The Influence of Supervisors' Leadership Style On Telecommuters

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to extend prior scholarship by examininghow employees who telecommute perceive their supervisor’s leadership styleand the subsequent outcomes. Specifically, the way in which leadership style influencesemployees’ perceptions of their supervisors’ communication competenceand communication satisfaction with their supervisor. Employees’ job satisfactionand organizational commitment was also assessed. Participants included 157 fulltime telecommuters from a variety of organizations across the United States. Thefindings suggest that supervisors in the virtual workplace engaged in task orientedmore than relational oriented leadership style. Also, task oriented leadership servedas the greatest predictor of the communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and theorganizational commitment of telecommuters. Recommendations for practitionerswere also provided indicating that more might be done to enhance the task relatedleadership competencies of supervisors in the virtual work setting.