What is asynchrony in MVVM? Model or ViewModel. Best practice

I am looking for best practice for asynchronous communication between layers. I am using mvvm light toolkit

I am currently using a background worker in a model because I saw this in auto-generated code. Not with the background, but with an asynchronous call.

public void GetConfig(Action<Config, Exception> callback)
{
    BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
    backgroundWorker.DoWork += (backgroundWorkerSender, backgroundWorkerArgs) =>
    {
        try
        {
            backgroundWorkerArgs.Result = AppEnvironment.Instance.Config;
        }
        catch (Exception exception)
        {
            backgroundWorkerArgs.Result = null;
        }
    };

    backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += (backgroundWorkerSender, backgroundWorkerArgs) =>
    {
        if (backgroundWorkerArgs.Result != null)
        {
            callback((Config) backgroundWorkerArgs.Result, null);
        }
        else
        {
            /* ToDo: exceptionhandling */
        }
    };

    backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync(); 
}

Now I have found AsyncDelegateCommand , which implements the asynchronous part in the ViewModel.

private ICommand _refreshObjectDefinitionCommand;
public ICommand RefreshObjectDefinitionCommand
{
    get
    {
        return _refreshObjectDefinitionCommand
          ?? (_refreshObjectDefinitionCommand = new AsyncDelegateCommand(delegate
              {
                  IsBusy = true;
                  _dataService.GetObjectDefinition(
                    (xmlObjectDef, errorConfig) =>
                    {
                        if (errorConfig != null)
                        {
                            /* ToDo Lenz: exceptionhandling */
                            return;
                        }

                        ObjectDefinition = xmlObjectDef;
                    });

                  _dataService.GetObjectDefinitionTreeView(
                      (treenodes, errorConfig) =>
                      {
                          if (errorConfig != null)
                          {
                              /* ToDo Lenz: exceptionhandling */
                              return;
                          }

                          TreeNodes = treenodes;
                      });
              },
                                () => _isConnected, o => IsBusy = false, exception => IsBusy = false));
    }
}

Am I a little confused by best practice? I read a lot of articles. But for some reason they always have different opinions. Is there any condition for better compatibility with normal maintenance efforts?

Some food for thought

Model:

http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com/2009/12/simplifying-asynchronous-calls-in.html

http://www.dzone.com/articles/mvvmlight-and-async

ViewModel

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/123183/Asynchronus-MVVM-Stop-the-Dreaded-Dead-GUI-Problem

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/441752/Async-MVVM-Modern-UI