Empirically testing the benefits, problems, and success factors for telecommuting programmes

The benefits of telecommuting have been recognised by government and business organizations throughout the world. As companies implement their telecommuting programmes many problems are encountered which require management attention. For organizations contemplating the implementation of such programmes it has become exceedingly important to know what can be done to improve the likelihood that the many potential benefits will be derived and that the many possible problems are reduced or eliminated. What organizations should do to accomplish this was the quest for this study. The voluminous literature is mostly comprised of anecdotal evidence, personal opinions, or experience based on a single organization. A thorough survey of the relevant literature was undertaken to exhaustively identify the many potential benefits, problems, and the proposed success factors for telecommuting programmes in practice. Using the benefits derived from telecommuting programmes and their impact on company performance as the measures of programme success, six main success factors were empirically tested with a sample of 316 telecommuters from eighteen companies. The results corroborate at least partially the importance of carefully considering the characteristics of supervisors, employees, tasks, and work environments, as well as management support and problems encountered, for the success of telecommuting programmes.