With the combination of cloud computing, 5G, virtual reality and communication technologies, the "virtual economy" was further extended to the working end, telecommuting and virtual collaboration have become an indispensable way of modern work, which is known as a new work paradigm in the 21st century. As a flexible work practice, telecommuting gives employees ‘‘the opportunity to adjust the when, where, and how of work′′, thus saves commuting time, enables employees work efficiently. In addition, it is benefit to individual work-life balance. For employers, it saves office costs and provides more flexible working methods to attract and retain core employees. However, apart from potential benefits, its negative effects have also been widely discussed, such as more interference at work, reduced efficiency, social and professional isolation, etc. Under the impact of the "COVID-19", telecommutes in China has rapidly risen, its negative effects have also been highlighted. According to a survey report in China, 83.1% of telecommuters encountered problems such as low work efficiency, telecommuting system failure, poor work quality, and longer working hours. Respondents said that telecommuting blurs the boundaries and causes work overload. Therefore, how to reduce the negative effects of telecommuting and maximize its advantages has become the focus of organizational management research and practice.Previous studies have shown that autonomy is the key mechanism for telecommuting to affect individuals. Telecommuting increases the perceived autonomy of employees, and has a positive impact on job satisfaction, performance, and decreases role pressure, etc. However, telecommuters may devote more time and energy to work, leading to work intensification. Because of the more freedom and autonomy employees have, the more control and restraint the organization has on their work, and the more intensive the work becomes, leading to greater conflicts and negative psychological effects. Many studies have discussed the positive and negative effects of telecommuting separately, but few studies have incorporated bright side and dark side into the same theoretical framework and discuss the critical point of positive and negative effects. Addressing the gap of the paradox effect of telecommuting, on the basis of theories of self-determination and autonomy-control paradox, this paper explores the non-linear effect of telecommuting intensity on task performance and emotional exhaustion, and examines the instantaneous indirect effect of autonomy and work intensification. A survey was conducted with a sample of 627 telecommuters in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Jiangsu. Using SPSS, AMOS and MEDCURVE MACRO tools for data analysis, this article draws the following conclusions: (1) Telecommuting intensity has an inverted U-shaped relationship with task performance, and a U-shaped relationship with emotional exhaustion. (2) Telecommuting intensity has an inverted U-shaped relationship with autonomy, and a positive linear relationship with work intensification. (3) Autonomy mediates the non-linear relationship between telecommuting intensity and task performance, while the mediating effect between telecommuting intensity and emotional exhaustion is not significant; work intensification mediates the non-linear relationship between telecommuting intensity and task performance, emotional exhaustion. (4) We further found that age, telecommuting norms, and telecommuting significantly moderate the relationships between telecommuting intensity and task performance, emotional exhaustion.The theoretical contributions of this study are mainly reflected in the following two aspects: (1) The article innovatively proposes the dual-path influence mechanism model of telecommuting, incorporates its paradox effect into a systematic research framework, and clarifies the mechanism of its influence and the paradox results. (2) By verifying the non-linear effects of telecommuting, it breaks through the previous linear cognition of its effects, provides a new interpretation of it, and deepens the research in this field.The research results help managers to further understand and better manage telecommuting: (1) This study verifies the curvilinear effect of telecommuting in the context of Chinese organizations, indicates that managers should understand both bright and dark side of telecommuting, and reminds them of grasping the turning point of telecommuting effects. Through establishing reasonable telecommuting norms inside and outside the organization, communicating regularly and giving feedback on work results, as well as devoting to establish new concepts and building supporting organization culture, organizations can manage telecommuting more effectively, maximizing its strengths and avoiding weaknesses. (2) This study discovers the important role of autonomy. In the case of autonomy, employees can achieve better results if they have better self-management capabilities. (3) Organizations should pay attention to the matching of employees′ characteristics and preferences with the intensity of telecommuting and select telecommuters on this basis to achieve the optimal effect.
Key words
telecommuting /
autonomy /
work intensification /
task performance /
emotional exhaustion
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