Telecommuters in the Workforce

Paper Summary:

This paper researches job satisfaction among telecommuters. It looks at the factors that are required for the development of a motivated and stable workforce and discusses the implications of these factors on the job satisfaction and attitudes of telecommuters. The paper also discusses why workers choose to telecommute in the context of their work/life balance objectives.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Literature Review
Needs Fulfillment Theory
Judgment Theories of Job Satisfaction
Telecommuting
Telecommuter Profile
Job Satisfaction and Telecommuting
Job Satisfaction, Telecommuting and Autonomy
Hypotheses

From the Paper:

"Autonomy as an enabler of job satisfaction for both in-office and telecommuting employees has been researched for decades. For an employee, regardless of work location, to have a sense of ownership regarding their responsibilities on a job, there must be a relatively high level of freedom in deciding how specific tasks are completed. Managers and supervisors granting autonomy to employees is in large part based on the level of trust they have in the subordinates to complete tasks according to agreed-upon expectations and performance. The willingness of managers to provide employees autonomy is often in a matter of degrees. From allowing complex tasks with lengthy timelines to be defined in terms of execution from those employees the most trusted, to the other extreme of micromanagement, the range of autonomy can function in organizations as a barometer of trust between a manager and subordinate as well. Given the integral nature of autonomy within the manager-subordinate relationship, this concept has been studied for decades in the context of managements' ability to gain both higher levels of performance and ownership of tasks from employees on the one hand, while enabling an environment of trust and job satisfaction with employees on the other."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Apgar, M., (1999). The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work. Harvard Business Review, 76, 3, 121-139.
• Bailyn, L. (2004). Times in careers, careers in time. Human Relations, 57, 12, 1507-1521.
• Brief, A. P. & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279-307.
• Crandall, W. & Gao, L. (2005). An update on telecommuting: review and prospects for emerging issues. Society of Advanced Management Journal.
• Dormann, C. & Zapf, D. (2001). Job satisfaction: a meta-analysis of stabilities. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 483-504.

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