The implication of information technology in telework: Adoption model and influencing factors of communication media choice among teleworkers

Abstract

As the post-industrial environment requires more flexibility in organizational operations, telework is gradually gaining an acceptance as a distributed organizational design. Academic research, however, has not been effective in providing rich theoretical and empirical support for the planning and implementation of telework at organizations. This dissertation is motivated to contribute telework research through the investigation of implications that general-purpose communication media have on distributive telework. First, an empirical study is performed to understand the role of individual-, contextual-, and social-level factors on the media choice behaviors of remotely scattered teleworkers. Then, examination is made on how the media choice and other individual and social factors affect the perception on information-carrying capability and productivity of a communication medium, email. For this investigation, a hypothetical model that depicts the relationship among the constructs is proposed and relevant hypotheses are developed. Prior to the empirical study, existing literatures of telework are reviewed and characterized for the conceptual analysis of the problems and issues in telework. It was recognized that the narrow focus of research on teleworkers and the lack of a theoretical foundation are impeding broad understanding of telework. Data analysis indicates that teleworkers' media choice is the result of dynamics of individual-, contextual-, and social-level variables. Management support as a social influence showed the strongest impact on teleworkers' media use. The study confirms that, though regarded as a lean medium, email could become an effective and rich communication tool through an active social structuration process. Teleworkers belonging to an email-oriented communication network not only recognized email as a rich medium, but also had higher perception of work productivity from its use. The study confirms that, when email is recognized as an information-rich, as well as a function-rich, medium by teleworkers, a telework program could be benefited from the reduced loss of internal processes and enhanced work productivity.