TELECOMMUTER WORK/LIFE BALANCE SURVEY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BRIEF

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The primary goal of this research was to determine the characteristics of the person or job that need to be present in order for telecommuters to balance the competing demands of work and family.

Data were collected from over 800 individuals from 33 countries using an internet survey which was hosted by the Telecommuting Jobs website. A total of 686 individuals completed the entire questionnaire.

PERSONALITY

Neuroticism was found to be the strongest indicator of work/life balance for telecommuters among all the personality variables. That is, individuals who reported being anxious, nervous depressed, angry, and discouraged also reported lower work/life balance. In addition, telecommuters who exhibited neurotic traits also indicated that they received a lower job performance evaluation during their last performance review.

Conscientiousness was found to be significantly related to a telecommuter’s work/life balance. Telecommuters who reported being more careful, reliable, organized, planful, goal-directed, and self-disciplined scored higher on the work/life balance measure. The variable conscientiousness was especially important for part-time telecommuters who spend a proportion of their time at their main job site and the rest of their work time telecommuting. For these individuals, conscientiousness was a crucial factor in determining work/life balance. Consequently, it is no surprise that conscientiousness facilitates the work/life balance for these workers considering these individuals must be able to effectively divide their work time between locations and accomplish tasks in a timely, productive manner in order to be successful at their job. In addition, telecommuters who were more conscientious (e.g., planful, organized, self-disciplined, etc) were also more likely to report a higher job performance rating.

Extroversion measures individual differences in the preference for social interaction and the extent to which a person is gregarious, talkative, outgoing, ambitious, assertive and adventuresome. The study found that the more extroverted an individual is, the more likely they are to experience work/life balance.

Central Life Interest is a concept developed by Dubin (1956) and the basic idea behind the concept of central life interests (CLI) is that individuals focus their major interests in a limited few or even a single setting which becomes fundamental for organizing their most preferred activities. Therefore, CLI is an expressed preference for a certain locale in carrying out an activity given choices of other settings. It is acting in this setting that you feel are the most precious and valued aspects of your life. Individuals who consider work as their central life interest view their workplace as their most important social sector in which all the needs for social activity will be completely fulfilled, whereas those who do not adopt this view, regard the workplace to be only one of many important social sectors in which they participate so that they are not dependent on work to serve as their primary source of social interaction.

As central life interests increased, indicating central life interests that lie outside of work, work/life balance declined. Accordingly, as central life interests decreased, indicating work as a central life interest, work/life balance increased. Seemingly, one could argue that these individuals are weighing their work life as more important when evaluating work/life balance issues.

SITUATIONAL VARIABLES

Supervisor Support was found to be significantly correlated with work/life balance and supervisor support was found to be a significant predictor of work/life balance for telecommuters. More specifically, this research demonstrates that the more supportive the supervisor, the higher work/life balance experienced by the employee.

Family Support was shown to be significantly related to work/life balance of telecommuters. For the full-time telecommuter group, both aspects of family support, emotional and instrumental, were key elements in determining work/life balance. Emotional family support assesses those family member behaviors or attitudes geared toward providing the worker with encouragement, understanding, attention, positive regard, and guidance with problem solving while instrumental family support measures those family behaviors and attitudes aimed at facilitating the day-to-day family household operations.

Home Work Environment was a critical factor in determining telecommuter’s work/life balance. Full-time telecommuters who had a more positive home work environment, had greater work/life balance. More specifically, telecommuters who had a more favorable designated home work area and less non-work interruptions were more likely to have greater work/life balance.
CONCLUSION

This study has advanced the research on telecommuting as well as work and family by enhancing our understanding of the work/life issues facing telecommuters by incorporating both personality dimensions and situational variables into the study. The research revealed that telecommuters who reported greater work/life balance had a personality profile that included being less neurotic (i.e., less anxious, angry, nervous), more conscientious (i.e., organized, self-disciplined, goal-oriented), more extroverted, and indicated their central life interest to be work-related. In addition, telecommuters who had more supervisor support and family support, and a more favorable home work environment were found to be more successful at balancing the competing demands of work and family.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN DETAIL

Survey Author: Debra A. Kalensky received her Ph.D. from The University of Georgia. This study was conducted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree.

Appreciation is extended to Tjobs.com for hosting the survey and to Dr. Randall Lucius and Fitability.com for allowing the author to utilize their personality instrument to generate the personality profiles for each of the survey respondents.

Correspondence concerning this report should be sent via electronic mail to Kalensky@aol.com.