Facilitating Innovation Adoption and Diffusion: The Case of Telework

Abstract

Despite many potential benefits for both the employer and the employee resulting from telework arrangements, this innovation has not been adopted and diffused as expected. This study uses innovation theory as a foundation to study the growth of telework by empirically testing the strength of the relationship between facilitator variables and the adoption and diffusion of telework. Strong relationships were found for both general innovation facilitator variables, such as top management support and a champion, and innovation-specific facilitator variables as suggested by the telework literature. These results suggest that to obtain a more complete model of the relevant factors in the adoption and diffusion of innovations, characteristics of the specific innovation must be considered. Also, these findings have implications for the future growth of telework and can guide those wishing to champion telework in their organization