In this paper, measures of job and workplace perceptions are developed, and the importance of those and other measures to the desired proportions of work time at each of 3 locations (home, workplace, and a telecommuting center) is examined. Using data from 188 participants in the Neighborhood Telecenters Project, 4 job context perception factors were identified: productivity, job satisfaction, supervisor relationship, and co-worker interaction. Four generic workplace perception factors were identified: personal benefits, work effectiveness, autonomy, and supervisor comfort. A multinomial logit model of the desired work time allocation found the generic variables job suitability, personal benefits, and work effectiveness to be significant and positively related to greater desired proportions of time at the associated location. These variables capture the major elements previously hypothesized to influence telecommuting preference in a parsimonious fashion. The model explained 55% of the theoretical maximum amount of information in the data, and did not violate the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives assumption.
Abstract