PhD Defence: Dominique van der Meulen
In his dissertation ‘The Distance Dilemma: The Effect of Flexible Working Practices on Performance in the Digital Workplace’ ERIM’s Dominique van der Meulen explores how the extent of telework (through enacted temporal and spatial flexibility) affects employee and organizational performance
Dominique defended his dissertation in the Senate Hall at Erasmus University Rotterdam on Friday, 11 November 2016 at 09:30. His supervisor was Prof. Eric van Heck and his co-supervisor was Prof. Peter van Baalen. Other members of the Doctoral Committee were Prof. Jan Dul (RSM), Prof. Steffen Giessner (RSM), Prof. Marleen Huysman (VU University Amsterdam), Prof. Michaela Schippers (RSM), Dr. Kristine Dery (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Dr. Sipko Mülder (IGZ)
About Dominique van der Meulen
Dominique (Nick) van der Meulen was born July 16 1986 in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands. He studied at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where he obtained BSc and MSc degrees in Business Administration, with a specialization in Business Information Management (2010). Upon graduation, Nick continued as a research scientist affiliated with the Erasmus@Work research centre, at which time he participated in several national public-private partnership projects and conducted case studies to assess the impact of New Ways of Working at several organizations. In September 2011, Nick started his PhD at the department of Decision and Information Sciences at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and during the Fall term of 2015 he was a visiting researcher at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in Information Management at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam.
Nick’s primary research interests lie at the intersection of information technology and organizational behaviour, and include computer mediated communication and collaboration, the management of technology and innovation in the workplace, as well as organizational knowledge and social networks. His research has been conducted in close collaboration with practice and has been supported by the Medicines Evaluation Board (which was awarded the title of ‘Public Organization 2.0 of the year’ in 2011), where he was researcher-in-residence. The resulting work has been presented at various international conferences, including the International Conference on Information Systems, the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, and the International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities. In addition, he has been involved in teaching at both the Bachelor and Master level, in courses on Managing Knowledge and Information, New Ways of Working, and the Future of Work. Apart from his research and teaching activities, Nick has served as a representative in the ERIM PhD Council, he was a member of his department’s Housing and Workplace Design Committee, and he presented his research to the public in theatres throughout the Netherlands as a founding member of ScienceBattle.
Thesis Abstract
For the past couple of decades, technological developments have caused the way in which we work to continuously evolve, particularly by changing the ease with which we can bridge physical and temporal distances. Combined with rising competitive pressures and changing employee expectations, this has led to a substantial uptake of flexible working practices. Most notable among these is telework. Whether telework actually works, however, still remains to be seen: existing studies on its relation with performance are limited, typically lacking both an indication of how frequently employees telework as well as a solid theoretical foundation that could help elucidate its underlying causal structure. These shortcomings are an important motivation behind the research presented in this dissertation, which focuses on creating a better understanding of how the extent of telework (through enacted temporal and spatial flexibility) affects employee and organizational performance. This was done by applying multiple theoretical perspectives, levels of analysis, and analytical methods in four empirical studies, each of which addresses specific distance dilemmas inherent in telework. Overall, the findings, perspectives, and frameworks presented in this dissertation offer important insights into how to maximize employee and organizational performance in a telework context, and contribute a springboard for additional investigations in this area.
Photos: Chris Gorzeman / Capital Images
