The Influence of Supervisors' Leadership Style On Telecommuters

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to extend prior scholarship by examining
how employees who telecommute perceive their supervisor’s leadership style
and the subsequent outcomes. Specifically, the way in which leadership style influences
employees’ perceptions of their supervisors’ communication competence
and communication satisfaction with their supervisor. Employees’ job satisfaction
and organizational commitment was also assessed. Participants included 157 full
time telecommuters from a variety of organizations across the United States. The
findings suggest that supervisors in the virtual workplace engaged in task oriented
more than relational oriented leadership style. Also, task oriented leadership served
as the greatest predictor of the communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and the
organizational commitment of telecommuters. Recommendations for practitioners
were also provided indicating that more might be done to enhance the task related
leadership competencies of supervisors in the virtual work setting.