Managing flexible work arrangements: Teleworking and output controls

Abstract

Flexible work arrangements present managers with challenges regarding how to manage employees using these arrangements. To date, little research has investigated how managers address these challenges. We investigate the relationship between the use of a specific implementation of flexible work (teleworking) and control system design, specifically the emphasis on output controls. Teleworking reduces the feasibility of monitoring employee behaviour as a control mechanism. Control theory suggests that this might be compensated by placing more emphasis on output controls. We conduct a survey (N ¼ 897) among employees of a financial services institution, of whom 69% is allowed to telework. We find that among teleworking employees, the share of teleworking hours is positively related to the emphasis on output controls. However, employees who are allowed to telework report less emphasis on output controls by their manager relative to those not allowed to telework. We pose various directions for future research, which may help in explaining these findings.

Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective

“…The work design perspective can guide managers to design a better job for remote workers during the pandemic or even in future flexible work practices. For example, managers might incur a lot of cost in setting up monitoring systems (Groen et al, 2018), but the desirable effect of monitoring on work effectiveness was not supported by our data. Managers should instead engage more supportive management practices especially in this extraordinary context, such as communicating with subordinates using motivating language (Madlock, 2013), building trust within the distributed team (Grant et al, 2013), and sharing information rather than close monitoring (Lautsch et al, 2009).…”

Reactions to (the absence of) control and workplace arrangements: experimental evidence from the internet and the laboratory

“…However, interview-based evidence has questioned this oversimplified recommendation (Felstead et al 2003). At the present time, researchers and practitioners are still debating about the most effective way to manage distant employees (Lautsch et al 2009;Groen et al 2018).…”

The digitization of working life: Challenges and opportunities

“…The advances in information technology, the expansion of the communication apps and the availability of computer and internet access enable employees to carry out activities at remote locations, with teleworking becoming an alternative work arrangement in the developed world (Biron & van Veldhoven, 2016). Researchers were interested in analysing the impact of teleworking arrangements on employees' social relationships, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, organisational commitment or job performance (Biron & van Veldhoven, 2016;Groen, van Triest, Coers, & Wtenweerde, 2018). While teleworking has the advantages of control over work location and flexibility in the location of work and in the allocation of time, there are also negative consequences such as social isolation, career stagnation, work-family conflict, or reduced possibilities of monitoring employee behaviour (Biron & van Veldhoven, 2016).…”