Stuart Schmidt, a human resource management professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, has published research finding that employees working in virtual relationships sense less managerial support, have less trust in their managers and do not foster the same level of collaborative relationships with their managers. Schmidt sees Yahoo’s recent decision to call home-based employees back to the office as one that may help the company in its highly innovative and collaborative industry.
“Generating and advocating innovative ideas is a risky proposition, especially in a large corporate environment. Trusting your manager and sensing that your manager supports you is important to taking the risk of advocating innovative ideas,” Schmidt said. “The virtual work arrangements appear not to foster the same level of collaborative [social capital] relationships in organizations as do face-to-face employment, and therefore may inhibit innovation so necessary to firms such as Yahoo.”
For more information on Schmidt, visit his faculty profile.
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