Cross-Cultural Telecommuting Evaluation in Mexico and United States

This paper tests the impact of differences in culture on telecommuting in the United States and Mexico. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of each country’s culture on the perceptions of telecommuting satisfaction and organizational support for telecommuting. The research questions assess the telecommuting satisfaction, and extent of support by organizational policies for telecommuting in the two countries. These results are compared with the expected outcomes due to the differences in culture in both countries. The tests are done, based on a questionnaire sample of 204 employees in the U.S. and Mexico. The statistical method is crosstabulation analysis. The results show no difference between the two samples regarding job satisfaction. Respondents in the two samples indicate differences on the extent of organizational support for telecommuting. The Mexican sample shows more support for telecommuting arrangements than the U.S. one. This result is unexpected, given the cultural differences in both countries. The findings have implications for telecommuting policies and telecommuting cross-cultural research.