Selected Communication Variables and Telecommuting Participation Decisions: Data from Telecommuting Workers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Many companies now offer their employees opportunities to telecommute. What variables influence an employee's decision to accept the opportunity? In this study, telecommuting workers responded to a vignette describing a manager and an employee at a time when the employee had been given the opportunity to apply for a telecommuting program. The vignette systematically varied (a) the manager's promptness in mentioning an employee mistake; (b) the manager's reaction to neg ative feedback; (c) the manager's loyalty to employees; and (d) the length of time the manager and employee had known each other. The results showed that rela tionship duration significantly affected whether respondents thought that the employee should telecommute. Managerial reaction to criticism and managerial loyalty significantly affected forecasts of the worker's and manager's working together successfully. The results suggest that relationship predictability (duration) may constrain, and that communication behaviors (reaction to criticism, and loy alty) may facilitate an individual's decision whether to telecommute (Bernardino, 1996). The results also support the concept of telecompetence (Warisse, 1996) which argues that interpersonal factors influence the adoption and use of new communication technologies.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: