How and when telecommuting enhances employee growth: a socially embedded model of thriving at work

Purpose Does telecommuting enhance employees’ self-leadership and thereby facilitate thriving at work? By drawing on the socially embedded model of thriving at work, we aimed to explore the interactive effect of telecommuting and perceived visionary leadership on thriving at work through the lens of self-leadership. Design/methodology/approach Two-wave survey data were collected from a sample of 230 Chinese workers. Hierarchical linear regressions were performed to test our hypotheses. Findings The results suggested that telecommuting increases employees’ thriving at work through self-leadership when receiving a high level of visionary leadership but decreases their thriving at work through self-leadership when receiving a low level of visionary leadership. Research limitations/implications By integrating leadership research with studies on telecommuting, this study not only provides a new perspective to the literature on telecommuting but also helps teleworkers overcome the challenges they face, supporting the broad application of telecommuting technologies. Practical implications As telecommuting becomes increasingly prevalent in the workplace, we provide managers with insights on how to effectively manage and engage with employees in telecommuting environments. This helps them develop strategies to sustain employee productivity and maximize the benefits of implementing teleworking. Originality/value Beyond the traditional technostress perspective within the information systems field, we offer a leadership perspective on the effects of telecommuting on employees. Specifically, our findings indicate that the impact of telecommuting on self-leadership and subsequently thriving at work – whether it is beneficial or detrimental – depends on the presence of perceived visionary leadership.