Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine individual and organizational effects of telecommuting. The research design involves a longitudinal (12 months), between-subjects, randomized field experiment with two manipulated factors: satellite office space available (no, yes) and downtown office space available (no, yes). In all four treatment conditions, participants are allowed to work at home. The experimental design incorporates a fifth (control) condition where no telecommuting is allowed, which reflects the current company policy. The experience sampling method (ESM) is used to randomly measure psychological and behavioral variables throughout a seven month period. A total of 160 medical coders who work for a large health care company with hospitals and clinics located throughout the United States take part in the experiment. A descriptive telecommuting behavior model (TBM) developed for this study illustrates the relationships among telecommuting policies, location choices, psychological factors, individual performance, and organizational outcomes. Preliminary analyses of employee retention, task interruption, and task performance data indicate that the best telecommuting options are “home and/or satellite office” and “home, satellite office and/or downtown office”; the next best options are “home and/or downtown office” and “downtown only”; the least effective policy is “home only.” Further analysis of ESM responses is expected to shed light on why the participants exhibit different psychological, behavioral, and organizational responses across the telecommuting conditions.

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