HR Issues in Telecommuting: A Conceptual Approach

Author(s): Darshan Parikh and Shilpa Surana

Source: Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jul., 2005), pp. 94-116
Published by: Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27767996
Accessed: 09-07-2016 11:01 UTC

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UIR, Vol 41, No. 1, July 2005 COMMUNICATION

HR ISSUES IN TELECOMMUTING : A CONCEPTUAL

APPROACH

Darshan Parikh and Shilpa Surana

INTRODUCTION

The information technology "revolution" has brought about

far-reaching changes, affecting almost every aspect of life in the
modern world. The relative case of obtaining and using information
has led to radical shifts in organisational structures and individual's
work methods. Among the new flexible work arrangements is
telecommuting or e-work, the practice of working from a distance
? usually from home. Working from home is not a new
phenomenon. Before the industrial revolution, most work was
carried out at home or nearby. The real change, then, is not the
advent of telecommuting or that work takes place at home but
that telecommuters work at home but within the structure of an
organisational framework. The worker-organisation interaction
takes place primarily through modern technological channels of
communication.

In India telecommuting is still in its nascent stage and has

not been widely adopted as a work option offered to employees.
This may be due to the joint family structure and lack of proper
telecommuting infrastructure. At the same time awareness level
and acceptability of telecommuting as a work option also seems
to be lacking at corporate level. Employees face considerable
traffic problems due to large population accompanied by the
problems of morning and evening rush hours of commuting.

Darshan Parikh and Shilpa Surana are Doctoral Students in Marketing

Management and Human Resource Management respectively, Institute of
Management, Nirma University of Science and Technology, Ahmedabad.

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Communications 95

This makes them feel very tired and results into increased physio
psychological stress. Therefore it becomes quite necessary to
start discussion on this virtual work option through formal
research. With telecommuting there are many visible benefits
derived which can contribute to higher organisational
performance.

Apart from the visible benefits of telecommuting, there also

exist people issues related to leading telecommuters by
sustaining their intrinsic motivation. By offering telecommuting
as a work option organisations can bring down costs related to
commuting and save valuable employee time which may be, in
some cases, a significantly high portion of total work hours.
Keeping these and other visible benefits on one side, the
important issue, which is raised through this exploratory
research, is of employees' inner drive towards efficient and
effective work due to being physically separated from the work
place, supervisors and colleagues. It also explores the issue of
effective leadership necessary for leading these telecommuters
who are physically separated from the workplace, supervisors
and colleagues.

Through a systematic review of literature on telecommuting

and by applying relevant theories of motivation and leadership to
telecommuting, this paper tries to answer the following questions.
Specific propositions have been formulated based on the derived
models.

As compared to regular workers, what will be the different

HR strategies required to manage a team of telecommuters?

Can the virtual communication between the employee and

organisation keep the intrinsic motivation of an employee
alive? If yes, then as compared to regular workers, what
would be the intrinsic motivation level of telecommuters?

Can the virtual communication between supervisors and

telecommuters bring about the same level of effectiveness as
face-to-face communication?

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96 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

How far are hitherto proposed theories of motivation

applicable to this newer work option, i.e. telecommuting?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Towards an Understanding of Telecommuting

Jack Nilles, President of JALA Associates, a Los-Angeles based

Technology Management Consulting firm, coined the term
'telecommuting' in 1973. Since then, it has come to mean many
things to many people.

Telecommuting is defined as: "Periodic work out of the principal

office, one or more days per week either at home, at client's site, or
in a telework centre" (Nilles, 1998). Thus, Nilles defines it as an
arrangement in which employees' use a computer?or some form
of telecommunications equipment?to work at home or in a satellite
oiffice close to home.

The other term for telec?mmuting is "teleworking" putting

more emphasis on the work, not the travel. Telework is defined as:
"Any form of substitution of information technologies (such as
telecommunications and computers) for work-related travel;
moving the work to the workers instead of moving the workers to
work" (Nilles, 1998). Within the context of this research,
telecommuting would be referred to as the practice of employees
working from home. As defined by Cascio, telework is "work
carried out in a location remote from central offices or production
facilities" with the term "telecommuters" typically referring to
employees who work from home.

Motivation

The term motivation is derived from the Latin word movere,

meaning to move. Motivation represents "those psychological
processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of
voluntary actions that are goal oriented (Mitchell, 1982). Motivation
as defined by Robbins (1993) is the "willingness to exert high levels
of effort toward organisational goals, conditioned by the effort's
ability to satisfy some individual need."

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Communications 97

Motivation is the process that accounts for an individual's

intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a
goal. Within the context of telecommuting , we need to rethink
these concepts of motivation as to whether there is a great difference
in the manner in which motivational strategies are formulated for
telecommuting employees as against regular employees and how
far are the basic theories of motivation relevant to this virtual work
environment.

A Conceptual Understanding of Motivation in Relation to

Telecommuting

In today's virtual work environments apart from technical

benefits, which increase overall organisation efficiency, the
human factor, which is more important (especially in intellectual
work) than technology must be given special attention.
Employees constitute an organisation's human capital and thus
provide a competitive advantage. This fundamental thinking
drives the motivational strategies organisations in different
industries.

Motivating the employees to make them work efficiently and

effectively by their will and not by forceful implementation of
HR policies is becoming a big challenge. In this context many
managers incorrectly view motivation as a personal trait-that is,
some have it and others don't. In practice, inexperienced
managers often label employees who seem to lack motivation as
lazy or lacking in motivation. Actually motivation is the result of
the interaction of the individual and the situation. Certainly,
individuals differ in their basic motivational drive. But given a
specific basic motivational drive (within individual motivational
drive) the actual motivation towards the work can be augmented
by increasing the within individual motivational drive which can
be derived from a favourable interaction of the individual and
the situation.

The literature provides two conflicting approaches to

telecommuting (Jurik, 1998). The first perceives telecommuters as
a group of people who prefer this type of work arrangement, since
it offers them maximal professional flexibility. This is in line with

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 98 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

the fundamental proposition of Theory Y of motivation (McGregor,

1960) which assumes that employees like work, are creative, seek
responsibility, and can exercise self-direction. The second approach
perceives telecommuting as a new form of "slavery" in which
individuals are exploited by their employers and work in relatively
unacceptable, inferior conditions for low wages. The employer adds
so many protocols of do's and don'ts in the contract that it virtually
enslaves the employees. This is in line with Theory X of motivation
(McGregor, I960), which has an assumption that employees dislike
work, are lazy, dislike responsibility, and must be coerced to perform.

Both the approaches have their own implications which in

different situations can help the strategist to formulate different
motivational strategies based on the type of work and level of
preexisting internal or external motivational drive already
discussed. In the light of the increased scale of the e-work
phenomenon in recent years, and the attention paid to it especially
in the popular literature, the question arises as to who is suited to
e-work. This type of flexible work arrangement could be an
excellent work solution for certain types of people, but may be
unsuitable and even detrimental for others. Before an individual
or an organisation decides to adopt this work method, a number
of basic questions should be asked. For example, what features of
an individual's personality are likely to be significant in judging
their suitability for e-work? Are there any differences between e
workers and workers in more traditional arrangements, in terms
of a number of characteristics referred to in the literature as
contributing to success at work? Specifically, an individual's
personality characteristics and traits should be considered, as well
as their possibility of deriving job satisfaction in such a setting.
Findings from such studies could shed some light on the role of
personality variables, such as the importance of self-confidence,
self-efficacy, self-judgement, need for affiliation, depressive
tendencies, to name just a few, in the success or failure of working
alone from home.

Organisations that face the choice of implementing more flexible

working arrangements, such as telecommuting, should pay
attention to the personal suitability of candidates for these positions,
and the special demands entailed in carrying out the job. When an

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Communications 99

organisation adopts a telecommuting work pattern, or even when

individuals take it upon themselves to work independently in this
manner, it is important to examine the potential suitability of the
individual for the job, in order to improve the chances of success
and satisfaction for all parties involved.

In addition to this, an individual's relation to work is basic

and the conduciveness of the work environment is equally critical
to the success or failure. Motivation can be increased through
basic changes in the nature of an employee's job. Thus, jobs should
be redesigned to allow for increased control, work-life balance,
reduced travel time, freedom to work undisturbed, avoiding
traffic, saving money and reducing stress. This is in line with Job
Design Theory proposed by Richard Hackman, Gred Oldham,
and their associates, which says that the task itself is key to
employee motivation (Pinder, 1984). Specifically, a boring and
monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well, whereas a
challenging job enhances motivation. Variety, autonomy, and
decision authority are three ways of adding challenge to a job.
Job enrichment and job rotation are the two ways of adding variety
and challenge. It proposes that autonomy is required for an
employee to experience the psychological feelings of responsibility
and feedback is needed to understand how one is performing on
the job.

Telecommuting would increase employees' autonomy and

increase their productivity. At the same time supervisors can
exhibit remote control by the use of telecommunication
equipments. The reduced control would increase intrinsic
motivation of an employee. Though there is presence of remote
supervision, which helps in guiding and appraising
employees, yet the absence of face-to-face feedback can make
appraisal standards ambiguous for telecommuters as
compared to regular employees. Thus, telecommuting
employees may be put at loss, which can act as an impediment
towards their motivation. Thus Job Design theory and the
constructs proposed very well hold for motivation in the case of
telecommuting.

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 100 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

Ambiguous appraisal issue due to telecommuting is also in line

with Equity Theory (Adams, 1965), which proposed that individuals
are more concerned about the relative rewards they receive in
comparison with their colleagues. Based on one's inputs, such as
effort, experience, education, and competence, one can compare
outcomes such as salary levels, increases, recognition and other
factors. When people perceive an imbalance in their outcome
input ratio relative to others, tension is created. This tension
provides the basis for motivation, as people strive for what they
perceive as equity and fairness (Robbins, 1993). Thus, due to
ambiguous appraisal standards, if telecommuters perceive an
imbalance in their output-input ratio relative to others, tension
would be created. This tension may affect their intrinsic motivation
towards work.

Telecommuting is a very different way of achieving a high

motivation level. A telecommuting scheme could be seen to be an
extreme move towards giving the employees control and freedom
to satisfy their higher needs. These higher order needs are also
considered critical in increasing their intrinsic motivation towards
work by classical theorists of motivation (Maslow, 1943; Alderfer,
1972). Autonomy can also be treated as a separate category of
higher-order need in the adaptation of Maslow's need hierarchy
for studying managerial job attitudes.

A Conceptual Understanding of Leadership in Relation to

Telecommuting

Like motivational issues (Pairikh and Surana, 2004), leadership

issues are equally important when we move from conventional
work to telecommuting. Due to the virtual boundary present
between the employee and the manager, managers need to make
modifications in their leadership style and strategies when leading
telecommuters. In a conventional work environment, since the
employee is physically accessible and in direct personal contact
with the manager, he/she can be easily supervised or monitored.
The manager can provide direct assistance and can also influence
the employee towards the achievement of goals. However, in the
case of telecommuting the fundamental problem is of direct
accessibility of the employee. The-absence of personal face-to-face

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 Communications 101

communication with the employee makes it difficult to monitor

the employee's involvement with the work.

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group towards

the achievement of goals. Trait theories of leadership state that it is
the personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from
non-leaders. The question then arises as to what are the distinctive
leadership qualities required for leading a team of telecommuters who
may be separated by time and space. Are these characteristics
significantly different from those manifested in a regular work
environment?

Further, it also needs to be questioned as to what are the

behavioural dimensions that constitute successful leadership
practice, i.e. should the leader be focused more on task related aspects
or people-related aspects of work. This is in line with the well
documented Ohio State study which identified two behavioural
dimensions that point to two general types of leader behaviours.
The first consideration, or employee orientation suggested emphasis
on employee's feeling and interpersonal relationships, The second
initiating structure, or production orientation suggested a focus on
tasks to achieve goals. Wren (1994) proposed that managers who
scored high on both these dimensions simultaneously performed
best. Since telecommuting brings a major change in the structure of
task, the technological aspects of task need to be incorporated in the
leaders' leadership style and their orientation towards employees,
who are mostly in virtual contact, also needs a change in leaders'
approach towards them. For example, concern for task would
manifest itself in the leader attending to the task-related concerns of
telecommuters by providing support so as to enable telecommuters
to handle the new technology. In addition, the leader also needs to
provide people-related support by acting as a buffer or problem
solver, making himself available to the teleworker. When the
manager plays this role effectively, it can make the difference between
the teleworkers feeling isolated to feeling that they are on the same
team. The above discussion elaborates the application of Behavioural
Theories of Leadership in telecommuting.

Fielder's Situational Theory (Fiedler, 1967) of leadership also

defines leadership effectiveness in terms of a match between

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 102 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

leadership style (i.e. relationship-oriented or task-oriented) and

situational favourability. Situational favourability involves a
combination of three factors: leader-member relations, task
structure, and position power. The telecommuting work
environment involves changes in all three aspects from that of
regular employees i.e. task structure, due to virtual nature of the
work; position power, due to remote supervision and leader
member relations, due to less face to face contact. These three
factors make telecommuting work very different from that of
regular work and therefore situational factors need to be taken
into account in the leader's style with employees.

The Vroom-Yetton Theory (Vroom and Yetton, 1973) described

what leaders should do given certain circumstances with regard
to the level of involvement of followers in making decisions. In
terms of telecommuters, this theory is very relevant since
telecommuters would face issues with respect to exercising decision
making powers since they are located at a distance from the central
office which would be the hub of all decision making.

The Leader Member Exchange Theory (Graen, 1976) explains the

impact of the nature of the relationship between leaders and
followers on the leadership process. This theory categorises
followers into the in-group and the out-group based on the extent
of their interaction with the leader. The relationship between the
leader and each group is different, thus affecting the type of work
members of each group are given. Telecommuters would fall into
the category of out-group since the degree of their face-to-face
communication with their supervisors would be restricted and
therefore they would have less opportunity to exercise their
influence. Accordingly, the leader-member relations would be
adversely affected. Further, conflicts are likely to arise between the
in-group (i.e. regular employees) and the out-group (i.e.
telecommuters) since the in-group is a privileged section as per
this theory.

Visionary leadership is also very essential especially when the

idea of telecommuting needs to be popularised in the organisation.
Visionary leadership has the ability to create and articulate a
realistic, credible, and attractive vision for the future of the

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Communications 103

organisation that improves upon the present situation. The option

of telecommuting is likely to be perceived as a threat since it involves
changes in the fundamental way of doing things. Since employees
are likely to perceive no immediate need for telecommuting,
visionary leadership is required that can communicate an attractive
future of an employee-friendly organisation when this option is
introduced as well as mobilise employees to adopt a positive attitude
towards it. It is only when this vision is embraced by all employees
that telecommuting would be a success.

The current thinking in leadership research has moved from a

focus on leadership as person-specific to leadership more as a
process that values contribution of all members.

It is in this context that Manz and Sims (1989) propose self

leadership within each individual and state "the most appropriate
leader is one who can lead others to lead themselves". Virtual
workers like telecommuters are separated from the central office
by time and space and therefore the supervisor must adopt the
style of remote leadership by empowering the telecommuters and
holding them accountable for the results and not the process of
work. To this end, telecommuters must assume self-leadership so
as to maintain self-discipline and motivation towards job
performance.

Drath and Palus (1994) also propose a theory of leadership as a

process of coordinating efforts and moving together as a group. In
the context of telecommuting, telecommuters may well be perceived
as a privileged section due to the advantages offered by the same
and therefore tensions between the teleworkers and non
teleworkers are likely to arise. The leader plays an important role
in mitigating these tensions and conflicts so that the two groups
perceive each other as allies and not as adversaries.

The above literature and the associated discussion supports

the argument that by just adding technology and by changing the
work pattern, one cannot question the validity of earlier theories
and lead to development bf fundamentally new theories. Theory
development is a continuous process and theories evolve and
develop parallely with the evolution of social science research. New

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 104 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

theories are based on older theories and older theories don't lose
complete relevance till a newer theory successfully contradicts the
older one. The earlier theories can very well be applied to tackle
the HR issues in telecommuting.

It also becomes clear that the theories proposed so far raise

fundamental issues in the context of telecommuting. The
telecommuting work option involves a fundamental change in the
future of doing things and therefore the leadership style and
motivational strategies would be very different for telecommuters
as against non-telecommuters. Still earlier theories can be applied
to telecommuting by incorporating additional constructs relevant
to telecommuting.

HR ISSUES IN TELECOMMUTING

It is important to identify distinct consequences of

telecommuting as compared to regular work, and then to derive
specific propositions to be evaluated critically and empirically.
Therefore in the following pages, based on studies and other related
literature, we propose relevant propositions which contribute to
the exploration of HR issues in telecommuting.

Increase in Productivity/Job Performance

Research shows that telework generally increases job

performance and productivity (DiMartino & Wirth, 1990;
Kossek, 2001; Neal, Chapman, Ingersoll-Dayton, & Emlen, 1993).
In one study that examined the influence of the virtual office
(Callentine, 1995), respondents reported increased work
effectiveness and greater productivity in the anytime-anyplace
office. Pitt-Catsouphes and Marchetta (1991) reported
productivity increases of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent
in a review of telecommuting studies. Results from the Federal
Flexiplace Project (U.S. Department of Transportation, 1993)
also indicated improved job performance for most
telecommuters.

Articles in business publications hail the emerging virtual office

as an effective means to simultaneously reduce expenses and

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Communications 105

enhance productivity, morale and work/life balance (Greengard,

1994; Henkoff, 1995; Hequet, 1994; Shellenbarger, 1997).

Employers are impressed by the widespread consensus that

large productivity gains result from telework. These are
attributed to the lack of interruptions and improved
concentration; increased motivation and job satisfaction; higher
dedication and morale; and a higher energy level on the job
due to the elimination of the wasted time and frustration of
commuting (DiMartino & Wirth, 1990; Hill et al., 1998; Kelly,
1988; Kurland & Bailey, 1999; Neal et al., 1993).

Preliminary findings on a pilot telework project launched

in 1988 by the State of California indicate that state employees
working at home have been rated by their supervisors as 3 to 5
per cent more effective than they would have been if they
worked from 9 to 5 in the office (Bureau of National Affairs,
1989).

In the UK, the FI group claimed teleworkers' productivity was

30 per cent higher than that of in-house workers, while
International Computers Limited (ICL) found that 25 hours of
work in the home were equivalent to 40 hours in an office
(Curson, 1986).

Initially supervisors are often skeptical of telework because

they cannot easily observe work performance directly. This
necessitates a shift from a "face-time culture" to a "results
oriented culture" (Hill & Weiner, 2003). With this additional
emphasis on results, it is not surprising to find research
documenting a link between telework and measurable
productivity increases, less absenteeism, lower unit labour costs,
and overall improvement in operating effectiveness (Kelly, 1988;
Kraut, 1989). Kurland and Bailey's (1999) review of research
also revealed that telework, regardless of work venue, was
related to improved workplace productivity and higher job
performance ratings. The same is depicted in the following
figure:

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 106 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

Reduced Expenses
Increased Morale Greater
Work-Life Balance Effectiveness
Lack of Interruptions Greater
Telecommuting Improved Concentration Higher _^ Productivity
High Dedication Motivation Higher Job
High Energy Level J Satisfaction
Less Absenteeism Higher Job
Lower Unit Labour Costs Performance

Based on the above figure and the literature the following

proposition is proposed:

Proposition 1 : Employees who have telecommuting work option

will also show greater effectiveness, greater productivity, higher
job satisfaction, higher job performance than non-telecommuters.

Influence of Telework on Career Progress

There is evidence that telework negatively influences career

progress. Tele worker s are less likely to be in the same physical
place and time as co-workers, supervisors, and mentors, so they
may less likely be part of the informal political network necessary
for career advancement. Some outcomes documented by the
research are professional isolation (Kosek, 2001; Kurland & Bailey,
1999), career anxieties created by spending less time in the office
and being passed over for a promotion (Judiesch & Lyness, 1999),
overcompensating at work to get the promotion, and becoming a
workaholic. Resentment is reported from colleagues whose jobs
do not permit them to work at home (Neal et al., 1993), as well as
exploitation (DiMartino & Wirth, 1990; Foegen, 1993; Rovi, 1997).
Other outcomes include receiving less pay/benefits, having less
job security than their counterparts working on-site (Rovi, 1997),
changes in supervision and evaluation techniques when
employees work at home, special safeguards needed to preserve
job security, increased work-family conflict due to the physical
boundaries between work and home, and a greater risk of burnout
since start and stop times for work are not specified (Neal et al.,
1993).

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Communications 107

The same is depicted in the following figure:

Professional Isolation
Career Anxieties
Delayed Promotion
Telecommuting h-* Workaholism Hindered Lower
Resentment From Career Motivation
Colleagues Progression
Exploitation
Less Pay / Benefits
Less Job Security

Based on the above figure and the literature the following

proposition is proposed:

Proposition 2 : Employees who have telecommuting work

option will experience hindered career progression and thereby
lower intrinsic motivation towards work than non-telecommuters.

Influence of Tele work on Personal/Family Life

Home-based telecommuters are more likely than office workers

to mix paid employment with domestic labour, domestic chores,
and child care during the conventional business hours and extend
their paid employment to the early morning or evening hours
(Kraut, 1989). They are also more likely to report blurred work
and family boundaries (Kossek, 2001), more role overload, and
stress (Duxbury, Higgins & Thomas, 1996).

Olson and Primps (1984) suggest that some home-based

telecommuters exhibited characteristics of workaholism because
of the lack of separation between work and family life. Telework
experts claim combining dependent care with telecommuting is
ineffective (Christensen, 1992; Riley, 1994).

Hill, Hawkins, and Miller (1996) found that virtual office

workers at IBM perceived greater work and personal/family
life balance, but in direct comparison they reported no more
balance than traditional office workers. And according to
Kurland and Bailey (1999), those in the virtual office have more
difficulty with work/life balance than do traditional office

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 108 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

workers. Hartman, Stoner and Arora (1991) found a negative

relationship between family relationship and satisfaction with
telework. However, scholarly research on the influence of the
virtual office on work-life balance is scarce.

The same is depicted in the following figure:

Blurred Work and

Family Boundaries
Role Overload
Telecommuting Increased Stress Work-Family Lower
Workaholism Conflict_Motivation
Inadequate Attention
To Family

Based on the above figure and the literature the following

proposition is proposed:

Proposition 3 : Employees who have telecommuting work option

will experience greater work-family conflict and thereby lower
intrinsic motivation towards work than non-telecommuters.

Influence of Telework on Psychological Health

Telework can significantly affect the physical and the

psychological well-being of the workers involved. By separating
workers from their co-workers, telework may generate isolation
and stress and have an adverse impact on their morale. A
survey in the United Kingdom in 1983 reported that 60 per
cent of teleworkers named isolation as the greatest
disadvantage. Twenty-two per cent found it such a problem
that they would prefer to work in a satellite office or
neighbourhood centre. The lack of day-to-day interaction may
gradually isolate teleworkers from a professional as well as a
social point of view and affect their career development (Di
Martino and Wirth, 1990).

The same is depicted in the following figure:

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Communications 109

Isolation Poor Physio Lower

Telecommuting Increased Stress Psychological Motivation
Lower Morale Health

Based on the above figure and the literature the following

proposition is proposed:

Proposition 4 : Employees who have telecommuting work

option will experience poorer physio-psychological health and
thereby lower intrinsic motivation towards work than non
telecommuters.

Apart from the above issue, which are based on research

literature, following issues are also very critical and vitally
important for telecommuting organisations and practitioners, but
are not found to have researched upon in the literature.

The leadership of the organisation needs to prove to the key

people that telework works. Therefore, both managers and
prospective telecommuters need to be briefed on the concepts,
issues, costs, risks and benefits of telecommuting. The key to success
in telecommuting is the selection and training process for both
teleworkers and managers.

Communication is at the heart of a trusting relationship. However,

since face-to-face communication is generally substituted with
electronic communication, in a teleworking arrangement, managers
have to aim at a careful balance of face-to-face communication
with electronic communication so as to avoid the 'out of sight, out
of mind syndrome' and keep teleworkers linked to the organisation.
This leads one to propose the following proposition:

Proposition 5 : Telecommuting will require a balance of

face-to-face communication with electronic communication
between supervisors and telecommuters.

Attitudes of Colleagues become particularly important to sustain

the teleworkers' motivation levels. The telecommuters will suddenly
be perceived as different. Tensions between the teleworkers and non
teleworkers are likely to arise. Non-telecommuters will invariably come

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 110 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

up with comments like, 'well, did you come back from vacation just
for this meeting?' Therefore, the manager plays an important role in
communicating to the non-teleworkers that the teleworkers are still a
vital part of the organisation and are contributing at least as much as
before to its progress. Both sides need to know that neither of the
groups ? teleworkers and non-teleworkers ? is specially privileged
or specially burdened. Therefore another area of good leadership that
sometimes is taken for granted in teleworking is the act of giving
ongoing feedback so as to keep teleworkers and regular workers
informed as to their progress. This means simple, quick, short ways of
letting people know how well they are doing.

Coach and Mentor: Another very important role for the manager
is that of a buffer or problem solver ? making himself available to
provide professional and moral support and any other resources
the teleworker may need. When the manager plays this role
effectively it can make the difference between the teleworkers
feeling isolated to feeling that they are on the same team.

Career Management: Close behind isolation, as a concern for

teleworkers is one about their careers: will they be 'out of mind'
because they are 'out of sight'. Therefore the manager needs to put
the teleworker at ease in this regard. Firstly, the manager must
make sure that the teleworker gets the same credit or attention for
the work done remotely as if it had been all done in the office. The
manager must also ensure that the teleworkers have equal
opportunities for advancement. Secondly, he must make sure that
the teleworker is given task diversity so as to prevent him/her from
stagnating. Finally, at the time of performance appraisal, he must
remember that there are new methods to do old tasks. Thus, it's
the results that count for both the teleworkers and non-teleworkers.

Despite all the training and preparation, it may be possible

that the teleworkers run into problems affecting their performance
or satisfaction. The manager's task is to watch for the early signs
(such as absenteeism, communication problems, absence from
meetings and the like) and act on them quickly. The manager needs
to confront the problem with the teleworker and have an open
discussion that will lead to a clear understanding of the problem
and a joint commitment to resolving it.

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Communications 111

Issues of managerial control, establishing performance measures and

evaluating results become very important in the context of
telecommuting.

Two key attributes of leadership particularly important to

teleworking are: trustworthiness and rapport (Nilles, 1998).
Teleworking relies much more heavily on understanding or trust
relationship simply because it is not practical for the manager to
act as the cop or monitor for people who are somewhere else. If
you trust your employees to do their jobs, whether or not you are
physically in their neighbourhood, and they trust you to provide
competent direction and guidance, reward them for work well
done and penalise them for work poorly performed, much of your
job is under control.

One consequence of this worl*! mode is that the workers can no

longer feasibly be monitored by time. The time the employee arrives
and remains more or less in view has been a measure of
performance for many managers. However, the most vital attribute
of a manager is leadership and leadership can be practised very
well at a distance as well as up close. Therefore, a supervisor must
adopt the management style of monitoring by results instead of by
process. The manager must provide specific measurable and
attainable performance standards for the teleworker to meet so as
to avoid task-related ambiguity. Also, instructions must be more
complete since they cannot be continually amended.

A related issue with respect to teleworkers is 'Time Accounting'

i.e. how are they to account for the hours spent? Therefore, there
needs to be an agreement before teleworking begins as to what the
rules are. Although it may be important to think about how long it
will take to do a specific task as means of estimating effort, the
ultimate focus should always be on the results, fn order to be
successful, "telework requires a management system that supervises
the output (results of work) rather than the input (ways of working,
working time, etc), concentrating on decentralisation and
involvement rather than centralisation and control."

Based on the above discussion the following propositions are

proposed.

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 112 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

Proposition 6 : Telecommuting will require more trust

based leadership and less penalty-based leadership as compared
to non-telecommuting.

Proposition 7 : Telecommuting will require more result-based

performance management systems than non-telecommuters who
will require more process-based performance management systems.

Proposition 8 : Telecommuting work requires a decentralised

structure with less control and more involvement with employees
than centralisation and control.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR

FUTURE RESEARCH

The present paper is based on a critical evaluation of the

literature and authors' view points based on this literature and
discussion with experts, locally and internationally. Further, the
propositions derived need a rigorous examination through formal
empirical research before general acceptance. For these reasons,
the degree to which these propositions may be generalised to
organisations is uncertain. Therefore future research aimed at
empirically testing these propositions, as research hypotheses,
would be an important extension of this research. At the same
time similar studies with relatively broader literature and m ire
involvement of professionals across the industries would
complement this study. Further, culture plays a very important
role in the Indian context and therefore isolation issues would weigh
heavily against telecommuting in India. Therefore, organisations
must modify telecommuting programmes for such an environment
offering greater opportunities to interact with the central office
through regular communications programmes so as to avoid
feelings of isolation for telecommuters.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

We are in the midst of the most revolutionary transformation

in the nature of work and family since the industrial revolution.
These trends facilitate dramatic new alternatives for where, when
and how work is accomplished and how the leadership of the

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Communications 113

organisation needs to adapt their approach towards managing

employees.

This paper is a theoretical approach towards examining the

human issue that arise in telecommuting form of virtual work.
Telecommuters are a special group of employees with different
needs and concerns and therefore supervision as leaders have to
modify their approach in managing them. Both concern for the
task in terms of managing performance and concern for the person
in terms of playing the role of a coach and mentor will ensure that
this work option succeeds as the work option of the future.

In summary, the results of this exploratory research indicate

that telecommuting offers the potential for enabling reduced
expenses, increased employee morale, improved work-life balance,
less absenteeism, which increase intrinsic motivation towards work
and which in turn results in greater effectiveness, greater
productivity, higher job satisfaction and higher job performance.
On the contrary the study also revealed that factors influencing
hindered career progression, work-family conflict and poor physio
psychological health can act as impediments to intrinsic employee
motivation.

The implications of these findings are quite clear. Organisations

offering or planning to offer telecommuting as a work option must
design their job which can eliminate these hindrances towards
motivation and maximise the factors contributing positively
towards intrinsic motivation.

The study also supported the fact that earlier theories of

motivation and leadership are still equally important for evaluating
HR issues in telecommuting. However, the questions remain: How
do we measure intrinsic motivation of telecommuters? What is the
impact of Indian culture on intrinsic motivation of telecommuters?
For instance, visionary leadership would be required at the nascent
stage of telecommuting, so that people develop a positive attitude
towards it and endorse the same. Later, when telecommuting
programmes are well-embedded in the organisation, a supervisor
needs to be both task-focused and person-focused so that
telecommuting results in productivity increase as well as increased

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 114 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

motivation of employees. Since telecommuting in India is still in its

nascent stage, what is the kind of leadership that will ensure the
success of the same? What is the impact of Indian culture on the
mindset of employees towards telecommuting and therefore the
kind of leadership that is required? Which leadership strategies to
execute for maximum intrinsic motivation of telecommuters?

As telecommuting gets widespread acceptance in India,

organisations and researchers will have to probe much deeper into
these issues. Further research in the area of telecommuting under
such circumstances would be soon in great demand and would
contribute to telecommuting effectiveness in India.

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