Exploring the experiences of the self-employed teleworkers in managing border between work and family towards a balanced life

Work-Family Balance is a concept where an individual is able to manage his or her work and at the same time accomplish family commitments. Even though work and family are from different domains but each of these domains will influence the other domain with either positive or negative effect. The issue of balancing these two domains has received a significant share of attention in published works. Nevertheless, these issues remain unsolved. Tele-working still does not provide a positive effect on family as well as life issues. There is evidence that this is caused by a strong resentment from the teleworkers themselves. However, there are very few studies that had been done, to indicate the effect is caused by any major resentment from the teleworkers. Due to these inconsistencies, there is a need for further investigation on the issue of balancing the domains of the teleworkers. The purpose of this study is to explore the experience encountered by the self-employed teleworkers and to look into the factors that influenced them in managing the boundary to balance work and family life. The characteristics of the boundaries were analyzed, in order to understand the nature of the interactions between work and home. These characteristics were then used to explain the extent in which individuals are able to control the boundary between work and family life in attaining a balance between these two domains. This study employs a qualitative methodology, using a single case study. Seventy six (76) self-employed teleworkers were selected as respondents. In this study, three data collection techniques were used: 1) face to face interviews; 2) online open ended survey; and 3) observations of online discussion forum. As for the data analysis, the interpretive technique was used. The findings that have emerged from this study showed that factors such as time- management, discipline, family support, motivation, and patience can influence the self- employed teleworkers in their attempt to balance their work and family life. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by identifying the factors that are practiced by the self-employed teleworkers in managing the boundary to achieve the work-family balance. The findings have also shown that patience is a key factor for the teleworkers. Recommendations for further research include the conducting of a similar study but with a different set of potential employment. This is important to better understand the working arrangement, without incurring any family and personal problems, in balancing work and family life. This can further improve the quality of work-family life

Undergraduates’ Needs and Seeking Behaviour: A Preliminary Study

Information seeking behaviour refers to the process of how individual identify their information needs, search and use the information identified to support their work. Understanding the needs and seeking for information from different types of information sources is very important to student in completing their research activities. This paper presents findings from a preliminary study of undergraduate students’ information seeking behaviour and their need of information for their research project. The aim of this study is to identify their information seeking behaviour in finding the required information that meet their information needs. A survey was carried out and thirty nine final year students from two related Information Technology (IT) programs in a Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia returns the questionnaires. Findings indicate that information about development tools was the most important information needed by the students for finishing research project. In searching for required information, Google search engine was found to be the most widely used by the students. Furthermore, most students preferred to use the electronic information sources to search information due to the variety of information available on the Web

Current practices of self-employed knowledge teleworkers in managing work and family

The purpose of this study is to explore the practices of self-employed knowledge teleworkers in managing work and family life in order to attain balance.Effective ways in managing work and family could help self-employed knowledge teleworkers who are struggle to create harmony in the contexts of work and family life and may strengthen and enhance their business achievement. This study employed a qualitative methodology using a single case study of 76 self-employed teleworkers from the e-Homemakers organization in Malaysia.Three types of techniques in collecting data were used; 1) face to face interviews; 2) online open ended survey; and 3) observations of online discussion forum.The interpretative analysis technique was used to analyze the data. The results will provide insight into practices and development needs of knowledge teleworkers that may lead to the development of a guideline for individuals who choose to telework.This is also important to better understand the working arrangement, without incurring any family and personal problems, in balancing work and family life.Thus, this can further improve the quality of work-family life

Undergraduates’ needs and seeking behaviour: A preliminary study

Information seeking behaviour refers to the process of how individual identify their information needs, search and use the information identified to support their work. Understanding the needs and seeking for information from different types of information sources is very important to student in completing their research activities. This paper presents findings from a preliminary study of undergraduate students’ information seeking behaviour and their need of information for their research project. The aim of this study is to identify their information seeking behaviour in finding the required information that meet their information needs. A survey was carried out and thirty nine final year students from two related Information Technology (IT) programs in a Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia returns the questionnaires. Findings indicate that information about development tools was the most important information needed by the students for finishing research project. In searching for required information, Google search engine was found to be the most widely used by the students. Furthermore, most students preferred to use the electronic information sources to search information due to the variety of information available on the Web

The benefits of and challenges faced by worldwide federal governments in implementing the telework program

Problem statement: In recent decades, the telework program implemented in advanced and developed countries, has started to draw the interests of many parties towards understanding their experiences.The efforts to understand telework benefits and challenges would serve as an important basis prior to considering the adoption any telework program by the federal government agencies.Books, websites and journals were the primary sources that allowed the conduct of intensive literature reviews to obtain a full understanding of the telework issue.In terms of benefits, employers gain the competitive edge; less disruption of operations and better services to remote communities.Employees could enjoy the flexible time schedule; better family dependent care; less commuting costs and time; and higher productivity. Society could enjoy new job creation; less environmental pollution and work redistribution. In contrast, the challenges experienced are insufficient central federal government funding; top management resistance; and the difficulty to measure employee productivity. No program offers 100 percent unlimited benefits.Telework, in this case, is no different.Nevertheless, no one size fits all. Further tailoring of telework policy to suit different government agencies’ specific needs is an important approach to ensure its success

Identifying the factors associated with undergraduates’ behaviour in seeking academic project information

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors associated with undergraduate students’ behaviour in seeking information for their academic project. Data was collected using a questionnaire administered to 199 final year undergraduate students, purposively selected from three colleges in one Malaysian public university. For the purpose of data analysis, the respondents were grouped into technology and non-technology students based on their programmes of study. The findings of the study suggest that information skills among technological and non-technological students are quite different. This may be due to the nature of the academic project that requires the latter to use different information skills in seeking academic project information. It is anticipated that the findings of this study would result in further research on the information skills specifically focusing on the technological students. The result of the study can be used as initial guidelines for lecturers and librarians to develop related training programmes for new undergraduates

Current practices in information system development tools and techniques

The study examines the current practices in information systems development practices among Malaysian information systems managers and system analysts.Technical, organisational and intrinsic facets of information systems development process are assessed.Results indicated that most information systems departments are well-established within their organisations having a close link to top management and majority of the respondents have formal tertiary education in computer science or management information system. The study also indicates that 4GLs, data flow diagrams, data dictionaries and system flowcharts are the most familiar and widely used system development tools. CASE tools are used by all respondents especially for the analysis and design,implementation and project management activities.Majority of the respondents indicate that microcomputers are used extensively and most applications were developed using SQL and COBOL

Exploring factors that influence teleworkers in the search for work-family balance

The purpose of this paper is to present the factors that influence teleworkers in managing border between work and family in order to attain balance.By understanding the individuals characteristics may help telewokers in balancing their work and home life.The study used the qualitative method by focusing on a single case study.Three types of techniques in collecting data were used; interviews, on-line survey and discussion forums.The interpretative analysis technique was used to analyze the data and the results were produced based on the analysis. This paper contributes to our understanding the personality factors of teleworkers success in balancing work and home life.The results show that factors such as time management, discipline, family support , motivation, and patience are important in managing work and family while working from home