Many companies now offer their employees opportunities to telecommute. What
variables influence an employee's decision to accept the opportunity? In this study,
telecommuting workers responded to a vignette describing a manager and an
employee at a time when the employee had been given the opportunity to apply for
a telecommuting program. The vignette systematically varied (a) the manager's
promptness in mentioning an employee mistake; (b) the manager's reaction to neg
ative feedback; (c) the manager's loyalty to employees; and (d) the length of time
the manager and employee had known each other. The results showed that rela
tionship duration significantly affected whether respondents thought that the
employee should telecommute. Managerial reaction to criticism and managerial
loyalty significantly affected forecasts of the worker's and manager's working
together successfully. The results suggest that relationship predictability (duration)
may constrain, and that communication behaviors (reaction to criticism, and loy
alty) may facilitate an individual's decision whether to telecommute (Bernardino,
1996). The results also support the concept of telecompetence (Warisse, 1996)
which argues that interpersonal factors influence the adoption and use of new
communication technologies.
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