| The primary purpose of the present study is to identify success factors for the design and development of telework arrangements and analyze how they interact to form patterns of configurations that result in more or less successful work outcomes. Specifically, this research sought (1) to establish differences between teleworking and non-teleworking professionals in terms of work outcomes and their determinants, and (2) to examine patterns of relationships among work outcomes and their determinants in order to identify telework profile successes and telework profile failures. Two work outcomes of interest to organizations, organizational commitment and perceived performance, and one work outcome of interest to workers, job satisfaction, are used as measures of success in this research.;Based on a sample of 368 information workers, this study corroborated previous research that teleworkers experience higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and perceived performance than non-teleworkers. In addition, significant differences were found between teleworkers and non-teleworkers with respect to their individual, supervision, job/task, and work environment characteristics. The teleworkers group was examined in further details, using cluster analysis to identify profiles of fit and multivariate regression analysis to determine key drivers of work outcomes. Three 'profile successes' and four 'profile failures' were identified and interpreted in light of the study's findings on key determinants of work outcomes. In addition, the findings led to the proposition that individual, supervision, job/task, and work environment characteristics can be further categorized into threshold-effect characteristics and contingent-effect characteristics. Threshold-effect characteristics are those individual, supervision, job/task and work environment characteristics that need to meet a minimum requirement, or threshold, for a telework arrangement to "not fail". In other words, meeting the threshold on those characteristics may not be sufficient to achieve a successful telework arrangement, but it is necessary. Contingent-effect characteristics, on the other hand, are those individual, supervision, job/task and work environment characteristics that may contribute to either success or failure in a telework arrangement, depending on how they "fit" together. Overall, the results from this study clearly indicate the importance of carefully selecting the prospective teleworkers, the tasks they will perform, and the supervisors in charge. |
