The effects of telecommuting on employee productivity: A perspective from managers, office co-workers and telecommuters

Given the increasing popularity of telecommuting, this study strives to understand the implications of telecommuting on employee and manager productivity. Accordingly, the study addresses two key research questions and three sets of hypotheses. The research questions strive to identify which variables enable or inhibit the employees' productivity in the telecommuting environment.; For comparison purposes, the study includes the office co-workers, managers and telecommuters. The inclusion of all three groups is necessary to understand how telecommuting can influence the productivity of each individual in the work environment (office and home). This information is critical for management because the implementation of telecommuting has an organizational wide impact.; The hypotheses focus on the employees' perception of their own productivity whether they work from the traditional office or the home-office. The null hypotheses state that the productivity of the telecommuter, the office co-worker and the supervisor are all the same regardless of work location. By understanding the answers to the research questions and hypotheses, management can assess the steps necessary to combine these variables in a manner that creates the most productive work environment.; The study utilizes a survey and interviews to provide quantitative and qualitative data to answer the research questions and hypotheses. The survey data was obtained from 162 Human Resource employees working in the U.S. at Agilent Technologies Inc. Of the 162 respondents, 65 were telecommuters, 68 were traditional office workers, and 29 were managers.; The Pearson-Product correlation method was used to understand the extent to which key variables enable or inhibit individual and team productivity. The hypotheses were tested via the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method to understand if three is a difference in perceived productivity between the three groups (telecommuter, co-worker, and manager).; The analysis revealed a significant difference in perceived productivity among the three groups. It also provided management with an understanding of the key variables that enable and inhibit employee productivity. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with a small subset of managers, office co-workers and telecommuters. The interviews provided rich supplemental information to support the rejection of the null hypotheses and reinforce the key enabling and inhibiting productivity variables.