Institutional explanations for managers’ attitudes towards telehomeworking

Abstract

Building on recent research that stresses the important role of managers in the adoption process of telehomeworking, or telecommuting, this study examines the influence of the institutional context on managers' attitude formation. Drawing on large-scale survey data from 96 CEOs and 380 HR managers in Dutch organizations, we show that normative and mimetic pressures affect managers' beliefs, which are reflected in their perceptions of the relative (dis)advantage of telehomeworking. We also find that the perceived improvements of work outcomes and perceived social costs/benefits vary among managers from different 'occupational communities'. CEOs' beliefs are more susceptible to mimetic pressures, while HR managers' attitudes towards telehomeworking are positively fed by pressures from their occupational community. These findings support the view that current debates on work-life initiatives' diffusion and organizational changes in relation to these initiatives should pay much more attention to the importance of the institutional environment and managers' subcultures.

Alternative Work Arrangements: Two Images of the New World of Work

“…Remote workers are able to do more in less time because they have higher levels of work intensity (Kelliher & Anderson 2010). Managers also play a role in telecommuters' experience of work (Peters & Heusinkveld 2010). Workers whose managers stay in close contact by sharing information (as opposed to monitoring) experience less work conflict, have better performance, and exhibit more citizenship behavior (Lautsch et al 2009).…”

‘Fit’ for telework’? Cross-cultural variance and task-control explanations in organizations’ formal telework practices

“…Longitudinal research could better capture trends and causality. For example, an alternative explanation for the relatively small effects of our two key variables (national cultural values and task control mechanisms) may be that their effects are 'masked or displaced by a number of other institutional processes' (Daniels et al, 2001(Daniels et al, , p. 1166, such as mimetic pressures (cf., Peters & Heusinkveld, 2010). Enhanced global competiveness and expanding global operations across geographical borders and time zones have not only enabled, but also pressured telework use (Peters et al, 2009).…”

Coworker Relationships and Informal Communication in High-Intensity Telecommuting

“…Helping managers examine their attitudes toward telework (Peters & Heusinkveld, 2010), and having them encourage informal communication may help co-workers and teleworkers build their relationships. Finally, just as co-worker liking mediated the relationships between complaining talk, commitment, and job satisfaction, it may also ameliorate the perception by co-located employees that teleworking peers create heavier workloads for those in the home office.…”