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Keywords
Teleworking, Human resource utilization, Gender, Management attitudes
Abstract
This paper analyzes the differences of male and female human resource (HR) managers' perceptions on the benefits, barriers and feasibility of teleworking adoption in a sample of Spanish companies. The results indicate that teleworking is seen as more feasible where there are a large number of female employees, and that female HR managers perceive teleworking differently than male HR managers. Women tend to be more positive about the potential of teleworking.
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Received: February 2002
Revised: May 2002
Accepted: May 2002
Introduction
Because primary responsibility for homemaking and childcare tasks falls on women (Shelton and John, 1996), female employees and managers face particularly strong work-family conflicts (Kim and Ling, 2001). Firms employing relatively large percentages of female employees are more dependent upon them and more likely to adopt flexible work practices as a result (Ingram and Simons, 1995). Organizations with a high percentage of female employees may adopt flexible work programs to reduce costs by increasing commitment and retention and reducing lateness and absenteeism (Osterman, 1995). Some studies (i.e. Konrad and Mangel, 2000) indicate that companies with larger percentages of female employees are already developing more extensive work-life programs which are impacting positively on the firm's productivity. Teleworking is often seen as a key element of this package due to the rising trend that professional and clerical jobs have become more dependent on information technology and less dependent on time and location. In this context, teleworking has become one of the flexible work arrangements that organizations may introduce to meet the changing social lifestyles of employees.
But if teleworking is able to offer labour opportunities for women in the labour market, women would perceive greater advantages and less disadvantages of teleworking compared to their male counterparts. However, very few empirical studies have specifically examined this issue and the results are not conclusive. The purpose of this paper is to analyze gender differences in attitudes towards teleworking, in terms of its advantages and disadvantages to employees and companies and in the feasibility of a telework...