Emergence for the need of new legal and regulatory issues on mobile workforce

[Abstract]: Many CEOs and enterprise executives are interested to gain insights into existing and emerging legal frameworks for Mobile workforce. The main objective of gaining such insights is in order to develop enterprise’s management strategies as these legal frameworks have profound impact on organisations. In recent months, the behaviour of the workforce has come under scrutiny because of the increased usage of mobile devices. As these devices provide mobility to the workforce, they remove the distinction between private and professional workplaces. For example, employees use organisational resources such as laptop computers at home for their private use. Due to ‘globalisation’, workforce is made to switch roles between private and professional lives with short lead time according to various conditions such as differing time zones dictated by external conditions. The mobility and flexibility offered by the mobile devices facilitate the current workforce to adapt their work styles according to these external conditions. These ‘flexible’ aspects have forced enterprises to support their mobile work force with devices, tools, processes and collaborative internal and external frameworks in order to achieve efficiency. However, in real life environment, some of these frameworks may conflict with domestic and international laws, union agreements and other individual employment contracts. In the mobile domain, these issues also vary by regions and depend upon varying legal frameworks, economic conditions and cultural attitudes. This paper provides a theoretical framework on these emerging legal and regulatory issues specific to mobile workforce.