Week 5: Networked Workers

I oversee the Academic Technology unit at my institution and we are responsible for implementing and supporting technology and academic applications.  We administrate and deliver high-stakes, secure, computer-based exams; create learning modules, web conferencing, administer lecture capture, the learning management system and the medical school curriculum management system and database.  We also do work on grants and other projects that have an academic technology element to them and have help to create podcasts, vodcasts, online continuing medical education and even an online virtual patient module.  In short - we are all about using technology and being networked.

When a new staff member joins my unit they are issued:

• 1 laptop – PC or MacBook depending on their preference.
• 1 39 inch screen and a docking station for their desk.
• 1 iPad
•  1 iPhone
• $200 voucher for apps, software etc.

     

While we all have our own offices, I and my staff are rarely in our office suite since we handle services across the Stratford campus which is comprised of 4 main buildings and several of us go between the Stratford and Glassboro campuses (30 minutes’ drive apart geographically) on a regular basis due to meetings etc.

We are in almost constant communication via text, email and phone in the course of a single day and while we do not officially ‘have’ to work beyond our 37.5 hours per week; all of my staff believes that being salaried, exempt personnel; means that we work beyond those 37.5 hours.

We are all pretty much in the regular habit of scanning our email, working and providing support to our customers on nights and weekends.  So we are definitely among the group of workers who are armed with the technological tools that can keep them connected to their jobs outside of normal working hours (Madden & Jones, 2008). 

Yesterday afternoon, due to a faulty transformer, the building that my office and the main classrooms are housed in had to be closed because it had no functional ventilation system, no elevators and reduced lighting.  We had a major exam scheduled however, and so we just relocated the class to another building with power and functioning Wi-Fi and my team and I were able to administer the exam as planned. 

So on the one hand, loss of power and Wi-Fi caused our academic building to shut down but the fact that our exam files are remotely hosted and administered meant that we could really have given the high stakes secure exam anywhere – even in a coffee shop – as long as we had access to the internet and Wi-Fi.

The opportunities or benefits of having a networked and connected staff are:

• Flexibility in work location.
• Cloud computing.
• Ability to respond almost immediately to customers’ issues. 
• Able to resolve 99% of our customers’ issues remotely.
• Streamlining of workflow and processes.
• Enhanced productivity because my staff do work beyond their 9-5 hours regularly.

      The challenges or cons of having a networked and connected staff are:

  

•  Cost of equipment and data plans.
• Must have staff who are tech-savvy.
• Must have staff who can be managed remotely.
• Will not work with staff who are of an '8 and skate' mentality.

      As a unit, we actually have more recognition and visibility even though we aren’t actually sitting at our desks all day – in fact, we are more visible because we aren’t sitting in our offices all day.

Having a unit with networked personnel provides opportunities for us to expand our services and to create new services for our customers’ as they start to engage in using technology and becoming more networked as well.  

For some of my fellow managers, the downside to the freely available internet access is that their personnel jump on social networks and waste company time at their desks.  I personally don’t care if they access the internet, but I have not found that to be an issue with my staff and as networked as they are; they do not frequent social networking or the internet during the course of their work day very much at all.  

During the power outage, our mail server went down and I actually asked my staff to jump on Facebook to facilitate the transfer of several zipped files – which we were able to do very easily.

In contrast to my very visible, agile, quick response unit; the Educational Media Services unit is not networked at all and they actually operate in quite the opposite way; their office suite is the hub for them and they require clients to come to their location for equipment check-out and to engage them in the various services that they offer.  

In my opinion, it is an inefficient, pre-networked era system.

Since I and my team are so visible within my institution and have developed a great service reputation, the CIO asked me to come up with a plan to change the Educational Media Services unit to function in much the same way.  This request from the CIO led me to write a proposal to my CIO to have the current Educational Media Services unit integrated into my unit. 

The proposal was reviewed and approved, and on 1 July 2014 after the current manager there retires; I will integrate that department into Academic Technology and get them aligned to a networked way of operating.

For me, being able to be networked has allowed me to lead my team from any location globally and it has definitely raised my unit’s institutional profile and reputation of service to our customers.  I have not yet experienced very many challenges within my job function brought about by the internet – except for non-access to it.  

The internet and being networked is what makes my team run and run successfully.

References:

Madden, M., & Jones, S. (2008). Networked workers.Pwe Research Internet Project, Retrieved from 

     http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/09/24/networked-workers/