Managerial telework allowance decisions – a vignette study among German managers

Abstract

Managers play an important role in the implementation of telework in organizations since they frequently have final approval over employees' requests for telework arrangements. Drawing upon March's (1994) dual-logic theory of decision making, the study examines antecedents of managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. Using a vignette study with a balanced experimental design, we investigated the impact of person-related, task-related and organizational context factors on managerial telework allowance decisions in German organizations. Several person- and task-related factors were found to be significantly related to managers' telework allowance decisions. Organizational context factors, such as a family-supportive organizational culture and formal policies were found to either directly or indirectly influence managers' responses to employees' requests for telework. More specifically, formal telework policies were important in stimulating favorable managerial telework allowance decisions when applicant criticality was low and the organizational culture was family-unsupportive. In line with March's (1994) theory of decision making, the study shows that utility maximization is only one perspective of decision making which managers apply to telework allowance decisions. Rule following and considerations of appropriateness are also taken into account by managers when deciding upon employees' telework requests.

Keywords::

• experiment
• Germany
• managerial allowance decisions
• managers
• telework

Notes

^1. The terms supervisor and manager are used interchangeably throughout this manuscript and refer to a person who oversees one or more employees and with whom these employees have a direct reporting relationship.

^2. A root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) below 0.08, a comparative fit index (CFI) and a normed fit index (NFI) above 0.90 indicate good model fit.