Introduction of teleworking in an industrial environment : feasibility, change management, control and trust. The case of Prayon S.A.

Abstract

The teleworking, defined as ‘working remotely using information and telecommunication technologies’, is first and foremost a new form of work organization. Organizational innovations do not happen by chance. They are contingent on the contexts in which they emerge. With the aim of responding to the current trends in the world of work, essentially in terms of flexibility and work-life balance, PRAYON plans to introduce a formal telework procedure within its employees in the near future. This work assess the feasibility of establishing teleworking for executives in an industrial company requiring the presence on site of a part of these employees. Teleworking being, as any organizational change, a situation that causes uncertainty on the part of the employer and unpredictable behaviour on the part of teleworkers, it cannot be improvised and hence the need to well manage those changes. From this finding, we had a particular focus on two factors – control and trust – that also applied to telework relationships and that need to be reinvented in these situations.