A Self-Efficacy Theory Explanation for the Management of Remote Workers in Virtual Organizations

D. Sandy Staples, John S. Hulland and Christopher A. Higgins
Additional contact information
D. Sandy Staples: School of Business, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 Canada
John S. Hulland: Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7 Canada
Christopher A. Higgins: Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7 Canada

Organization Science, 1999, vol. 10, issue 6, 758-776

Abstract: The current study is a first step in investigating how virtual organizations can manage remote employees effectively. The research used self-efficacy theory to build a model that predicts relationships between antecedents to employees' remote work self-efficacy assessments and their behavioral and attitudinal consequences. The model was tested using responses from 376 remote managed employees in 18 diverse organizations. Overall, the results indicated that remote employees' self-efficacy assessments play a critical role in influencing their remote work effectiveness, perceived productivity, job satisfaction, and ability to cope. Furthermore, strong relationships were observed between employees' remote work self-efficacy judgments and several antecedents, including remote work experience and training, best practices modeling by management, computer anxiety, and IT capabilities. Because many of these antecedents can be controlled managerially, these findings suggest important ways in which a remote employee's work performance can be enhanced, through the intermediary effect of improved remote work self-efficacy. The current study also provides a basis for future research in the remote work area through its development and testing of a remote management framework.

Keywords: Remote Work; Remote Management; Virtual Organizations; Self-Efficacy Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.10.6.758 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:10:y:1999:i:6:p:758-776

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().