Developing a model of leadership in the teleworking environment: a qualitative study.

Taylor, David S. ; Kavanaugh, Joseph K.

ABSTRACT

The study of leadership, leader's roles, and subordinate roles has evolved over time from focusing on traits and then behaviors and further into contingency and neocharismatic paradigms. This evolution was driven by both the advancement of knowledge and by changes in environmental factors such as personal values, laws, politics, economics, and technology. In the last fifteen years leadership paradigms have been especially influenced by technology advances in telecommunications and personal computing. These two technologies enable alternative work arrangement options such as teleworking. The role of the leader is seriously impacted by removing the physical contact between leader and the lead. This paper developes a model of leadership in this environment based on reviewing the existing research then tests that model with a case study of teleworkers and managers from four organizations.

INTRODUCTION

Leadership is one of the world's oldest preoccupations (Bass, 1990). The study of history has been the study of leaders--what they did and why they did it. Historians, philosophers and, more recently, social scientists have developed and explored paradigms of leadership that have evolved through time as organizational environments have changed. Yet the overall importance of leadership has remained unchanged. Napoleon has been widely quoted as saying he would rather have an army of rabbits led by a lion that an army of lions led by a rabbit.

In the last fifteen years, though, there has been a trend towards leaderless organizations. Group decision making, empowered teams, computer aided instruction, distance learning, virtual office, teleworking, etc. have all emerged to wage war against the heretofore accepted leadership roles. The drive towards these changes is influenced by the globalization of businesses, competition, employee unrest, and the need to operate efficiently. The enablers are primarily technological. Since 1980 inexpensive personal computing has become a reality. Telecommunications capabilities have allowed for high speed transmission of data to and from virtually every home, office, or other work location. Client/server computer hardware architecture along with the software to drive it allows access to all company information from anywhere around the world. In this new environment, students are studying and employees are working out of the sight of their teachers or managers. This can be uncomfortable to managers and teachers who have been managing attendance and now must manage outputs. Subordinates must deal with new methods of self-discipline and communication. Other family members also play a role in the success of the alternative work arrangement environment.

This paper will focus on teleworking (or telecommuting as some prefer) as it relates to the leadership role. The following section will discuss the nature and extent of teleworking in the US along with some of the research conducted in the field. Then a model will be developed reflecting the constructs uncovered in the literature review. These constructs are then related to current leadership theories. The next section will test the model through a case study involving four companies and 15 teleworkers and teleworker managers. The last section will present some conclusions and propose areas for further research.

TELEWORKING: AN OVERVIEW

Although the International Telework Association and Council (1998) can trace the history of teleworking to the National Science Foundation in 1973, it has only been since the decade of the 90's that teleworking has gain significance as an alternative work arrangement. Teleworking is more than just working out of the home. It also includes working out of satellite offices, telework centers, on-the-road or some other alternate worksite. Telework is any work arrangement in which employees work at any time or place that allows them to accomplish their work in an effective and efficient manner.

According to a survey sponsored by AT & T as of October 2001 there were something under 30 million people in the US teleworking (Venkatesh & Johnson, 2002). This is a significant increase over estimates of 3 million in 1997. These figures do not include the 43.2 million (Holub, 1999) self-employed people who work out of their homes. The drivers of the telework movement are:

--The transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age

--Sociological trends to better balance work and family life

--Organizational pressures to reduce costs and to improve the ability to recruit and retain workers

--Political pressures for environmental concerns

Realizing benefits from a teleworking program is not as easy as might seem. Some see telework as having the potential to actually blur the boundary between work and family life (Hill & Weiner, 1994). The virtual office can become a "cyberspace sweatshop" (Hill, Hawkins, & Miller, 1996). Pitt-Catsouphes & Marchetta (1991) found that telework can lead to increased levels of conflict in the family and negative spillover. Many researchers claim that combining dependent care with telework is ineffective and should be avoided (Christensen, 1992; Riley, 1994). According to the Gartner Group one-half of all remote-access pilot programs will fail because of insufficient support infrastructure, data security concerns, productivity declines, decreases in employee morale, legal and insurance problems, and teleworkers' fear of management reprisals. Even in light of these negatives, evidence still abounds that telework should be considered a viable concept. Gartner predicted that 137 million workers worldwide would be involved in some form of remote work by 2003 (Manoochehri & Pinkerton, 2003). Computerworld in their June 28, 1999 issue of 100 Best Places to Work in Information Technology determined that 89 percent of these companies offered some form of a teleworking program.

According to Chaudron (1995) a successful teleworking program requires the "right reasons", the "right job", and the "right employee". The right reasons means that management should not just view it as an accommodation or benefit to the employee but should also expect increased productivity. The right job, he says, is one that involves individual versus team contributions. Although team projects can be accomplished with a mixture of at-home and in-office work. The right employee is one whose personal traits will be suitable for teleworking. To these three R's must be added the "right manager" and the "right environment". The personal traits of the manager are just as important as are the employee's traits. The manager's anxieties and inability to lead can undermine the potential benefits of a telework program. Environmental concerns include the at-home workplace distractions and available resources, the in-office accommodations, and the formal and informal communication channels. This paper will focus on the right employee, the right manager, and the right communications, as these are the major components of a leadership study.

TELEWORKER CONSIDERATIONS

Ninety-four percent of homeworkers sampled said they wished to continue homeworking, but less than ten percent said they would want to continue for the rest of their working lives (Baruch & Nicholson, 1997). These statistics reflect the inner conflict facing the remote worker. Teleworkers can suffer from feelings of isolation, anxiety over career issues, negative spillover between work and family life, guilt, communication gaps, and reduced productivity.

According to participants at an ACM forum (1995), working electronically kills the most human qualities of an employee--the ability to interact both socially and professionally. These statements reflect the isolation that can occur in a teleworking environment. Teleworkers may feel left out of the loop of everything from office gossip to changes in Company policies, procedures, or activities. However, teleworkers and managers who are part of a program to interact informally, develop interpersonal organizational networks and create synergistic relationships have shown reduced feelings of isolation (Kurland & Cooper, 2002).

In a survey conducted by Huws (1984), 60 percent of respondents felt that isolation was the primary disadvantage of teleworking. Being a physically isolated teleworker is likely to reduce the amount of feedback received from supervisors, coworkers, and clients. Hamilton (1987) reported that most teleworkers miss the stimulation of exchanging ideas with colleagues. Additionally, because communication is primarily nonvisual, any feedback will be lower quality because of the reduced nonverbal cues (Norman et. al., 1995).

Conflicting studies have looked at the impact of "neighborhood work centers" as a mitigating factor for feelings of isolation. These work centers allow telecommuters to share resources in an office setting but one that is located near to their homes. These centers can cater to workers of a single employer (satellite or branch office) or of multiple employers. DiMartino and Wirth (1990) determined in their study that the neighborhood center did help to combat isolation and was the location of choice for the homeworker. On the contrary, Crossan and Burton (1993) in their case study found that although all the respondents saw isolation as a negative, only one wanted to leave the home as the primary work environment.

The Crossan and Burton (1993) study also gave support to the suggestion that the majority of teleworkers are married women with childcare responsibilities, who are not interested in promotion. More recent statistics are showing that this is no longer the case (International Telework Association and Council, 1998). Professional workers are becoming a more dominant part of the telework workforce. These people are interested in their career growth and have concerns about being out-of-sight/out-of-mind with their supervisors.

Another area of major concern to the telecommuter is the balance between work life and family life. As has already been discussed, it is one of the drivers toward adopting the telecommuting arrangement. But does it really work as conceived? Olson and Primps (1984) found that professional workers who were telecommuting had a tendency to become "workaholics" when they were highly involved in their jobs. Hill et. al. (1998) found inconclusive perceptions of improved work/family life balance. Hartman, Stone and Arora (1991) actually found a negative relationship between family relationships and satisfaction with telework. While others see that the flexibility of telework allows employees to balance their home/work responsibilities (Jenson, 1994). Galinsky et.al. (1993) determined that the flexibility in work arrangements could empower the employee with the ability to integrate and overlap work responsibilities and family responsibilities leading to positive spillover and achieving a healthy work/family balance.

The "right employee" suitable for a telecommuting job is one who is results oriented, self-disciplined, well organized, a good time manager, satisfaction comes from the challenge of the job not from managing others, and is trusted by the manager (Murphy, 1996). In other words, they are model employees who have the ability to get as much done at home as they would in the office. Most of the research applicable to the telework environment has been conducted in the area of self-discipline and more specifically, as related to self-managed work teams. However, self-management is also an individual characteristic and is key to an evaluation of leadership in the telecommuting environment.

In the collaborative work environment of today where organizations are adopting flatter organizational structures through employee empowerment, work teams, and enriched jobs; self-management may neutralize traditional concepts of leadership or render them ineffective or redundant (Castaneda, Kolenko & Aldag; 1999). In a similar vein, Manz and Sims (1980) have defended self-management as a substitute for leadership. Manz (1986) points out that the ultimate control for managing behaviors is to encourage employee's self-control systems rather than imposing organizational controls. Self-management by an individual involves using self-goal-setting, self-observation, self-reward, and self-punishment to control behaviors (Frayne, 1991; Tsui & Ashford, 1994).

An individual's self-efficacy has been shown to be recursively related to perceptions of self-management (Castaneda, Kolenko & Aldag; 1999; Frayne & Geringer, 1994). For example, training in self-management resulted in an increase in self-efficacy (Latham & Frayne, 1989). High self-efficacy and high self-management have both been shown to lead to high job satisfaction (Uhl-Bien & Graen, 1998).

Clearly then, the leadership paradigm for the teleworking environment must include aspects of self-management. Additionally, the "right employee" must be one who is capable of and desirable of self-management. When employee reactions are negative to the concept, resistance to self-management can result (Kirkman & Shapiro, 1997). Manz and Sims relate the story of an employee being put in a self-managed role who "banged his fist on a table and demanded his right to have a boss to tell him what to do" (1993: 18).

TELEWORK MANAGER CONSIDERATIONS

The manager of teleworking employees is also faced with a new set of management challenges. First, there are the internal anxieties associated with the loss of physical control over the employee and, second the uncertainty of still being able to achieve productivity using new methods and leadership styles. Just as with the telework employee, there are personal traits and styles that have been found to be more effective in the telework environment.

Research has shown that managers facing a new telecommuting environment can have uncertainties and resistance to the change partially as a result of feeling that the program will fail or conversely fearing that the new program will be so successful that it will point out the failings of the past. Managers often perceive a threat of loss of power, influence and importance as they realize that their subordinates are becoming, to a large extent, self-managers. Managers also recognize that their own leadership skill sets may be on the verge of obsolescence to some degree (Manz, Keating & Donnellon; 1990).

As a consequence of these fears managers can react by micromanaging. Randolph (1995) found that whenever managers find themselves in the uncomfortable position of not knowing what to do, they tend to fall back into their bureaucratic mentality. Stewart and Manz (1995) found that leaders with low self-efficacy and negative outcome expectations will establish goals congruent with overpowering leadership.

In order to work effectively in a teleworking environment, it is important for the manager to develop a sense of trust in the teleworker. Trust is a dyadic relationship involving the attributes of both the trustee and the trustor (Jarvenpaa, Knoll & Leidner; 1998). The trustor must have the propensity to trust. This trait is a result of cultural, social, developmental experiences, and personality type (Mayer, Davis & Schoorman; 1995). The trustee attributes are his/her perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity (Jarvenpaa, Knoll & Leidner; 1998). Ability refers to the skills that enable a trustee to be perceived as competent in the domain. Benevolence is the extent to which the trustee is believed to feel care and concern, and the willingness to do good to the trustor. Integrity is adherence to a set of principles thought to make the trustee dependable and reliable.

The importance of the teleworker's ability to self-manage was discussed earlier. The manager, however, also plays a role in the self-managed environment. Specifically, in self-managed situations the role of the leader "is to provide the individual with clear task boundaries within which discretion and knowledge can be exercised" (Slocum & Sims, 1980:201). The manager is assisting the self-managed employee to engage in a form of self-leadership (Manz, 1986).

Organizational controls can become an obstacle to an effective teleworking program. These "objective" controls attempt to restrict behavior while the normative or self-controls attempt to induce a value of belief change (Leifer & Mills, 1996). A leader's role in a self-management situation lies in facilitating the development of self-controls by employees so that they can successfully manage their work with fewer organizational controls (Cohen, Chang & Ledford; 1997). According to Leifer and Mills (1996: 119) self-management "develops as one's cognitive map or schema is changed and organized to be consistent with the values and beliefs of the organization, thus resulting in behaviors consistent with organizational goals".

The teleworkers' perception of the bureaucratic obstacles can have serious, detrimental effects on morale and productivity (Tomaskovic-Devey & Risman; 1993, Uhl-Bien & Graen, 1998). Teleworkers are susceptible to electronic performance monitoring (EPM) which has made it possible for managers to obtain real-time records about performance, pauses in work, and behavior of their employees when they are out of sight. EPM, however, has been shown to decrease perceived job autonomy (Carayon, 1993) and therefore would negatively impact self-management. Similarly, Anderson (1990) suggests that increasing the frequency of job performance evaluations can cause self-doubt and erode self-regulatory skills.

On the positive side, teleworkers are usually given access remotely to more company information in order to perform their work. Research has shown that there is a positive impact from the trust the organization is demonstrating to the employee and that it generates an improved sense of ownership (Randolph, 1995).

The effective teleworker manager works with the telecommuter to establish goals. The manager no longer manages attendance, but must manage performance. Goal setting is widely recognized as a powerful motivational technique (Locke & Latham, 1990). Goals should not be viewed as an ends, but as collaborative milestones by which progress can be measured. They should be a collaborative agreement between the manager and the employee (Randolph, 1995).

Goal setting theory focuses on the question of why some people perform differently than others even though they have the same abilities and knowledge. The cause must be motivational (Latham & Locke, 1991). Two attributes of goals have been studied in relation to performance, namely content and intensity. From a content perspective, the goals must be specific. Specific goals have been found to lead to higher performance levels than vague goals such as "do your best". Goal intensity or commitment can operate as both a direct causal factor and as a moderator of performance. Managers can play an important role in goal commitment by persuading the teleworker that the goal is both attainable and important.

The "right manager" in the teleworking equation is someone who (1) is capable of trusting the employee's integrity and abilities, (2) can manage by objectives, agreed performance standards and deadlines, (3) can evaluate performance by results and not attendance, (4) can reconstruct the conduct and self-image of employees by encouraging them to acquire the capacities and dispositions that will allow them to become self-managers (du Gay, Salaman & Rees; 1996), and (5) is generally flexible and understanding of employee needs to balance work and family life.

TELEWORK COMMUNICATIONS CONSIDERATIONS

The teleworking environment has a somewhat unique impact on communications within the organization. The critical element of good communication between the worker and the manager is significant in the in-office environment just as in the out-of-office environment. Communications with coworkers is also necessary to accomplish tasks and to maintain business and personal relationships. In the out-of-office environment this communication channel tends to take on a more electronic mode. E-mail or document handling systems become the method of communicating.

In a qualitative study, Weiner and Hill (1995) found that telecommuting had a negative influence on communication and peer interaction with coworkers and managers. Ramsower (1985) found that full-time telecommuters engage in less upward, downward, and horizontal communications.

Much of the work done in organizations is accomplished through communication as people exchange ideas and information and coordinate activities. Organizations are viewed as social systems whose basic structure consists of relationships between individuals (Fritz, Narasimhan & Rhee; 1998). Workers develop alliances, foster creativities, and learn through communication with coworkers. Additionally, the communication between manager and worker is essential to developing an agreed upon performance goal.

Employees in the same physical location develop these alliances and shared learning through chance encounters "around the water cooler" and elsewhere (Allen, 1977; Kraut, 1995). Even the communication with managers is often on an informal basis. Sproull (1984) found that almost 50 percent of a manager's time is spent in unscheduled meetings.

The teleworker's feelings of isolation and anxiety over career development can be exasperated by having to rely on electronic communication channels. E-mail has been shown to be not as rich a communication medium as face-to-face interaction (Ngwenyama & Lee, 1997). The social cues cannot be conveyed electronically (Norman et.al., 1995). A study performed by Kraut et. al. (1998) indicated that social interaction via e-mail was positively related to social isolation, loneliness, and depression.

Leadership research has also suggested that organic systems (i.e. face-to-face) involve more two-way communication, more managerial information and advice rather than orders and decisions than mechanical (electronic) systems (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Weick, 1987). Generally it is a leadership style that more resembles consultation rather than command (Courtright, Fairhurst, & Rogers, 1989).

MODEL OF TELEWORK LEADERSHIP

Combining all of the constructs identified in the literature review produces a schema of the leader role, subordinate role, and the leadership function as reflected in Figure 1.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The ultimate goal of an alternative work arrangement, such as teleworking, is to improve productivity, or at least not reduce it, while either improving worker job satisfaction and/or reducing organizational costs. Organizational constraints, economics, nature of tasks performed, dedicated resources at home and at the office all play a role in the overall job performance of the teleworker. However, this model is focused strictly on the leadership aspects. As such, the only antecedents to teleworker performance represented in the model are the level of acceptance by the teleworker with his/her role and the level of acceptance by the manager with his/her role in the telework environment.

Teleworker role acceptance is partially a function of the ability to deal with anxieties over feelings of isolation and concern for career advancement. Additionally, the teleworker must attain a level of satisfaction with the ability to balance the work life and family life aspects. Successful teleworking requires the teleworker to have both the desire for and the ability to self-manage. The degree to which this is accomplished is also a predictor of role acceptance. The importance of communication channels between the teleworker and the manager as well as with coworkers has already been discussed. The extent of satisfaction with the amount and richness of communication is also a predictor of role acceptance.

The telework manager role acceptance is also a function of the perception of satisfaction with the communication channels with the teleworker. In addition, the manager must deal with his/her own anxieties over perceptions of loss of power and resistance to new leadership techniques. Another important antecedent to manager role acceptance is the manager's propensity to trust the teleworker. The manager must feel comfortable with the teleworker's abilities, integrity, and dedication to the task. The adoption of certain leadership styles or attributes also will affect acceptance. The manager must be goal oriented rather than attendance oriented, must be understanding of the teleworker's need to balance work and family lives, and must be able to accept the concept of employee self-management.

In order to fit the pieces together, performance goals must be mutually agreed upon by the teleworker and the manager. The worker must be committed to attaining these goals and the manager must be committed to using them as the means of evaluating employee performance.

COMPARISONS TO EXISTING PARADIGMS

The model shown in Figure 1 brings together the various variables and constructs in a relational diagram that can serve as a means of evaluating how the existing leadership paradigms and theories "fit" this framework. Bass (1990) documents over 3,000 studies of leadership. Almost all of these studies are based on American values, work situations, and perspectives.

House and Aditya (1997) have reclassified these theories into paradigms. The first they call the "leadership trait paradigm" which was the first direction of study but has more recently re-emerged with theories of new traits that have evolved over time. Lord, DeVader & Alliger; 1986) conducted a meta-analysis of previous studies and found four universal traits; intelligence, dominance, masculinity, and adjustment, all associated with follower perceptions of leadership. Looking at these traits in a teleworking environment does not appear to be as applicable. These traits are hard to convey in a remote, non-visual relationship. However, McClelland's Achievement Motivation Theory (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark & Lowell; 1958) although directed at the leader could be also viewed at the subordinate level. This theory is concerned with a non-conscious concern for achieving excellence in accomplishments through individual efforts. High achievement motivated people engage in a high degree of self-regulatory (self-management) behavior. According to the model in Figure 1, the ability to self-manage and the ability to accept self-management are two of the traits identified.

House (1977) defined the "charismatic leader" as someone with a high degree of self-confidence. He/she is also a strong advocate for change and challenges the status quo. These traits are also a part of the telework leadership model. These are the manager's traits necessary for dealing with the anxieties impeding manager satisfaction. Additionally, Kenny (Kenny & Zaccaro, 1983) added the trait of leadership sensitivity to the leadership trait literature. The telework manager needs to be sensitive to and understand the teleworker's need for work and family life balance.

The second paradigm of leadership according to House and Aditya (1997) is the leader behavior paradigm, which includes the contingency theories (Fiedler, 1967) and more specifically the path-goal theory. Path-Goal Theory (House & Mitchell, 1997) has its foundation in expectancy theory. Porter and Lawler (1968) developed the notion of expectancy theory as a means of understanding the relationships between motivation and performance behaviors. There are three concepts that are the building blocks for the theory, performance-outcome expectancy, valence, and effort-performance expectancy. Performance-outcome expectancy says that every behavior has associated with it, in an individual's mind, an expected outcome (rewards or punishments). The individual believes that if he/she behaves in a certain way then he/she will get certain things. Valence is the value, worth, attractiveness of an outcome to the individual. People put different values on a reward or punishment based on their own perceptions of relevance. Effort-performance expectancy represents the individual's perception of how hard it will be to achieve a behavior and the probability of successful achievement of that behavior.

These concepts can be put together and reflect that motivation will be greatest when:

A) The individual believes that the behavior will lead to outcomes (performance-outcome expectancy).

B) The individual believes that these outcomes have positive value for him/her (valence).

C) The individual believes that he/she is able to perform at the desired level (effort-performance expectancy).

Path-Goal Theory applies expectancy theory to the leader-subordinate relationship and implies that subordinates are motivated by the leader behavior to the extent that this behavior influences goal path (expectancies) and goal attractiveness (valence). The model of telework leadership in Figure 1 is founded on goal setting that is mutually agreed upon and also on the dyadic commitment to those goals. The teleworker commits to attaining the goals and the manager commits to using these goals as a means of measuring the teleworkers performance.

Leader-Member Exchange Theory (Graen, 1976) is another behavioral theory that can be applied to parts of the telework leadership model. The supervisor (leader) has a relationship with the subordinate (member) that is viewed as a negotiated transaction. The leader has a different relationship with each member under his/her control. It is an informally developed relationship that is wrapped up in communication, propensity to trust, worthiness to be trusted, latitudes of discretion on the part of subordinates, and interpersonal attractions. These variables are a part of the telework leadership model and are similarly challenged by the nature of the telework environment.

In Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) the "quality" of the exchange, which is the perceived satisfaction of one or both of the parties with the exchange, is a determinant of the outcomes of the joint efforts. The antecedents of a high or low quality relationship are not a part of the theory and are still being researched (House & Aditya, 1996). High-quality relationships can result from a number of leader and member attributes and behaviors and from the particular environment in which they are operating. Clearly though, a high quality leader-member relationship would be a part of an effective telework arrangement.

TESTING THE MODEL

In order to test the applicability of the model to the actual teleworking environment, a grounded approach was undertaken. There are several reasons for using a grounded approach rather than utilizing a survey or experimental method. First, the model is emergent. It contains pieces of a number of leadership theories that have been individually tested and replicated by other researchers; however, this model is empirically untested and in order to test it in a holistic manner, the grounded approach would be more encompassing than a highly structured survey document. Benbasat, Goldstein and Mead (1987) stated that case study research is a particularly appropriate form of research when theories are at their early, formative stages. Second, there was no need to manipulate variables in this study, as the purpose was not to develop a model for predictive purposes (Benbasat, Goldstein, & Mead; 1987). Third, the actual context or setting is important in order to gain a better knowledge of this area of research (Daft & Lewin, 1993; Darke, Shanks & Broadbent, 1998). Fourth, a grounded approach allowed for modifying the original scope as new information was uncovered during the interviews. The grounded method of research allows for action modifications (Eisenhardt, 1989).

The scope of the interviews covered a total of 15 teleworkers and teleworker managers working for four different organizations. Of the 15 interviewees there were six occurrences wherein a manager and at least one of his or her direct reports were interviewed separately. This allowed for examining both sides of those specific relationships. The remainder of the interviews involved only the teleworker or a telework manager who did not work with each other. According to Eisenhardt (1989) there is no ideal number of cases necessary to validate conclusions; however a number between 4 and 10 usually works well. It is believed that the scope of these interviews satisfies the need for richness and replication necessary for the results to be considered generalizable

The organizations represented in the study included a large information technology consulting and services company, a small software development and marketing company, a medium-size office equipment marketing company, and one of the author's own experiences marketing for a large information processing services company.

Each interview lasted between one and two hours. The interviews were conducted at the teleworkers' homes, where possible, otherwise at their office locations. Each interviewee was assured of anonymity by the authors and with the approval of the employers. Discussion points were prepared in advance for the author's benefit and were not shown to the interviewees in order not to channel the discussion or to influence the answers to the questions in any way.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPATING COMPANIES

The information technology consulting and services company (Firm A) initiated a teleworking program in 1995 but only formally adopted a company policy statement in 1999. In 1995 a position paper was prepared

that allowed employees to telework, at their own request, with the approval of their supervisor. The employee was responsible for purchasing all equipment other than the high-speed data lines. Employees purchased the equipment at a highly discounted price through a company program that utilized interest-free loans and the power of the company's purchasing volume. Employees had access to all company systems and data that they would have available to them at their offices. One of the teleworkers interviewed shared an office in the company's offices with another teleworker. Another interviewee worked out of the State and had no other office than the one in her home. All other interviewees retained a private office or cubicle in the company's offices.

The company's purpose in making a teleworking program available to their employees is given in the policy statement.

 In an effort to be more competitive in the job market, and to retain
 highly skilled employees, (Firm A), like other companies, considers
 teleworking a practical recruitment and retention resource.
 Additionally, teleworking is an alternative that accommodates
 balance between the personal and work lives of an employee.

The policy does state that other companies have experienced increased productivity and reduced office costs, but these potential benefits were not given as the primary driver of the policy. Firm B is a small software development and marketing company that allowed one of their technical programmers to telework from his home in Canada. There was no company policy because this was the only incident they had with a remote worker. All product design, testing, and other programmers worked full time out of the company's offices. The company supplied the programmer with a laptop, a modem, and all needed software.

Firm C, the office equipment marketing company, has a number of marketing offices across the US but wants to have a presence in other cities as well. In the more remote locations, they will set up an employee to work out of their home and report to a manager in one of the regional offices. The company provides the salespeople with all the office equipment necessary to communicate, place orders, review order status, etc.

Firm D, a previous employer of one of the authors, is a large information processing services organization which also has a national presence. There are service delivery and marketing offices in virtually every significant city in the US. Within a city the market territory is divided geographically among the salespeople. The author requested a territory that, due to the size of the city, was too far from the central office to reasonably commute. Although this was not the normal policy, the company agreed to a teleworking arrangement because they wanted to initiate service in this area. There was no equipment, other than a telephone, necessary at the home office.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEES

The interviewees at Firm A covered several different job types. Five of the manager/teleworker direct report pairs occurred in this company. The people worked in accounting, technical support, systems development, and client systems implementation. All have been associated with teleworking for at least one year and as long as four years. In every case the telework experience that they are currently involved in is the only telework experience they have ever had. One of the manager level interviewees also teleworks herself. Specific teleworking arrangements varied from a few hours each day to full time out of State.

At Firm B the technical programmer and the lead design person he reported to both participated in the study. The employment agreement with the teleworking programmer was on a contract basis and explains why he negotiated a telework arrangement rather than a permanent(?) move. The programmer would come into the office at key design stages for detailed discussion and review with the design person but do all the programming work from home. The project was in its ninth month at the time of the interview.

The salesman working for Firm C sold office equipment out of his home for five years before taking another job. Unlike the author's experience at Firm D, he did not have any co-workers because he was the only employee of his company working within a reasonable distance. His only company contacts were with the regional sales manager and various technical support personnel. At Firm D each day the salespeople would usually start at the office to check on the status of their new customer installations, set their appointments for future sales calls, and take care of paper work. A sales meeting was held every Tuesday evening for all salespeople. The purpose of these meetings was to self-motivate, compare any problems, and discuss future events. The author always attended these meetings for the year he worked for the company.

RESULTS OF THE INTERVIEWS

As will be shown later in this section, the interviews substantiated the model in Figure 1 almost entirely. However, there were two other unexpected results that also came out of the interviews. The first has to do with productivity and the second with the effect of the extent of teleworking. The telework model does not address the concept of productivity improvement as this has been tested and quantified by other researchers (Kelly, 1985; Walters and Evans, 1984; Heller, 1981). However, every interviewee brought up productivity as part of their interview. It was interesting to note that all but one of the interviewees felt that they had no increase in productivity. Most saw it as an employee satisfaction and retention issue rather than a productivity issue. In other cases it was a matter of necessity that the employee telework. The one person who saw productivity increases was the person who was a telework manager and a teleworker herself. She saw improved productivity in her own work because of being able to get away from all the administrative duties that occur when she is in her office. At home, she was able to devote full concentration without interruption. The demographics of the teleworker have changed. It is no longer the female with child care responsibilities and no career ambitions performing repetitive, clerical work. Today's teleworker is a professional, technical person with a mixture of career ambitions performing non-repetitive work. Perhaps the productivity issue needs to be revisited in this new environment. The other area of unexpected findings concerned the amount of time spent away from the office and its impact on the telework model. Based on the interviews, if a person teleworks sixteen hours a week or less there are no real feelings of being in a teleworking mode on either the part of the teleworker or the manager. So many companies have adopted flexible hours work arrangements wherein they work varying hours each day or maybe 9 days in two weeks that co-workers and managers have grown accustomed to not seeing each other 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. However, this is another area where additional research is needed to determine the validity of these findings.

RELATING TO THE MODEL CONSTRUCTS

Communication. The primary means of communication between teleworker and manager was e-mail and telephone. Although interactive video is getting to be widely available, the cost, quality, and bandwidth requirements still make it impractical for this type of communication. Most of the interviewees felt that video would be a richer means of communication but none were dissatisfied with e-mail and phone contacts. The managers also felt that the communications channels were satisfactory. They had no problem getting information to and from the employee in a timely manner. One manager pointed out that e-mail and phone is the primary means he has to contact his in-office employees as well. Managers also have weekly and/or monthly staff meetings that all employees attend. Firm A has a formal performance evaluation and review program, which also allows for in-depth communication between the manager and the employee.

An interesting point came out in the teleworker interviews about telephone communication. Most of the direct phone work resulted from the worker calling into the office or calling clients. The calls from the office co-workers and clients tended to be into the voice mail at the office number rather than directly to the teleworker's home phone number. Apparently, people who knew that they were working at home prefer not to contact them through their home phone number.

Goal adoption/commitment. In Firm A, the performance review meetings serve as a good time to develop expectations and goals that are used to determine if the employee is accomplishing at home what is expected of them. The managers interviewed were comfortable with the concept of managing performance rather than attendance. The teleworkers for Firm A felt that they were in fact being measured by their performance and not by some other hidden agenda. The two marketing companies (Firm C and D) set sales quotas and measured performance against quota. This is the same means of evaluating salespeople's performance used for all their employees. Firm B also had no problem with using performance as the means to evaluate the programmer's productivity. The design manager was an experienced programmer himself and knew how long it took to program applications. The testing of the accuracy of the completed programs also revealed the quality of the work being performed.

Trust. Every manager mentioned the issue of trust. As one manager said,

 When an employee is working out of your sight it potentially could
 give them the ability to slack off and still get paid for it. Even
 though performance goals are agreed to, maybe the employee could
 have exceeded them. You just don't know. You have to be able to
 trust someone enough to not worry about this problem and believe
 that they are doing the best they can. If I didn't trust
 (teleworker) I never would have agreed to the arrangement.

Work/family Life Balance. The teleworkers were happy with the new balances they were able to achieve with this work arrangement. Several mentioned that the ability to telework plays an important part in keeping them from making a job change. One emphatically said,

 I will never again work at a job that will not allow me to work from
 home.

The managers for the most part were sympathetic to the employee's needs for balance in their lives although one stated that,

 The employee should look at teleworking as a privilege and not as a
 right.

The teleworkers all stated that they were not distracted by child or elder care problems at home. All but one had a separate room that they worked in and that it was understood by anyone else at home that they shouldn't be disturbed. The family life balance they were achieving had to do with transporting children, having the flexibility to attend school functions during the day, handling medical problems, and being available for deliveries, repairmen, etc. They all believed that they were putting in the proper work effort and possibly a little bit more. One did complain of maybe putting in a little too much time because they found it so easy to just sit down at the computer and start working.

Self-management. One teleworker said,

 I had to learn how to manage my own time and plan out my daily work
 otherwise I wouldn't know if I had done too much or too little work.
 (Manager) helped me learn how to do that. Now each morning I list
 out everything that needs to be done and I don't finish my work day
 regardless of how times I have come and gone until everything on
 the list has been crossed off.

To be top performers and earn the trust of the managers a teleworker has to be a self-motivated person and be capable of managing their workflow. A human resources person at Firm A said that they would not even consider a person for a telework position unless they were top performers.

Teleworker Anxieties. The people who telework two days a week or less had no problems or feelings of isolation. Several of those stated that they really wouldn't want to telework more than two days because they might develop those kinds of feelings. Those that telework full or almost full time said that at times they feel isolated and "out of the loop" but that negative alone would not cause them to want to go back into the office. Teleworking is clearly not for everyone. Some people require human interaction and would have more severe anxieties with isolation. One full-time teleworker said,

 There are times when I am not aware of some problem that one of my
 co-workers has found and was discussed in the coffee bar at the
 office. I then hit the same problem and fight through it without
 knowing that someone else has already solved it.

In the author's experience at Firm D, the Tuesday night sales meetings became very important. A salesperson is dealing with rejection virtually everyday. Meeting with co-workers who have common problems helps you deal with the rejections and "pumps" you up to go out again the next day to be rejected.

Feelings about career issues were quite diverse. The salesman for Firm C felt that his career was somewhat impeded by his remoteness. When he needed special pricing or help to close an important deal, he felt that he was not afforded the same treatment that the salespeople in the regional office got. He likened it to his time in Vietnam in charge of a helicopter squadron in a location remote from his commander in Saigon. He recounted,

 It was a lot easier for the Colonel to give the guy that he almost
 never sees the worst jobs than it is to give it to someone he was
 side-by-side with every day.

Another teleworker at Firm A said that,

 Sometimes I do feel that maybe because the company has already given
 me something (the right to telework) that maybe they don't feel I
 deserve anymore.

Again, the people who telework two days a week or less had no feelings that their careers were impacted by their work arrangement.

Manager Anxieties. Unfortunately, this case study was not able to address the manager's anxieties because no situation was found in the participating companies wherein a significant number of former in-office employees all reporting to the same manager had changed over to a teleworking role. In order for a manager to feel a power loss or worry about program success or failure there would have to be a sizable percentage of his or her reports working out of the office. Additionally, the managers were all young enough that they were not brought up being trained in management techniques of the fifties and sixties. Therefore anxieties over obsolescence of changing management styles also could not be measured. These people were all well versed in management by results rather than managing attendance.

CONCLUSIONS

No existing theory of leadership is designed to directly relate to the teleworking environment. Although most areas of this leadership relationship are the same as in the face-to-face work arrangement, there are some unique areas that add a new dimension. These areas are primarily dealing with the anxieties that both the manager and the teleworker are facing. The teleworker is concerned with the isolation of working away from the peer group and misses the camaraderie and creativity that can be gleaned from the professional and social interaction with fellow employees. The employee is also concerned with the potential negative impact on his or her career from being out-of-sight of the manager. The loss of impromptu hallway greetings, the occasional after-work social, and the other chance encounters that regularly occur in the office are now missing.

The manager has anxieties in the telework environment as well. He or she worries about the obsolescence of their leadership style, loss of power over the employee, dealing with new leadership styles, reduced performance from the work unit due to failure of the program, and the possibility that if the telework program is too effective it would imply that the manager had historically been an impediment to better performance.

These anxieties form a template or lense through which the normal face-to-face leadership theories have to operate. Certainly theories of self-management, Path-Goal theories, and Leader-Member Exchange involve the same constructs as does the model of telework leadership in Figure 1. However, the anxiety template moderates the normal relationships.

Historically, the average teleworker was defined as a female with small child(ren) at home, and no career ambitions (Crossan & Burton, 1993). She was therefore not concerned about the impact of her absence from the office and after-work encounters with her boss. Her feelings of isolation were combated somewhat by her childcare responsibilities. But this is no longer the accepted demographic of the teleworker. Professionals of all disciplines are now preferring to work at home but do not want to jeopardize their careers. Further research into the career impact anxiety is now needed.

The anxieties faced by the manager and their impact on the propensity to trust is another area requiring additional research. Trust is closely tied to the ability of the manager to accept employee self-management and self-management is antecedent to teleworker satisfaction forming a triad of constructs key to teleworker success.

Finally, the entire model of telework leadership needs to be tested qualitatively and empirically. Hopefully, with proper validation, it could serve as a starting point for exploring this unique relationship. As technology advances, the teleworker will gain the capability to have interactive video imaging with coworkers and bosses. Once this occurs, and it is not very long away, the dynamics of the relationships will once again change significantly.

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David S. Taylor, Sam Houston State University Joseph K. Kavanaugh, Sam Houston State University