Telework Arrangements Research Articles

Does Organization Sector Matter in Leading Teleworker Teams? A Comparative Case Study

Literature was reviewed to investigate the forces that are driving telework arrangements, the perceived benefits and drawbacks from teleworking, and the extent to which teleworking arrangements are utilized in the United States in both the private and public sectors. Results of a qualitative case analysis are presented, comparing the experiences of managers in both a large profit-seeking travel management corporation headquartered in a large Midwestern city in the United States and a large state governmental agency headquartered within 50 miles of that city. Organizational similarities and differences are identified in the skills and competencies which are considered key in managing teleworkers, unique challenges to supervising teleworkers, and approaches used by managers to develop self-reliance and the capacity for teamwork in teleworkers. Finally, conclusions regarding key telework manager skills and strategies which may be effective for organizations offering telework arrangements to employees are presented along with suggestions for future research.

Slowing work down by teleworking periodically in rural settings?

Purpose– The rise of knowledge work has entailed controversial characteristics for well-being at work. Increased intensification, discontinuities and interruptions at work have been reported. However, knowledge workers have the opportunity to flexibly adjust their work arrangements to support their concentration, inspiration or recuperation. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the experienced well-being of 46 knowledge workers was subject to changes during and after a retreat type telework period in rural archipelago environment.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted a longitudinal survey among the participants at three points in time: one to three weeks before, during, and two to eight weeks after the period. The authors analyzed the experienced changes in psychosocial work environment and well-being at work by the measurement period by means of repeated measures variance analysis. In the next step the authors included the group variable of occupational position to the model.Findings– The analysis showed a decrease in the following measures: experienced time pressure, interruptions, negative feelings at work, exhaustiveness of work as well as stress and an increase in work satisfaction. There were no changes in experienced job influence, clarity of work goals and work engagement. Occupational position had some effect to the changes. Private entrepreneurs and supervisors experienced more remarkable effects of improvement in work-related well-being than subordinates. However, the effects were less sustainable for the supervisors than the other two groups.Originality/value– This paper provides insights into how work and well-being are affected by the immediate work environment and how well-being at work can be supported by retreat type telework arrangements.

Retraction: The Impact of Alternative Telework Arrangements on Organizational Commitment: Insights from a Longitudinal Field Experiment

Retraction: The Impact of Alternative Telework Arrangements on Organizational Commitment: Insights from a Longitudinal Field Experiment

Managerial telework allowance decisions – a vignette study among German managers

Managers play an important role in the implementation of telework in organizations since they frequently have final approval over employees' requests for telework arrangements. Drawing upon March's (1994) dual-logic theory of decision making, the study examines antecedents of managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. Using a vignette study with a balanced experimental design, we investigated the impact of person-related, task-related and organizational context factors on managerial telework allowance decisions in German organizations. Several person- and task-related factors were found to be significantly related to managers' telework allowance decisions. Organizational context factors, such as a family-supportive organizational culture and formal policies were found to either directly or indirectly influence managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. More specifically, formal telework policies were important in stimulating favorable managerial telework allowance decisions when applicant criticality was low and the organizational culture was family-unsupportive. In line with March's (1994) theory of decision making, the study shows that utility maximization is only one perspective of decision making which managers apply to telework allowance decisions. Rule following and considerations of appropriateness are also taken into account by managers when deciding upon employees' telework requests.

Prediction of cyberslacking when employees are working away from the office

The landscape of counterproductive workplace behavior is changing with the rapid integration of advanced communication technologies in the modern workforce. Specifically, employers are increasingly allowing employees to spend some work time at home, and to stay connected with the office through communication technologies. These telework arrangements bring about a new form of counterproductive workplace behaviors, namely, cyberslacking. Cyberslacking involves using the Internet for non-work related purposes while on company time. Engaging in cyberslacking might be particularly relevant when working at home because it would be easier to avoid being caught by supervisors and co-workers. The current study examines personality, satisfaction, and perceived performance as antecedents of cyberslacking while working away from the office. Findings from a field study indicate that cyberslacking is positively related to Procrastination, and negatively related to Honesty, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Cyberlacking was also found to be negatively related to both satisfaction and perceived performance while working remotely. The study suggests that personality might be used as an avenue for screening those who may be selected for remote work, or to help develop structures that reduce cyberslacking opportunities for those with personalities that are predisposed to cyberslacking (e.g., closer managerial monitoring of the employee’s daily output).

Choice, Frequency, and Engagement

This paper presents a multistage approach to the examination of telecommuting behavior to establish a better framework for prediction of the likelihood and frequency of telecommuting. The approach took into account three main aspects of telecommuting behavior: (a) telecommuting choice, which considered whether the respondents telecommuted on a regular basis; (b) telecommuting frequency, which measured the intensity of telecommuting on the basis of the number of hours that respondents telecommuted weekly; and (c) telecommuting engagement, which focused on individuals’ daily behavior. The hypothesis was that decisions on telecommuting frequency were made as part of the household mobility arrangement beyond the daily choice framework and that once the frequency was known, the choice to engage in telecommuting could be estimated with greater accuracy. A general framework was developed to reflect the various telecommuting arrangements. Cluster analysis was applied to the data to identify proper frequency categories. Probit models were developed to estimate individuals’ choices at the three stages. The model also considered the actual behavior of nonregular telecommuters on a random day. This paper contributes to the literature by not only providing a comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to telecommuting choices at various stages but also exploring the relationships between telecommuting frequency as a lifestyle arrangement and engagement in telecommuting as a short-term daily choice.

When more is less: An examination of the relationship between hours in telework and role overload

Proponents of telework arrangements assert that those who telework have more control over their work and family domains than their counterparts who are not permitted to work from home. Using Karasek's theory we hypothesized that the relationship between demands (hours in work per week; hours in childcare per week) and strain (work role overload; family role overload) would be moderated by the number of hours the employee spent per week teleworking (control). To determine how the number of telework hours relates to work role overload and family role overload, we follow the test for moderation and mediation using hierarchical multiple regression analysis as outlined by Frazier et al. [50] We used survey data collected from 1,806 male and female professional employees who spent at least one hour per week working from home during regular hours (i.e. teleworking). As hypothesized, the number of hours in telework per week negatively moderated the relation between work demands (total hours in paid employment per week) and work strain (work role overload). Contrary to our hypothesis, the number of hours in telework per week only partially mediated the relation between family demands (hours a week in childcare) and family role overload (strain). The findings from this study support the idea that the control offered by telework is domain specific (helps employees meet demands at work but not at home).

Remixing work, family and leisure: teleworkers' experiences of everyday life

This paper explores whether and in what ways telework is associated with a reconfiguration or remixing of daily work, family and leisure activities. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 51 teleworkers employed in a financial organisation in Canada. For some, telework was a condition of employment, while others negotiated part‐time telework arrangements with managers. Using interpretive thematic analysis techniques, intersections and inter‐relationships between experiences of work, family and leisure were identified. Three main themes emerged, including the need to not only protect, but also containing work time and space; the significance of family and being available for children; and, the relative devaluation of leisure. Although it was anticipated that differences between involuntary and voluntary teleworkers would be evident, gender and family stage were more influential in structuring daily life. The flexibility of telework was valued, but there was little evidence of a reconfiguration of life spheres except for women with children at home.

Mapping the antecedents of telework diffusion: firm‐level evidence from Italy

Previous literature has studied telework practices predominantly from the employees' perspective rather than exploring its use at the firm level. With the objective of contributing to reducing this research gap, the relationship between firms' adoption of telework and the firms' technological, organisational and environmental contexts is explored. Data were obtained from a survey conducted between 2005 and 2009 on a sample of 1,134 Italian firms in the Piedmont region. The results show an overall increase in the diffusion of telework primarily attributable to a rise in the adoption of ‘mobile’ work rather than home‐based forms of telework. The results also show that firms that had previously adopted information systems supporting core business processes and knowledge management were more inclined to adopt telework. Telework arrangements were more widely diffused among firms facing a growing and geographically dispersed market demand, and also in the contexts of higher levels of human capital and lower capital intensity.

Working from home: do formal or informal telework arrangements provide better work–family outcomes?

Telework arrangements include a suite of options that workplaces provide to meet the growing demand for greater work flexibility and as a strategy to promote work–family balance. However, there has been minimal research comparing formal versus informal telework arrangements, and how they might support employees to manage the competing demands of work and family life. In this paper, we examine how formal and informal telework arrangements impact on public sector employees' job satisfaction, time spent on childcare, and satisfaction with the distribution of childcare tasks. We use survey data from public service employees who had access to telework entitlements in Queensland, Australia (n=856). Our analyses showed that formal and informal telework arrangements provide different outcomes to employed women and men with children, particularly in the areas of job satisfaction and satisfaction with the distribution of childcare tasks. These distinctions suggest that it is important for workplaces to consider how the type of telework arrangement offered can affect how successfully and equitably work–family outcomes are achieved.

How efficiently do U.S. cities manage roadway congestion?

We estimate efficiency and TFP growth for two measures of congestion and two measures of the monetary value of congestion for the largest 88 contiguous cities in the U.S. over the period 1982–2007. Using stochastic frontier analysis we find that the efficiency scores for congestion and the associated ranking of cities is sensitive to the measure of congestion. In contrast, the efficiency scores and rankings are robust for the two measures of the monetary value of congestion. Most importantly, for the most valid measure of congestion and both measures of the monetary value of congestion, we find that average TFP growth over the study period is characterized by an upward trend. This is an encouraging sign even though in all three cases growth is only zero or slightly less than zero at the end of the study period. We therefore conclude that policies which have been used towards the end of the study period such as providing incentives to carpool and encouraging employers to offer flexi-time and telecommuting arrangements appear to have been effective and should be implemented more widely.

Does Family‐Friendly Policy Matter? Testing Its Impact on Turnover and Performance

This study investigates the relative effects of four types of family‐friendly policies—child care subsidies, paid leave for family care, telework, and alternative work schedules—on turnover rates and effectiveness in federal agencies. Contemporary social exchange theory predicts that an agency’s average level of satisfaction with a specific family‐friendly policy is negatively associated with turnover in the agency but positively associated with overall performance. This analysis differs from common expectations. Only child care subsidies show a positive, significant influence on reducing turnover. Child care subsidies and alternative work schedules reflect positive and significant influences on agency effectiveness. Ironically, an agency’s average satisfaction with telework arrangements proves to be a significant but negative effect on performance.

The Impact of Teleworking on Work Motivation in a U.S. Federal Government Agency

Although work-related duties are performed via teleworking in all sectors, the U.S. federal government has taken the lead in offering telework arrangements to its employees; thereby causing a proliferation of the number of employees in the federal government who telework. In spite of this occurrence, public organization research has largely ignored the effect of teleworking on government employees. As a result, the goal of this article is to examine the association between several teleworking arrangements and work motivation in a federal government agency—a test of social exchange theory. After controlling for organizational, job, and individual characteristics, as well as mission attainment, the empirical analysis revealed that teleworkers (frequent and infrequent) did not consistently have higher levels of work motivation than nonteleworkers, providing only partial support for social exchange theory. The implications of these findings are thoroughly discussed in the article.

The Impact of Alternative Telework Arrangements on Organizational Commitment: Insights from a Longitudinal Field Experiment (Retracted)

ABSTRACT: While the structure of telecommuting, or telework, varies across companies, most arrangements offer employees the option to perform their work responsibilities from various locations. A number of factors provide a compelling case for employers to consider such arrangements for their employees, such as motivating better performance and fostering commitment to the organization. Using data that were collected during the longitudinal experiment reported in Hunton (2005), the present study seeks to better understand how organizations might achieve these goals by examining the impact of alternative telework arrangements on the organizational commitment of employees and by evaluating the relationships among telework arrangements, organizational commitment, and task performance. Participants in three of the telework conditions exhibited significant increases in affective, continuance, and normative commitment, relative to a control group; however, in one of the telework conditions (working exclusively at home), organizational commitment was equivalent to the control group. While we postulated that participants with higher numbers of work location alternatives would exhibit greater increases across all three dimensions of organizational commitment, this expectation was only marginally supported. Finally, we report a positive association between organizational commitment and task performance across the treatment conditions and find that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between the telework arrangements and task performance.

Making telework work: leading people and leveraging technology for competitive advantage

PurposeTeleworking is often indicated as a flexible working arrangement. This paper seeks to highlight that flexibility is just one positive characteristic of telework and to demonstrate both the strategic and practical implications of adopting telework. In addition, it aims to highlight best practices and specific activities that enable telework to achieve its full potential.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a series of interviews, personal experiences and observations encompassing a wide range of organizations to include profit and non‐profit/government across a variety of industry sectors that include retail, high technology, manufacturing and hospitality and service, the paper provides an overview on how to make telework work effectively and smoothly within profit and non‐profit organizations. Moreover, it confronts the leadership literature to examine how leadership – not technology – is the critical variable in telework success.FindingsIn the most successful cases of telework, organizations and individuals were seen to fuse technology and leadership to do work without the limitations of geography, time or physical presence. Thus, while many may embrace telecommuting or telework almost exclusively for its flexibility benefits, the most successful organizations and individuals welcomed telework, first and foremost, as a source of competitive advantage.Originality/valueThe paper departs from traditional management thought on two fronts. First, it is contended that the essence behind successful telework arrangements is more of a function of leadership than of technology. Second, and related to the previous point, the paper suggests that a creative, innovative and progressive leadership mentality is necessary in the design and implementation of telework programmes. As a result, many managers must be willing to depart from long‐held and conventional notions of leadership.

Benchmarking the Use of Telework Arrangements in Canada

Abstract This paper uses data collected in 1999 and 2001 from over 20,000 employees and 6,300 workplaces by Statistics Canada and HRDC as part of their Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) to provide quality estimates of the number of teleworkers in Canada at the turn of the millennium. Characteristics of companies who offer telework arrangements and the employees who use them are also explored. These data will allow Canadian companies to benchmark their use of telework arrangements to national and international data. Such information is critical to both public and private sector employers, as abundant evidence exists to suggest that organizations that support the use of telework and other alternate work arrangements will be more able to attract and retain knowledge workers. Résumé La présente étude est une évaluation du nombre des télé-travailleurs au Canada en ce début de millénaire. Elle se sert des données collectées en 1999 et 2001 par Statistique Canada et la DRHC auprès de 20 000 employés et 6300 lieux de travail. L'étude examine également les caractéristiques des entreprises qui offrent des régimes de télétravail et des employés qui les utilisent. Les résultats permettront aux entreprises canadiennes de comparer leur utilisation des régimes de télétravail aux régimes nationaux et internationaux. Ces résultats seront d'autant plus utiles aux employeurs des secteurs privés et publics, que d'après plusieurs recherches les entreprises qui utilisent le télétravail et les autres régimes de travail de rechange seront plus en mesure d'attirer et de retenir les travailleurs intellectuels.

Telework vs. central work: A comparative view of knowledge accessibility

With increasing popularity of telework arrangements especially among knowledge workers, effective knowledge access in the virtual setup is becoming vital to their performance. Despite the imperative, there has been a lack of theoretical and empirical efforts to investigate knowledge accessibility by distributed workers. Our study examines the gap between telework and central work in accessing knowledge with varying levels of tacitness (or implicitness), and in the use of communication media for knowledge exchange. Media theories offered a conceptual foundation for deriving relevant hypotheses. Necessary data were gathered from teleworkers working at companies with a large telework program in Japan. Both survey questionnaire and interviews were mobilized for balanced information gathering. Data analysis shows that, although information richness perception of a medium is largely rational, it is also partially re-structured by non-rationality factors. It also revealed significant discrepancies between telework and central-work in knowledge accessibility and in the patterns of media usage for knowledge access. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of telework design and telework productivity.

Expectativas telelaborales en el sector gobierno de Canadá: una alternativa para México / Expectations for Distance Working in the Canadian Government Sector: An Alternative for Mexico

La posibilidad de aplicar telecomunicaciones al trabajo en casa se ve como una de las alternativas viables para disminuir los problemas de congestionamiento vehicular, desperdicio de energía y contaminación del aire en las grandes ciudades. La extensión de las telecomunicaciones a casas y oficinas periféricas, así como la creciente disponibilidad de computadoras, impresoras, fax, etc., han impulsado la exploración de los esquemas telelaborales. Estos esquemas incorporan las propuestas de dicho trabajo en casa, la descentralización del lugar de producción mismo por medio de la creación de oficinas satélite, así como la adopción de nuevas estructuras que permitan reorganizar en una institución las actividades de gerencia y personal. La intención de este artículo es investigar el comportamiento de los viajes cuando los empleados de gobierno se desplazan a sus respectivos lugares de trabajo, con el afán de determinar su disposición a telelaborar en el área metropolitana de la ciudad de Ottawa, en la provincia de Ontario, Canadá. Para lograrlo se diseñó una metodología particular que practica cuatro estudios de campo: dos para examinar el comportamiento de los viajes mencionado en la gerencia y en el personal del departamento de planificación y dos más para la gerencia y el personal del departamento de transporte, ambos del gobierno municipal de Ottawa. Como se esperaba, el estudio reveló que la disposición para telelaborar, cuantificada en términos de apoyo y aceptación por parte de gerentes y empleados respectivamente es significativa: 50% de los gerentes de planificación que participaron en las encuestas y aproximadamente 86% de sus homólogos de transporte apoyaron los arreglos de tipo telelaboral. Asimismo, 41% del personal de planificación aceptó telelaborar en promedio 3.5 días por semana (entre 3 y 4 días) y aproximadamente 40% del personal de transporte aceptó hacer lo mismo dos días por semana. AbstractThe possibility of applying telecommunications to work at home is contemplated as an alternative that could help to ease current traffic congestion in large cities, alleviating both energy waste and air pollution problems. The expansion of telecommunications to offices and homes, and the growing availability of computers, printers, fax, etc., has fostered research for telecommuting arrangements. These arrangements include the en­couragement to work at home as mentioned, the decentralization of the workplace by means of creating satellite offices, as well as the adoption of new structures at the job site to re-organize various management and staff assignments. The aim of this paper is to address the city government commuters’ behaviour to determine their availability for telecommuting in the Ottawa metropolitan area, in Ontario, Canada. In order to accomplish this, a methodology was devised for implementing four field surveys, two examining the commuting behaviour of the planning department’s management and staff and two more examining the commuting behaviour of the transportation department’s management and staff at the Ottawa Municipal Government. As expected the study revealed that the potential for telecommuting, measured in terms of telecommuting support from managers and telecommuting acceptance level by staff members, is significant: fifty per cent of the responding planning managers and approximately eighty-six per cent of their responding transportation peers supported the telecommuting arrangements. In their turn, forty-one per cent of the responding planning staff members showed a telecommuting acceptance level of 3.5 days a week (between 3-4 days) and approximately forty per cent of their responding transportation peers showed a telecommuting acceptance level of 2.0 days a week.

Individual, social and situational determinants of telecommuter productivity

Productivity of remote workers is of critical concern to organizations and managers contemplating telecommuting arrangements. Here we suggest a general theoretical framework for understanding telec...

Individual, social and situational determinants of telecommuter productivity

Productivity of remote workers is of critical concern to organizations and managers contemplating telecommuting arrangements. Here we suggest a general theoretical framework for understanding telecommuter productivity, and then report on a two-phased research study. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews with 32 telecommuters were conducted in one organization, and individual, social, and situational factors associated with telecommuter productivity were qualitatively explored. The second phase involved a survey of 100 telecommuters in two organizations, followed by predictive discriminant analyses to identify factors that might usefully distinguish between telecommuters exhibiting low and high levels of productivity. Results indicate that telecommuter beliefs and attitudes, and the quality of their social interactions with managers and family members, were strongly associated with productivity. Furthermore, telecommuters’ social interactions with colleagues, managers, and family members had a strong influence on their beliefs and attitudes about telecommuting.