IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Jan 1999

Communication patterns in distributed work groups: a network analysis

F. Belanger

Abstract

Many of today's telecommuters are knowledge workers who require substantial communications to perform their jobs. The research presented investigates the nature of communication links between individuals in two work groups comprised of both telecommuters and nontelecommuters. Communication network analysis is used to map the communications in the groups and identify blocks of individuals. Blocks are groups of individuals with high levels of communication linkages among them. Work setting, gender, job type, tenure, and number of telecommuting days are investigated as potential factors in determining individuals' membership in blocks. There appears to be a tendency for telecommuters to communicate more with other telecommuters as well as for females to communicate more with one another. However, only job type was statistically related to block membership. These results indicate that there is a limited impact of telecommuting on the communication structure of work groups, which should reduce potential concerns of telecommuters about being left out of the office network. They should also reduce managers' concerns about having knowledge transfer and assimilation of corporate culture differences between telecommuting and nontelecommuting employees.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
1999-01-01
DOI
10.1109/47.807962
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
transfer labor and working conditions gender and writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

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  5. Rakow et al. (2000)
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CrossRef global citation count: 37 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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