Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Research on Virtual Management (VM) has attracted the attention of numerous scholars plus theoretical and empirical studies on this concept have flourished. As VM develops in Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (SMEs), a lacuna emerges in terms of the studies in attitude of employees towards VM in SMEs.
This paper seeks to address this shortcoming and also form the basis for a detailed study. This paper postulates that the virtual employees have positive job attitude than non-virtual employees (in the context of this research virtual employee referred to employees under VM).
To address this postulation, a survey was designed to measure the attitude of both non-virtual and virtual employees towards management. A random-number of employees (N=116) comprising non-virtual, partial virtual and virtual employees from SMEs located in
Greater Western Sydney (GWS) volunteered to participate in the survey.
This Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) reports on the initial findings of the survey. Based on this EDA all three types of employees have positive attitude towards management. The most remarkable finding is that this positive attitude tends to increase as management type shifts from non-virtual to virtual. The research contributes to the currently limited understanding of the attitude of employees towards
VM.
Field: Management
Keywords: Non-virtual employees, Partial virtual employees, Virtual employees and
Virtual management
1. Introduction
Harrison, Newman & Roth (2006) and Judge & Mueller (2012) correctly point out that the research on job attitude is arguably the most popular area of research in organisational studies. This is so because job attitude is a significant decider in the success of work in business organisations.
While theoretical and empirical research on job attitude is voluminous, new research perspectives on job attitude in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is emerging to explore the attitude of employees towards Virtual Management (VM). This is so because many SMEs are now capitalising on VM‟s promises of lower costs of
______________
Walied Askarzai, PhD candidate, School of Business, University of Western Sydney,
Email: walied.askarzai@uws.edu.au
Assoc. Prof. Yi-Chen, Lan, School of Business, University of Western Sydney.
Email:Y.Lan@uws.edu.au
Dr. Bhuvan, Unhelkar, Visiting fellow, University of Western Sydney.
Email: bhuvan.unhelkar@gmail.com
/ bhuvan@methodscience.com
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8 production, competitive advantage and the ability to focus on their core competencies (Thomson, Stone & Ion, 2007; Van den Berg, 2009; Hassouneh &
Brengman, 2011). When SMEs adopt VM, they undergo a transition period which can have profound implications on their productivity
– as it depends on the attitude of employees towards Virtual Management. The exploratory data on employees towards VM is currently limited to the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) region. GWS provides the necessary depth and breadth in terms of type and variations in business and, as such, considered to be an acceptable set of data for this research. This paper measures the three components of job attitude namely, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and job involvement in the context of VM.
The outcome of this study can be extrapolated to understand the behaviour of such employees. It is hoped that practitioners and scholars can utilise this knowledge to benefit more from VM concepts and create an improved work environment for the employees.
The layout of the paper is as follows. The first section presents the literature review as a theoretical background. The second section describes the research methodology and research sample. The results of the Exploratory Data Analysis
(EDA) will be discussed in the third section. The paper culminates with the conclusion and research outlook.
2. Literature Review
This section reviews the relevant literature on job attitude, SMEs, VM and virtual employees to serve as a conceptual foundation for the EDA. In addition, a brief review of GWS is presented.
2.1
Attitude is defined as an evaluative/responding statement towards objects and people which can be favourable or unfavourable (Pickens, 2005; Robbins & Judge,
2007; Harvey & Erdos, 2011). The components of attitude are: cognitive components
(thoughts), affective components (feelings) and behavioural components (actions)
(Pickens, 2005; Robbins & Judge, 2007; Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009; Harvey & Erdos,
2011).
While an individual may possess various attitudes, this study focuses on “job attitudes”. Job attitudes are evaluations of the employee‟s job that express the employee‟s feelings; beliefs and attachment toward his/her job (Judge & Mueller,
2012
). Job attitude is a component of an individual‟s behaviour and influences the individual‟s approach to work and the treatment of co-workers (Pickens, 2005; Smith,
Yellowley & Farmer, 2012).
Harvey & Erdos (2011) claim that the job attitude of an employee in the workplace matters since job attitude affects the behaviour of the employee. As noted by Judge
& Mueller (2012) knowledge of job attitude is important for three reasons. a), job attitude is a reflection of social attitude and research into job attitude can provide insights into social attitude. b), job attitude is important because a job is important to an employee‟s identity, health and their evaluation of their life. c), job attitude can be
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8 used to predict the behaviour of employees. Pickens (2005) argue that understanding the attitude of an employee can help to better manage them.
The three components of job attitudes are: job satisfaction, job involvement and organisational commitment.
Job satisfaction is the positive feeling of an employee about his/her job (Robbins &
Judge, 2007; Griffin, Moorhead & Gregory, 2007). Job satisfaction is a feeling that emerges as a result of the perception that the job enables material and psychological needs (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009; Aziri, 2011; Colquitt, Lepine & Wesson, 2011).
According to Saari and Judge (2002) and Griffin et. al. (2007) from the research perspective, the focal point of job attitude is job satisfaction.
Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance related to the employee‟s self-worth
(Robbins & Judge, 2007; Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010).
Organisational commitment is the degree that an employee is committed towards the organisation goals (Robbins & Judge, 2007; Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010).
2.2
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics a micro business is a small business with 0
–4 employees. A small enterprise is an actively trading business with 0–19 employees. A medium-sized business is an actively trading business with 20 –199 employees, and a large business is an actively trading business with 200 or more employees (Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research 2012).
SMEs play a major role in any economy as they create jobs, business opportunities; and are considered to be crucial to economic success (Peng, Chung, Yu & Luan,
2007; Ardic, Mylenko & Saltane, 2011; Hassouneh & Brengman, 2011). According to
Fan (2003) and the OECD (2005, 2012) SMEs are important as they are engines of economic growth, are a cause of social cohesion, assist in poverty reduction, facilitate competitive and efficient markets and make up over 95% of businesses globally. Ebrahim, Ahmed & Taha (2009) stated that the wealth of the nations and economic growth correlates with the growth of SMEs. Furthermore, they argued that
SMEs play a major role in many developed and developing countries as they bring economic stability and serve as a key engine behind equalising income.
2.3
For the purpose of this study the term Virtual Organisation (VO) refers to the Virtual
Management (VM) being undertaken within VO. Hence for the sake of practicality, we have used the two terms interchangeably. “Virtual Organisation” is a type of temporary or permanent organisation with geographically and time-dispersed members (individuals, departments or organisations). The members share their corecompetencies towards the production of a product that cannot be achieved by a standalone member. Core competencies refer to the main strengths of an organisation that can be utilised as competitive advantage. The operation of VO is enabled by Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). CMC refers to communication processes where computer-mediated technologies are used as a medium. CMC is divided into two synchronic states; asynchronous (different-time)
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8 communication, such as e-mails, and synchronous (same-time) communication, such as video conferencing. The essence of a VO is process management and customer satisfaction (Askarzai, 2013).
In the past the VO was only reserved for large organisations. The time has changed; now SMEs are lured to the VO as VO promises lower costs of production, competitive advantage and the ability to focus on core competencies. SMEs need to collaborate with service providers such as marketing agencies, accounting firms and
IT services to take advantage of the benefits offered by VO (Van den Berg, 2009).
Thomson, Stone and Ion (2007) and Ebrahim, Ahmed & Taha (2009) argue that as
SMEs grow to multiple locations, covering a wide geographical area, they need to share knowledge and resources. This can happen when SMEs are transformed or partially transformed to VO status. VOs have been recommended by Pihkala,
Varamaki & Versalainen (1999) as a solution for SMEs to increase their competitiveness. SMEs can become VOs as a strategic tool to reach foreign markets
(Hassouneh & Brengman, 2011). As it was pointed out in the previous sections of this paper the participants for this research are non-virtual and virtual employees.
The subsequent section will discuss virtual employees.
Pang (2001) and Edwards & Wilson (2004) classified virtual employement into six types, namely: telecommuting, tele-centres, mobile, hot-desk, hoteling and virtual teams. Below each type of virtual employment is defined

Telecommuting employees work at locations away from the organisation and use communication technologies to remain in touch with the organisation.

Tele-centre employees work in satellite offices, outside major cities.

Mobile employees are always on the move and use mobile technologies to remain in touch with the organisation.

Hotdesk employees work on customer premises and use the customer‟s facilities to remain in touch with their organisation.

Hoteling employees use client facilities such as hotels to remain in touch with the organisation.

Virtual employees work for virtual teams; these employees collaborate from distant locations using communication technologies as a medium of interaction.
For the purpose of this study virtual employees refer to all types of virtual employment.
2.5
According to reports compiled by Parramatta City Council and NSW department of trade and investment (2012) GWS consists of 14 local government areas.
Gross regional product (GRP) in 2010-11 for GWS was $114 billion. The major employing industries in GWS are Manufacturing, Health care & social services and
Retail trade. There are 146,792 businesses in GWS.
Based on the reports compiled by AEC group limited (2007; 2009) approximately, 2 million people reside in GWS and over one third of all people in Sydney Metropolitan region are employed in GWS.
SMEs play a major role in GWS as the economy of GWS is heavily dependent on
SMEs (University of Western Sydney, n.d).
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
3. Methodology
3.1 Sample
A random sample of participants was recruited from SMEs located in GWS. Criteria for identifying SMEs were based on the definition of SMEs given by ABS as discussed in section 2.2.
A hybrid of online (self-administrated) and paper surveys were distributed to 1150
SMEs in GWS. To date 116 usable responses were received. More responses are expected in the future.
To better assess the attitude of employees toward VM the surveys were distributed to two types of employees, that is non-virtual and virtual employees. The third type of employees “partial virtual” was discovered during the survey as these employees indicated their management type to be mixed (i.e. both face-to-face management and virtual management). A total of 58 non-virtual, 29 partial virtual and 29 virtual employees participated in this study.
The survey for this study consists of the three components which are the components of job attitude that is: job satisfaction, job involvement and organisational commitment. The survey is divided into three parts. Part one contains
10 questions to measure job satisfaction, part two contains 10 questions to measure organisational commitment and part three contains 9 questions to measure job involvement. The survey questions are attached as appendix 1.
Based on Zikmund (2003) attitude cannot be measured by means of direct observation. Job attitude can be measured from the way an employee responds
(verbal expression) to some stimulus. There are different techniques used for measuring attitudes such as ranking, rating, sorting technique, and choice technique.
Using a Likert Scale, a measure of job attitudes can be designed in a way to allow research participants to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with a statement expressed about an attitudinal objective.
The survey used 5-level Likert scale method to collect the responses to each question: whereas (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neither agree nor disagree,
(4) agree and (5) strongly agree were used as the scales.
A variety of methods is used to measure and present the attitude of employees.
Each method has advantages and drawbacks. It was decided that the best method to adopt for this investigation was EDA. Based on Behrens (1997) EDA is a wellestablished statistical tool which leads to conceptual discoveries of data. According to Jaggi (2003) EDA is mostly presented by graphs and a few quantitative techniques. Furthermore, EDA graphs are simple to plot and present. EDA gives the researcher the power to open-mindedly explore data, reveal the structure of the data and gain some new insight into the data.
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
The broad aims of this EDA are to better understand the collected survey responses, to reveal the structure and the pattern of the data and to foster the hypothesis for the next phase of the study.
The aggregate values of agreement and disagreement of employees to all questions are used to construct the graphs and the tables. This technique facilitates a better understanding and comparison of the responses. To better compare the agreement levels with the disagreement levels, the neutral (neither agreed nor disagreed) aggregate values are not included in the graphs.
4. Results and Discussion
This section presents the results of the EDA. Figure 1 exhibits the responses of all three types of employees to job satisfaction questions. The graph indicates that a great number of employees agreed with most of the questions reflecting the fact that a great number of these employees are satisfied with their jobs. This is further verified by table 1 which presents the percentage values of responses to job satisfaction questions. Based on the table the total percentage values of agreement to most questions are high in comparison to the total percentage values of disagreement. Both the graph and the table indicate that the level of job satisfaction tend to increase as the management type shifts from non-virtual to virtual.
Figure 1: The responses of employees to job satisfaction questions
Increase
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Table 1: The percentage values of responses to job satisfaction questions
Non virtual employees
Q1 1.72%
Q2 5.17%
Q3 1.72%
Q4 1.72%
Q5 1.72%
Q6 3.45%
Q7 1.72%
Q8 5.17%
Q9 1.72%
Q10 1.72%
Strongly
Disagree
1.72%
8.62%
8.62%
10.34%
5.17%
15.52%
12.07%
48.28%
13.79%
27.59%
58.62%
29.31%
58.62%
13.79% 39.66%
18.97% 44.83%
41.38%
25.86%
8.62%
17.24%
34.48%
29.31%
12.07%
1.72%
8.62%
17.24% 60.34%
18.97% 43.10%
18.97%
24.14%
6.90% 12.07% 48.28% 31.03%
1.72% 18.97% 55.17%
Disagree Neither Agree
Agree,
Nor
22.41%
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Partial virtual employees
3.45%
13.79%
10.34%
12.07%
6.90%
18.97%
3.45%
13.79%
8.62%
3.45%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
84.48%
37.93%
75.86%
74.14%
74.14%
53.45%
79.31%
67.24%
79.31%
77.59%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Q1 0.00%
Q2 17.24%
Q3 3.45%
Q4 0.00%
Q5 0.00%
Q6 10.34%
Q7 3.45%
Q8 6.90%
Q9 0.00%
Q10 3.45%
Strongly
Disagree
10.34%
17.24%
6.90%
3.45%
3.45%
10.34%
10.34%
6.90%
13.79%
10.34%
58.62%
41.38%
51.72%
27.59% 34.48%
31.03% 41.38%
24.14% 31.03%
20.69% 31.03%
24.14%
10.34%
27.59%
34.48%
24.14%
24.14%
34.48%
24.14%
10.34%
17.24%
10.34%
27.59%
41.38%
24.14%
37.93%
10.34%
Disagree
17.24% 37.93%
Neither
Agree,
Nor
Disagree
Agree
31.03%
Strongly
Agree
Virtual employees
10.34%
34.48%
10.34%
3.45%
3.45%
20.69%
13.79%
31.03%
10.34%
13.79%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
82.76%
51.72%
79.31%
68.97%
65.52%
55.17%
65.52%
51.72%
79.31%
68.97%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Q1 0.00%
Q2 0.00%
Q3 0.00%
Q4 0.00%
Q5 0.00%
Q6 3.70%
Q7 0.00%
7.41%
3.70%
11.11%
3.70%
7.41%
18.52%
3.70%
7.41% 48.15%
18.52% 59.26%
7.41% 51.85%
18.52% 44.44%
40.74% 40.74%
18.52% 48.15%
18.52% 55.56%
37.04%
18.52%
29.63%
33.33%
11.11%
11.11%
22.22%
7.41%
3.70%
11.11%
3.70%
7.41%
22.22%
3.70%
85.19%
77.78%
81.48%
77.78%
51.85%
59.26%
77.78%
Q8 0.00%
Q9 0.00%
14.81%
0.00%
18.52% 44.44%
14.81% 44.44%
22.22%
40.74%
14.81%
0.00%
66.67%
85.19%
Q10 0.00%
Strongly
Disagree
3.70% 7.41%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
Disagree
59.26%
Agree
29.63%
Strongly
Agree
3.70%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
88.89%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Figure 2 depicts the responses of all three types of employees to organisational commitment questions. Based on the graph the agreed columns are more kurtosis
(peaked) compared to the „disagree‟ columns which can be interpreted as showing that a great number of employees have organisational commitment. This is further revealed by table 2 which display the percentage values of responses to
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8 organisational commitment questions. Based on the graph and the table employees‟ organisational commitment tend to increase as the management type shifts from non-virtual to virtual.
Figure 2: The responses of employees to organisational commitment questions
Increase
Table 2: The percentage values of responses to organisational commitment questions
Non virtual employees
Q1 8.62%
Q2 1.72%
Q3 13.79%
Q4 3.45%
Q5 0.00%
Q6 0.00%
Q7 8.62%
Q8 5.17%
Q9 5.17%
Q10 1.72%
Strongly
Disagree
Q1 6.90%
Q2 0.00%
Q3 10.34%
Q4 6.90%
Q5 3.45%
Q6 3.45%
Q7 6.90%
Q8 0.00%
Q9 6.90%
Q10 0.00%
Strongly
Disagree
17.24%
5.17%
12.07%
22.41%
15.52%
27.59%
29.31%
18.97%
34.48%
37.93%
29.31%
44.83%
32.76%
51.72%
24.14%
29.31%
41.38%
17.24%
12.07%
22.41%
15.52%
6.90%
13.79%
10.34%
24.14%
3.45%
10.34%
36.21%
22.41%
25.86%
22.41%
51.72%
39.66%
8.62%
17.24%
18.97%
1.72% 18.97%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
56.90%
Agree
20.69%
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Partial virtual employees
20.69%
13.79%
10.34%
31.03%
13.79%
31.03%
10.34%
6.90%
17.24%
13.79%
27.59%
20.69%
37.93%
37.93%
10.34%
6.90%
17.24%
34.48%
6.90% 20.69%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
17.24%
37.93%
27.59%
37.93%
41.38%
17.24%
24.14%
48.28%
27.59%
44.83%
Agree
24.14%
34.48%
20.69%
17.24%
27.59%
24.14%
17.24%
24.14%
24.14%
27.59%
Strongly
Agree
25.86%
6.90%
25.86%
25.86%
15.52%
27.59%
32.76%
8.62%
15.52%
3.45%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
44.83%
74.14%
39.66%
36.21%
55.17%
27.59%
31.03%
68.97%
58.62%
77.59%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
27.59%
13.79%
20.69%
17.24%
10.34%
20.69%
20.69%
10.34%
13.79%
6.90%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
41.38%
72.41%
48.28%
55.17%
68.97%
41.38%
41.38%
72.41%
51.72%
72.41%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Disagree
Virtual employees
Q1 0.00%
Q2 0.00%
Q3 7.41%
Q4 0.00%
Q5 0.00%
Q6 0.00%
Q7 3.70%
Q8 0.00%
Q9 0.00%
18.52%
0.00%
7.41%
11.11%
3.70%
3.70%
14.81%
7.41%
7.41%
40.74%
14.81%
29.63%
33.33%
22.22%
40.74%
29.63%
11.11%
18.52%
29.63%
55.56%
29.63%
37.04%
51.85%
40.74%
29.63%
51.85%
33.33%
11.11%
29.63%
25.93%
18.52%
22.22%
14.81%
22.22%
29.63%
40.74%
18.52%
0.00%
14.81%
11.11%
3.70%
3.70%
18.52%
7.41%
7.41%
40.74%
85.19%
55.56%
55.56%
74.07%
55.56%
51.85%
81.48%
74.07%
Q10 0.00%
Strongly
Disagree
0.00% 11.11%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
Disagree
14.81%
Agree
74.07%
Strongly
Agree
0.00%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
88.89%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Figure 3 reveals the responses of all three types of employees to job involvement questions. As in figures 1 and 2, this figure also demonstrates that most employees agreed with the job involvement questions. The explanation is that a great number of employees are involved in their jobs. This is further reflected by table 3 which presents the percentage values of responses to job involvement questions. The graph and the table indicate that the employees‟ job involvement tend to increase as the management type shifts from non-virtual to virtual.
Figure 3: The responses of employees to job involvement questions
Increase
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Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Table 3: The percentage values of responses to job involvement questions
Non virtual employees
Q1 3.45%
Q2 1.72%
Q3 1.72%
Q4 1.72%
Q5 12.07%
Q6 20.69%
Q7 6.90%
Q8 6.90%
Q9 1.72%
Strongly
Disagree
8.62%
6.90%
1.72%
17.24%
27.59%
17.24%
12.07%
8.62%
6.90%
29.31%
41.38%
29.31%
50.00%
53.45%
58.62%
31.03%
12.07%
27.59%
25.86%
29.31%
31.03%
20.69%
6.90%
5.17%
22.41%
15.52%
34.48%
39.66%
24.14%
27.59%
12.07%
10.34%
0.00% 15.52% 53.45% 29.31%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
Agree Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Partial virtual employees
12.07%
8.62%
3.45%
18.97%
39.66%
37.93%
29.31%
22.41%
1.72%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
75.86%
82.76%
89.66%
51.72%
18.97%
32.76%
36.21%
37.93%
82.76%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Q1 3.45%
Q2 0.00%
Q3 0.00%
Q4 3.45%
Q5 10.34%
Q6 17.24%
Q7 17.24%
Q8 6.90%
Q9 0.00%
Strongly
Disagree
0.00%
6.90%
6.90%
27.59%
24.14%
27.59%
24.14%
13.79%
17.24%
24.14%
37.93%
31.03%
31.03%
41.38%
34.48%
34.48%
27.59%
13.79%
41.38%
37.93%
41.38%
10.34%
0.00%
10.34%
20.69%
20.69%
27.59%
27.59%
24.14%
34.48%
10.34%
10.34%
3.45% 13.79%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
Disagree
48.28%
Agree
34.48%
Strongly
Agree
Virtual employees
3.45%
6.90%
6.90%
31.03%
34.48%
44.83%
37.93%
27.59%
3.45%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
72.41%
79.31%
75.86%
44.83%
27.59%
24.14%
34.48%
44.83%
82.76%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
Q1 0.00%
Q2 0.00%
Q3 0.00%
Q4 0.00%
Q5 7.41%
Q6 11.11%
Q7 0.00%
3.70%
0.00%
0.00%
11.11%
11.11%
7.41%
11.11%
0.00%
7.41%
7.41%
14.81%
48.15%
40.74%
22.22%
48.15%
44.44%
44.44%
55.56%
22.22%
33.33%
48.15%
48.15%
48.15%
48.15%
18.52%
11.11%
7.41%
18.52%
3.70%
0.00%
0.00%
11.11%
18.52%
18.52%
11.11%
96.30%
92.59%
92.59%
74.07%
33.33%
40.74%
66.67%
Q8 0.00% 3.70% 14.81% 51.85% 29.63% 3.70% 81.48%
Q9 0.00%
Strongly
Disagree
0.00% 3.70%
Disagree Neither
Agree,
Nor
Disagree
40.74%
Agree
55.56%
Strongly
Agree
0.00%
Total
Percentage of
Disagreement
96.30%
Total
Percentage of
Agreement
5. Conclusion and study outlook
The present study was designed to measure the attitude of employees toward VM.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the present study: (a) all three types of employees have high job satisfaction (b) all three types of employees are highly involved in their jobs (c) all three types of employees have organisational
10

Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8 commitment. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that the three types of employees have a positive attitude toward management. However, in comparison to non-virtual and partial virtual employees, the positive job attitude of virtual employees is higher. Despite its exploratory nature, this study offers some insight into the attitude of employees toward VM in SMEs. The research contributes to the currently limited understanding of the attitude of employees towards VM.
Questions like why the employee‟s job attitude is high under VM than non-VM, what are the potential factors causing the increase of positive job attitude towards VM is beyond this study. These questions will be examined in the next phase of the study which involves in-depth qualitative research of individual employees.
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Appendix 1
Job Satisfaction Questions
1. I am happy working in my role.
2. I look forward to go to work on Monday morning.
3. I feel positive about my job most of the time.
4. I believe my manager cares for me.
5. I believe my co-workers are my good friends.
6. I believe my salary/wage is fair.
7. I feel valued in my workplace.
8. I have a balanced work and life.
9. I like to continue working in this organisation.
10. I am overall satisfied with my job.
Organisational Commitment Questions
1. I will not leave my job if there is an opportunity.
2. I feel obliged towards my workplace goals.
3. I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organisation.
4. I feel as if my workplace‟s problems are mine.
5. I feel that I belong to this organisation.
6. I feel emotionally attached to this organisation.
7. I dedicated my career to this organisation.
8. I believe this organisation deserves my loyalty.
9. I believe I can grow with this organisation.
10. I am committed towards the goals of this organisation.
Job Involvement Questions
1. I believe my job is an important part of my life.
2. I am involved in all aspects of my job.
3. I am dedicated towards my job.
4. I believe my interests are centred on my job.
5. I believe most of my personal life goals are related to my job.
6. I believe my job to be very central to my existence.
7. I believe my job is designed in a way that it suits my personal life.
8. I am greatly attached to my job.
9. I believe the optimum performance in my job is important.
13