(Press-News.org) Employees who telecommute the majority of the work week are more satisfied with their jobs compared to those working mostly in the office because working remotely alleviates more stress than it creates, according to a new study by a communication researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
The study, conducted by Kathryn Fonner, UWM assistant professor of communication, and Michael Roloff, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University, compared the advantages and disadvantages of each work arrangement. A paper outlining the results appears in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Communication Research, published by the National Communication Association.
The main benefit reported by participants who telework at least three days a week is the decreased work-life conflict that a flexible work arrangement allows. Alienation from workplace communication, often cited as the biggest disadvantage of telework, was reported as minimal by the study's participants. Teleworkers reported exchanging information with others less frequently than office-based employees, but both groups reported similar timely access to important work-related information.
Results of the study pointed to multiple reasons why telework is linked to high job satisfaction, namely that employees working remotely are, on average, shielded from much of the distracting and stressful aspects of the workplace, such as office politics, interruptions, constant meetings and information overload, says Fonner.
"Our findings emphasize the advantages of restricted face-to-face interaction, and also highlight the need for organizations to identify and address the problematic and unsatisfying issues inherent in collocated work environments," says Fonner. "With lower stress and fewer distractions, employees can prevent work from seeping into their personal lives."
In addition to implementing telework arrangements for employees, organizations may consider several other strategies to boost job satisfaction for both office-based and distance workers, she adds, including:
Limiting the number of meetings and mass emails.
Streamlining office communication by creating a repository of information that can be accessed at any time.
Designating certain times when, and spaces where, office-based employees can work uninterrupted.
Creating a supportive climate where employees can register concerns without fear of retaliation.
Encouraging employees to disconnect from workplace communication when they are finished for the day.
###
About the National Communication Association
The National Communication Association advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry.
The NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, the NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.
NCA is the largest national organization to promote communication scholarship and education. A non-profit organization, NCA has over 8,000 educators, practitioners, and students who work and reside in every state and more than 20 countries.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Men treated with hormone-based therapy for prostate cancer faced a 30 percent to 40 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer, compared to patients who did not receive this treatment, according to a new study.
The study looked at use of androgen deprivation therapy, a common type of treatment for prostate cancer that involves blocking the male hormone testosterone through either surgical removal of the testicles or a series of injections. It's been shown to benefit men with advanced cancers, but its benefit for less-advanced disease is unclear. Still, ...
The world's first remote heart procedure, using a robotic arm alongside 3-D mapping, is due to take place at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
It comes six months after Dr Andre Ng carried out the first ever remote catheter ablation procedure using the Amigo Robotic Catheter System.
Dr Ng, is senior lecturer at the University of Leicester and consultant cardiologist and electrophysiologist at Glenfield Hospital.
On Tuesday 16 November, Dr Ng will be carrying out another "world first" using the robotic arm in combination with advanced 3-dimensional mapping to fix ...
Emotional prosperity in Europe is falling, and this troubling fact needs to be faced by the European governments. That is the conclusion from a new research report from the University of Warwick which documents cross-country evidence on psychological health and mental well-being. The study, by Andrew Oswald, professor of behavioural science at Warwick Business School, draws together the latest statistical evidence from a range of social-science, science and medical journals. The study is to be published in the December issue of the British Journal of Industrial Relations. ...
A pediatric immunologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with European gene therapy researchers who achieved marked clinical improvements in two young children with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a very rare but often severe immunodeficiency disorder.
Jordan S. Orange, M.D., Ph.D., an expert in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), performed sophisticated cell imaging and analysis for the study, led by German researcher Christoph Klein, M.D., Ph.D., of Hannover Medical School. Orange was a senior co-author, and Children's Hospital was the only U.S. institution ...
New evidence that homeopathic consultations can reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis has been revealed by scientists from the University of Southampton.
In a study published today in the journal Rheumatology, researchers found that arthritis patients significantly benefited when they received homeopathy alongside conventional treatment over a period of 6 months, but this improvement was due to homeopathy's consultation process and not its remedies.
"Although previous trials have shown homeopathy may help patients with rheumatoid arthritis, this is the first ...
INDIANAPOLIS – A new national survey conducted by researchers from Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute has found that while palliative care may be available for those with dementia, there are significant barriers to providing or receiving services to relieve the pain, eating difficulties and other symptoms associated with dementia.
The survey findings are reported in the Nov. 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
"Although the general public and many physicians do not associate palliative or hospice care with dementia, dementia is ...
Pinpointing the exact genetic cause of inherited deafness has always involved sequencing one gene at a time, a process that can take up to a year and cost roughly $1,000 per gene. It would cost around $75,000 to test all known deafness causing genes using this approach.
Now University of Iowa researchers working with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine have developed a test that can screen all of the genes known to cause deafness in a single run, in one to three months and for about $2,000. It means quicker answers for families anxious to determine treatment options ...
Human childhood is considerably longer than chimpanzees, our closest-living ape relatives. A multinational team of specialists, led by researchers from Harvard University, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the ESRF, applied cutting-edge synchrotron X-ray imaging to resolve microscopic growth in 10 young Neanderthal and Homo sapiens fossils. They found that despite some overlap, which is common in closely-related species, significant developmental differences exist. Modern humans are the slowest to the finish line, stretching out their maturation, ...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new supercomputer rating system will be released by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories at the Supercomputing Conference 2010 in New Orleans on Nov. 17.
The rating system, Graph500, tests supercomputers for their skill in analyzing large, graph-based structures that link the huge numbers of data points present in biological, social and security problems, among other areas.
"By creating this test, we hope to influence computer makers to build computers with the architecture to deal with these increasingly complex problems," ...
WASHINGTON — A new National Research Council report requested by Congress finds "several major shortcomings" in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security assessment of risks associated with operating the proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan. The laboratory would study dangerous foreign animal diseases -- including the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which affects cattle, pigs, deer, and other cloven-hoofed animals -- and diseases deadly to humans that can be transmitted between animals and people. Based on the DHS risk ...
