Work Intensification and Telehomeworking: The Case of Indian IT Sector
This study explores the link between telehomeworking and work intensification in the Information Technology sector in India. We adopted an interpretive approach and used in-depth interviews, supplemented with secondary data. Our analysis shows dominance of two shared interpretations among employees: telehomeworking as (1) a means to cope with intensified work, and (2) an employee benefit that is granted at managers’ discretion. While granting work from home option, managers used these shared interpretations that frame telehomeworking as employee benefits to create subordinates’ acceptance of the intensified work that they carried out in office space. We also show that beyond this level of intensification, working from home involved new work pressures, which led to further work intensification. Thus, this study synthesizes the two streams of research on the link between work intensification and telehomeworking—the dominant one, which argues that work intensification is an outcome of telehomeworking, and the alternative, which suggests vice versa. The study also highlights how dominant interpretations of telehomeworking serve as management resources to reduce employee opposition to the intensification of and thus contributes to the literature on the hegemonic nature of flexible work practices discourse.
Authors: | Bathini, D ; Kandathil, George |
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Institutions: | Economics, Indian Institute of Management |
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