Distributed work arrangements: Impacts of advanced information technologies, coordination mechanisms, and communication patterns

As organizations move more and more towards distributed work arrangements such as telecommuting, there is a need to help understand the determinants of success of such new work settings. This dissertation investigated four variables which were believed to impact outcomes in telecommuting: the availability of information system technology, the availability of communication technologies, the coordination mechanisms, and the communication patterns of telecommuters within their work groups. The concept of fit was used as part of the theoretical background to suggest there was a significant interaction between the independent variables in predicting successful telecommuting as measured by perceived productivity, performance, personal control and satisfaction. Theories in information systems, communication and organization science research also provided theoretical foundations for this dissertation. The research was conducted by surveying multiple respondents from different organizations in which there were work groups where some or all employees were telecommuters. Multiple regression analysis was used to build the models of determinants of success for each outcome criterion.;The research results indicate that even though the hypothesized four way interaction between four independent variables was not supported, various combinations of the variables did impact outcomes. Approximately 23% of the variance in perceived performance was explained by the interaction between availability of information system technologies and availability of communication technologies, and by a main effect for communication patterns. Perceived productivity was impacted by the interaction between availability of communication technologies and group coordination, and by main effects for both technology variables. The model for perceived productivity explained 11% of its variance. The perceived personal control and satisfaction models did not have significant interaction terms, but had main effects for availability of information systems technologies, communication patterns and availability of communication technologies. Several contributions were made by this study. In particular, this research is one of the first to empirically measure the impact of information system and communication technologies on telecommuting outcomes.