Applied drama in educational and therapeutic contexts

¶ … Remotely-Based Sales Managers More Motivated and Effective Than Branch-Based Sales Managers?

In the debate over telecommuting, it would be useful to know whether remotely-based or branch-based sales managers were more motivated and effective in their jobs. The information would be useful for corporations considering implementing telecommuting programs, and for workers contemplating undertaking a telecommuting position.

Responses were collected from a group of GE Capital sales managers to determine their basic attitudes about their jobs and their interactions within the company and their perceptions of what was useful to their performance and what was not. Some respondents were branch-based; others were telecommuters. That their responses appeared to be similar lends credence to the idea that telecommuter are at least as motivated and effective as their branch-based counterparts,

However, these responses were evaluated within the framework provided by abundant previous studies in order to develop a basis for understanding the motivational factors in telecommuting and, as well, to develop predictors for success and techniques for assuring success in any telecommuting undertaking.

As a result of the survey and literature review, it became clear that a great number of employees prefer to at least have the option of telecommuting; they believe it makes them more effective employees, and there is research that supports that belief. Companies, by and large, have reported productivity gains as well as cost savings. But companies, more than individuals, are wary of telecommuting.

What is also clear, however, is that there are techniques for ensuring the best possible outcome from a telecommuting program, for both employee and organization, and these are available as the result of exactly these sorts of studies conducted over time.

Introduction

Research Objectives

Scope and Limitations

Research and Methodology

Definition

Hypotheses

Hypothesis Number One 14

Hypothesis Number Two 15

Hypothesis Number Three 15

Motivators 16

Employee motivators 16

Company motivators 18

Negatives for the company 19

Negatives for the employee 20

Telecommuting Background

New Paradigms 23

Factors influencing the leap to cyberspace 30

Results of all these factors 38

The downside risks 38

Training for success 39

Developing successful telecommuting arrangements 41

Telecommuting Satisfaction 45

Supervisory Support 46

Child care 48

Family disruptions 49

Life satisfaction factors 49

Conclusion

Appendix A: Tips for Smoothly Implementing a Telecommuting Program 54

Appendix B: Ground Rules for Successful Telecommuting 56

Appendix C: Tips for Making Telecommuting Productive 58

List of Figures

Table 1 Are you remotely based? 11

How many dealer accounts do you manage? 11

Table 3 Is teleconferencing an appropriate tool in communications? 22

Table 4 Is social interaction with other team members important to you?

Table 5 Do you meet other team members outside of work?

Table 6 Activities ratings 32

Table 7 What elements of your role do you most enjoy? 34

Table 8 Which of the following interferes most with your call plan?

Table 9 When do team meetings take place? 37

Table 10 How long do team meetings last? 37

Table 11 How frequent should team meetings be?

Table 12 Do you consider your objectives achievable and challenging?

Table 13 Where do you gain information in relation to your organization? 44

Table 14 Job satisfaction 46

Table 15 Do you feel that your contribution assists the organization in meeting its objectives? 47

Table 16 Do you understand how your objectives are set?

Table 17 Do you feel that you receive adequate feedback on your performance on a timely basis? 48

Table 18 Job satisfaction (2) 50

Table 19 If you had to sacrifice any of your benefits in order to increase your salary, which of the following would you forego? 50

Introduction

Technology, and especially Internet technology, has had a significant impact on the business world, with one of the current changes involving an increase in working remotely, also commonly known as telecommuting. With Internet technology allowing for easy communication between remote locations, telecommuting becomes a feasible option for many organizations. Telecommuting is also becoming a popular option for employees, with this method of working allowing for better management of work and family demands, greater flexibility in time management, and less of the stresses that are associated with the work environment. In theory, it appears that telecommuting is an option that is beneficial to all concerned. However, despite this initial appearance, telecommuting does not always provide the many benefits expected. The problems of telecommuting, though, should not be regarded as reasons that employees should remain as non-telecommuters. Instead, it must be recognized that there are problems associated with both telecommuting and non-telecommuting. Part of the problem might be that the problems associated with non-telecommuting have been occurring for long enough that they are expected. This results in new problems being seen as more concerning, simply because they are new. To circumvent this problem of an unfair comparison, the two options need to be considered point by point and the overall benefits of each compared.

This research report will allow for such a comparison by determining the motivation and effectiveness of telecommuting workers and non-telecommuting workers. This study will look specifically at sales account managers employed by GE Capital, with the information obtained used to determine whether account managers-based remotely are more motivate and effective than those who are branch-based. It is predicted that when overall motivation levels of the two working options are compared, remotely-based sales account managers will be found to be more motivated and effective than branch-based sales account managers.

Motivation is defined as:

desire to start work every day.

A desire to achieve all goals and objectives set previously.

A desire to complete a full days' activities.

A desire to satisfy his/her line manager's expectations and contribute to team performance.

Ability to feel part of a team while working remotely.

Effectiveness is defined as:

Completion of numbers of calls on a daily/monthly basis

Perception of empowerment of sales account manager in the eyes of customers.

Degree of self-reliance in completing small tasks.

Strength of contributions to team dynamics. (Telecommuting is often considered an integral part of companies' strategic planning, if only because it must be considered in light of employee demand for it, perceived monetary savings and so on. Farrah & Dagen, 1993) By some accounts, managers are moving quickly to institute telecommuting programs. (LaPlante, 1995; McNemey, 1995) On the other hand, some researchers caution against the implications of isolating workers from the traditional office setting, despite the early twentieth century work of Thorstein Veblen that would suggest that humanity is more or less dying to get back home to work, as it did through most of its history. (Hamilton, 1987; Connelly, 1995)

It was, after all, cavemen who ruled the world, not 'factorymen' for millennia.

Research Objectives

The objective of the research will be to determine if remotely-based sales managers are more motivated and effective than branch-based sales managers. The output of the research project is to identify which how and why sales account managers are more motivated and effective and will be of use to organizations considering a change in their business model or for the purpose of developing a business model from scratch. This makes the study an applied project designed to generate specific information for a decision-making purpose.

Scope and Limitations

This research project will be an applied study, rather than one focused on gaining broad theoretical information. The survey research will be limited specifically to sales account managers employed by GE Capital. This limited survey makes the study appropriate for generating specific information which can be used to determine whether sales account mangers should be remotely-based or branch-based. However, the survey's scope is limited to this specific situation and does not extend to generating more general information or noting trends. This is especially true because the sample size will be small and will not take into account personal factors.

However, viewing the results of this survey in relation to the results of numerous earlier studies of telecommuting, in recent years, and worklife in general since the dawn of the industrial age and into the current information age, will give greater scope to the project so that it may be useful to companies considering instituting a telecommuting program. While there was abundant material in the 1990s indicating that telecommuting was going to sweep the globe, there has also been a backlash, and the reasons for that will be postulated so that companies considering initiating telecommuting can deal with the negative realities, or lack thereof, as they judge them to be.

Following are the responses of the survey population regarding the basics of their working arrangements:

Respondents were asked:

ARE YOU REMOTELY BASED?

Respondents were asked:

HOW MANY DEALER ACCOUNTS DO YOU MANAGE? (CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING)

Research and Methodology

The sample for the research project was a group of 20-25 individuals, all identified as working as sales account managers for GE Capital. A survey was circulated to each individual; the rate of return was expected to be high, with a final sampling of between 15 and 20 respondents. In fact, the final sample was about 20 respondents, although some respondents did not supply answers to all questions.

This excellent response was expected for several reasons. The first of these is that the group was easy to reach, all being employed by a single organization. A second was the brevity of the questionnaire. Other reasons follow those identified in prior studies of survey methods.

An earlier study found that organizational survey methodology was one of the most commonly used forms through which corporations gather data useful to decision-making efforts. The reasons for this are its non-intrusive nature (as compared to direct observation by experts, focus groups and so on). Particularly, that survey found that individually answered surveys can be used to assess and track employee attitudes and opinions over time as part of a larger and more strategic organizational development plan, as is presumed to be the case in this study. (Not under consideration here, but noted in that prior study, surveys can also be a means for generating performance models by linking the results to other measurements such as stock or employee turnover rates, sales growth and net profits. That survey noted that even professional organizations such as the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology have begun to perform and depend on the answers to surveys of their members for various types of planning purposes

Results in that study included three separate organizational survey efforts to explore the impact of data collection on response preference, item completion rate, use of "don't know" responses, item mean and variability. Obviously, most of those variables are beyond the scope of this limited study of a single operational preference and its impact on both organization and employee. However, the interesting factor about that study, relative to this one, is that the efforts were all technologically derived (in that case, opscan), as these were. The researchers found there was little difference between various age and level of experience groups and concluded that practitioners (researchers conducting surveys) may be better off choosing a method of gathering responses that is a cultural fit and offers easy of implementation. Obviously, in GE Capital, an electronically conducted and/or tabulated survey would fit the forward-looking, technologically savvy corporate culture.

That study noted that online, Intranet or Web-based surveys which rely on personal motivation for completion and use of a mouse to indicate responses had become increasingly popular by 2001; by this survey's date, 2003, they may be assumed to be even more 'seamless' to the user and more likely to be performed.

While some comment had been raised about confidentiality or glitches causing errors in data collection or tabulation, this prior study found, on the other hand, significantly lower levels of missing or incomplete data with online Web-based responses was reported as compared with paper-and-pencil method. The study authors cautioned that this was a preliminary finding, not within the major scope of the report, and should not be relied upon as an absolute rule of thumb.

The study also failed to determine the maximum survey length to gather the greatest data, but suggested that, until further research is completed, that number may differ considerably by organization, context of the questions, method of administering the survey and a survey taker's prior experiences.

It also had not developed definitive information regarding the likelihood of a question being ignored based on its placement in the questionnaire, or on the "don't know" response. In any case, this questionnaire, being more factual than cognitive, did not seek the sort of opinion response, which would elicit a "don't know" response in some circumstances.

Overall, the prior studies suggested that the impact of various methodological effects on data obtained is not likely to be problematic. (Church 2001, p. 397+)

In the case of GE Capital, it may be also assumed that a short, rather than long, survey would be more likely to gain wide compliance because of the nature of the jobs of those being surveyed; sales account managing limits an employee's ability to devote lengthy periods to such a task when phones might be ringing or customers needing assistance. The survey was designed along those parameters.

The study suggested that survey designers and implementers would be better served by choosing methods of administrating based on the needs and constraints of an organization or project; for example, budget, speed of response required, ease of use of survey instrument(s), Web/Internet/Intranet access and so on. These were considered in this study design.. (Church 2001, p. 397+)

Definition

The study will be based on a general definition of motivation as an individuals' desire to behave in a way that is beneficial to the organization. The extensive literature survey that forms a basis in which to consider the results of the smaller, recent respondent survey reveals that levels of dissatisfaction are especially relevant to the effectiveness of telecommuting.

Hypotheses

Two major hypotheses were investigated, with a third suggested and taken into account not through the survey itself but through the relevant literature.

Hypothesis Number One:

The major benefit of telecommuting is not that it provides professional satisfaction, but that it eliminates the dissatisfaction present in non-telecommuting positions.

For this reason, the survey instrument focused on determining factors that cause dissatisfaction in the non-telecommuting environment and in the telecommuting environment. The survey instrument included a comparison of factors that satisfy in both environments. A comparison of the overall levels of dissatisfaction and satisfaction in both environments was planned to determine which option achieves the higher level of motivation.

Hypothesis Number Two:

It is also noted that reward is a major motivator, and that reward is not only in the form of financial benefits. Because of the importance of reward, the study will consider how reward impacts motivation, and how this applies to the telecommuting and the non-telecommuting option. The survey instrument included the types of rewards usually granted/expected, and asked employees to rate what types of rewards are most important to them.

Hypothesis Number Three:

Another consideration is that the effectiveness of telecommuting may depend on the personality type of the individual. While this may be a valid consideration, for the purposes of this study, personality type will not be considered. This is both because the sample size is considered too small to allow for this to be effectively assessed and because the purpose of the study is to provide specific information that can be used for decision-making regarding telecommuting or non-telecommuting arrangements in general.