THE EFFECTS OF TELECOMMUTING ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS

The Effects of Telecommuting on Software Developers' Productivity

Table Of Content

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION4

Background6

Statement of the Problem9

Purpose of the Study10

Significance of the Study11

Nature of the Study12

Research Questions13

Hypotheses14

Theoretical Framework15

Employee Management16

Definition of Terms17

Telecommuting17

Productivity17

Assumptions18

Limitations18

Delimitations18

Summary19

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE20

Documentation21

The Historical Progression of Telecommuting23

Current Research on Telecommuting24

Organizational Advantages36

Dedication/Commitment to Organization37

Cost Avoidance37

Reduced Sick Leave/Personal Leave38

Business Continuity39

Recruiting/Retention39

Expanded Labor Pool40

Environmental40

Organizational Disadvantages41

Peer Relations42

Training43

Employee Advantages45

Reduced Transportation45

Promotion46

Autonomy/Flexibility/Job Satisfaction47

Employee Disadvantages48

General Fears of Telecommuting48

Separation from Friends and Peers48

Interface with Supervisors49

Workaholic Syndrome52

Home-Office Environment Distracters53

Doorbell / Deliveries / Visitors / Telephone54

Spouse's Demands54

Children55

Television56

WorkSpace57

Management Awareness58

Productivity60

Conclusions61

Summary62

CHAPTER 3: METHOD63

Research Design64

Survey Instrument64

Independent and Dependent Variables64

Independent Variables65

Dependent Variable65

Appropriateness of Design66

Research Questions66

Hypotheses67

Population69

Informed Consent69

Sampling Frame70

Confidentiality70

Geographic Location71

Instrumentation71

Data Collection72

Data Analysis72

Validity and Reliability73

Validity74

Reliability75

Summary76

References77

APPENDIX A: SURVEY INSTRUMENT89

Chapter 1: Introduction

Productivity among workers¸ especially among telecommuters¸ might be the most important activity for managers to monitor (Ellison¸ 2004). The activity of telecommuting¸ or working from a geographically separate area located away from the traditional office¸ has occurred for decades and is becoming more popular (Langhoff¸ 2006) and in many instances is more related with the activity of work instead of the location (Tietze & Musson¸ 2004). Nickson and Siddons (2005) noted that as more telecommuting occurs¸ increased challenges appear with respect to working from home. One of these challenges is the potential of degraded productivity resulting from distracters generated by the home-office environment. Raghuram and Wiesenfeld (2004) noted that¸ "although the question of whether virtual work eases or generates job stress (productivity) has been raised repeatedly since this work mode became a reality ... to date¸ there are little data available to provide a convincing answer" (p. 273). A second challenging area is what the telecommuter's manager knows about the telecommuter's home-office environment and whether that knowledge of distracters induced by the home-office environment results in a reduction or increase of productivity.

The descriptive correlational study presents the perceptions of telecommuting software developers and their managers in a mid-sized Software Development Company. The research will investigate telecommuter self-identified productivity levels (dependent variable) associated with home-office environments (independent variable). The study will also investigate self-identified manager knowledge of the specific home-office environment (independent variable) that may increase or reduce telecommuter productivity (dependent variable). Although many studies have investigated whether telecommuting is profitable (Fromen¸ 2004; Nguyen¸ 2004; Palmer-Peart¸ 2004; Piper¸ 2004)¸ no known research has been conducted that analyzed whether there is a correlation between inadequate home-office environments and telecommuter productivity levels (Kemerling¸ 2004). There appear to be no known studies that have solely addressed the telecommuter's perceived productivity as related to the home-office environment distracters¸ yet the phenomenon of home-office induced distracters possibly causing a loss in productivity has been casually mentioned in numerous studies (Fromen¸ 2004) and could be assessed with a correlational design study comparing the frequency of reported home-office distracters with the level of perceived productivity. One comprehensive study (Kemerling¸ 2004) compared productivity of telecommuters to their traditional office counterparts. The study lacked the variables of home office induced distracters. No studies were found that correlate what level of awareness managers of telecommuters have concerning home-office environment induced distracters and the effect such ...