Supervisors’ Dyadic Relationship with Remote Workers Compared with Traditional Colocated Workers: A Case Study
Open AccessAbstract of the DissertationThis study involved a corporation that has developed new ways of organizing and managing its resources, which challenge the traditional influence models of leadership. The basic research question was: “How does power function differently with remote workers than with traditional colocated workers?” Twenty employees in three work areas having different corporate responsibilities were interviewed. Each work area was treated as a separate case, and cross-case analysis was conducted to identify company-level commonalities. The results led to four conclusions strongly suggesting that employees remote from their managers at corporate headquarters experience a different relationship than employees colocated with their managers:1. Employee motivation and task commitment are a function of both location and supervisor management style. Where supervisors are more engaged due to either proximity or management style, employees’ motivation feeds off the contact. Conversely, less engagement requires employees to rely on innate motivation.2. Both colocated and remote employees appreciate their supervisors’ efforts to provide to provide assignments geared to their skill sets, but remote workers observe that developmental opportunities are less available to them.3. Two-way communications and interpersonal relations are attenuated by distance, and the limiting conditions of remote workers may require additional management techniques to counter them.4. Mobile workers and colocated workers both believe their opinions and recommendations will be entertained by their supervisors if presented; however, the opportunity to present their opinions is reduced by the amount of engagement of their supervisor.These conclusions in turn led to five recommendations for practice and four recommendations for future research.
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Tavenner_gwu_0075A_14455.pdf | 2018-11-25 | Open Access |
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