will have a significant bearing on the acceptance of telecommuting. Two locations chosen for this study are the Kelang and the East of the Peninsular Malaysia. It investigates the major differences between the two areas of study and looks at how the workers in both areas see teleworking as an alternative method of working arrangement. The findings show that difference in location does imply different social and economic condition that directly and indirectly influence the decision on whether to telework or not to telework. Keywords : Telework; Telecommuting; Malaysia; Location; Information Technology 1. What is teleworking/telecommuting Teleworking or telecommuting are two words commonly used to describe virtual work that occurs when information and communication technologies are applied to enable work to be done at a distance from the place where the work results are needed or where the work could conventionally have been done [8]. There are several types of teleworking arrangements, namely home-based telework, mobile telework, hot-desking, telecentres, telecottages, and tethered workers. Among the factors that differentiate these arrangements are the amount of time spent outside of the office environment and the location and the method of communicating data to and from the workplace [5, 8, 16]. Although teleworking is an enticing alternative work arrangement, many have not yet embraced it. There could be many factors for this. Among them could be the worker involved, the task-set, the home environment, the organizational environment, and the technical infrastructure. A worker needs to be psychologically suitable for teleworking. Not every task is suitable for teleworking. The workers workplace at home must be defensible and clearly separated from their families. The organization must be actively and * Information Systems and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; FAX: +603-7967-3810; e-mail: esbi@um.edu.my 287
effectively networked before teleworking can even start. Management attitude towards commanding and controlling workers could undermine the effectiveness of teleworking. Intensity in the use of ICT could determine the suitability of teleworking in an organization. An enterprise that uses ICT intensively is more suitable for telecommuting compared to enterprises that use ICT less intensively [6, 8, 16, 17, 18]. 2. Previous Studies On Telecommuting Previous studies on telecommuting gave more emphasis on the type of workers who are more suitable for telecommuting and the factors that influence a person or an organization to be involved in such work practice. Hobbs and Amstrong [11] revealed that workers who are involved in a telecommuting organization commented favorably on the flexibility which their style of working allowed. Vivien and Thompson [20] studied attitudes among IT professionals in Singapore towards teleworking. Among the variables covered in the studies are demographic variable, work-related attitudes variable, support factors variable and perceived advantages/disadvantages variable. Fireman [7] researched on the factors that reduce or stop telecommuting activities. Clark [4] meanwhile investigated the factors that influence a worker s decision to telework while Ward and Shabha [21] assessed the socio-psychological factors in teleworking. A number of studies had also been done on the practice of teleworking in certain countries. Higa and Wijayanayake [10] looked at the adoption of telewoking by Japanese organizations. Lafferty and Whitehouse [13] meanwhile surveyed certain industries in Australia on how teleworking are practiced in those industries. Such study had also been conducted in Malaysia by Abdul Azeez and Supian [1] that emphasized on the industry-to-industry differences. However, it was identified that there are not many studies on how workers from two different areas will accept telecommuting. One such study was conducted by Baruch and Yuk [2] who studied the inclination of workers from two areas, namely United Kingdom and Hong Kong, to telework. Even then, this study admits that there are vast differences between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom in terms of cultural and practical aspect. Thus, the question now is, how would people from two different areas but within a small country perceive and accept teleworking? This is what this paper attempts to do. 3. What this paper attempts to do This paper would like to see how workers from two different areas 288
within a country perceive and accept telecommuting as an alternative mode of working. Some of the questions that this paper poses are: What are the major differences between the two areas of study? Could there be differences between the workers in the two areas of study on the intention to be teleworkers? What could we conclude from the major differences and the intention to be teleworkers? In order to do that, two areas have been identified, namely the East of the Peninsular Malaysia and the Kelang area. In this paper, the East area consists of Kelantan and Terengganu states while the Kelang comprises Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan states. There are several reasons why these two areas are chosen as the areas of study. Although the two areas are just around 400 Kilometres apart, the two are so different in many aspects such as in the development, population, unemployment rate, the state s economy, monthly household income, number of registered vehicles, number of telephones, and the number of Internet consumers. There are also differences in terms of composition of workers based on gender, marital status, traffic situation to work, method of travelling to work, working experience and so on. The two areas also share some similarities. The composition of the ethnic group in both areas is the same (Malays, Chinese, and Indians) although the percentage of each ethnic group differs from state to state. The Malay language is the main medium of communication while English is widely used in the business organizations. The culture of the two areas are very much the same as people from the two areas often travel to each other s place and mingle with each other that for outsiders, its very hard to distinguish one from the other. These differences and similarities differentiate this study to the study made by Baruch and Yuk [2]. Thus, a new question arises. Could the same people in the same small country but from different areas perceive the concept of teleworking/telecommuting differently? What are the major differences that could lead to the difference in perception? This is what we are going to explore. 4. The gulf of differences According to the 8 th Malaysian Plan [19], the states in the Kelang can be classified as the more developed states while the East states can be classified as the less developed states. The population in the 289
Kelang is more than double the population in the East, thus implying that the Kelang is more crowded than the East. The average unemployment rate is higher in the East compared to the Kelang. The Gross State Product (GSP) for the states in the Kelang is five times bigger than the GSP for the states in the East area. The average monthly household income follows the same trend as the GSP. The number of registered cars and motorcycles in the Kelang is three times higher than in the East, thus implying a more congested traffic situation in the Kelang. More projects are planned to ease the traffic congestion problem in the Kelang (see Table 2). In terms of telecommunication, the Kelang again beats the East with a higher number of telephones for every 1000 people. There are also more Internet consumers in the Kelang compared to the East, thus implying that there is a greater Internet usage in the Kelang (see Table 1 for the figures). Table 1 : Economic, socio-economic, and selected indicators of the two areas [19] Indicators Population ( 000) 4,175.0 Employment Rate 1.9 GSP (RM million) 44,708 Average Monthly Household Income (RM) 3,162 Number of Vehicles For Every 1,000 people 367.9 Telephone For Every 1,000 People 462.0 Number of Internet Consumers 335,262 Selangor Kuala Lumpur 1,370.3 1.6 25,968 3,371 985.7 258.2 134,870 Kelang s Total 5,545.3 1.75 70,676 6,533 1,353.6 720.2 470,132 Kelantan 1,314.9 3.4 6,987 1,314 211.9 114.6 16,101 Terengganu East s Total 899.0 5.9 17,937 1,599 221.0 221.0 15,041 2,213.9 4.65 24,924 2,913 432.9 335.6 31,142 290
Table 2 : Major road projects for the two areas [19] Project Length (Km) Kelang Middle Link Road II (Phase 1) South Kelang Highway (Section 1A) Shah Alam Highway Kuala Lumpur Karak Highway Cheras-Kajang Highway Damansara Puchong Highway Upgrading of Sungai Besi Highway New North Kelang Straits Pintas West Kuala Lumpur Trafik Penyuraian Scheme Pantai Baru Highway Kajang Seremban Highway Kajang Traffic Penyuraian Highway 35 11 35 60 12 40 16 18 26 20 48 37 East East Highway In order to explore more of the differences between the two areas, a survey was conducted on 415 workers from two areas, the Kelang and the East. Two hundred and twenty three workers come from the Kelang and the rest comes from the East (see Table 3). Although not representative of the whole population, this researcher believes that this sample could give us a rough indication of how things are between the two areas. Table 3 : Composition of workers based on area of study Kelang East Frequency 223 192 Percent 53.7 46.3 The first question that may come into our mind is: are the respondents in these two areas similar or significantly different? The answer is: there are some significant differences. The male respondents are significantly higher in the East while the female respondents are significantly higher in the Kelang (see Table 4). The East area has more people who are married with children compared to the Kelang, while the Kelang has more respondents who are single and those who are married but without children (see Table 5). 169 291
Table 4 : Cross-tabulation between gender and the two areas of study Kelang East Pearson Chi-Square Asymp. Sig. Male Female 106 117 114 78 5.808 0.016 Table 5 : Cross-tabulation between marital status and the two areas of study Kelang East Pearson Chi-Square Asymp. Sig. Not Married Married Without Children Married With Children 62 34 122 37 16 136 11.545 0.003 In terms of years of working experience, on average, the respondents in the East have a significantly longer working experience compared the respondents in the Kelang (see Table 6). However, in terms of distance travelled to commute to work, the respondents in the Kelang travelled more than the respondents in the East (see Table 6). Table 6: T-test of the distance to work and years of working experience in relation to the areas of study Factors Areas Mean t Significance (2-tailed) Years of Working Kelang 7.7399-8.333 0.000 Experience Distance Travelled To Work East Kelang East 14.2370 17.2018 7.9375 8.452 0.000 There are also significant differences in terms of the level of workers in the organization. There are significantly more managers and officers in the Kelang area compared to the East area. Meanwhile, there are more respondents in the general workers category in the East compared to the Kelang (see Table 7). This has a certain impact on the differences in the monthly income, although the differences are not that significant (see Table 8). 292
Table 7 : Cross-tabulation between the level of workers in organization and the two areas of study Managers Officers Clerks General Workers 13 87 114 9 7 39 114 32 30.845 0.000 Table 8 : Cross-tabulation between monthly income and the two areas of study Below RM 500 RM 501 To RM 1000 RM 1001 To RM 5000 Above RM 5000 1 70 144 8 7 62 120 3 7.164 0.067 There are also significant differences in the methods of commuting to work between the two areas of study. There are significantly more workers in the East who travel to work by cars and motorcycles compared to their counterparts in the Kelang. The Kelang area meanwhile has more respondents who travel by bus to work or use other modes of transportation like the KTM Commuter and The Light Railway Transit (LRT) (see Table 9). Although the scenario is like that, there are significantly more respondents in the Kelang who feel that the traffic to their workplace is more congested than the respondents in the East. There are more workers in the East who feel that the traffic situation to their workplace is rather smooth compared to the workers in the Kelang who feel that the traffic situation is either heavily congested or congested at several places (see Table 10). Table 9 : Cross-tabulation between the methods of commuting to work and the two areas of study Motorcycle Bus Car Other Methods 36 20 120 47 40 10 138 4 38.956 0.000 293
Table 10 : Cross-tabulation between the traffic situation to the workplace and the two areas of study Very Smooth Smooth Congested At Several Places Heavily Congested 15 90 85 33 16 98 69 9 13.509 0.004 There are also significant differences in terms of usage of information technology. Surprisingly, at least in this research, there are more respondents in the East who use the Internet compared to the respondents in the Kelang (see Table 11). There are also significantly more respondents in the East who use e-mail compared to the respondents in the Kelang (see Table 12). Only in the usage of LAN, there are significantly more respondents in Kelang who indicated that they use it compared to the respondents in the East (see Table 13). Meanwhile, although there are differences in terms of EDI usage, the differences are not that significant (see Table 14). Table 11 : Cross-tabulation between the use of Internet and the two areas of study Use Do Not Use 103 120 157 35 55.824 0.000 Table 12 : Cross-tabulation between the use of e-mail and the two areas of study Use Do Not Use 115 108 149 43 30.212 0.000 Table 13 : Cross-tabulation between the use of local area network and the two areas of study Use Do Not Use 136 87 63 129 32.813 0.000 294
Table 14 : Cross-tabulation between the use of electronic data interchange and the two areas of study Use Do Not Use 45 178 44 148 0.459 0.498 5. The respondents perception about the barriers/motivators to teleworking There are no significant differences in terms of the workers factor and the home factor between the two areas (see Table 16). However, there are significant differences between these two areas in terms of the tasks factor, the organization factor, and the technical factor. In all three factors, the respondents in the Kelang exhibit more concern compared to their counterparts in the East (see Table 17). Could this be related to the profile that we had discussed earlier? What impact does it has on the intention to be a teleworker? Table 15 : T-test of the barriers/motivating factors to telecommuting Factors Areas Mean t Significance (2-tailed) Workers Kelang 11.1390 1.395 0.164 East 10.8281 Tasks Kelang 10.8430 3.010 0.003 East 10.1406 Home Kelang 10.8027-0.550 0.583 East 10.9531 Organization Kelang 11.4888 2.993 0.003 Technical East Kelang East 10.7448 12.6099 11.5677 6. What does area/location has to do with it? 4.052 0.000 On one hand, there is no significant difference between the workers in the two areas in terms of method of working. Although there are more respondents in the Kelang who are involved in some sort of telecommuting arrangement, the difference is not that significant (see Table 16). However, when we look at the intention to work from home, we can see a significant difference. We can clearly see that there are significantly more 295
respondents in the Kelang who would like to telework, more specifically work from home, compared to their counterparts in the East (see Table 17). This result has a significant impact on the whole research. In a way, we can conclude that location/area has an effect on the decision of whether to telework or not. Table 16 : Cross-tabulation between the method of working and the two areas of study Totally In The Office Some Sort Of Telecommuting Arrangement 180 43 159 33 0.303 0.582 Table 17 : Cross-tabulation between the intention to work from home and the two areas of study Intend To Work From Home Do Not Intend To Work From Home 7. What can we conclude? 136 87 83 109 13.053 0.000 Location does play an important role in determining whether a worker would like to be a teleworker/telecommuter. Specifically, areas that exhibit the following features are more inclined to have a telecommuting arrangement: A more developed, thus a more populated area. More female workers. More workers that are single or married but without children. This is possibly because for them there is no disturbance at home. More numbers of young workers who are more open and exposed to new method of working. Workers have to travel longer distance to the workplace. Workers prefer not to use their cars and motorcycles to travel to work because they feel that the traffic situation to their workplace is congested or highly congested. The workers and their organization are highly wired by local area network, wide area network, Intranet, Extranet, and Internet 296
8. Implications to development of telecommuting in Malaysia Even though some of the findings may sound naïve or just common sense, it has high practical implications as it affirms our beliefs all this while on certain things. Therefore, it is important for organizations in Malaysia generally, and the Malaysian government specifically to take cue of the major findings from this study. First of all, not all areas are suitable for telecommuting. Major cities and towns like Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Penang, and Johor Bahru are more acceptable to the idea of teleworking compared to towns like Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, and Kuching. Secondly, the barriers to telecommuting need to be reduced or removed altogether. The most important barriers that need to be looked into are the tasks factor, the organization factor, and the technical factor. Not all tasks can be accomplished by teleworking. The method of appraising a teleworker should be different from a conventional worker. The nation and the organization should be intensively and extensively using ICT in order to have an effective and successful teleworking arrangement. If these factors are taken into consideration seriously, this author believes that there is a great future for teleworking/telecommuting in Malaysia. References [1] Abdul Azeez K.H and Supian A (1996) A study of applicability of telecommuting on selected business firms in Malaysia. Paper presented at the Telecommute 1996 Conference, Jacksonville, FC. [2] Baruch Y and Yuk KJY (2000) Inclination to opt for teleworking : A comparative analysis of United Kingdom vs. Hong Kong Employees. International Journal of Manpower, 21(7). [3] Bultje R and Wijk VJ (1998) Taxonomy of virtual organizations, based on definitions, characteristics, and topology. Virtual-Organization Net Newsletter, 2(3). [4] Clark SD II (1998). The decision to telework : An investigation of influential factors. Unpublished PhD Thesis, The Claremont Graduate University. [5] Davenport TH and Pearlson K (1998) Two cheers for the virtual office. MIS Quarterly, 39(4). [6] European Telework Online at http://www.eto.org.uk/faq/faq3.htm. [7] Fireman SM (1999) a model of telecommuting withdrawal : Employee perceptions predicting the reduction of stopping of telework. Unpublished Phd Thesis, University of Washington. 297
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