Managing IT Professional in Virtual Environment

Managing Professionals in Virtual Environment

As technology has evolved, the reality of virtual organizations has begun to take hold in a variety of industries. It is now commonplace for employees to work, at least in part, from offsite. Telecommuting is a reality that has allowed companies to reduce costs, become more competitive, and facilitate happier more productive employees. Virtual employees, or "telework is one of the most radical departures from standard working conditions in the suite of flexible work practices now gaining widespread acceptance." (Daniels, Lamond, & Standen, 2001)

Managing Professionals in Virtual Environment

As technology has evolved, the reality of virtual organizations has begun to take hold in a variety of industries. It is now commonplace for employees to work, at least in part, from offsite. Telecommuting is a reality that has allowed companies to reduce costs, become more competitive, and facilitate happier more productive employees. Virtual employees, or "telework is one of the most radical departures from standard working conditions in the suite of flexible work practices now gaining widespread acceptance." (Daniels, Lamond, & Standen, 2001)

In addition, it has allowed employers assist their employees in meeting that ever so delicate work-life balance. As Tronco (2001) notes, "an increasing number of companies are finding that, for some of its employees, working from home just makes sense." In 2000, Cascio noted, "Virtual workplaces, in which employees operate remotely from each other and from managers, are a reality, and will become even more common in the future."

Information Technology team members are particularly well suited for virtual positions. Technology today allows IT professionals to remotely assist users, at any hour of the day. Innovations such as web cams have even added a personal touch to remote IT staff. However, managing virtual employees requires new strategies, to ensure they are performing as effectively and efficiently as possible. Kirkman, Rosen, Gibson, Tesluk, & McPherson (2002) note the challenges virtual employees my face, especially as members of virtual teams. They identify "five challenges that organizations can expect to encounter in establishing, maintaining, and supporting virtual teams, e.g., building trust, cohesion, and team identity, and overcoming isolation among virtual team members." Watson-Manheim, Chudoba, and Crowston (2002) note that virtual work environments create "discontinuities (which) are gaps or a lack of coherence in aspects of work."

The following literature review discusses previous research on the topic of virtual employees in the workforce, and was more narrowly defined to the topic of the challenges that are faced in managing these new workers. Surprisingly, there was no relevant research available dealing with the management of virtual IT personnel specifically; yet, much of the research done on managing virtual employees, in general, was relevant to IT professionals and informative.

However, the lack of IT profession specific research clearly emphasizes an area where research is currently lacking.

Literature Review:

Tronco (2001) discusses the challenges often faced by managers in ensuring that employees are functioning as productively as possible when working virtually. He notes, "An increasing number of companies are finding that, for some of its employees, working from home just makes sense. Employees who are entrepreneurial, independent, dependable and creative by nature often work best as virtual employees." (Tronco, 2001) However, in addition to these benefits, there are challenges as well.

To overcome these challenges, Tronco suggests ensuring that several steps are being taken. First, he emphasizes the importance of regular communication with virtual employees. Expressed appreciation is also key to successful virtual employee management. And, finally, ensure that technology is being utilized to its fullest to facilitate communication. For example, organizations can use tools such as instant messaging, and a free voice-mail/fax/email service to receive faxes. Complimentary technology, such as eGroups.com, a free Web bulletin-board service, can archive employee conversations for review and reference later. (Tronco, 2001)

Tronco's credentials were not discussed, but some very valuable information was put forth. A valid point was made about communication and appreciation, as oftentimes employees in all fields that are working virtually feel disconnected from the rest of the organization. And, it may be easier for managers not to express their appreciation without physically seeing the employee day in and out.

Cascio (2000), a professor of management at University of Colorado at Denver, agrees with Tronco in that communication is of critical importance; however he goes on to discuss in more detail the benefits and challenges that are often encountered in virtual workplaces. Reductions in real estate expenses, increased productivity, increased profits, improved customer service, access to global markets, and environmental benefits are some of the reasons why organizations turn to telecommuting. (Cascio, 2000) However, despite the sound business reasons for implementing virtual employees, difficulties abound. Set up and maintenance costs are one such challenge that an organization must consider. In addition, cultural clashes, isolation and lack of trust, can make the arrangement less cost efficient then housing an employee in-house.

These challenges are emphasized by the physical separation of workers from their managers. This is a new world for managers, managing people they cannot physically see. In addition, management must realize that their skills are needed more than ever, despite the lack of warm bodies sitting in their immediate office. (Cascio, 2000)

To counter these challenges, Cascio (2000) notes that managers need to shift their focal point. Instead of focusing on time in which tasks are accomplished, they must concentrate on actual results achieved. As mentioned, formal and informal effective communication skills have to be a part of the manager's repertoire, as well as the ability to delegate effectively. In addition, managers must have an open, positive attitude when it comes to finding solutions to the challenges that will inevitable occur in virtual-work arrangements. In the end, it's a fairly thorough discussion of the benefits, challenges, and methods of management important to virtual employers.

Gabel and Mansfield (2003), both Associate Professors of Legal Studies, Risk Management and Insurance Department, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, discuss a completely defend aspect of virtual employees that affects management, the legal ramifications of virtual employees. With employees telecommuting, managers are not able to control the time, method or manner tasks are accomplished, as they are when employees are onsite. In addition, the distinction between employees and independent contractors becomes less clear. And, lastly, the authors note that there is question of jurisdiction and venue when workplace disputes occur with virtual employees. They feel that Congress needs to clarify these issues, and management needs to be aware of them, in order to protect both the employee's and the organization's rights. (Gabel & Mansfield, 2003)

Their article sheds opens up the discussion of managing virtual employees to include a facet many would not initially consider. Issues, in which managers are typically well versed, such as the Family Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Workmen's Compensation laws, are not written to take into account virtual employees.

Other more practical managerial challenges arise as well, that goes alongside these other employment law issues. Taxation issues are another legal challenge for virtual employees. Fair methods of taxation must be insured when a virtual employee lives in one state, while an employer is located in another. (Dean, 2002)

The three seemingly evident paradoxes to virtual employees were researched by Pearlson and Saunders (2001). Pearlson is the President of KP Partners and Zero Time Institute, and is the co-author of Zero Time: Providing Instant Customer Value. Saunders is a Professor of MIS at the University of Oklahoma, and is the associate editor of MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences Journal, Information Systems Research, and Information Resources Management Journal.

The three paradoxes explored in their study was how telecommuting has both an increase in structure and flexibility, focuses on the individual and teams, and has both an increase and decrease in control. They see four solutions, for managers, to surviving these paradoxes. The first is to accept the paradox. The second thing a manager can do is clarify the employee's point-of-view. Third, a manager must have an accounting for time from the virtual employee. And, fourth, the manager must use new perspectives, as the tried and true of yesterday simply does not apply. (Pearlson & Saunders, 2001)

The use of actual companies that utilize virtual employees extensively was helpful in driving home the importance of these paradoxes. In addition, they helped bring to light actual examples of the theoretical solutions posed. In the end, it complimented other research performed, as flexibility is not often discussed in other author's works, and is key to managing virtual employees successfully.

The comparison of the traditional office to the 8-track tape was made by Davenport and Pearlson (1998). Davenport is a professor of information systems at Boston University School of Management, while Pearlson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business. With the demise of the traditional notion of an office, new approaches to evaluating, educating and organizing virtual employees are necessary. For many companies, work is becoming something you do, not simply just a place one goes. (Davenport & Pearlson, 1998)

The authors focus on the challenges of virtual employees and echo those that are expressed by other researchers. They note that managers may have trouble with supervising employees that are out of sight. In addition, while virtual employees have mobility and flexibility, this benefit is often offset by the elimination of the benefit of meeting face-to-face with coworkers. People can gather valuable information by body language, that is lost in e-mail or even phone conversations. Corporate culture may be lost as well, without this socialization. Corporate allegiance may decrease for this same reason. (Davenport & Pearlson, 1998) Potter (2003), of the Employment Policy Foundation in Washington DC agrees. Maintaining corporate culture due too the surge in interest in telecommuting is one challenge employers will have to face.

A new insight Davenport & Pearlson (1998) provide is the fact that some employees may resist becoming virtual as well. They may not have adequate space at home for an office. Or they may have distractions at their home environment, such as children, that would not be conducive to working from home.

Managing people and not technology is the key to effective implementation of a virtual workforce, according to Daniels (1998), a freelance journalist based in Leeds, UK. She notes the incredible growth in technology over the recent years, and how this technology now makes it possible for people to collaborate and communicate across the distances. The technology is in place to change the way people work, especially in service industries. A change in business as a whole is taking place. Now, many organizations are working towards the concept of a core organization dealing with core or strategic activities, surrounded by a network of smaller companies and individuals (associates) providing a range of supporting, ancillary services on a contracted, outsourced basis. The older, large, physical corporation can be replaced by this core plus periphery - the virtual corporation. (Daniels, 1998)

Control is the biggest challenge Daniels (1998) sees. Ensuring employees are able to make sound judgments as necessary is critical. They are being given a greater responsibility also in self-management. And, although technology exists to monitor virtual employees every moment, it defeats the purpose of telecommuting, again, it is as Cascio (2000) noted, managers have to turn their focus on results, not micro-management.

Kirsten Broadfoot (2001), a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, reiterates the concern for lack of control with virtual workers. She notes,

When employees move offsite and out of sight, their computers, pagers, cell phones, and answering machines all become components of an elaborate technological panopticon as management reaches across time and space to maintain control and influence. Moreover, managers have also been encouraged to focus on task completion as a method of employee control.

Her research has shown despite this lack of control, employees typically are more productive.

Deondra Conner (2003), of the School of Business, Alcorn State University, agrees that organizations are seeking to streamline their operations by cutting costs. As part of this streamlining, many organizations are turning to virtual employees. With this change in organizational forms and the context of work, there is potential for consequences unforeseen.

One possible consequence is a change in the availability and type of referent others available." (Conner, 2003)

Utilizing Festinger's work in the area of social comparison theories, Conner (2003) notes that people use others who are close to them in ability to compare their abilities. Meaning people tend to use people that are similar to them, when comparing themselves, in order to conserve or improve self-esteem. (Conner, 2003) This is especially applicable to virtual employees.

Virtual employees do not have the social interactions necessary to fully utilize social comparison. "Instead, individuals of virtual work environments may have to use combinations of comparative referents of which little or no research has examined the consequences." (Conner, 2003) Leading to the addition of another challenge managers may face with virtual employees, as a reduction in self-esteem could affect productivity.

Kirkman et al. (2002) expand on the subject of challenges that are experienced with virtual employees, specifically when they are assigned to virtual teams. In this they cite a case study of Sabre, Inc.

This team of researchers is especially well qualified to discuss this topic.

Kirkman is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior in the DuPree College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rosen is Hanes Professor of Management in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University. Gibson holds a joint position as Associate Professor at the Center for Effective Organizations and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and received her Ph.D. from the University of California-Irvine. Tesluk is Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, and received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. And, McPherson is a Project Manager for Sabre, Inc.

In their research, the authors gather a comprehensive set of interviews with team members, leaders, general managers, and executives on 65 virtual teams at Sabre, Inc. Upon analyzing this information, they found five challenges that organizations may face in the implementation of virtual teams. Those five challenges are: building trust, maximizing process gains, overcoming feelings of isolation, balancing technical and interpersonal skills, and assessment and recognition. (Kirkman, 2002)

These finding reiterate others findings especially in the feelings of isolation and the need for communication to offset it. In addition, it echoes the importance of changing focus of managers to results, and as such developing appropriate assessment and recognition tools.

Raghuram, Gamd, Wiesenfeld, and Guptaa (2001), of Fordham University, Stern School of Business at New York University, Stern School of Business at New York University, and Fordham University respectively, explore the important factors in the adaptation of employees to the virtual workplace. They agree with the other researchers that developing appropriate and effective evaluation criteria is a challenge, as is the relinquishment of control and development of work independence. There are relational challenges as well that echo others findings, including trust and organizational connectedness. There research compliments the other researchers' findings.

In addition, they shed light on some interesting differences when age and gender is considered as a variable. They found older people better suited to virtual working, and hypothesized that this was due to a stronger need to be independent than their younger coworkers. And, they found that men adapted better to virtual work than women. (Raghuram et al., 2001)

Kim, Emmett, & Sikula (2001), all of the Graduate School of Management Lewis College of Business at Marshall University, discuss the changing nature of the American workforce, in particular the trend for virtual employees, and the effect on employee relations ethics.

In their paper, they term employee relations ethics as "treating employees properly, with respect and dignity." (Kim et al., 2001)

They see bottom line thinking and self-interest prevailing in organizations, and these being a challenge as virtual employees are implemented. With employees out of sight, the potential becomes real that they are not considered as "real" as onsite employees, and therefore the potential for mistreatment. Kim et al. (2001) notes that at the time approximately 15% of the American workforce worked from home. They allow for office space in their homes, and often are much more productive than their in-house counterparts, plus save the organization money in reduced real estate costs, yet, they most often do not receive any additional pay. This, the authors see, as a violation of employee relations ethics, and they believe it needs to be addressed by management.

Jeanne Allert, owner and principal of Ellipsis Partners, a completely virtual Internet consulting firm and Adjunct Professor at Loyola College in Baltimore, discusses the challenges of virtual employees from her unique perspective. Instead of theories, Allert (2001) describes exactly the steps she takes to hire virtual employees and keep them connected. These are the two biggest challenges she sees in managing virtual employees.

Hiring the right person for a virtual position is new to most managers. In addition, her thoughts on keeping them connected to the rest of the organization compliments several other researchers.

Wiesenfeld, Raghuram, and Garud (2001) teamed up again to further study managing virtual workers and hypothesized that there was a need for affiliation and work-based social support. This fits in with Conner's (2003) research in the need to be with others in order to emphasize one's own self-worth; in addition, they speak of organization identification espoused by others as well. Wiesenfeld et al. (2001) state,

Virtual work increases employees' isolation and independence, threatening to fragment the organization. This study finds that virtual workers' need for affiliation and the work-based social support they experience are countervailing forces associated with stronger organizational identification. Furthermore, perceived work-based social support moderates the relationship between virtual workers' need for affiliation and their strength of organizational identification. Thus, when work-based social support is high, even workers with lower need for affiliation may strongly identify with the organization.

Wiesenfeld, Raghuram, and Garud's research in 1999, confirmed that there is a lack of organizational identification in a virtual organization. There is a lack of unity with virtual employees as they are missing "some of the cues that pull employees together in more traditional organizational settings including dress codes, shared language, shared organizational routines, and organizational identifiers such as organization charts, office buildings, and co-located employees. These elements are less readily available and less indicative of meaning in a virtual context." (Wiesenfeld et al., 1999)

As virtual employees and virtual organizations continue to multiply, considerable debate is being had over the social and technical implications of this trend. Wilson (1999), of the University of Salford Sheffield argues that virtual employees have the potential to eliminate true employee participation; as opposed to the empowerment that some believe it gives. She insists that the technologies of control utilized for virtual employees are a "more insidious form of technical and cultural control designed to engage the acquiescence of employees in order to maintain the efficiency of the organization." (Wilson, 1999)

This is an interesting point that few other researchers bring forth. It does speak to the paradox of increased independence and increased need for control, however. Management must be aware of this delicate balancing act.

Staples, Hulland and Higgins (1999), of School of Business Queens' University in Kingston, Ontario, School of Business University of Western Ontario, and School of Business University of Western Ontario respectively, also note the difficulty in effectively managing virtual employees. Analyzing responses from 376 virtual employees in 18 diverse organizations, the researchers discovered a link between self-efficacy assessments and work effectiveness, perceived productivity, job satisfaction, and the ability to cope with challenges. (Staples et al., 1999)

In addition, the researchers discovered that there was a strong relationship between self-efficacy judgments and other previous circumstances such as: virtual experience and training, best practices modeling by management, computer anxiety, and IT capabilities. As management can affect many of these factors, this is an important study shedding light on how management can better improve their virtual worker's performance. (Staples et al., 1999)

As noted by the other researchers virtual employees raise challenges for both managers and employees. Kurland and Egan (1999) investigate both the material and ideal changes that are occurring thanks to the telecommuting. With a study of 191 employees, the authors analyzed the relationships between telecommuters, organizational monitoring, and organizational justice perceptions. They found challenges in monitoring of virtual employees, as well as physical isolation and involvement in valued organizational outcomes.

Their results suggested "that monitoring strategies were more strongly associated with organizational justice perceptions than with telecommuting, and procedural and interactional justice perceptions related significantly to telecommuting." (Kurland & Egan, 1999)

Hill, of IBM Global Employee Research, and Miller, of the Department of Family and Human Development at Utah State University, (1998) speak about how virtual offices affect work and the tenuous work/life balance. They studied 157 virtual IBM employees and 89 traditional IBM employees. They note that previous research showed an increase in productivity from 10% to 30%. This is not new news. Increases in productivity for virtual workers have been documented over the past three decades. "In 1978, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina pioneered its "cottage keyer" project, which documented a 26% jump in productivity among telecommuting workers vs. their in-office counterparts." (Greer, Buttross & Schmelzle, 2002)