Social support in the workplace between teleworkers, office-based colleagues and supervisors

© 2016 The Authors. New Technology, Work and Employment published by John Wiley & Sons LtdThis paper draws upon the findings of qualitative interviews carried out with teleworkers, their office-based colleagues and supervisory staff of a teleworking initiative introduced by a UK public sector lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alison Collins, Donald Hislop, Susan Cartwright
Format: Default Article
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Other commerce, management, tourism and services not elsewhere classified
Telework
Social support relationships
Flexible working
Peer support
Homeworking
Supervisors
Managers
Office workers
Business and Management not elsewhere classified
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/22282
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Summary:© 2016 The Authors. New Technology, Work and Employment published by John Wiley & Sons LtdThis paper draws upon the findings of qualitative interviews carried out with teleworkers, their office-based colleagues and supervisory staff of a teleworking initiative introduced by a UK public sector local authority to explore workplace social support relationships. Our study found differences between office-based and permanent teleworking staff in terms of social support. For teleworkers relationships at work are complex, with social support networks being established prior to working at home. By working from home, teleworkers were able to develop greater social support relationships with some colleagues, predominantly other teleworkers, while at the same time allowing them to distance themselves from negative work relationships. Overall, a social disconnection developed between teleworkers and office-based staff. In contrast social support was more important for office-based workers, who valued co-worker relationships with other office-based staff.

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