1. Context

With the emergence of an information society, the transactional structures of the economy have changed drastically as the table below suggests.

The difference between the Industrial and Information Age organization form is acute. It goes from vertical (bureaucracy) to horizontal (networked) organizational structures. Characteristic of the networked organization is knowledge work based on teams, human networks, new types of jobs, communications, and collaboration. In terms of urban geography, the second organizational (bureaucratic) form requires offices where vertical control can be efficiently maintained. The third form (networked), requires less office space in central areas as long as the cohesion of the working unit is efficiently insured by a telecommunication system.

Computers, networking and related information technologies continue to push the centrifugal forces that have shaped the physical structure of metropolitan areas outward for the last five decades.

2. Offices and Office Space

Location and larger building sizes have dominated retailing and offices since the Second World War. Indeed, newer and larger stores overtook smaller rivals and established new distribution structures. The standard 2,000 square feet market of the 1950s, became the 20,000 square feet supermarket in the 1960s and evolved into the 50,000 square feet supermarket of the 1990s. Following a similar trend, the small office of a company has become several floors in a skyscraper located in downtown areas and in time the amount of space devoted to the office has increased significantly.

Competition and technological changes are forcing corporate leaders to recognize real estate as an undermanaged asset as occupancy cost is the second largest corporate expense. Telecommunications advances may lead to a change in the space needs several corporations, as more services can be performed with less office and branch space. Telecommuting is the result of a relocation of office work outside the office space.

Most corporations see telecommuting as a way to reduce costs, not to promote the welfare of their office employees, even if they are doing both at the same time. The costs of providing office space to employees is very high, far more than just the cost of leasing or building the space and maintaining it. In some instances, it can run as high as $20,000 per employee. In 1999, nearly 20 million workers in the United States (about 10% of the total workforce) were telecommuting at least once a month. Telecommuting workers also tend to be more productive as they systematically spend more time working, mainly because they are not spending that time commuting.

3. Telecommuting and Transportation

Reducing automobile use is one of the primary benefits of telecommuting, as it is expected that home-to-work trips will not be made. Studies of telecommuters have shown reductions in all aspects of automobile usage. Telecommuters usually eliminate two trips per day when they work at home. Elimination of automobile trips has obviously environmental benefits, including reduced emissions of pollutants and reduced fossil fuel use.

Telecommunications, like the automobile, has become a force shaping land use and transportation in urban areas across North America. Inexpensive space in the suburbs is a critical requirement for newer and smaller firms that are users of new telecommunications technologies. The growing capability of telecommunications allows businesses and other organizations to locate operations more flexibly, but this may be perceived as a catch 22 as telecommuting may be supporting an energy inefficient spatial structure.

We can summarize the impacts of telecommuting on office space and on the general urban environment by the following:

• The rapid proliferation of electronic communications, such as faxes, cellular phones, intranets and teleconferencing, promotes the existence of telecommuting.
• Telecommuting is part of a paradigm where organizational structures are being transformed for a hierarchy to a network of collaborators.
• Telecommuting is changing parts the retailing sector by rendering some location structures obsolete and by minimizing inventory costs.
• Telecommuting helps lower office space requirements by decentralizing a set of tasks to a low cost environment, such as the suburbs or at home. There are a corporate strategy to improve the productivity of labor.
• Telecommuting reduces the usage of the urban transport system because fewer trips are generated and distances are shorter and may reduce congestion.
• Telecommuting improves the flexibility of office activities by offering a wider array of locational choices.