PMAL$203-24$W$-$O$-2$P: Unit $4-$ Breakout Group Exercise $-$ Will be done on Thursday in Live Session

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PMAL$203-24$W$-$O$-2$P $$ Forums $$ Important Announcements $$ Unit $4-$ Breakout Group Exercise $-$ Will be done on Thursday in Live Session

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Unit $4-$ Breakout Group Exercise $-$ Will be done on Thursday in Live Session

by Agoro Papaioannou $-$ Sunday, $28$ January $2024,4$:$41$ PM

Dear Students,

Please find below the case study available in Chapter $5$ of your textbook, pages $191-192.$ You can also find it below if you do not have access to the textbook.

In this breakout group exercise, the groups that you have already formed will have to prepare a presentation of maximum $5$ minutes and present it on Thursday during the live session. In your presentation you will have to address the two questions that you will find at the end of the case study. After you are done with the presentation in class, you will have until Friday to upload it to the course website under unit $4.$

Case Study: Face Time Matters

Point

"Although allowing people to work from home is gaining popularity, telecommuting will only hurt them and their employers. Sure, employees say they are happier when their organization allows them the flexibility to work wherever they choose, but who would not like to hang around at home in their pyjamas pretending to work? I know plenty of colleagues who say, with a wink, that they are taking off to $$work from home$$ the rest of the day. Who knows whether they are really contributing?

The bigger problem is the lack of face$-$to$-$face interaction between employees. Studies have shown that great ideas are born through interdependence, not independence. It$$s during those informal interactions around the water cooler or during coffee breaks that some of the most creative ideas arise. If you take that away, you stifle the organization$$s creative potential.

Trust is another problem. Have you ever trusted someone you have not met? Probably not. Again, face$-$to$-$face interactions allow people to establish trusting relationships more quickly, which fosters smoother social interactions and allows the company to perform better.

But enough about employers. Employees also benefit when they are at the office. If you are out of sight, you are out of mind. Want that big raise or promotion? You are not going to get it if your supervisor does not even know who you are.

So think twice the next time you either want to leave the office early or not bother coming in at all, to $$work from home.$$

Counterpoint

Please. So$-$called face$-$time is overrated. If all managers do is reward employees who hang around the office the longest, they are not being very good managers. Those who brag about the $80$ hours they put in at the office $($being sure to point out they were there on weekends$)$ are not necessarily the top performers. Being present is not the same thing as being efficient.

Besides, there are all sorts of benefits for employees and employers who take advantage of telecommuting practices. For one, telecommuting is seen as an attractive perk companies can offer. With so many dual$-$career earners, the flexibility to work from home on some days can go a long way toward achieving a better balance between work and family. That translates into better recruiting and better retention. In other words, you will get and keep better employees if you offer the ability to work from home.

Plus, studies have shown that productivity is higher, not lower, when people work from home. This result is not limited to the United States. For example, one study found that Chinese call centre employees who worked from home outproduced their $$face$-$time$$ counterparts by $13$ percent.

You say all these earth$-$shattering ideas would pour forth if people interacted. I say consider that one of the biggest workplace distractions is chatty co$-$workers. So$,$ although I concede that there are times when $$face$-$time$$ is beneficial, the benefits of telecommuting far outweigh the drawbacks."

Questions:

How might the job of a student be redesigned to make it more motivating?

Would you prefer working from home or working at the office? Why?