Next week I will be interviewing for a job position at a Fortune 500 company in hopes of starting down my professional career path. This company offers employment at locations in 11 different states and offers its employees the option to telecommute. When evaluating the option to telecommute if I am offered the job, it got me thinking about how leadership theories apply to telecommuting positions. All of the organizational leadership theories that we have discussed have been based on studies regarding jobs in the traditional brick and mortar office setting. Do these established concepts still apply to the leadership of telecommuters? I did some research in an attempt to find the answer.
Telecommuting can be defined as “working at one’s home or another location where employees use computers and communication technology to communicate with the main office, supervisors, coworkers, and customers (Gibson, Blackwell, Dominicus, & Demerath, 2002, p. 76). There are 20 million people in the U.S. employed as telecommuters, with this number growing at an annual rate of 20%, meaning leaders have to take on more responsibility for working with subordinates who are at a distance (Antonakis & Atwater, 2002; Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2003; ITAC, 2000). Telecommuting appeals to employees due to the benefit of more flexible scheduling, the elimination of having to commute to and from work, and the ability to attend to one’s family needs more easily. From an organizational stand point, telecommuting offers reduced real estate and maintenance costs, more productive employees (although this isn’t always the case), and global market access (Madlock, 2012).
An article titled The Influence of Supervisors’ Leadership Style on Telecommuters assesses the task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors of the style approach in regards to telecommuting. It details the results of a study that aimed to “determine what form of leadership style (task and relational) and or communication behavior would elicit the most favorable outcomes in the realm of telecommuting” (Madlock, 2012, p.15-16). The findings were that “task oriented leadership style was a greater predictor of the communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and commitment of telecommuters than was communication competence and relational oriented leadership” (Madlock, 2012, p. 16). Madlock (2012) proposes that the reasons for this may be:
- The communication between telecommuters and leaders is much more explicit. Since telecommuters do not have the conversational cues that they would in a face-to-face setting, they have to exert more effort to interpret certain messages.
- Telecommuters “do not expect relationship oriented communication when conversing with leaders because it is thought to be less possible, hence they evaluate their leaders in task terms because that is what is expected” (p. 16).
- “The kinds of work that can effectively done via technology are more heavily task oriented, therefore valued leadership is one that is focused on tasks” (p. 16).
- “Employees who are effective and comfortable with this type of work are themselves more task-oriented and as a result, appreciate like-minded leadership” (p. 16).
So how can this information be used to improve the supervision of telecommuters? Madlock (2012) suggests supervisory training on task related skills and how to effectively use technology to communicate task related knowledge to subordinates. He also lists what supervisors need to know:
- “It is possible that telecommuters prefer task oriented leaders because of the limitations found in technology”
- The expectations of telecommuters are
- The nature of the telecommuting work environment is heavily task oriented
- “Telecommuters themselves may be more task-oriented and appreciate like-minded leadership”
The results of this study indicate that there exists a difference between the most effective leadership style for on-site and off-site employees. Since telecommuting is a relatively new form of employment, there is a need for much more research on the topic. I look forward to finding out what future studies reveal.
References:
Antonakis, J. & Atwater, L. (2002). Leader distance: A review and proposed theory. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 673-701. doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(02)00155-8
Gibson, J., Blackwell, C., Dominicus, P. & Demerath, N. (2002). Telecommuting in the 21st century: Benefits, issues and a leadership model which will work. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 8, 75-86.
Madlock, P. E., (2012). The influence of supervisors’ leadership style on telecommuters. Journal of Business Strategies, 29(1), 1-24.