Can You Spread Corporate Culture Electronically?

Office Power... Last week's Dispatch about telecommuting, Now Playing at Your Office: Status, Power, Fear and Ritual (Jan 17), generated a variety of opinions from readers.

John Vivadelli, CEO of AgilQuest writes,"The problem with most of these studies is a misuse of two terms: telecommuting and telework. Telecommuting, or work from home, accounts for only a small amount of time out of the office. Telework, the broader term meaning work from anywhere (customer site, on the road, in another facility, business suite, long term project rooms, etc.), accounts for the majority of office vacancy. ... Telecommuting may not have been embraced extensively, but telework sure has."

Lowell Peabody with NAI Hunneman Commercial in Boston thinks that senior management still seeks the "power, fear and ritual" of an office because they "have not adapted to technology and have not figured out how to convey the same message electronically or via phone, conference calls or even text messaging."

Ralph Gregory, founder of Intelligent Office writes,"Mr. Zeller’s premise is wrong. 'Telecommuting,' better defined as 'working remotely,' has been widely embraced; it is just not noticeable at the large company level. This new way to have an 'office' causes change requiring a decision at the top levels of a business. Thus the change is occurring first in small business where the final authority is involved in the decision. The politics, aversion to change, and diffused authority of a corporation naturally makes it slow to respond."

Vik Bangia with CB Richard Ellis in Anaheim, CA, sent me his GlobeSt.com column from way back in 2003 about corporate culture. "To paraphrase Yogi Berra, you know it when you know it. If you are used to being in an office environment, you are no doubt familiar with the odd, disconnected feeling when you have to travel for an extended period. That’s precisely the feeling of longing for the corporate culture."

-- Peter Pike