Managing visibility for career sustainability: a study of remote workers

Julia Richardson and Clare Kelliher

Chapter 8 in Handbook of Research on Sustainable Careers, 2015, pp 116-130 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Changing patterns of work challenge the notion of employees having a designated workplace predicated on physical presence. These changes have been enabled by developments in technology, where an increasing number of employees can work from remote locations, relying on communication technologies to facilitate their interaction with colleagues, managers and customers. This chapter explores the implications of these developments for career sustainability. Drawing on a large study of remote workers in Canada, we demonstrate how, in addition to meeting formal performance targets, there was a perceived need to maintain and enhance visibility in order to ensure career progression and continued employment. Since remote working may impede visibility, the chapter explores how participants managed relationships with colleagues and clients in order to maintain and/or enhance their visibility and related career opportunities. It also reports how they tacitly accepted, rather than challenged, the impact of visibility on their careers and in so doing demonstrates the continuing importance of face-to-face interaction and physical presence for maintaining professional networks. The implications of these findings are discussed, including the need for organizations to review existing HR policies, particularly those relating to careers, when different forms of working are utilized.

Keywords: Business and Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781782547020.00013.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:15416_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().