As we have seen, the second half of the 1990s may well come to be regarded in future years as a turning point: the period in which teleworking reached critical mass in Europe. A number of factors, on both the supply and the demand side, have converged to bring about the preconditions for this.
Most obvious has been the rapid spread of new telecommunications technologies, including satellites, fibre-optics and wireless networks, which, although by no means complete, has created an infrastructure to which more and more European citizens have access. Closely associated with this has been the liberalisation of telecommunications leading to rapidly diminishing costs, increased consumer choice and a diversity of suppliers. There has also been a proliferation of mobile telephones and palmtop and laptop computers making it easier for people to work on the move. The reduced cost and improved infrastructure of telecommunications is at last following developments that have been going on in the IT sector, with a dramatic doubling of computer power whilst reducing the cost. Furthermore, user friendliness and interoperability have increased, as well The further growth of the Internet and, in particular, the high uptake of Intranets within Europe, has been bigger during the last year than ever before21. All this has contributed to the development of an 'email and network culture'.
In the meanwhile, a new generation has entered the labour market, brought up on computer games and fully technologically literate, sometimes referred to as the "Nintendo Generation". For the first time, the critical mass in terms of supply of new technologies and services, is matched by a critical mass in demand by people newly entering the labour market, having the technological and communication skills to use them.
The business environment is characterised by an ever-accelerating pace of change, in technology and in markets and a need to respond to raised customer expectations - both for improved quality and for speed of delivery. In an increasingly global competitive environment, it is also necessary to keep costs firmly under control. This has produced a need for constantly upgrading the skills of the workforce without compromising flexibility. The organisational changes which have accompanied these developments include new forms of strategic alliance and partnership, the disaggregation of large organisations into smaller units and a delayering and flattening of hierarchies.
Together, all these factors have combined to create the conditions in which telework can flourish. In this context, it is not useful to regard teleworking as a single form of working, capable of being isolated as a separate category. Rather it is more constructive to use the term to refer to any form of work freed from the constraints of time and place through the use of telecommunications and computing technologies. Because these technologies now permeate so many areas of work, across all industrial sectors and most non-manual occupations (and even a few manual ones) and affecting all grades of staff from the most senior management to the most junior data-entry clerks, it is dangerously simplistic to refer to 'teleworkers' as though they form a homogenous group. Rather, it is more appropriate that the skills of teleworking (by which is meant the generic skills required to use a combination of telecommunications and computing technologies to work effectively without direct face-to-face supervision) will increasingly be a precondition of employability for the entire European working population.
One of the strongest drivers for the introduction of teleworking in North America has been its expected environmental benefits. Most European governments, too, are committed to the view that teleworking offers a solution to problems of traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Surveys of teleworkers and their managers regularly show that the desire to reduce the stress of commuting and save the time which would otherwise be wasted on travelling to work are major motivators for taking up teleworking.
Whilst it is clearly the case that, at the level of the individual, teleworking definitely contributes to a sense that the quality of life has improved and that less time is wasted as a result of avoiding the daily commute to work, the real achievement of environmental benefits seems to depend upon the reasons for introducing telework and how this is done. There are several reasons for this. People may choose to live further from the city centre if they do not have to travel in to work every day. This could lead to longer journeys to work on the days when they do visit the office, but might also mean longer journeys for other purposes (such as shopping, taking children to school, social travel, etc.). There may also be a modal shift towards travel by more energy-consuming private cars and away from more environmentally-friendly mass transit systems. Finally, the prospect of emptier roads during rush hours might attract onto the roads people who would otherwise have stayed at home or used other forms of transport
Telework and ‘hot-desking’ may also be able to contribute to the de-materialisation of economic activity, for example by reducing the need for large, centralised office facilities and replacing these with much more modest locations designed only for meetings and as the occasional base of a nomadic and decentralised workforce. This has become an attractive business proposition for many companies, though this needs to be weighed against the materialisation of alternative infrastructures necessary to support such a workforce.
Teleworking enables disabled people and other groups which have in the past found it difficult to enter the full-time, on-site workforce, to work. These include prisoners22, carers, parents of young children and people living in remote and inaccessible places. Such integration is related to wider choices in the location of work, for example by offering additional support in the form of child-care facilities, respite care, day centres and good public transport. Whilst many of the people in these groups may welcome the opportunity to spend a good portion of their working lives in the home, few wish to feel that they are imprisoned there, and the opportunity for face-to-face social interaction with colleagues forms an important part of the motivation to work.
One of the major demographic trends in Europe over the past two decades has been a dramatic growth both in the number of single-parent households and the number of two-earner households. The parent who can afford to be a full-time carer for his or her children is becoming a statistical rarity. Because of increased mobility of labour, there are also fewer households which are able to rely on the extended family (for instance grandparents) to provide childcare. This means that a majority of households with young children are now faced with the necessity to juggle work commitments with caring ones. In addition, there are also many households in which the breadwinners are having to combine paid work with caring for a sick or frail adult.
Teleworking offers a range of new possibilities for harmonising these competing demands. The possibility of 'shifting' work both in time and in space, creates a range of flexible new alternatives. It makes it possible, for instance, to switch from one type of task to another at fairly short intervals (for instance to break from work in order to greet a child returning from school, prepare a meal, or put washing in the machine). It also makes it possible to shift work to hours which would be regarded as 'unsocial' in an outside workplace - for instance to work at night, or at weekends. Such relatively seamless transitions between work and non-work activities are generally experienced positively by teleworkers. However, if the teleworker - and the other members of the teleworker's household - have not developed the skills for managing the boundaries between these activities, the teleworker's vulnerability to interruption may become a source of stress.
Because teleworking typically involves, or rapidly leads to, a de-centralised workplace and management structure, the individual needs to take more responsibility for both work tasks and processes, and thereby is able to exert greater control over the total work situation. In the best of cases, this leads to significant enhancement of personal freedom and ‘empowerment’ in relation to where, when and how work is performed. This is particularly the case through the direct personal link forged with the quality of work outcomes. Herein also lies a potent source of greater satisfaction and commitment. Moreover, telework can extend the individual’s job market, both in terms of content and geographically. All these factors can enhance the quality of life for the individual, as they directly contribute to improved personal enrichment and life style choices.
The introduction of teleworking is accompanied by a dispersal of advanced information and communication technologies. Instead of being sited exclusively in offices, where they are visible only to office-workers, the new equipment is increasingly being placed 'out in the world' - in the homes of teleworkers, or carried around in their cars or briefcases. This provides an informal means of disseminating knowledge of these new technologies, and the skills to use them, to a much wider proportion of the population than any previous work-related technology. A laptop or home computer linked to the Internet may, for instance, be used by a teleworker's children to do their school homework, by a neighbour to send an urgent fax or even by a grandparent to look up a reference. Teleworkers often take on the role of IT 'barefoot doctors' in their local communities. The spread of teleworking is therefore linked in a very tangible way to the general development of the Information Society, contributing indirectly both to employability and to technological literacy. To the extent that they live in, and participate in the life of communities which include disadvantaged groups, teleworkers can thus be said to be helping to combat social exclusion.
Although the benefits of teleworking at the societal and individual level are very important, it is the business benefits which are most likely to drive its future development. Unless a clear business case can made for teleworking, employers will be understandably reluctant to adopt it. In fact there are a range of different benefits which accrue to employers who adopt teleworking, including:
Teleworking makes it possible for individuals, companies, and regions to develop their skills and offer their products and services regardless of location. It can thus make a crucial contribution to the economic development of remote regions which have in the past missed out on development opportunities because of their geographical remoteness. It can only do so, however, if the right infrastructure is available, at an affordable cost, and the right skills are available in the local population.
Telework can, under the right conditions, help to create jobs and enable localities to promote a new set of comparative advantages (which were previously of little economic importance because of lack of accessibility) to attract inward investment and relocation of economic activity. These advantages, typical of rural and remote areas, include attractive physical and man-made environments, and high quality of life, such as lack of stress, congestion, crime, etc. Although there are also many threats here (not least because of comparatively poor infrastructures and skills deficits), local areas do have a whole new set of opportunities where the crucial determinants are entrepreneurship, marketing and understanding how to exploit the innate characteristics of the area, rather than relative location.
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