Avoiding depletion in virtual work: Telework and the intervening impact of work exhaustion on commitment and turnover intentions

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Abstract

Despite the tremendous growth of telework and other forms of virtual work, little is known about its impact on organizational commitment and turnover intentions, nor the mechanisms through which telework operates. Drawing upon the conservation of resources model as the theoretical framework, I posit telework’s impact is the result of resource stockpiling and flexibility as teleworkers are able to yield work and personal benefits and protect themselves from resource depletion in the office. Using a sample of 393 professional-level teleworkers in one organization, I therefore investigate the intervening role of work exhaustion in determining commitment and turnover intentions. Results indicate that telework is positively related to commitment and negatively related to turnover intentions, such that a higher degree of teleworking is associated with more commitment to the organization and weakened turnover intentions. Moreover, work exhaustion is found to mediate the relationships between teleworking and both commitment and turnover intentions.

Introduction

The ability to work ‘virtually’ away from the office has become a ubiquitous new work mode that promises to yield important benefits for employees and the organization. Teleworking, as a form of virtual work, can involve working in multiple satellite offices or other remote locations away from the company office, though most commonly teleworkers allocate their work time between an office and home (Bailey & Kurland, 2002). With at least 37% of companies offering telework arrangements, increasing at 11% per year (SHRM, 2001), teleworking is becoming a highly popular way for professionals to ease ever-increasing work demands yet still fulfill personal and family needs (Rau and Hyland, 2002, Stephens and Szajna, 1998). Moreover, the widespread assumption that employees who telework are more committed to the organization and less likely to leave it often provides the rationale for organizations implementing telework programs (Guimaraes & Dallow, 1999). To date, however, researchers understand little about this work arrangement, particularly its impact on fundamental outcomes such as organizational commitment and turnover intentions (Bailey and Kurland, 2002, Pinsonneault and Boisvert, 2001).

A growing body of research, although focusing exclusively on traditional work modes rather than telework, has recently investigated work exhaustion as a possible antecedent to commitment and turnover intentions (Moore, 2000a, Moore, 2000b). Exhaustion research suggests that individuals are more vulnerable if exposed to continuous face-to-face contact with co-workers and others in their work (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993, Leiter and Maslach, 1988). Since teleworking involves separation from others and greater discretion over when and how to interact via electronic media (Wiesenfeld, Raghuram, & Garud, 1999), it is likely to affect the nature and intensity of interactions and off-set exhaustion emanating from continuous face-to-face contact. Moreover, by avoiding a commute, telework aids the acquisition of additional time to spend fulfilling family and work demands (Guimaraes & Dallow, 1999), thereby conserving emotional and mental energy. Work exhaustion may therefore represent an important explanatory variable to help understand the impact of telework on work outcomes, and shed insights to fill the void in current literature (e.g., Bailey and Kurland, 2002, Feldman and Gainey, 1997).

In this study, I therefore investigate the link between telework and organizational commitment and turnover intentions, and focus on how work exhaustion altered by teleworking acts as an intervening factor. Because teleworkers vary in the degree to which they work away from the office (Baruch, 2001, Cummings, 2005), and since researchers have generally only compared teleworkers to non-teleworkers (e.g., Bailey and Kurland, 2002, Igbaria and Guimaraes, 1999), I reason that changes in commitment and turnover and the intervening impact of work exhaustion are the result of the degree to which employees telework. Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) model of stress (Hobfoll, 1988, Hobfoll, 1989) and the literature on work exhaustion and burnout (e.g., Cordes and Dougherty, 1993, Moore, 2000a, Moore, 2000b), I suggest that telework’s impact may be the result of resource ‘stockpiling’ and flexibility as teleworkers are able to yield benefits and protect themselves from resource depletion in the office.

Section snippets

Work exhaustion

Professional-level employees who telework generally spend a considerable portion of their time at home while remaining connected to the office via email, phone, and web-accessible corporate databases (Cummings, 2005, Stephens and Szajna, 1998). The degree to which employees telework is reflected by the extent to which their work activities are conducted away from others in the traditional work setting, using computer based technology. Work exhaustion, defined by Moore, 2000a, Moore, 2000b in a

Sample and procedure

This study was conducted using teleworkers in a large corporation which produced internet solutions for commercial and individual clients. A senior manager solicited participation as part of a larger corporate study on work practices, and encouraged responses so that “an accurate understanding of our organization and employees” could be gained. Respondents were assured anonymity and informed participation in the web survey was voluntary. Completed responses from 393 teleworkers were received,

Results

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, and correlations for each of the measures. Although correlations were low to moderate, given the concerns of common method variance a Harman’s single factor test was run to gain greater confidence in the results (Podsakoff & Organ, 1986). The resulting factor analysis revealed factors that loaded cleanly, each with eigenvalues greater than one, with the first factor accounting for 23% of the variance and the other factors accounting for an additional

Discussion

In this study, I begin to unravel the impacts of telework by investigating the intervening role of work exhaustion in helping to explain the commitment and turnover intentions of teleworkers. Our results indicate that the degree of telework was found to be positively related to organizational commitment and negatively related to turnover intentions, such that a higher degree of teleworking was associated with more commitment to the organization and weakened turnover intentions. Consistent with

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