Today Jacquelyn Brown stops by to ask for your assistance with a research project exploring personality type, telecommuting and the potential connection between them.  Jacquelyn has been workshifting for the past 7 years and is currently working on her PhD at the University of San Diego with a research focus specifically on telecommuting.

As a telecommuter for the last seven years , I have been intrigued by this alternative work arrangement and have chosen to explore the concept of telecommuting for my doctoral dissertation at the University of San Diego.
 
Telecommuting continues to grow as technology improves, organizations look to save on overhead costs, employees seek stronger work-life balances, shifting economic priorities, and we look to help the environment by putting fewer cars on the roads.  To ensure that organizations continue to support and encourage telecommuting, we need a better understanding of telecommuting challenges.
 
There are so many avenues to explore when it comes to telecommuting.  One area that is underdeveloped and could be insightful for employers, employees and managers, focuses on the relationships between telecommuting and personality type.  We already know that there are learned skills that can benefit a telecommuter (time management, self-discipline...), but what about how one's innate personality type relates to telecommuting?  This complex issue could provide insight into challenges faced by telecommuters based on their personality type.
 
Telecommuters face numerous challenges, such as feelings of isolation, lack of promotional opportunities, lack of structure in their workday and relationships with managers, co-workers and family.  What is not currently understood is why not all telecommuters experience these challenges, and for those that do, why they experience them to varying degrees.  I am suggesting that this difference may be related to a telecommuter's MBTI personality type.  While it shouldn't be assumed that certain types would be better telecommuters than others, it would be interesting to investigate how the various MBTI personality types could adapt to make their telecommuting situations more successful.
 
The focus of my research is to uncover telecommuters' experiences with telecommuting challenges and explore if there is a relationship between those challenges and such factors as one's Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality type and telecommuting characteristics and demographics.
 
The MBTI is a personality assessment that takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.  After taking the MBTI participants will be provided with a detailed analysis of your type.  In addition, I have created a telecommuting survey consisting of only 16 questions that is broken up into three brief sections, Telecommuting Overview, Telecommuting Challenges and Demographics.
 
If you participate in this research, I will provide you with the following:

• Your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) profile (a $12 value)
• The MBTI make-up of the survey participants
• The telecommuting characteristics and demographics of the survey participants, and how they compare to the larger population of telecommuters
• The challenges faced by the survey participant
• The telecommuting challenges for different personality types
  

If you work for an organization that you do not own and telecommute from home using a phone and computer at least once a week, I welcome your insight into your experiences as a telecommuter.  If not, thank you for your time.
 
I will be conducting research for the next 60 days.  Please email me at telecommutestudy@gmail.com to indicate you would like to participate in this research. After you register, I will send you links to both the MBTI and telecommuting surveys with further instructions.  Your feedback on both surveys will be kept confidential.  

Thank you for being a part of this exciting research project!
 

For workshifters, email is, without a doubt, the most dominant form of communication with our colleagues, clients, and associates. In some cases you may have only communicated with some people via email or phone, never having met them in person.