Suchergebnisse

Building on recent research that stresses the important role of managers in the adoption process of telehomeworking, or telecommuting, this study examines the influence of the institutional context on managers' attitude formation. Drawing on large-scale survey data from 96 CEOs and 380 HR managers in Dutch organizations, we show that normative and mimetic pressures affect managers' beliefs, which are reflected in their perceptions of the relative (dis)advantage of telehomeworking. We also find that the perceived improvements of work outcomes and perceived social costs/benefits vary among managers from different 'occupational communities'. CEOs' beliefs are more susceptible to mimetic pressures, while HR managers' attitudes towards telehomeworking are positively fed by pressures from their occupational community. These findings support the view that current debates on work—life initiatives' diffusion and organizational changes in relation to these initiatives should pay much more attention to the importance of the institutional environment and managers' subcultures.

Home-based telework is one of the arrangements organizations can introduce to facilitate a better balance between employees' professional and private lives. This article focuses on the question of under what conditions managers grant a subordinate's request to telework and what role national cultures play herein. By looking into managers' willingness to delegate power and to trust home-based teleworkers we try to explain the slow adoption of home-based telework and the reported differences across Northern and Southern European countries. In doing so we will make use of Hofstede's writings on national cultures and of the propositions made by the telework literature on how to mitigate the potential trust problem associated with distance working. The purpose of the article is to develop new hypotheses regarding factors that influence managerial decision-making concerning telework and how these interact with national cultures. To test the hypotheses, a cross-national vignette study is proposed.