Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting

An Empirical Analysis of Subordinate Performance When the Supervisor Works from Home

• In Event: Control Systems (Archival)

Abstract

Many organizations demand that employees have several years of working experience on the job to be eligible for working from home. In an environment where relatively inexperienced subordinates work at the office while their highly experienced supervisors work from home, I examine the effect of the supervisor working from home on subordinate performance. I find subordinate performance is lower when the supervisor works from home, relative to when the supervisor works at the office. Further, I find the unfavorable effect of the supervisor working from home on subordinate performance is more pronounced for more complex tasks for which the need for advising is greater. Finally, I find evidence that the mere presence of physical distance between supervisors and subordinates does not explain my findings. My study highlights the importance of in-person interactions in advising relatively inexperienced employees performing technical analysis in organizations.

Author

• In Gyun Baek, University of Wisconsin-Madison