Timothy D. Golden

The impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and turnover intentions: does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or having access to communication-enhancing technology matter?

Although the teleworking literature continues to raise concerns regarding the adverse consequences of professional isolation, researchers have not examined its impact on work outcomes. Consequently, the authors first examine professional isolations direct impact on job performance and turnover intentions among teleworkers and then investigate the contingent role of 3 salient work-mode-related factors. Survey data from a matched sample of 261 professional-level teleworkers and their managers revealed that professional isolation negatively impacts job performance and, contrary to expectations, reduces turnover intentions. Moreover, professional isolations impact on these work outcomes is increased by the amount of time spent teleworking, whereas more face-to-face interactions and access to communication-enhancing technology tend to decrease its impact. On the basis of these findings, an agenda for future research on professional isolation is offered that takes into account teleworks growing popularity as a work modality.

Telecommuting's differential impact on work-family conflict: is there no place like home?

The literature on the impact of telecommuting on work-family conflict has been equivocal, asserting that telecommuting enhances work-life balance and reduces conflict, or countering that it increases conflict as more time and emotional energy are allocated to family. Surveying 454 professional-level employees who split their work time between an office and home, the authors examined how extensively working in this mode impacts work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, as well as the contextual impact of job autonomy, scheduling flexibility, and household size. As hypothesized, the findings suggest that telecommuting has a differential impact on work-family conflict, such that the more extensively individuals work in this mode, the lower their work-to-family conflict, but the higher their family-to-work conflict. Additionally, job autonomy and scheduling flexibility were found to positively moderate telecommutings impact on work-to-family conflict, but household size was found to negatively moderate telecommutings impact on family-to-work conflict, suggesting that contextual factors may be domain specific.

The Impact of Extent of Telecommuting on Job Satisfaction: Resolving Inconsistent Findings

Although popular management wisdom has suggested that telecommuting enhances job satisfaction, research has found both positive and negative relationships. In this study, the authors attempt to resolve these inconsistent findings by hypothesizing a curvilinear, inverted U-shaped relationship between the extent of telecommuting and job satisfaction. Using hierarchical regression analysis on a sample of 321 professional-level employees, their findings suggest a curvilinear link between extent of telecommuting and job satisfaction, with satisfaction appearing to plateau at more extensive levels of telecommuting. In addition, task interdependence and job discretion moderated this link, suggesting that some job attributes play an important, contingent role.

Co-workers who telework and the impact on those in the office: Understanding the implications of virtual work for co-worker satisfaction and turnover intentions

Telework and other forms of virtual work have experienced dramatic growth over the last decade. While research is beginning to understand its impacts on teleworkers themselves, studies to date have not looked at its effect on those who remain in the office. This study therefore shifts the focus to non-teleworkers in offices where telework is present, to investigate if the prevalence of teleworkers in an office impacts the work outcomes of non-teleworkers. Using a sample of 240 professional employees, results suggest teleworker prevalence is negatively associated with co-worker satisfaction, and that this relationship is influenced by the amount of time co-workers telework, the extent of face-to-face interactions, and job autonomy. Moreover, a non-teleworkers satisfaction with co-workers was also found to be negatively associated with turnover intentions. Together, results suggest the need to consider the full range of teleworks impacts including the potential adverse consequences for non-teleworkers.

Impact of Telework on Exhaustion and Job Engagement: A Job Demands and Job Resources Model

Teleworking, the increasingly common practice, which involves working away from the office using technology, entails changes in the experience of work. Such changes may influence the demands and resources associated with a job. While research on burnout has addressed the role of exhaustion and job engagement using the Job Demands‐Resources model, existing literature has focused on traditional work modes. This paper explores the effects on job demands and resources to understand the processes through which telework impacts the exhaustion and engagement of the teleworker. We find that the positive effect of telework revolves around reduced work pressure and role conflict and increased autonomy. The negative effect of telework is expressed through increased role ambiguity and reduced support and feedback. Overall, we find that telework is negatively related to both exhaustion and job engagement and that job demands and resources mediate these relationships.

How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings:

Telecommuting has become an increasingly popular work mode that has generated significant interest from scholars and practitioners alike. With recent advances in technology that enable mobile connections at ever-affordable rates, working away from the office as a telecommuter has become increasingly available to many workers around the world. Since the term telecommuting was first coined in the 1970s, scholars and practitioners have debated the merits of working away from the office, as it represents a fundamental shift in how organizations have historically done business. Complicating efforts to truly understand the implications of telecommuting have been the widely varying definitions and conceptualizations of telecommuting and the diverse fields in which research has taken place. Our objective in this article is to review existing research on telecommuting in an effort to better understand what we as a scientific community know about telecommuting and its implications. In so doing, we aim to bring to the surface some of the intricacies associated with telecommuting research so that we may shed insights into the debate regarding telecommuting’s benefits and drawbacks. We attempt to sift through the divergent and at times conflicting literature to develop an overall sense of the status of our scientific findings, in an effort to identify not only what we know and what we think we know about telecommuting, but also what we must yet learn to fully understand this increasingly important work mode. After a brief review of the history of telecommuting and its prevalence, we begin by discussing the definitional challenges inherent within existing literature and offer a comprehensive definition of telecommuting rooted in existing research. Our review starts by highlighting the need to interpret existing findings with an understanding of how the extent of telecommuting practiced by participants in a study is likely to alter conclusions that may be drawn. We then review telecommuting’s implications for employees’ work-family issues, attitudes, and work outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment and identification, stress, performance, wages, withdrawal behaviors, and firm-level metrics. Our article continues by discussing research findings concerning salient contextual issues that might influence or alter the impact of telecommuting, including the nature of the work performed while telecommuting, interpersonal processes such as knowledge sharing and innovation, and additional considerations that include motives for telecommuting such as family responsibilities. We also cover organizational culture and support that may shape the telecommuting experience, after which we discuss the community and societal effects of telecommuting, including its effects on traffic and emissions, business continuity, and work opportunities, as well as the potential impact on societal ties. Selected examples of telecommuting legislation and policies are also provided in an effort to inform readers regarding the status of the national debate and its legislative implications. Our synthesis concludes by offering recommendations for telecommuting research and practice that aim to improve the quality of data on telecommuting as well as identify areas of research in need of development.

Applying technology to work: toward a better understanding of telework

Technology is enabling employees to work away from the office as teleworkers, where they experience increased flexibility to manage their work and personal lives. The last several decades have seen telework rapidly expand as a work mode, which offers both new opportunities and challenges for employees and corporations alike. This paper covers a brief overview of telework research and practice, in the hopes of providing a better understanding of this rapidly emerging form of virtual work. The paper first describes its growing popularity and the types of telework being practiced, and then reviews some key findings in prior research by examining alterations in the work–family interface, job satisfaction, and organizational identification. Present-day factors spurring teleworks growth and factors holding it back are then discussed, including issues of technology acceptance, business continuity, and carbon footprint, as well as challenges such as isolation, co-worker resentment, and managerial reluctance. The paper then briefly explores some crucial issues facing telework in the future if it is to remain a successful work practice, including knowledge sharing, individual differences, and the way organizational policies and practices are enacted. Finally, some proscriptive recommendations for managers are offered in the hopes of helping practitioners harness the potential of this form of technology-enabled virtual work.

Does it matter where your manager works? Comparing managerial work mode (traditional, telework, virtual) across subordinate work experiences and outcomes

Although research has begun to examine impacts from employee work modes such as teleworking, studies to date have overlooked the impact that managers who work away from the office might have on subordinates. Using a large dataset (N = 11,059), this study therefore compares three managerial work modes (traditional, telework, virtual work), to investigate differences in subordinate work experiences and outcomes. Results suggest that in comparison to subordinates with managers in a traditional work mode, work experiences and outcomes are generally less positive for subordinates with teleworking managers who spend a portion of the week away from the office, and they are lower as well for subordinates with virtual managers who are away from the office full time. These results differ based on the subordinate’s own work mode and are modest in magnitude. This study suggests a need for further investigation into the effects of managerial work modes on subordinate experiences and outcomes.

Digital Technology and Student Cognitive Development The Neuroscience of the University Classroom

Digital technology has proven a beguiling, some even venture addictive, presence in the lives of our 21st century (millennial) students. And while screen technology may offer select cognitive benefits, there is mounting evidence in the cognitive neuroscience literature that digital technology is restructuring the way our students read and think, and not necessarily for the better. Rather, emerging research regarding intensive use of digital devices suggests something more closely resembling a Faustian quandary: Certain cognitive skills are gained while other “deep thinking” capabilities atrophy as a result of alterations in the neural circuitry of millennial brains. This has potentially profound implications for management teaching and practice. In response, some advocate that we “meet students where we find them.” We too acknowledge the need to address student needs, but with the proviso that the academy’s trademark commitment to penetrating, analytical thinking not be compromised given the unprecedented array of existential challenges awaiting this generation of students. These and rising faculty suspicions of a new “digital divide” cropping up in the management classroom represents a timely opportunity for management educators to reflect not only on how today’s students read and learn, but equally, on what and how we teach.

The Crisis of Presenteeism: Maintaining Our Focus While Harnessing Technology’s Benefits

Let me begin by stating what an immense privilege it has been to be your leader this past year. The Eastern Academy of Management (EAM) is truly an amazing organization, filled with intelligent, th...