Moving Telecommuting Forward: An Examination of Organizational Variables
Introduction
and Background
The traffic congestion challenge presented to transportation
system managers has spurred ideas of substituting telecommunications for
transportation (Kugelmass, 1995, Seamen, 1997). Early research focused more on transportation issues than on
social issues, with exceptions such as studies by Hiltz and Turoff (1978).
Reports from officials (AASHT0, 1988) point out that increasing capacity is not
an option for meeting future transportation demands. Growing considerations
concerning energy use, traffic congestion, and air quality mitigate against
such expansion. Moreover,
transportation consumes 63% of all petroleum in the United States and the US
continues to rely on oil imports to meet petroleum needs (Goulias &
Pendala, 1991). This has obvious economic and foreign relations implications.
Continued reliance on the automobile portends problems with
air quality since a substantial chunk of air pollutants come from automobile
exhausts (Seamen, 1997). The impact was
noted in 1987, when the Environmental Protection Agency found 107 metropolitan
areas in the U.S. in violation of health standards for carbon monoxide and
ozone emissions (Goulias & Pendala, 1991).
One consequence of this health hazard was the passage of the
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This act required organizations with
100 or more employees to develop ways to reduce the use of automobiles for
travel to and from work. Typical commute alternatives include ridesharing,
vanpooling, public transit, telecommuting, or alternative work schedules. The
interest in telecommuting can be seen in New Jersey company surveys such as
those at A.T.& T., where 61% of employees sampled preferred telecommuting
to the other alternatives, and Educational Testing Service, where 18% of the
professional staff are already telecommuting (Cunnie, 1995). Transportation
2020: the New Jersey Statewide Long Range Transportation Plan (March, 1995)
speaks to the need to work with businesses on incentives for telecommuting.
While the Clean Air Act Amendments have been amended to remove penalties for employers that do not
meet targets of employee trip reduction, interest in telecommuting continues to
grow and the affected areas are still required to meet federal standards for
clean air. The continued interest stems from a number of forces; technical,
social, and economic. The technical push comes from the advances in
telecommunications that make telecommuting all the more easier. Increased
availability of PCs and modems at home, personal use of the internet, growth of
intranets in the work place, and growth of internet providers all make telecommuting
more feasible.
The social push stems from changing demographics of the
workforce with increasing entrance of women, demands for more flexibility in
work‑time, as well as including more workers with disabilities in the
workforce.
The economic push comes from the change of manufacturing to
a service economy. Unlike manufacturing where the worker has to be onsite, the
service sector service does not demand work be done in a fixed location.
Moreover, corporate America is eyeing other productivity gains to be realized
from telecommuting while public policy planners are looking at alternatives to
building more highways.
Scope of Telecommuting in the United States
Trends in telecommuting
provided by various surveys highlight the definitional problem of who is a
telecommuter (Handy & Mokhtarian, 1996). Handy and Mokhtarian (1996) cite
the Annual Link Survey of home workers as being the most reliable indicator. Table 1 denotes that the increase in total
telecommuters grew 1.67-fold from 1990 to 1992 . But a larger jump occurs in
the conventional workforce where the increase leaps five‑fold. Other data (Pratt, 1993), based on the
National Longitudinal Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, tell us that
the number working at home (including home based businesses) increased from 3.6
million in 1985 to over 5.6 million in 1991.
Westfall (1997) reports that a 1995 national telephone
survey resulted in an estimate of 8.1 million or about 6.6 percent of the
working population working one or more days per month from home. A more recent telephone survey by Find/SVP
(1997) shows a dramatic increase to 11.1 million telecommuters. Given the increase in the total workforce to
about 136.5 million in 1997, this represents 8.1 percent of the civilian workforce.
Early predictions, however, remain
unattained now. In their vision of the
first edition of Network Nation,
Hiltz and Turoff (1978) foresaw a country whose organizations would be using
computerized conferencing in the mid-1990s on a widespread basis. They projected the use of computerized
conferencing to be similar to that of the telephone. Their preface to the revised edition (1993) noted their
over-optimism at the speed which such communication would be adopted. Conversely, Westfall (1997) citing Alvin
Toffler’s 1980 projections in his book The
Third Wave noted a prediction of 10 to 20 percent of the workforce working
out their homes in the next 20 to 30 years. The 1998 findings by FIND/SVP
suggest Toffler’s prediction is still within reach.
Table 1. US
telecommuters as a percent of workforce
|
|
Millions of
workers |
Annual
Growth |
|
||||
|
|
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
|
90‑91 |
91‑92 |
|
|
Type 1: |
0.44 |
1.41. |
2.36 |
|
220.5% |
67.4% |
|
|
Type 2: |
1.53 |
1.88 |
1.83 |
|
22.9% |
22.9% |
|
|
Type 3: |
1.95 |
2.22 |
2.36 |
|
1 3.8% |
6.3% |
|
|
Total
homeworkers |
3.92 |
5.51 |
6.55 |
|
40.6% |
18.9% |
|
|
Total U.S.
workforce |
122.70 |
123.80 |
125.40 |
|
0.9% |
1.3% |
|
|
|
Percent of
workforce |
Annual
Growth |
||||
|
|
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
|
90‑91 |
91‑92 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type 1 |
0.36% |
1.44% |
1.88% |
|
217.6% |
65.2% |
|
Type 1 +
Type 2 |
1.61% |
2.66% |
3.34% |
|
65.6% |
25.7% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source Link Resources. Inc., 1992
Despite the growth of telecommuting, other
reports continue to focus on its unrealized potential. For example, a report of the National
Research Council (1995) noted that telecommuting will be limited in growth
without effectively dealing with management issues such as organizational
socialization and “remote supervision”.
Westfall (1997) analyzes the low demand from a perspective that holds
that employees are evaluated more on behavior than output. However, the behavioral base for evaluation
is not conducive to telecommuting since managers are deprived of direct
observation. He also notes that
telecommuting as an alternative work arrangement has not been institutionalized
and lacks a certain legitimacy for work that is conferred upon performance in
the office. That is, workers who
telecommute may be stigmatized as “slacking off”.
Another article which tries to understand the
low demand for telecommuting is Paul Gray’s (1997) analysis from an ‘integrated
workplace strategy.” Gray argues that
businesses have wrongly approached telecommuting from a supply side; supply the
arrangement and it will be utilized. To
illustrate his contention, he uses California’s experience in the early 1990's
when that state provided telework centers for businesses. Despite low rental incentives, these centers
were underutilized. This, Gray posits,
was because organizations did not understand how telecommuting fit into their business
plans or strategy. When organizations
view telecommuting as a way to accomplish strategic goals, implementation has a
greater chance of success. This assumes
that needed resources are made available to employees and that training in the
use of information technologies is “mandatory, continuous, and universal”.
Defining
Telecommuting
Mokhtarian (1991) and other early envisioners
(e.g. Hiltz & Turoff, 1978) assumed that telecommuters would be full‑time
employees and work from home. Hiltz and Turoff also anticipated that the use of
telecommuting via computerized conferencing would become applicable to many
professions besides computer programmers and data‑entry personnel. More recently, however, Mokhtarian (1996)
informs us that telecommuters are not necessarily computer users (fax and
telephone qualify). By far, most
workers telecommute part time, one or two days per week, and telecommuting from
a telecenter is also feasible. For the purposes of this research project, those
who own businesses and conduct their business entirely from the home are
excluded.
This project uses a transportation‑centered
definition for telecommuting where the pivotal factor is substituting trips to
work with a home‑based or telecenter based work‑site. Reducing travel to the workplace is the
defining element. Even with this definition, obtaining accurate numbers of
telecommuters is elusive. This stems
from the fact (demonstrated in the survey interviews) that many companies allow
telecommuting on an informal basis
but simply do not track the numbers.
Costs
and Benefits to Implementing a Telecommuting Program
In his description of benefits, Kugelmass (1995)
details productivity, retention, employee safety, disaster mitigation, and
environmental benefits of telecommuting.
Productivity. While objective measures
of productivity prove elusive in the workplace and in the literature, several
pieces of research point to subjective indices of productivity gains. Most data available are anecdotal, and/or
subjective. Kugelmass does provide some
examples of concrete gains at companies such as Control Data corporation, Aetna
Life and Casualty, and International Computer Limited, a British company. Other
companies, such as IBM, AT&T, Georgia Power and Light, (Boyd, 1996), and
ETS report productivity gains but do not cite specific data. The difficulty
seems to stem from lack of good baseline data against which to make
comparisons.
One area that is easily documented is the
savings that come from reduced real estate costs when telecommuting is
implemented. Cheatem (1996) noted that
IBM realized approximately $40 million saved by reducing its U.S. real estate
costs 40 to 60 percent per site by employing virtual office and hotelling
projects. Accrocco and Smith (1996) reporting on a case study of implementing a
virtual office at NCR, indicated a saving of 20% in actual space over the
standard office.
The reasons offered for increased productivity
typically deal with fewer distractions, greater concentration, and in some
instances increased working hours. Kugelmass argues that given the cognitive
nature of knowledge work, the office is an inimical space. The ordinary office
benefits of easy and fast communication are antithetical to the demands of work
which require attention, reasoning, and thinking through. The quick access to
co‑workers, phone calls, quick questions, spontaneous meetings and other
interruptions distract workers from the flow of thought that is essential to
the task at hand. Time is lost not only in the “off ‑task” activities
created by the disruption but also in start‑up time getting back to
“where‑you‑were”.
Absenteeism and Retention. The
absenteeism cost to businesses in the U. S. has been estimated to be $30
billion a year (Schultz & Schultz, 1994). Hours lost to absence from work
has doubled in the last ten years (Kugelmass, 1996). Whatever reduces
absenteeism enhances productivity and telecommuting has demonstrably reduced
absenteeism. Assessment of telecommuting projects in California indicate approximately
25% less in sick time for telecommuting employees compared with non‑telecommuters. These numbers of course have to be
tempered by the fact that telecommuters are specially selected for good
organizational skills.
Estimates for executive relocation range from
$25,000 to $50,000 per move (Kugelmass, 1996).
Since telecommuting reduces the need for relocation, savings can be
attained by eliminating relocation costs.
Moreover, productivity losses can be avoided when experienced employees
are retained through telecommuting.
Employee Safety and Health. Data available on this issue derive from
estimates of fewer accidents in the workplace and fewer traffic accidents. Kugelmass (1996) cites a report from Arthur
D. Little Associates which estimates that if 12 percent of the work force
telecommuted, there would be 1.6 million fewer accidents at work and 1,000
fewer traffic accidents annually. Compared with workers who do not experience
daily traffic jams and congestion, workers who drive to work under conditions
of high traffic congestion were found to have increased blood pressure and
decreased behavioral performance on a proof reading tasks. In addition, their
self‑reports of moods indicated significantly more hostility and anxiety
(Schaeffer, Street, Singer, & Baum, 1988). Telecommuting is one way to
reduce these stress effects.
Disaster Mitigation.
Reports following both the California earthquakes in 1990 and 1993 and
the blizzard in the Northeast in 1996 show that telecommuting mitigated lost
time from work due to natural disasters. When employees were unable to travel
to work, work could continue using telecommunications from alternate locations,
usually home.
Environmental Benefits. The obvious beneficiary of reduced traffic
flow is air quality improvement and reduced energy usage. Studies conducted by
the U.S. Department of Energy (1994)
project that reduced transportation use will result in reductions in emissions
that contribute to poor air quality and possibly climate change as well as
reduced needs for highway capacity expansion. Since vehicle emissions are
primarily responsible for carbon dioxide, these emissions should be directly
reduced. Hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide should also be reduced though
indirectly. Projections indicate modest benefits over the next decade. If
telecommuting were to “catch on”, it has the potential to mitigate the negative
effects of urban traffic congestion and improve conditions for those still on
the road.
Costs
of Telecommuting
Not all jobs and not all employees work well
from a remote location. This means that
not all employees are equal candidates for telecommuting. The potential
difficulties this might cause will be discussed later but inequity in treatment
perceived by employees stands as a cost to the organization if it impacts
negatively upon performance. Other costs to the organization to be discussed
include: isolation of telecommuters, diminution of organizational loyalty, a
reduced sense of corporate culture, and the added effort required of both
employee and supervisor to make the telecommuting arrangement succeed.
While organizations can realize cost saving by
instituting telecommuting programs, there are real costs attached to
telecommuting that need to be understood and then factored in. Besides the
obvious costs for equipment and perhaps phone lines, the organization should
consider technical support staff to assist employees at least initially with
technical problems they may encounter in using the PC on‑line.
Managerial
Issues
A frequently mentioned barrier to successful
implementation of telecommuting programming is that of management resistance or
lack of employer support. Chaudron
(1995) and Kugelmass (1996), citing Jack Nilles (1986), delineate the requisite
qualities of managers for successful telecommuting programs. Chaudron writes of moving from the
"management of attendance" to the "management of
performance." Nilles identifies
the need for managers to focus on work activity and performance. Both authors identify the need for effective
communication with workers and planning for the telecommuting work
arrangement. Nilles also highlights
trust. Kugelmass notes that these are
prescriptions for effective management in general. Hiltz and Turoff (1978) discuss the need to switch from a
"feudal" leader to one that is participative, facilitating group cohesion
and activity.
So while the interaction between manager and
subordinates is important in the performance of the organization, and
telecommuting changes the nature of this relationship, relatively little
empirical attention has been given to the relationship between manager and
telecommuter (Reinsch, 1995). The
attention to managers in the empirical research literature seems to focus only
on their perception of telecommuting (Roderick & Jelley, 1992). Other empirical research deals with
employees perceptions of telecommuting (Khalifa & Etezadi, 1997; Spillman
& Markham, 1997). Klalifa and
Etezadi confirm the belief extant that managerial control emerges as a
perceived barrier to telecommuting due substantially to the difficulty of
monitoring workers’ performance.
Research
Problem
Given the paucity of research that relates to
the managing of telecommuters, the present research seeks to fill some of that
void through probing the knowledge gained by the experience of managers of telecommuters. Through semi-structured interviews of these
managers, we hope to discern specific changes in their practices and behaviors
in regard to telecommuters. Those
managerial practices targeted for examination are: (1) managerial control and
performance appraisal, (2) managerial planning (3) communication and
coordination, (4) employee equity and (5) socialization and teamwork.
Managerial
Control and Performance Appraisal
Managers’ resistance to telecommuting, according
to Kugelmass, stems from their apprehensions about not being able to observe
directly what their employees are doing.
Given the nature of human capabilities, visual evidence often dominates
our perceptual experiences (Posner, Nissin, & Klein, 1976). That is,
managers rely on direct observation of employees as a way of gaining
information about employee performance in the workplace. However, Feldman (1981) notes that
supervisors gather information about their employees in an
"informationally noisy environment".
By this he means that supervisors have many duties; consequently,
information which they obtain by direct observation is fragmented, restricted
to an incomplete set of job activities, and minimal. Thus, a good deal of
information also comes from indirect sources even within the workplace.
Murphy and Cleveland (1991) report that, in
practice, extensive direct observation of employees is relatively rare in most
organizations. As reasons, they
mention: (1) the demands on supervisors' time, (2) the fact that subordinates
often work at distances from their supervisors, which makes direct observation
difficult, and (3) the fact that many jobs are composed of unobservable mental
activities. When managers do observe
their employees it is frequently for a specific purpose, which in itself can
distort the information obtained. Indeed,
when employees are aware of being observed, their performance often shifts from
what is typical to maximal.
As noted, much of the information that
supervisors gather about their subordinates is from indirect sources. Managers hear complaints about employees as
well as praise. Managers read reports
and make inferences about employee characteristics based on the quality and
timeliness of the reports.
Getting information about employees from
different modalities affects the quality and the richness of information that
is transmitted. In their review of
literature comparing performance appraisals based on varying modes of
information, Murphy and Cleveland (1991) identify only one direct study by
Maier and Thurber (1968). Rather surprisingly,
that study, which compared audio and written records of interviews with direct
observation, indicated that indirect observation (written and audio records) resulted
in greater appraisal accuracy than direct observation.
More recently, using a laboratory simulation,
Kulik and Ambrose (1993) compared visual observation with computerized
performance monitoring (CPM). CPM,
through continuous recording and reporting of computer-driven activity, can
provide supervisors with information about attendance, work speed, work completed,
and errors. Typically, CPM is limited
to quantifiable performance and managers will need to rely on other sources for
information relevant to less quantifiable dimensions. In their research, Kulik and Ambrose manipulated the information
subjects received about a secretary so that received CPM data (words typed per
minute) was either consistent or inconsistent with visual data (videotapes of
the secretary at work). Their results
indicated that positive visual information triggered more automatic processing
of information than did negative visual information. Slower processing times and more accurate recall of information
in the negative visual information condition suggest that more attention was
being paid to poor performance.
Moreover, in a follow-up study, information gained visually resulted in
more negative ratings than that gained via CPM.
These findings suggest that visual information
is more influential in determining evaluations than CPM data. This could well reflect the experimental
design which gave CPM data only about typing performance but visual data was
provided for a range of secretarial behaviors.
Nonetheless, Kulik and Ambrose's results run contrary to employee
concerns about using CPM. Grant (1988)
documents employee fears that supervisors will emphasize the readily obtained
and documentable quantitative aspects of work over the qualitative facets.
The literature on observation of employees
points to managers using both visual and non-visual sources of information to
keep informed of employee work progress and to make judgments about employee
performance. However, findings by Kulik
and Ambrose (1993) suggest that managers continue to put more credence in the
information received via direct observation of employees rather than from
indirect sources.
Managing telecommuters deprives managers of the
ability to keep an eye on workers and thus deprives them of their visual source
of information. This work arrangement
suggests that managers will need to shift their information source about
employees to non-visually based information such as audio and written reports
and work output.
Research Issues of Managerial Control
1. How
do managers of telecommuters gather information pertaining to their work?
2. How
is productivity measured for telecommuters?
Does this differ in any way from non-telecommuters?
Performance
Appraisal. Performance appraisal is a process used by
management to evaluate and influence (i.e. control) the employee in the
workplace. As previously cited,
Westfall (1997) noted that appraisal is typically based on direct observation
and telecommuting diminishes opportunities for direct observation.
Performance appraisal also presents another
situation for inequity. Suppose the
image of the telecommuter is marked by characteristics of being well-organized,
trustworthy, reliable in work and attendance, able to work independently,
flexible, cooperative, able to separate home and family life from work
schedule, problem-solver, takes initiative, has thorough knowledge of job, and
is self-disciplined. These traits were
taken from the Telecommuting
Implementation Manual of the Midwest Institute of Telecommuting Education
(1994) and are promulgated in the workshops that they run. Such traits make the telecommuter better
than the typical employee and closer to the ideal employee. If managers select telecommuters from among
the superior performers, then we can expect that their performance appraisals
will benefit from being placed in the category of "best employee."
Situational factors also affect the appraisal
process and make certain features more salient. If the person being appraised is the only telecommuter in the
group, then behavior which is irrelevant to telecommuting may be attributed to
the telecommuting status. Given that
the work-away-from-the-job-site allows for fewer interruptions, supervisors may
judge some tasks as easier to complete than if done at the work-site. Working alone could easily make the category
of independent worker more salient regardless of the accuracy of that
judgment. On the other hand, it could
decrease the saliency of a team-player.
These issues need to be clarified as more employees engage in
telecommuting. To the extent that
telecommuters are selected from among the best employees, they could derive
advantage from their managers’ benefit-of-doubt. This element should be monitored.
Research Issues Concerning Performance
1. Has telecommuting affected the performance
appraisal process?
2. Is the current appraisal process appropriate
for telecommuters?
Managerial
Planning
A basic managerial function is that of
planning. Given that success in telecommuting
programs depends, in part, on management practices that support it, then management
practices will need some change.
Planning is one function that will need enhanced emphasis regarding work
assignments, coordination of work tasks and communication with employees about
work progress and problems. Planning
often involves two aspects of work: goal setting and its companion piece,
feedback, to evaluate goal accomplishment.
The ability of managers to change has often been linked to their style. Previously (page 17), it was reported that a
participative style of management is more congenial to a telework arrangement
than that characterized by “command and control.”
Research Issues Regarding Planning
1. How does telecommuting affect the way goals
are set for employees?
2. How does telecommuting affect the way
feedback is given to employees?
3. How has telecommuting affected the techniques
of management?
4. How do managers of telecommuters characterize
their managerial style?
Communication
and Coordination
Essential to success in telecommuting is good
communication between managers and employees.
Gabarrro (1990) has identified that mature relationships not only use
more modes of communication (verbal and non-verbal) but also can more easily
substitute one for another. An element of successful telecommuting relationships
may be the comfort in substituting e-mail and telephone communications for
face-to-face discussions.
Interestingly, Reinsch (1995) found that the
quality of the relationship between managers and telecommuters was
curvilinear. That is, the relationship
was judged to be significantly poorer during months 7-12 than previously and
poorer than in relationships lasting 13 or more months. This suggests that
particular attention needs to be paid to the quality and quantity of
communication between manager and telecommuter as the relationship matures.
The employees’ communication of work progress is
only half of the equation: managerial communication with employees is the other
component. A disadvantage frequently
mentioned is the feeling that telecommuters are left out of office communications
(e.g. Kugelmass, 1995; Reinsch, 1995).
So while employees have to deal with their manager’s needs to be
informed of work progress, in turn, managers should be sensitive to
telecommuters’ needs. Nilles (1997) posits
that where telecommuting programs are successful, both telecommuters and their
non-telecommuting counterparts become more effective communicators. This occurs because both groups learn to use
e-mail and other asynchronous (i.e., not real-time) forms of communication as
well as video and phone conferences.
There is a major advantage to this. Reliance on face to face communication in an
organization can mean that some members are included and some are not. But general distribution via e-mail and
other telecommunication technologies extends the boundaries of the physical
space and has the effect of catching all employees.
Informal communication in organizations is
particularly important in socialization and maintenance of organizational
culture. Traditionally, it occurs on an
ad-hoc basis and between workers in close physical proximity. Nevertheless, a comparison of remote workers
with traditional workers yielded no difference in satisfaction with ability to
get help from co-workers, social opportunities or ability to keep up with
office politics and gossip (Fritz, Narasimhan, & Rhee, 1996).
So while anecdotal evidence tends to reinforce
the ideas that telecommuters do suffer from feelings of isolation, the
empirical evidence suggests that telecommuters are not suffering in a great
way. However, Fritz, Narasimhan, &
Rhee (1996) derived their data from those telecommuting part-time.
Research Issues Concerning Communication and
Coordination
1. What forms of media are used to communicate
general organizational information such as memos and reports?
2. In what ways is informal communication
affected by telecommuting?
3. What is the level of satisfaction with the
quality of communication with telecommuters and non-telecommuters?
Employee
Equity
The importance of being treated fairly by the
organization is the underpinning of a major theory of work motivation, as well
as procedural justice policies in workplace.
To the extent that telecommuting opens the possibility of experiencing a
sense of inequity, then management needs to be sensitive to its
implementation. Three areas stand out
as being sources of inequity perceptions: work distribution and selection of
workers for telecommuting. Performance appraisal, previously discussed under
the rubric of managerial control, also stands as a potential source of
perceived inequity.
Work Distribution. Of
concern here is the fact the non-telecommuters may acquire additional tasks on
those days that telecommuters work from home.
The Washington State Energy Office study (Heifetz, 1990) reported varied
worker reaction to this. Some
colleagues valued the increased responsibility from assuming tasks while others
felt put-upon.
Employee Selection.
Kugelmass (1995) discusses inequitable opportunities to telecommute. In
some organizations telecommuting may be limited to professional job categories
where there already is a good deal of autonomy. In contrast, clerical workers who telecommute may be subject to
computer performance monitoring. These
arrangements would result in more discretion over time for professional workers
and less for non-professional workers.
Research Issues Concerning Equity
1. How are work assignments made among
telecommuters and non-telecommuters?
2. Does telecommuting in any way affect promotion
and/or compensation?
3. Does telecommuting in any way affect
allocation of informal rewards?
4. How are telecommuters selected?
Socialization &
Teamwork
The issue of isolation and diminution of a
strong corporate culture among telecommuters seems not to have materialized
among part-time telecommuters (Kugelmass, 1995). Full-time telecommuters may be more susceptible to this problem
but more evidence is needed. The issue
is not telecommuting, per se, but rather communication. For example, instituting a virtual office at
NCR necessitated some need for worker socialization (Accrocco & Smith,
1996). To deal with the need to socialize workers during the initial employment
phase, telecommuting may be unavailable to workers for the first six months of
employment. This would allow initiation
into the corporate culture and permit assessment as to the suitability of the
individual for telecommuting.
The idea of telecommuting and teamwork would
seem at first to be contradictory. If teamwork requires task interdependence,
continual adjustment, and accessibility of colleagues to complete projects,
then having members of the team dispersed would detract from team
effectiveness. Nilles (1997) argues
that as organizations are becoming more dispersed, information technologies
permit many kinds of work to become location independent.
Research Issues Regarding Socialization and
Teamwork
1. Do organizations use some introductory period
to socialize new employees before allowing them to telecommute?
2. How has telecommuting affected teamwork?
3. How do members of the team communicate when
telecommuters are participants?
4. What types of conflicts tend to occur and how
are they resolved?
5. How does telecommuting affect the support
team members give each other?
Summary
of Research Questions
A. Structural Issues Regarding Telecommuting
1. How formal is the telecommuting program?
2. How many telecommute? How frequently?
3. What unit is responsible for coordinating
telecommuting arrangements?
4. Which units employee telecommuters?
B. Managerial Control and Performance Appraisal
1. How do managers of telecommuters gather
information pertaining to their work?
2. How is productivity measured for
telecommuters? Does this differ in any
way from non-telecommuters
3. Has telecommuting affected the performance
appraisal process?
4. Is the current appraisal process appropriate
for telecommuters?
Research Issues Regarding Managerial Planning.
1. How does telecommuting affect the way goals
are set for employees?
2. How does telecommuting affect the way
feedback is given to employees?
3. How has telecommuting affected the way you
manage?
4. How do you characterize your managerial
style?
Research Issues Concerning Communication and
Coordination
1. What types of media are used to communicate
general organizational information such as memos and reports?
2. In what ways is informal communication
affected by telecommuting?
3. What is the level of satisfaction with the
quality of communication with telecommuters and non-telecommuters?
Research Issues Concerning Equity
1. How are assignments made among telecommuters
and non-telecommuters?
2. Does telecommuting in any way affect
promotion and/or compensation?
3. Does telecommuting in any way affect
allocation of informal rewards?
4. How are telecommuters selected?
Research Issues Regarding Socialization and
Teamwork
1. How has telecommuting affected teamwork?
2. How do members of the team communicate when
telecommuters are participants?
3. What types of conflicts tend to occur and how
are they resolved?
4. How does telecommuting affect the support
team members give each other?
5. How does telecommuting affect the support
team members give each other?
Method
The technique employed in this study to gather
data is that of a structured interview of managers. The structured interview schedule was developed from two
sources. Common organizational
variables included were derived from organizational questionnaires that are
widely used such as the Survey of Organizations (Taylor & Bowers, 1972)
developed by the Institute for Survey Research. The second source of questions came from reviews of telecommuting
and relevant management literature. In
addition, questions were included that stemmed from interviews conducted of TMA
personnel in New Jersey in a previous study.
(Rotter, 1998)
The
Structured Interview Schedule
The interview schedule (see Appendix) was
pre-tested for clarity of questions and for reasonableness of length of the
interview (about one hour) and revised accordingly. Major segments of the schedule are:
1. Organizational information (type of
organization and/or business unit, location, size, etc.)
2. Telecommuting information (numbers of
telecommuters, their job titles, number of days telecommuting)
3. Organizational structure for telecommuting
(unit responsible for coordinating, technical issues pertaining to
telecommuting such as agreements, insurance, equipment, etc.)
4. Managerial issues (control, communication,
equity, & teamwork).
The majority of the interview time was devoted
to managerial issues.
The
Sample of Interviewees
The data consists of twelve interviews done with
managers of telecommuters or employees who were instrumental in developing
organizational policy on telecommuting.
Table 2 presents descriptive information about the interviewees. Of the twelve interviewees, seven were women
and five were men. The average job
tenure in their present managerial position was 4.3 years although most of
those interviewed had been with the current company significantly longer.
The
Organizations
All organizations, except one, have offices in
New Jersey. The one exception was a
Minneapolis organization. Table 3
presents information on the organizations.
The organizations reflect seven different sectors of the United States
economy and all were national in scope.
Half of the interviews (six) came from the telecommunications sector
which utilizes telecommuting both formally and informally more frequently than
the other sectors reflected in the interviews in the sample. Of the six interviews in telecommunications,
five came from one company, although difference areas of the company were
included. Four of the five interviewed
came from the Business Markets Division.
Within the division, three were involved with business analysis applications
and one in pricing support. The fifth
was a sales manager. All were in different New Jersey locations.
Table 2. Description of the Sample of
Interviewees
|
Gender |
Females
= 7, Males =5 |
|
Average
Job Tenure |
4.3
years |
|
Job
Titles |
Human
Resources Manager Staff
Manager Product Manager Sales Manager Director of Systems Integration District Manager District Manager District Manager Human Resource Director Global Director of Marketing Director of Administration Project Manager |
Table 3. Description of Organizations
|
Sector |
Scope |
|
Telecommunication Company
A Company
B |
International International |
|
Industrial
Printing |
National |
|
Insurance
& Finance |
International |
|
Technology
(Software) |
National |
|
Pharmaceutical |
National |
|
Retail |
International |
|
Fold
Manufacturing |
National |
Procedure
All interviews were conducted by the principal
investigator, either on-site or by telephone.
Interviewees were assured that their individual responses would not be
for attribution and that results would be grouped. All were asked permission for taping and eleven of twelve granted
taping of the interview. The interviewer
also took notes during the interview.
Each interview lasted between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. Typically an interview would last about 60
minutes.
Results
All interviews were transcribed and coded with
QSR NUD-IST software (1997). A review
of the literature pertaining to the use of QSR NUD-IST reveals it is used most
frequently in analysis of clinical data (e.g. Davis & Davis, 1997). Another area where it has been used is
education (e.g., Rouse & Dick, 1994).
This program assists in qualitative data
analysis when the data to be entered are transcribed interviews. The researcher decides what becomes a
meaningful section of text for coding by entering hard returns into the
document. Then each text unit can be
coded using either a researcher created code or using the program to uncover
themes within the interviews. This
research used coding categories determined by the structure of the interview in
combination with the pattern of responses given to interview questions. The coding tree is presented in Figures
1-3. Using these codes, the interviews
were then subjected to content analysis.
QSR- NUD-IST also provides counts of responses in various categories thus
enabling frequency analysis and further permits the “asking of questions” or
generating counts of intersecting codes.
