Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

TRAVEL AND ALTERNATIVES TO TRAVEL IN WORK ENVIRONMENT
Research Methodology

Professor: ROSE Janna

By Anand VISHWA Ankur SONKAR Mohnish Rai HANDA Saketh Varma KUCHAMPUDI MIB 35- Group A

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr.No. 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

TOPIC Introduction to Topic…………………… Literature Review………………………. 2.1. Cost Benefits………………………. 2.2. Accessibility………………………… 2.3. Evolution Of Technology…………… 2.4. Deficiency In Technology…………. 2.5. Stress………………………………… Research Question……………………… Methodology……………………………… Results……………………………………. 5.1. Indian View………………………….. 5.2. Egyptian View………………………. 5.3. Brazilian View………………………. Conclusion……………………………….. References………………………………. Annexes………………………………….. 8.1. Invitation……………………………. 8.2. Questionnaire ……………………… 8.3. Focus Group Transcript……………

Page No. 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

1. INTRODUCTION
We are trying through this research the possible effective alternatives of travel in a corporate environment, in order to save time that would be spent while travelling as well as to increase one’s working efficiency. In short to create a new value stream map concerning travels within the corporate world and to possibly recognize the value added and non-value added activities. This purpose of this paper is to talk about the relevance of qualitative methods regarding alternatives to travel behaviour, research and explore the challenges researchers face in employing them. Qualitative methods offer a powerful tool for helping us understand the complexities of alternative travel behavior. Methods such as focus groups have been used in conjunction with quantitative approaches or on their own to fill the gaps left by qualititative techniques. Some of the most interesting research in choosing alternate travel behaviour in recent years has made the use of qualitative methods which has found to be very important and fruitful. This paper provides an overview of the study (focus group) being done and some of the important results being generated. Though the more we understand about individual behaviour, the more we recognize how much there is that we are still unable to understand. As one question is answered, new questions start to emerge, and our appreciation for the complexity of alternative travel options grows as every individual has a different opinion for the same. Qualitative methods, used in conjunction with quantitative approaches or on their own as an alternative to quantitative approaches, offer a powerful tool for helping us understand those complexities. The data which has been collected from the focus group conducted by us helps us to understand and determine the key terms of interest for the research. The insights through this paper would help get a more clearer picture to the development of sophisticated models which could determine an individuals willingness to adopt an alternative to travel with respect to his/her work as well as predict the changes in behaviour in regard to such alternatives.

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Historically, corporate meetings are always conducted in person for a variety of reasons but there has been an emerging theme of implementation of alternatives to travel (Decorla-souza et al, 1997). A lot of major companies have incorporated this idea to save money and time (Corporations aggressively pursuing alternatives, 1999). Although technology has transformed the outlook of things, corporations still prefer the traditional methods and use such alternative options only at a time of need and are not being used as an overall substitute for travel (Douglas et al, 2013). Travel can be stressful but at times it has become a necessity for corporate employees to move to different places in order to facilitate effective communication (Ivancevich et al, 2003). It is particularly common in the field of project management and several corporations have been seeking to reduce the stress level involved without compromising the richness of the data (Stutzer & Frey, 2008). There are different themes which were identified using qualitative techniques and theoretical models were used to decipher the data acquired. 2.1. Cost Benefits: The main criterion for selecting possible alternatives for travel was the reduction and efficiency in cost (Decorla-souza et al, 1997). It was a common theme which was addressed by all jobholders. The important aspect of this theme is to identify the platform for effective optimization of alternatives to travel. 2.2. Accessibility: It is important for all personnel to perform to their maximum level and getting access to technology emerged to be an important aspect on possibilities for travel alternatives (Burrus , 2009). In cases where people are working from home, they may find it hard to effectively transform the facilities and atmosphere persisting in their workplace (Burrus , 2009). 2.3. Evolution Of Technology: It is remarkable to think how much alternatives have been provided due to constant enhancements in technology (Frary, M 2004). Video conferencing, audio conferencing, teleconferencing etc have made it easier for people to work efficiently without having to go through the burden of a stressful business travel (Chorus & Bierlaire, 2013). All the aforementioned travel alternatives have become a viable form of communication but despite all the available access to technology (Swift, 1988), corporations have still not moved away from traditional methods and travelling for business meeting remains to be

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 the most common platform for communication but it varies depending on the industry (Douglas et al. 2013). 2.4. Deficiency In Technology: All technologies invented throughout history have incurred problems and it requires personnel with good technical skills to troubleshoot and overcome these problems. Travel alternatives like video conferencing and teleconferencing have faced technical problems which can cause loss in communication and the richness of data is considerably marginalized (Kulkarni & Chatur, 2013). It is one of the major barriers for implementing travel substitutes. 2.5. Stress: Work related stress is defined as "The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work." (Work related stress 2012). It is crucial for all organizations not to impose additional stress to employees in order to maintain the standards of the firm and not cause any damage to individuals. Travel has been a major cause of work related stress and possible substitutes can pave the way and open new doors for employees seeking to optimize their work life balance and it can also provide numerous financial benefits to the employer (Stutzer & Frey, 2008).

3. RESEARCH QUESTION
With the help of this research, ‘We are exploring the possible alternatives of travel in a work environment and also trying to examine people perspective when it comes to travel during/for work.’

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

4. METHODOLOGY
Following protocol was used while conducting the focus group in order to understand more an to gather all the possible data from the participants regarding our research topic. We aimed to keep the focus groups relatively unconstrained and free, so that participants had ample opportunity to express their views, unaffected by the facilitators (who attempted throughout to offer no views). Five core questions were prepared to start and, if necessary, advance the focus groups’ discussions, providing the following (flexible) protocol: 0  Welcoming the participants, telling them about our research project and the scope of this project. Then asking the participants to introduce themselves to everyone. 1  Speaking about their past experiences while traveling for work. 2  Desires for future: Would the like to travel or choose any alternative that allows them to work without traveling. 3  Possible shortcoming or barriers 4  What would help? How to encourage them or their colleagues to use it more. 5  Advice

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

5. RESULTS of the FOCUS GROUP
We had in mind of working with at least people from 3 different countries and we were obliged to do so. In this focus group we had 3 people from India, one person from Brazil and one female from Egypt. The people in our focus group were: Participants (Students at GGSB) Mr. Ravindran Gnanasivam Nationality: Indian Former Employee of HCL, India Mr. Milind Singh Nationality: Indian Former Employee of GEBOT Biotech Pvt. Ltd., India Mr. Jayanth Reddy Nationality: Indian Former Employee of IGATE Corporation, India.

Mr. Caio Cavalcante Cypriano Nationality: Brazilian Former Intern at FIAT Automobile, Brazil

Ms. Atika Alsheikh Nationality: Egyptian Former Employee of Total E&P, United Kingdom.

5.1. INDIAN VIEW: The 3 Indians in our focus group were previously employed in India and had a decent work experience, which came in very handy for our focus group as our questions in the focus group were based on the “Alternatives of travel at workplace”. The basic observation we made during the focus group was that their work in Different industries had influence on their views on travel as Ravi and Jayanth are from an IT background and Milind is from a Pharma Background. Ravi had 3 years experience as an IT professional in HCL and his views were completely influenced by his type of work environment as he had very little choice of an alternative as working from home and he had to move to different office buildings of HCL in the same city for his project meetings. Jayanth worked in IGATE as an IT consultant and preferred to go to the office than stay at home he also had a web platform named WEBEX which helps people in connecting from anywhere on Web, but he felt that going to office and working meant a good result for him as it has good face to face conversations and negligible errors in communication. Milind worked in GEBOT, a Pharma company in India as a sales representative. His experience was totally different to the others as being a sales representative of the company he had to travel a lot everyday to meet clients and organize their orders and his work had no opportunity for him to work from home, But even then he had an idea of working from home to interact with clients with the latest
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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 technology available. All the above people perspective of travel alternatives at work place are biased and were interconnected with their Workplace as which Industry they work and the type of company they work and their role of work.

5.2. EGYPTIAN VIEW: Atika was the only female in our focus group, she worked in TOTAL E&P, UK as an entry-level engineer and she had an experience of 1 year. To highlight the fact she was the person who was very much excited on answering the focus group questions, as she was a fan of the idea “Working from Home”. She keeps on saying that whenever she had chance to work from home she will never leave it. As she was an Entry-level engineer she had less chance of working from home. Her views were mostly influenced by the country she worked in was UK. Then we had to observe that the views of persons changes from country to country as well based on the work environment and the culture.

5.3. BRAZILIAN VIEW: Caio worked as an Intern in FIAT automobile in Brazil. So his views of alternative were completely negative as to say that he felt himself to be a Workhorse and he never encouraged the idea of working from home. He felt so as he thought the alternatives for work would make him lazy and he would be disturbed by his surroundings at home and would be less productive from being away from work place. He had a view that he may be disturbed from doing his work when he is somewhere else other than the office. This is when we got to know that yes people working from home or using alternatives may be feeling disturbed working this way and whatever he said is absolutely possible. The result of this focus group was very fascinating as it had people from 3 different countries and 4 different industries as IT, Pharma, Oil and Gas, and Automobile. All their views were highly influenced by their role of work, Type of Company, Type of industry and most of all their personnel feelings of using the available alternatives for travel at workplace.

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

6. CONCLUSION
Travel is sometime inevitable, or at least highly useful: Whilst there was an appetite for reducing travel in every focus group, this was in the context of an understanding that there are many circumstances where travel is essential or, at least, highly desirable. The group was clear that although physical presence has many benefits, it is not essential all the time. Several times, it was suggested that ongoing relationships might be managed with an initial face-to-face meeting that then moves to remote meetings, with only occasional physical meetings thereafter (e.g., annually) to maintain the relationship. Cultures of presenteeism: The participants of focus group mentioned the problem of how a person’s efforts should be monitored or managed when that person is not physically present. This was in the context of a culture of presenteeism, whereby few participants (but not all) worried that they were seen as not working properly if they were not physically visible. The need for flexibility: Flexibility was mentioned quite frequently and in more than one context. On the one hand, several participants who currently had some opportunities to work remotely stressed how important it was to them that this decision could be made at short notice, to suit the immediate demands of their current tasks and personal circumstances. They felt that if a day spent working at home has to be arranged several days in advance then this was not really worthwhile. Another aspect of flexibility that was raised was the value people attribute to flexi-time working. The opportunity to shift travel times, and to accrue extra work hours that can be taken as time off, seemed highly valued. The role of information technology (IT): Participants had clearly had mixed experiences to date with IT solutions intended to support alternatives to travel. In particular, many participants felt that remote access to information would greatly reduce the need for physical presence and would also reduce paper the amount of paper that is used. Preplanning: The issue of planning ahead, to avoid unnecessary travel, was raised more than once. Two main ideas about planning meetings and appointments were discussed. The first idea was that there should be more thought before meetings about the extent to which they are really necessary. The second idea was that there is scope for more planning before trips are made to see whether other tasks could be completed at the same time (“two birds with one stone”).

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

REFERENCES
Corporations aggressively pursuing alternatives to air travel; rising air fares grounding traditional corporate travel plans. (1999, Mar 16). PR Newswire. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/449852387?accountid=42864 DECORLA-SOUZA, P., Everett, J., Gardner, B., & Culp, M. (1997). Total cost analysis: An alternative to benefit-cost analysis in evaluating transportation alternatives. Transportation (1986-1998), 24(2), 107. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211920067?accountid=42864 Kulkarni, S., & Chatur, P. N. (2013). CONFERENCE MONITORING. International Journal of Marketing and Technology, 3(5), 145-152. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1400678807?accountid=42864 Swift, D. W. (1988). Low cost video conferencing. The Futurist, 22(2), 41. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218552707?accountid=42864 Burrus, D 2009, 'The Future of Meetings', Home Business Magazine: The Home-Based Entrepreneur's Magazine, 16, 1, pp. 72-76, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2013. Frary, M 2004, 'Viable alternatives', Business Travel World, pp. 29-30, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2013. Ivancevich, J, Konopaske, R, & DeFrank, R 2003, 'Business travel stress: a model, propositions and managerial implications',Work & Stress, 17, 2, p. 1, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2013. Stutzer, A, & Frey, B 2008, 'Stress that Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox', Scandinavian Journal Of Economics, 110, 2, pp. 339-366, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2013. Chorus, C. G., & Bierlaire, M. (2013). An empirical comparison of travel choice models that capture preferences for compromise alternatives. Transportation, 40(3), 549-562. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11116-012-9444-3 Douglas, A., Lubbe, B., & Inger, F. R. (2013). Travel or technology? business factors influencing management decisions.South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 16(3), 279. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1430884843?accountid=42864

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

ANNEXES

Facilitators (Students at GGSB) Kuchampudi Saketh Varma Ankur Sonkar Mohnish Rai Handa Anand Vishwanathan

Participants (Students at GGSB) Mr. Ravindran Gnanasivam Nationality: Indian Former Employee of HCL, India Mr. Milind Singh Nationality: Indian Former Employee of GEBOT Biotech Pvt. Ltd., India Mr. Jayanth Reddy Nationality: Indian Former Employee of IGATE Corporation, India.

Mr. Caio Cavalcante Cypriano Nationality: Brazilian Former Intern at FIAT Automobile, Brazil

Ms. Atika Alsheikh Nationality: Egyptian Former Employee of Total E&P, United Kingdom.

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

8.1. Invitation (EMAIL): Dear Mr./Ms. _________ We as a group of four people (Anand, Ankur, Mohnish and Saketh) are organizing a focus group to discuss our topic of Research which is ‘Travel and Possible alternatives to that concerning work’. We are organizing this focus group to discuss in detail your person experiences related to travel and alternatives to travel at your own work place. The timing and venue of focus group are: Time: 14 h Duration: 45 to 60 minutes. Venue: GGSB building, room number E340 We as a group take great privilege to invite you to this focus group and share your experience with us. We wait for your acknowledgement. Regards GROUP P.S. – Free coffee during the focus group session.

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013

8.2. Questionnaire (for Focus Group):

1.

According to you, what are the alternatives you prefer or used sometime (even once) to avoid traveling? (Like working from home, video call, phone calls, etc.) Considering previous question, in future would you prefer doing things like video call, working from home or do you like to follow the traditional (old) way? Are there any problems/restrictions/barriers that you face or feel while using all these alternatives of travel? What should be done in general to help you use these alternatives more? Considering a person from your department/group, what would you like to advice the person regarding travel alternatives?

2.

3.

4. 5.

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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 8.3. Focus Group Transcript December 4, 2013 Person Mohnish Discussion O.K., uh, first of all lets discuss with the first question of the day “According to you people, what are the alternatives you prefer or used even once to avoid traveling at work? Like working from home, video call, phone calls, etc. Hmm, to start with it is a good idea to have an alternative to travel from or to the workplace as it saves time and even reduces cost of travel. The best alternative for travel would be working from home and the most useful alternative for travel at workplace for a meeting or a conference would be a videoconference. If not online may be on a conference phone call or may be everyone moving to a closest location possible. I have actually tried the videoconference few times when I was working and found it to be relieving from not being formal (laughter) as it was in an actual conference. But I have more travelled to a closest location to have a conference or a meeting than a videoconference as the company that I used to work had 15 offices in the same city Chennai. So we used to travel a lot for the project meetings to other office premises. What about you Milind? Speaking about alternatives I found skype and conference over phone to be the most useful media for my interaction. But actually I used to have flexibility at work because the owner of the company was my neighbor (blushed) and I used to ask my colleague to replace me for a meeting and I used to return him a favor of attending on his meeting instead when he had some other work to do. What about you Jayanth? What do you think about alternatives? I felt the best alternative was to work from home but I prefer going to office instead. The place where I used to work we had a web software platform that is called WEBEX that is available for every employee of that company. And we can also interact online via videoconferences and chats over the same platform. We used to have a login and password for everyone of us, so that we can login from anywhere and be available with the team for instant feedback if any problems regarding work needed to be attended. What about you Atika? I actually love working from home if there was an option for me instead of doing work from office. And the best thing I like about working from home is the flexibility at work I have as, I don’t need to be at my table all the time (laughter). I seriously like the way we can relax while we are working from home and the best alternatives for me are video conferencing for meetings and online chat as we used to have a software platform as well to interact with the employees at that company. What about you Caio? Do you feel the same? No, not at all I consider myself as a workhorse and I prefer going to office instead as being at home make me lazy at work and I feel I am less
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Ravi

Mohnish

Milind

Mohnish

Jayanth

Mohnish

Atika

Mohnish Caio

Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 Caio productive when I am lazy. So I would choose the alternatives if I have no (continued) alternative as to work from the office. Haha. So let me ask you another question based on the previous one “In future Ankur would you prefer doing things like video call, working from home or do you like to follow the traditional (old) way? What say Ravi? Hmm, If there is no need of my physical presence I would prefer working from Ravi home. But I feel Working from home can be a bit misleading, as we cannot expect replies instantly from our colleagues. If they say that they will negotiate with your pay as you work from home then Ankur what you would say Milind? It is obvious; I will go to office instead if I get payed lower than working from Milind the office. Ankur What say Jayanth? I would say the same but there is another reason as I would prefer working at my workplace as I would be available to my team and others during work so Jayanth they can have a good face to face conversation which I am more comfortable with. As well if I am working from home It would be irritating if they call me in the of the day for some work or the other to the office. Ankur What would you say Atika? I personally feel I am more productive if I work from home. And I would feel Atika great I have to work only from home (blushed). Ankur Do you think the same Caio? No not at all I think it is Business with pleasure as your working at the office, Caio as you may have disturbance’s at your home which may in turn lead you to do mistakes. Mixing Business with family is a bit tough for me. Ok then the next question for you people is “ Do you think there are any Saketh problems/restrictions/barriers that you face or feel while using all these alternatives of travel?” What is your perception Ravi? Hmm, I think there are two barriers regarding alternatives: physical and communication. Face to face is a solution for physical barrier in which you Ravi would avoid misunderstandings without your presence. And a communication barrier would be if some of the others are not able to respond quicker and you are needed urgently to address a problem. Saketh What is your opinion on the barriers Milind? I feel that we can judge people and respond more accurately if we are in a Milind face-to-face conversation. And I feel that physical barrier is the highest barrier as communication barrier is not a problem nowadays. Saketh What do you think about the barriers Jayanth? Jayanth I think the more we see the better is to communicate. And I believe 80% of the communications happen face to face. Let me talk about an example that happened with me during a tutorial. In that the tutor asked everyone to keep his or her finger on the chin and pointed by an expression on the putting his hand on his forehead. So everyone was putting their hands on their foreheads as the tutor showed and I asked him you said one and pointed out
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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 Jayanth by another action. So he replied that’s the whole point as how face-to-face (Continued) and online( chat, email) conversations happen. Nice example Jayanth, this topic turns out to be very interesting. What do you Saketh think about the barriers Atika? There are few barriers as said by others, but whatever they are work from Atika home is relaxing and makes people more productive. Atika, you seem to be completely agreeing with the fact that people should Saketh work from home only rather than working at an office. What about you Caio? The major barriers for the travel alternatives would be the the same as Caio everyone else have said before. As I believe in working from office I have lesser idea on the barriers regarding the alternatives. The next Question would be “ What should be done in general to help you Anand use these alternatives more? I feel removing technical barriers as in being updated with the software for Ravi communication is the major factor to encourage people using the alternatives. As I am an IT guy I feel software is the core for anything. I think company should appreciate the effort of employees and top managers Milind should encourage you to use alternatives as it depends from industry to industry. As I worked in pharma I needed to go directly. They should be available to me anytime like no delaying or failure in Jayanth accessibility. So are office timings a barrier? It depends on if your clients are from different countries and you need be flexible on your timings. Atika Top-level managers should encourage employees to use the alternative’s. To educate employees on the advantages and the cost saving factor as a Caio employer you can save money on employees travel expenses. So lets finish with this last Question “ Considering a person from your Mohnish department/group, what would you like to advice the person regarding travel alternatives?” Lets start in the same order Ravi. Like in my company they arranged an instructor to teach how to access and how to use these alternatives and after that they have created a server so Ravi that your team can always be contact with your tutor. For coaching or solving your problems. Hear and video chat. This way may encourage team members to use the alternatives. First of all detail him about the advantages and disadvantages to him and the Milind company and say how much it costs extra if not using alternatives to motivating him to use them. If the person is in the same department I would not pressurize him to use only the alternatives. I would let him use with which he is comfortable. I will just let Jayanth him know about the alternatives available and it is his choice to use them or not. I feel it is much better as it is simple I want to choose work from home and Atika would brief my feeling on working from home. I will talk about cost saving as travel with alternatives and time as well. If the Caio technology is good then I would suggest them to use it.
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Travel and Alternatives to Travel in Work Environment 2013 This has been a very interesting meeting and thank you everyone for sharing your personal views and experiences at you work place. You all people have really made this discussion very fascinating by adding in your own views about travel and alternatives of travel concerning to work environment. Thanks a lot people for participating and lets call it a day. MERCI, Au revoir.

Mohnish

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