Determining the Characteristics of the Air Force Telecommuting Program

摘要

This thesis explores advantages and disadvantages to be realized from telecommuting, along with developing a linear regression model that identifies factors correlated with preference for telecommuting among Air Force personnel. This thesis uses a stated preference model derived from existing telecommuting research to characterize the factors impacting the preference for civilian, officer, and enlisted Air Force personnel. The regression models developed showed that factors affecting telecommuting preference were different among different sub-samples. Two factors were universal across the sample. Those were 'Amount of Telecommuting Job Allows,' and 'Allow More Work Done.' These two factors gave R-squared values of over .39 for each major sub-group in the sample. Another significant finding was that telecommuting preference was significantly greater than the amount of telecommuting the job allowed for the entire sample. The discussion includes tables and text, for use by decision makers, describing cumulative amounts of the sample who felt their jobs would allow each amount of telecommuting, along with potential advantages and disadvantages for that amount of telecommuting. This research showed that a linear method can be used to model telecommuting preference and obtain statistically significant results.