Telecommuting and Creativity of Professional Employees in Software Developing Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Telecommuting as an alternative job design is becoming increasingly popular across the globe. Although many aspects of telecommuting have been extensively explored by researchers, its impact on individual creativity is yet to be explored. Thus, we conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the telecommuting-creativity link. Study 1 revealed how telecommuting enhances and reduces creativity from semi-structured interviews with 17 professional software development employees. Guided by the insights of study 1 and the Identity Theory, study 2 was conducted to examine the effect of telework on the novelty and usefulness dimensions of creativity. Drawing on a survey of 246 professional employees, study 2 found that telecommuting impacts personal and team identity of an individual differently which in turn have varying impacts to the two dimensions of creativity. We discuss the implications of our findings for the future implementation of telecommuting.