Project Report. Telework and quality of life. Basic concepts and main results. Suggested readers. Editor: Sigmund Akselsen, Telenor

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1 Project Report Telework and quality of life Basic concepts and main results Editor: Sigmund Akselsen, Telenor Suggested readers Managers, worker associations and telework researchers. Abstract This report presents the results of a study that aims at providing a deeper understanding of how telework can influence efficiency in work as well as the quality of life for teleworkers and their social network. Focus has been put on the possible links between telework at home and quality of life through the specification of a detail research model including a set of 9 hypotheses. The study includes data collected by questionnaires and in-depth interviews from workers and their partners, children, friends, colleagues and managers, in four European countries. At a high level we find a weak but significant connection between days worked at home and overall quality of life for the worker. This finding is elaborated through additional analyses, which assign more of the variance in quality of life to other factors than the actual days worked at home. We find support for connections between telework arrangements, mediating variables such as flexibility, control and concentration and outcome factors such as increased job satisfaction, reduced stress, increased job performance and increased closeness in relationships to some social network members. The data also show indications of asymmetries in assessment of performance and closeness in relationships with vocational network. EDIN Project P904 For full publication May 2001

2 EURESCOM PARTICIPANTS in Project P904 are: British Telecommunications plc Iceland Telecom Ltd. Telecom Italia S.p.A. Telenor AS Portugal Telecom S.A. [Project title] The impact of telework on a sustainable social development and quality of life [Document title] Telework and quality of life - Basic concepts and main results Editor: Sigmund Akselsen, Telenor Project leader: Sigmund Akselsen, Telenor Project supervisor: Peter Stollenmayer, EURESCOM GmbH EURESCOM published project result; EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 Disclaimer This document contains material which is the copyright of certain EURESCOM PARTICIPANTS, and may not be reproduced or copied without permission. All PARTICIPANTS have agreed to full publication of this document. The commercial use of any information contained in this document may require a license from the proprietor of that information. Neither the PARTICIPANTS nor EURESCOM warrant that the information contained in the report is capable of use, or that use of the information is free from risk, and accept no liability for loss or damage suffered by any person using this information. This document has been approved by EURESCOM Board of Governors for distribution to all EURESCOM Shareholders.

3 EURESCOM Project Report page 3 (67) Preface (provided by the project supervisor) Not only in the well-known technological areas, but also in other important fields like customers and markets, user behaviour and societal issues EURESCOM is providing valuable results for its shareholders. Currently there are three so-called user centred projects active at EURESCOM. P902, looking at learning communities, how they work, how they can be implemented and what the benefits for telecommunication companies are. P903, performing a large survey with 9,000 interviews in 9 European countries on the use and non-use of ICT services. The results provide insight into why are some user segments adapting ICT services and some others don t, and how telecommunication companies can improve their market shares by taking the users attitudes better into account. P904, this project, looking at how telework can influence the quality of life of the teleworkers and their environments. Telework is becoming a more and more established way of working and the percentage of teleworkers is significantly increasing. On one hand this is due to cultural developments and structural changes in companies, but also to improved technical equipment and the required connectivity. This Project focuses on the impacts of telework on the business enterprise and on the well being of the teleworker, as well as of his/her family. It does not look at technical tools for teleworking. The Project aims at providing knowledge on how telework can be applied with focus on human values and on a more sustainable development. This includes field studies of teleworkers in a number of European countries. The question of individual life quality is considered in connection to individual efficiency, quality of work and organisational development. The various impacts are being viewed with special reference to changes in work patterns, family situations, cultural differences (including differences between countries), and positive/negative lifequality output factors. The main objectives of this Project are to: see how telework in the home influences the individual employee and his/her family, check which key factors have the most significant impact on the teleworkers life quality, look at how telework is perceived in companies applying teleworking and what are the benefits and barriers, provide recommendations for the EURESCOM Shareholders on how telework should be implemented in organisations and families to enhance the employees life quality and the productivity of the enterprise, stimulate the use of telework and netwoks. The project reports its results in two EURESCOM Project Reports and two detailed Technical Information documents: This document describes the theoretical model developed and tested by P904, the methodology followed and the results of the field studies. It can be used to create a public opinion about the benefits and preventing the drawbacks telework can produce in the life of teleworkers and their environments. The second EURESCOM Project Report (EDIN ) Telework and quality of life Recommendations to Shareholders contains practical recommendations to EURESCOM Shareholders about this market niche. Together with this document it can be used to promote the telework services in one or another part of the society and take advantage of the research done to market it in one or another way depending on the end users. The 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

4 page 4 (67) EURESCOM Project Report document is available for EURESCOM Shareholders on the EURESCOM Web ( EDIN Telework and quality of life Theoretical Framework and Results (detailed documents) is a very comprehensive document on the P904 frameworks, models, methodologies and findings. It includes a very detailed collection of Annexes, which contain the technical work of the project. The document is available for EURESCOM Shareholders on the EURESCOM Web ( EDIN Telework and quality of life TelCos marketing Telework Solutions (detailed documents) contains a detailed survey on how telecommunication companies market telework solutions. It summarises the offered telework solutions, describes the main customer segments targeted by telework marketing, the main arguments used and the various media used to promote telework solutions. The document is available for EURESCOM Shareholders on the EURESCOM Web ( EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

5 EURESCOM Project Report page 5 (67) Executive Summary Telework occurs when substantial parts of the communication between employer and employees are conducted at a distance with extended use of information and communication technology (ICT). The interest for using telework is increasing on a fast scale among European decision-makers, employers and employees. For the TelCos this situation is representing an important business opportunity emerging partly in the business and professional market, and partly in the residential market. Despite the large market potential in this field, the penetration of telework has been obstructed by scepticism towards the potential negative effects of teleworking. Several studies have indicated that telework actually does increase the efficiency for the individual employers, though little research has been done to study the impact on the life-quality of the individual teleworker and his/her family. To realise the full market potential in this field, it is necessary to have a deeper understanding of how telework can contribute both to a better efficiency in work as well as an increasing life quality for people. Why you should read this project report This document sets out to provide new insights into the possible connections between telework (flexible work arrangements) and the quality of life (QoL) of the individual workers and their family. The document is aimed at managers who are responsible for the development and/or marketing of TelCos telework products and at managers and employees of companies having implemented or are considering to implement telework arrangements. The benefits for your company The document provides input to the assessment of credentials of the services and applications Shareholders develop. In particular possible benefits and drawbacks related to telework arrangements under different circumstances are discussed. An ability to demonstrate a genuine concern and understanding of the wider issues related to telework business activities will serve Shareholders well, enabling them to position and market products and services more appropriately in a highly competitive market place. Aspects addressed by this project report The first part of this report presents the status, potential and trends for telework. According to a recent study, around 6% of the labour force in the 15 European member states in 1999 were doing some kind of telework. Of these were 3 millions spending one day or more working from their home. The interest in taking on telework arrangements is relatively high both by employers and employees, and data suggest an almost 20% yearly increase in the number of teleworkers. The document goes on to define the quality of life concept and review some existing research on the possible links between telework and quality of life. On this basis a set of nine hypotheses on the connections between telework and quality of life is put forward. The hypotheses involve measuring the following constructs: Quality of Life (self and social network), Control, Flexibility, Concentration, Job Satisfaction, Job Performance (self and manager assessed), Stress, Closeness of personal relationships (self and other assessed), Closeness of working relationships (self and other assessed), Organisational commitment, Community involvement, Development of new skills, Leisure activities. Although not a hypothesised variable, we also measured Self-Efficacy at work. Control, Flexibility and Concentration were hypothesised as being "mediating variables". We also collected background data about the worker's work style (hours and location of work) and home situation (location, number of other people in the household). The study undertaken to test the hypotheses includes a survey of workers and their close social network, manager and colleagues in Iceland, Norway, Portugal, and UK. Altogether we have collected information from 217 workers and their managers (127), colleagues (239) and social network members (281). The workers carried out different amounts and types of telework, ranging 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

6 page 6 (67) EURESCOM Project Report from full time teleworkers to full time office workers. Furthermore, a limited sample (42 workers, 9 managers, 9 colleagues, 18 partners, 8 children and 3 friends) has been selected and interviewed in more depth on a set of issues. The study is multi-country, multi-enterprise (more than one enterprise per country), and multi-discipline (participating researchers with educational background in sociology, anthropology, psychology, informatics and telecom engineering). The report further describes the empirical findings from the study and provides in depth discussion of a selected set of issues. Conclusions Teleworking, as measured by the number of days spent working at home, has a weak, but significant, impact on quality of life. Among aspects of importance we emphasize: increased possibilities to concentrate (at home) and to control how to do the work, and reduced stress (even if teleworkers seem to overwork more than non-teleworkers). Unexpectedly teleworking, still measured by the number of days spent at home, appears to have a moderate negative effect on Partner s Quality of Life, while the children seem to benefit from telework arrangements. The findings indicate that telework (mediated through flexibility) impacts positively on the worker s perception of closeness to the social network. The closeness in relationships assessed from the social network is also positively associated with the workers flexibility. This observation is significant for the partners (viewed separately) as well. Flexibility due to work arrangements does not seem to impact on the worker s perception of closeness to colleagues, whereas the colleagues assess this situation a bit more negatively. Further, the workers perception of their relationship with their manager is improved (mediated through flexibility), but the managers perceptions are unaffected. Workers, colleagues and managers emphasized the importance of trust and confidence to make teleworking arrangement a positive experience. The worker seems to consider himself as more productive due to flexible working arrangements, explained mainly by the improved possibilities to concentrate at home and control over how to do the work. The manager regards the workers job performance as unchanged (independent of days worked at home). Female workers performance is however lower rated by the mangers the more days they work at home! Instead of confirming the existing of a strong linear correlation between QoL and Number of days working at home, this study indicates connections between particular working styles and increased quality of life. We have demonstrated that working SOME days per week at home does indeed produce benefits, it is not a linear effect - and that more can be less! This finding from the quantitative analysis is directly supported by the qualitative study in which people report 1-3 days at home per week as being the ideal situation rather than 5 days per week. The preference with regard to number of days worked at home is in line with findings of previous studies. Furthermore, workers preferred the 1-3 days per week to be a regular arrangement, rather than long chunks of time in and away from the office. This working style maximises the benefits of home working (greater concentration and flexibility for family) and minimises the problems of home working (social isolation and maintaining relationship with manager and colleagues). Regression analyses show that a subset of the variables defined in the research model explains 63% of the variance in the worker s QoL score. This means we have included variables in the research model that have a clear predicting power on the QoL score. The model is revised to reflect the findings, including additional variables, and to make it more explicit. EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

7 EURESCOM Project Report page 7 (67) List of Authors Sigmund Akselsen, NT Tomas Bjarnason, IC Asa Run Bjornsdottir, IC Debra Diduca, BT Bente Evjemo, NT Emma France, BT Sigrun Gunnarsdottir, IC Mary Jones, BT Asdis Jonsdottir, IC Tom Erik Julsrud, NT Roberto Marion, IT Maria Pereira Martins, PT Francisco Costa Pinto, PT Bjoerk Theodorsdottir, IC Karina Tracey, BT Birgitte Yttri, NT 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

8 page 8 (67) EURESCOM Project Report Table of Contents Preface... 3 Executive Summary... 5 List of Authors... 7 Table of Contents... 8 Abbreviations Definitions Introduction Telework: Status, potential and trends How many teleworkers are there? What is the potential? Interest by employees Interest by employers What are the trends? Possible connections between Telework and QoL Concepts Defining telework Defining quality of life Research model Context Work style Mediating variables Quality of life outcome factors List of hypotheses Field Study Overall design Quantitative stage Questionnaires Informants Analysing methods Qualitative stage Instruments Informants Analysing methods Empirical findings Sample characteristics Overall results By hypotheses By QoL domains Elaboration on selected findings Asymmetries in views on vocational relationships Gender difference in manager s rating of job performance Positive effects on relationship with social network Negative effects on QoL scores for the teleworkers partners What explains variations in the individual QoL scores? Work style segmentation Discussion Impacts on workers and their social networks Working conditions and perception of well-being Work-family conflict Impacts on organisations Effect on organisation commitment and worker retention Effect on job performance Challenges to Managers and Colleagues What work styles give most benefit to the organisation? Impacts on society the sustainability issue Career and choice of place to settle down Stress and occupational health Reflections on the research model Implications for further studies Conclusions EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

9 EURESCOM Project Report page 9 (67) References...58 Annex A Instruments used in the study...61 A.1 Constructs...61 A.2 Examples from questionnaires...62 A.2.1 Quality of life profile...62 A.2.2 Worker questionnaire...63 A.2.3 Manager questionnaire...64 A.2.4 Social network questionnaire...64 Annex B Van Sell and Jacobs model of links between telecommuting and quality of life...66 Annex C Van Sell and Jacobs agenda for research on telecommuting and quality of life EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

10 page 10 (67) EURESCOM Project Report Abbreviations ECaTT Electronic Commerce and Telework Trends (consortium financed by the European Commission for benchmarking telework trends) ICT QoL Information and Communication Technology Quality of Life TelCo Telecommunication Company EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

11 EURESCOM Project Report page 11 (67) Definitions Term Teleworking Flexible working Teleworkability Definition Working at a distance from one s manager and colleagues for 1 or more days per week. It may or may not include mobile working. It may or may not include any office working. Used synonymously with Teleworking, but generally refers to a mixed working style combining home and office working or home and mobile working or all three. Percentage of jobs considered suitable for teleworking in that the worker either: spend more than 6 hours per week doing some kind of office work or; spend more than 6 hours doing work that could be done at a desk (paperwork, writing, reading, working with pictures, using the telephone) or; spend more than 6 hours doing work on a computer-controlled machine. This holds true under the assumption that the tasks which lend themselves to teleworking can be collapsed on (at least) one working day and as a consequence at least one full working day is spent teleworking from home. Key constructs used in study: Variable Quality of Life Being Belonging Becoming Flexibility Control Concentration Stress Job satisfaction Description Overall measure of individual's Quality of Life using a standard instrument covering a wide range of issues, not just work issues. A sub-score of Quality of Life representing issues concerning someone's general physical and emotional well-being. A sub-score of Quality of Life representing issues concerning someone's degree of social and community contact. A sub-score of Quality of Life representing issues concerning someone's development and aspirations. Subjective measure of the degree of flexibility a worker has in relation to their work - covers flexibility of location and flexibility of hours worked. Subjective measure of the degree of autonomy and control a worker experiences in relation to their work. Subjective measure of the degree to which a worker feels able to concentrate and be free of noise and distraction while working - covers ability to concentrate in the office and at home. Measure of subjective stress - includes sources of stress from work, home or elsewhere. Standard measure of job satisfaction including a variety of job-typeindependent issues. Job performance Subjective of measure of a worker's effectiveness at their job - assessed by worker and by the worker's manager. Closeness of relationship Subjective measure of how close a worker feels to a particular person. Slightly different measures are used to assess personal relationships (Partner, Friend etc) and working relationships (Manager, Colleagues). Closeness is assessed both by the worker and the person in question EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

12 page 12 (67) Organisational commitment Relationship with community Engagement in leisure activities Work skills Self-efficacy EURESCOM Project Report The degree to which a worker feels committed or loyal to the organisation The degree to which the worker is involved with key institutions in the local community (e.g. schools, shops) The degree to which the worker is involved in leisure activities - measured by number of different activities and hours spent. The number of new work skills learned in the last 12 months. A personality measure. The degree to which a worker feels able to control or affect outcomes relevant to him/her - specifically in a work context. EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

13 EURESCOM Project Report page 13 (67) 1 Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) has been expected to have a positive impact on the quality of life (QoL) for citizens of the modern information society. One illustrative example is the so-called Bangemann report stating that: The information society has the potential to improve the quality of life of Europe's citizens, the efficiency of our social and economic organisation and to reinforce cohesion. (Club the Bruxelles 1994). Teleworking from home, appears as one major area where new technology has a potential to change the way people are doing things (in this case working) and thereby bring about a better life for the individual. Telework arrangements have been around for a while, and are not just attracting early adopters but also the mass market, and possible impacts from this new way of working are starting to show. Even though some studies indicate that telework can results in an increase in efficiency and thus has a large market potential, it is plagued with scepticism towards possible negative effects. There exist some indications of such a positive impact of telework on QoL, but so far there have been no thorough empirical studies in this field (Van Sell and Jacobs 1994). The take up of telework arrangements has been slower than telecommunications companies (TelCos) had expected. This seems in part to be caused by a lack of knowledge, not just on the impacts of telework on management issues such as productivity, work quality, team spirit and organisational commitment but also the impacts on the workers and their social and work network. On this background EURESCOM launched a project to explore the connections between telework and QoL. Its main aim was to study the possible links between telework from the home and quality of life for the individual teleworker and his/her families and the quality of the worker s results. Three guiding questions provided the overall direction for the study: Is there any connection between telework and quality of life? In what way is quality of life affected by telework? What are the most important factors that affect the teleworkers perceived quality of life? The study included a survey of workers and their close social network, manager and colleagues in Iceland, Norway, Portugal, and UK. Altogether information was collected from 217 workers and their managers (127), colleagues (239) and social network members (281). The workers carried out different amounts and types of telework, and a group of non-teleworkers was included for comparison. Furthermore, a limited sample (42 workers, 18 partners, 8 children, 3 friends, 8 managers and 8 colleagues, a total of 87) was selected and interviewed in more depth on a set of issues. In this way the study aims to gain additional insights into a new way of working that potentially can affect a lot of stakeholders, not just the workers themselves. The study was multi-country, multi-enterprise (more than one enterprise per country), and multidiscipline (participating researchers with educational background in sociology, anthropology, psychology, informatics and telecom engineering). The study further distinguishes itself from other studies on telework in that: It is a structured one, not a general, and is directed by and extending existing research models. It is one of very few studies that include the workers social and work networks. It is one of very few studies targeted specifically at QoL. It is a cross cultural study. It is the most recent study providing a broad picture. The study was done in parallel, without detailed information on or close relationships, to the ECaTT (Electronic Commerce and Telework Trends in Europe) study referred to in chapter 2. The ECaTT study was set up to provide a solid statistical foundation for the assessment of telework, 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

14 page 14 (67) EURESCOM Project Report other new ways of working and electronic commerce. It is recognised as the most up-to-date study of its kind in Europe. Our study relates to the ECaTT study in the way that whereas the ECaTT study focuses on the diffusion of telework in Europe including spread, potential, barriers and trends, the P904 study acts more at a micro level targeting specific elements of the telework arrangements and goes into more depth on their impacts on individuals QoL. The rest of this document consists of the following chapters: Chapter 2 presents the status, potential and trends for telework based on findings from other studies in Europe and in the US. Note that the major part of this chapter is a summary of findings from the ECaTT study that we consider very relevant to the audience of this document. Chapter 3 provides a definition of QoL and outlines possible connections between telework and QoL. It presents our research model and list of hypotheses. Chapter 4 describes how the study was designed and conducted. In chapter 5 we present empirical findings. Chapter 6 discusses our results in relation to what others have found. Chapter 7 concludes this report. Note that in designing this study we planned to include the technical environment of the teleworkers in the analysis. Unfortunately it turned out that the quality of data captured on this issue were not too good and further that the implementation of a meaningful construct both reflecting and distinguishing availability and sophistication in use of the technologies is not trivial. Therefore we have chosen not to include an analysis of workers uses of technology in this report but instead included a short discussion on the aspects that need to be considered when making a technology index, see suggestions for further studies (chapter 6.5) EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

15 EURESCOM Project Report page 15 (67) 2 Telework: Status, potential and trends In order to give an indication of the spread of the telework phenomenon we present some survey results and projections. The numbers presented are based on one major survey conducted by empirica GmbH for the European Commission in 1999, the ECaTT study (ECaTT, 2000). This study was directed at the general population as well as decision makers in organisations in 10 EU member states. It consisted of (Gareis and Korte, 2000: p 28): representative surveys of establishments in each of the participating countries; with a sample of 500 in larger countries and 300 in smaller countries 4,158 establishments across Europe were surveyed, using a questionnaire of around 70 questions; representative surveys of individuals (aged 15 and older) in private households in larger and 500 in smaller countries, amounting to approximately 7,700 people, using a questionnaire of more than 100 questions. The surveys were carried out in February through May 1999 on the phone using computer-aided interviewing techniques. In addition we will refer to the 1994 TELDET study also conducted by empirica (Korte and Wynne, 1996) when presenting projection of trends and the 2000 Telework America (TWA, 2000) survey for estimates of telework in the US. 2.1 How many teleworkers are there? Qvortrup (1998: p 21) has argued that counting teleworkers is like measuring a rubber band it is not impossible but the results depend on how far you stretch your definition, with infinite alternative ways to choose from. The various definitions of telework have attracted considerable academic discourse. The definition used in the ECaTT study includes (Gareis and Korte, 2000: p 26): Home-based telework Home-based teleworkers are those who: work from home (instead of commuting to a central workplace) for at least one full working day per week use a personal computer in the course of their work use telecommunications links (phone/ fax/ ) to communicate with their colleagues/ supervisor during work at home are either in salaried employment or self-employed in which case their main working place is on the contractor's premises Individuals who are teleworking from home more than 90% of their overall working time are referred to as permanent teleworkers, while those working from home less than 90% of their overall working time, but more than one full day per week, are referred to as alternating teleworkers. Mobile telework Mobile teleworkers are those who: work at least 10 hours per week away from home and from main place of work, e.g. on business trips, in the field, travelling or on customer s premises; use online computer connections when doing so. Telework by self-employed in SOHOs Self-employed teleworkers in SOHOs (small office, home office) are those: 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

16 page 16 (67) EURESCOM Project Report who are self-employed or effectively self-employed (e.g. persons employed by own company or employed by organisation they have considerable managing power over) whose main place of work is at home or they claim not to have a main place of work who use advanced ICT for communicating with clients and/or (other) business partners. Supplementary telework Supplementary teleworkers are those who would fit into the home-based category described above but for the fact that they spend less than one full day teleworking from home per week. These definitions are included here in order for the reader to understand the numbers from the ECaTT study presented below. In chapter 3 we will give the definition of telework used in the P904 study and point out how it relates to the definition by ECaTT. According to the ECaTT survey there were 9 million teleworkers in the 15 European member states in This equates to 6% of the workforce. The range of telework penetration across European countries is enormous with Spain finding itself at the tail end with 2.8% of the employees working as teleworkers and Finland at the top with almost 17% teleworkers (see table 2.1). Table 2.1: Spread of telework in Europe 1999 (ECaTT, 2000) Home-based Teleworkers All Teleworkers Absolute % of labour force Absolute % of labour force Denmark 121, , Finland 142, , France 272, , Germany 538, , Ireland 14, , Italy 315, , Netherlands 285, , Spain 162, , Sweden 207, , U.K. 630, , EU , , Total EU , , Note: home-based: comprising permanent and alternating teleworkers working from home for at least one full working day per week; all: comprising also: self-employed teleworkers in SOHOs; mobile teleworkers using online connections when travelling; supplementary teleworkers teleworking from home, but less than one full working day per week. Total EU15 figures include figures for 5 EU member states not included in the survey. These were estimated on the basis of other countries whose economic and social structure are believed to be comparable. The EU15 estimate does not include Norway and Iceland, but a similar estimation can be done for these countries. From these 9 million European teleworkers, 2.9 million can be seen as regular home-based teleworkers, 3 million are occasional ones, described as supplementary teleworkers, another 2.3 million belong to the group of mobile teleworkers, and 1.4 million are self-employed teleworkers working in SOHOs (Gareis and Korte, 2000: p 29). According to the 2000 Telework America survey (TWA 2000), there were 16.5 million teleworkers in the US by July This US survey comprised 1,877 in-depth telephone interviews constituting a random sample of households proportionally allocated throughout the United States. A comparison of the Telework America Survey results with the ECaTT results shows (TWA 2000): In 1999 these [15 European Union] countries had 6 million regular teleworkers (i.e., those teleworking at least one full day per week) while the US had 9.3 million [in March 1999 vs. July 2000]. The world leader in the number of regular teleworkers, as a fraction of the workforce, is Finland (10.8%), followed by the Netherlands (8.3%), Sweden (8.0%), and the US (6.8%). If we add those who telework less than one full day per week the EU countries had 9 million teleworkers in 1999 versus the 16.5 million in the US in EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

17 EURESCOM Project Report page 17 (67) 2.2 What is the potential? In order to give an indication of the potential for the spread of teleworking from the home of workers we consider three factors: the percentage of total jobs suitable for telework, the interest in practising home-based telework by employees and, the interest in introducing home-based telework arrangements by decision makers. Two thirds of all persons in paid work practise tasks which are feasible for teleworking according to (ECaTT, 2000). They either: spend more than 6 hours per week doing some kind of office work or; spend more than 6 hours doing work that could be done at a desk (paperwork, writing, reading, working with pictures, using the telephone) or; spend more than 6 hours doing work on a computer-controlled machine. Accordingly, telework should be technically feasible in two out of three cases. This holds true under the assumption that the tasks which lend themselves to teleworking can be collapsed on (at least) one working day and as a consequence at least one full working day is spent teleworking from home Interest by employees Figure 2.1: Interest in different kinds of telework by employees (ECaTT, 2000) Alternating telework and supplementary telework are clearly most attractive for the workforce in all countries studied by ECaTT. Permanent telework is of interest to significantly fewer, with work in telecentres being attractive for less than 25%, see figure 2.1. In addition to those already practising telework today, 59% show an interest in working from home either occasionally, alternating or permanently. Since 1985 these figures have increased dramatically. 15 years ago between 8% and 23% of the interviewees showed an interest in telework (Huws, Korte and Robinson, 1990) EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

18 page 18 (67) Interest by employers EURESCOM Project Report The situation from the business point of view is not quite as clear-cut. Among establishments practising telework, between 55% and 83% (depending on type of telework) show an interest in extending telework. Figure 2.2: Practise and interest in telework in Europe 1999 (ECaTT, 2000). Businesses interest in introducing telework is modest with a European average of 11% in addition to the 36% that already practise telework (see figure 2.2). It appears as if in the short-term telework diffusion will mainly occur as a result of company-internal diffusion and less so from additional businesses introducing telework (Gareis and Korte, 2000: p 34). 2.3 What are the trends? Telework has experienced rapid growth over the past five years. The average annual growth in the number of teleworkers from 1994 to 1999 has been 17%, with Germany leading the field with an average annual growth rate of more than 30% in the recent past, see figure 2.3. Figure 2.3: Annual increase in teleworking population (ECaTT, 2000). EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

19 EURESCOM Project Report page 19 (67) According to new projections the number of teleworkers as a share of the total labour force in the European Union will reach 11 percent by 2005 (Gareis and Kordey, 2000). Note that this is based on the broad definition of telework. For the P904 study the number of home-based teleworkers as a share of the total labour force is perhaps more interesting predicting a doubling from 2 percent in 1999 to 4.2 percent in The projection is based on a model that uses selected data from the 1999 ECaTT surveys. Through them, data was collected not only on the way individuals work, but also on practice of telework in establishments and their plans concerning the introduction and extension of teleworking in the near future. Table 2.2: Forecast of teleworkers in EU by 2005 (Gareis and Kordey, 2000) Home-based Teleworkers (Telecommuters) in % All Teleworkers in % (projection) Denmark Finland France Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Spain Sweden U.K EU (projection) In spite of a general upward trend in the share of teleworkers in Europe s labour force (roughly 16 million EU residents will be teleworking by 2005), there are marked differences in the speed of diffusion between individual countries. The Nordic countries together with the Netherlands are forerunners, with above-average diffusion rates for home-based as well as overall telework. In Finland, nearly one third of the labour force will be teleworking by 2005 compared to only 12 percent in the United Kingdom and 13 percent in Germany. Southern Europe including France and Ireland are lagging behind (see table 2.2). The TWA 2000 survey indicates that while more than half of the teleworkers surveyed have been working remotely for at least three years, 2.8 million are new teleworkers with one year or less experience in teleworking. This amounts to a growth rate of 20.6 percent over last year. This figure is comparable to the average annual increase in the EU, which was 17% in the period , see figure 2.4. Further, In addition to the finding that there were 16.5 million teleworkers, TWA found a clear pent-up demand for telework. This supports a projection in the study that there may be as many as 30 million regular teleworkers in the US by yearend EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

20 page 20 (67) EURESCOM Project Report 3 Possible connections between Telework and QoL In this chapter we define telework and QoL, present our theoretical framework and list a set of hypotheses on the connections between telework and QoL. 3.1 Concepts The all-including and general ways that telework and quality of life concepts are used in public discussions call for more formal definitions in order to limit the scope of this study and to be able to measure and make comparisons Defining telework In the P904 study telework refers to work performed at a distance from the employer or client for whom the work is being performed, and where work is mediated by information and communications technologies (Murphy, 1996: p 47). This definition encompasses a family of work styles and we are especially interested in the teleworkers that do all or some of their work from home. The ECaTT study introduced in chapter 2 aimed at using a clear-cut and unambiguous definition applicable in different countries. In practise a clear-cut definition forces us to draw boundaries around a phenomenon, which by its very nature tend to be arbitrary. Reality shows us that there is a variety of work styles characterised by work at home, mobile and office, in different portions. Also it is possible to place a worker in several of the categories home-based, mobile, self-employed in SOHO or supplementary teleworker. For the ECaTT study where the purpose was assessment of the diffusion of telework, a clear-cut definition and strict categories were necessary. In the P904 study we have chosen to use the somewhat less specific definition above, but in addition we have gathered quite a lot information on the worker s work style including days worked at home, days worked mobile and days worked at the office, regularity and amount of overtime. This will give us a more detailed understanding of work styles and their impacts on the worker and his work and social networks Defining quality of life When talking about quality of life (QoL) we refer to subjective satisfaction that human beings have with their everyday life including their social and working life. Sørensen and Næss discuss the concept and how it can be measured: Quality of life is related to individual feelings. It is subjective and includes a global assessment. It is seen as both a cognitive evaluation and some degree of positive and negative feelings (1996: p 29). Among a number of research groups that have elaborated on the QoL concept and developed questionnaires in order to measure individual s QoL are the WHOQOL (World Health Organisation Quality of Life) Group (1995; 1998) and the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. The Centre for Health Promotion defines Quality of Life as The degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his/her life (Raphael, et al. 1998: p 2). The enjoyment of important possibilities is relevant to three major life domains (Renwick and Brown, 1996): Being, Belonging and Becoming (see Figure 3.1). Being reflects who one is and has three sub-domains. Physical Being encompasses physical health, personal hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and general appearance. Psychological Being includes the person's psychological health and adjustment, feelings, and evaluations concerning the self, such as self-esteem and self-concept. Spiritual Being refers to one's personal values, standards of conduct, and spiritual beliefs. The Belonging domain concerns the person's fit with his or her environments. Physical Belonging describes connections with the physical environments of home, workplace, neighbourhood, school, and community. Social Belonging is the links with social environments and acceptance by intimate others, family, friends, co-workers, and neighbourhood or community. Community Belonging EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

21 EURESCOM Project Report page 21 (67) represents access to public resources, such as adequate income, health and social services, employment, educational and recreational programs, and community activities. Becoming refers to activities carried out in the course of daily living, including those to achieve personal goals, hopes, and aspirations. Practical Becoming describes day-to-day activities, such as domestic activities, paid work, school, or volunteer activities, and seeing to health or social needs. Leisure Becoming includes activities carried out primarily for enjoyment that promote relaxation and stress reduction. Growth Becoming activities promote the maintenance or improvement of knowledge and skills, and adapting to change. Quality of Life Being Belonging Becoming Physical Psychological Spiritual Physical Social Community Practical Leisure Growth Figure 3.1: Quality of Life domains, according to (Renwick and Brown, 1996). Based on this model a quality of life profile, i.e. 54 item instrument assessing importance and enjoyment in nine domains of life, has been developed by the Centre for Health Promotion (Raphael, et al. 1998). Annex A includes examples of items in the Quality of Life Profile. 3.2 Research model The impacts of telework on the workers general well-being have for some time been an issue for research. One attempt to integrate this research has been done by Van Sell and Jacobs (1994) in their model of links between telework (or telecommuting as they term the field) and quality of life, see Figure A.1 in Annex A. We have used this model as a basis for our research but have extended it with more specific knowledge of the QoL concept. This extension builds on the work done by the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. Our extended research model allows for more explicit measures of QoL, and we have used the model to formulate and position a set of hypotheses on the possible links between the two concepts. The detailed list of hypotheses is presented in table 3.1. As well as hypothesising a direct relationship between teleworking and Quality of Life (H1), our model proposes the existence of three key variables which are hypothesised as acting as mediating variables between the practice of teleworking and specific aspects of Quality of Life (H2-H9). The research model includes four parts: context, work style, mediating variables and quality of life outcome factors (see Figure 3.2) EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

22 page 22 (67) EURESCOM Project Report Context Workstyle Mediating variables QoL outcome factors TELEWORKING H1 QUALITY OF LIFE INDIVIDUALS Demographic variables Motivations Circadian rhythms Self-efficacy ORGANIZATION Technology Tasks Employees Structure Management by results Formal and informal communications Training for TC employees and supervisors Technical support Wages and benefits Allocation of time Work content, place and pattern CONTROL - how - with whom - with what to work FLEXIBILITY - where - when to work Stimulating trust and responsibilities Time with family and friends Time in local community H2 H3 H7 H5 H6 BEING Stress Satisfaction (job) BELONGING Relationship with colleagues, manager and organisation Relationship with social network Relationship with neighbours and local institutions SOCIETY Air quality Energy costs Real estate costs Labour costs CONCENTRATION - avoid interruptions Communication, discipline, structure H4 H9 H8 BECOMING Engagement in leisure activities Development of personal and professional skills Job performance Figure 3.2: Hypothesised relationships positioned into our integration of Van Sell and Jacobs and the Centre for Health Promotion s Quality of Life research model Context This part of the model describes input factors that may have decisive influence on a telework arrangement. These factors include characteristics of society, e.g. environmental concerns, characteristics of the organisation and characteristics of the individual workers Work style This part of the model describes how the telework arrangement is carried out by the individual teleworkers (and their colleagues and managers). We are especially interested in the number of days worked at different locations, the time spent overall on work and the regularity of the working arrangement. For a further discussion on work style see chapter Mediating variables Van Sell and Jacobs argue the influence of TC [telecommuting] on the individual s quality of life appears to be explained by the telecommuter s improved concentration, flexibility and control over time (1994: p 82). Concentration, flexibility and control are believed to be mediating variables, that is, they explain the influences of telework on the quality of life variables. Teleworkers cite these variables as reasons for teleworking, and further, researchers in this field speculate that these contribute to the improvements in individual productivity, cost savings and affective reactions that are characteristic outcomes of telework arrangements. Concentration: Working at home rather than in an office, enhances the ability to concentrate on work for most, but not all individuals. This is mainly due to less interruption. Flexibility: A number of researchers have identified the need for more work flexibility to balance work and family demands or to pursue some personal goal outside work as the major impetus for telework. EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

23 EURESCOM Project Report page 23 (67) Control: Autonomy, which includes control over time is a dimension of good job design. A large proportion of people who work at home say they want to work at their own pace, in their own way. We argue that we need to be more specific on the contents of these concepts. We can refer to different kinds of flexibility, including freedom to choose where and when to work. Further, we can have freedom in choosing co-workers. The latter we will refer to as Control, as is the case for choosing how (the procedure) to solve a task and even the task to work on. We have chosen to address some of these distinctions in the construction of our instruments (see e.g. Annex A.2.2) and in the reflections on the research model (chapter 6.4) Quality of life outcome factors The right part of the research model (figure 3.2) includes a set of quality of life outcome factors. We have chosen to examine the links between telework and the different domains of QoL from two perspectives: Through the overall Quality of Life score and in addition the separate Being, Belonging and Becoming components of the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, Quality of Life Profile. Through individual (independent) constructs within these domains, including Job Satisfaction, Job Performance (self and manager assessed), Stress, Closeness of personal relationships (self and other assessed), Closeness of working relationships (self and other assessed), Organisational commitment, Community involvement, Development of new skills and Leisure activities. This approach allows for an assessment of the overall impacts of telework on QoL as well as a comparison of impacts on individual constructs that have been used in previous studies. It will also be of interest to see how the effects on the individual constructs relate to (and accounts for) the effect on the total QoL (see chapter 5.3.5). For a more detailed presentation of these individual constructs, see the chapter 4 and annex B. 3.3 List of hypotheses The hypotheses examined in the study are listed fully in Table 3.1. Table 3.1: List of hypotheses H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 Hypothesis The higher the number of days worked at home by a worker, the higher that worker s Quality of Life, and that of his/her friends and family. The higher perceived flexibility and control by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the higher the worker s job satisfaction. The higher perceived control over work by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the lower the worker s perceived stress. The higher perceived (opportunities for) concentration by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the higher the worker s job performance. The higher perceived flexibility by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the closer the worker s relationship with his/her immediate social network. The higher perceived flexibility by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the closer the worker s relationship with neighbours and local institutions. The higher perceived flexibility by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the closer the worker s relationship with colleagues, manager and organisation. The higher perceived flexibility by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the more active the worker s development of personal and professional skills. The higher perceived flexibility by a worker as a result of his/her work arrangement, the more active the worker s engagement in leisure activities EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

24 page 24 (67) EURESCOM Project Report 4 Field Study In this chapter we present the overall design of the study, including instruments used, recruitment of informants and analysing methods. For more details on the instruments and why we have decided to use them, see EDIN , Annex B. 4.1 Overall design The overall design of the study was a between-subjects comparison of workers who work different numbers of days per week at home. In addition to the workers, the study involved collecting data from the following people: members of the worker s social network (partner, friends, children) worker s line manager the worker s closest colleagues In this study we have carried out a quantitative study first and then followed up with a more focused qualitative study. This approach was chosen because we could claim some pre-existing understanding of the key issues (based on previous research outlined in chapter 3). Pilot studies of both stages are included in the design, although primarily aimed at checking the methodological aspects of the design they also act as a safety net to ensure no major issues have been neglected. Existing know ledge Quantitative fieldwork Reject/ Confirm original hypotheses Basic Conclusions Segment Quantitative data Suggest new /refined hypotheses (Select qualitative sample) Reject/ Confirm original hypotheses Refined Conclusions Qualitative fieldwork Reject/Confirm new /refined hypotheses Additional Conclusions Suggest new /refined hypotheses Revisit Quantitative data Suggest final hypotheses Final Conclusions Sequential stages of study Development of hypotheses Development of conclusions Figure 4.1: Sequence of research stages and their relationship to the original hypotheses. From the quantitative stage we can identify relationships between variables, which allows us to establish whether or not there is a relationship between telework and Quality of Life. Within this stage we ask the questions of What and How, which provides us with numbers, graphs and statistics with which to reject or accept our hypotheses. EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904

25 EURESCOM Project Report page 25 (67) In the following qualitative stage we get people to talk about their own experiences, which allows us to ask Why there should be a relationship between telework and Quality of Life. It allows us further to take a wider view of the world, introduce new previously neglected variables (at the qualitative stage they are issues rather than variables), and to explore the concepts which lie behind the hypotheses in a wider context. More specifically the qualitative stage provides: Further context to aid our understanding of the quantitative conclusions Different perspectives on the same problem (triangulation) and thereby 1) provide a fuller picture; 2) compare and contrast the results we are getting from the qualitative and quantitative stages, and 3) highlight any inconsistencies that we can then check up by going back to the data sources Extended understanding of telework and quality of life This approach assumes that although we start out with several well-formed hypotheses, which we wish to confirm or reject, in fact we are undertaking a process of discovery and theory generation. This inevitably involves us in a process of refining our original hypotheses and generating new ones, which finally leads to a better theory than the one we started out with (see figure 4.1). The study was not conceived of as being a formal experiment in which conditions are tightly controlled. Instead we expected to see a wide variety of individual variation between different people and work styles within the sample - reflecting the real world complexity of the issues addressed in the study. In addition, the length of the project did not permit us to gather data on a group of non-teleworkers, allow them to settle into a teleworking or flexible work style and then repeat our measures - this precluded a before and after within-subjects approach. For further discussion on considerations made in the choice of study design see EDIN Annex B (in particular chapter 4 and 10) and Annex C. 4.2 Quantitative stage This stage of the study focused on collection of data through self-administered questionnaires, which means that the main respondent (worker) distributed a set of questionnaires to his manager and colleagues, and also to some of his social network members. This data collection was done from January 2000 through March Questionnaires The approach taken to the questionnaire design was to make use of existing instruments and constructs, or at least an adaptation or subset of existing instruments. The constructs and related questionnaire sources are listed in annex B together with some selected examples from the questionnaires. A number of questionnaires were administered to different informants in the study: Work style questionnaire (174 questions) Quality of Life questionnaire adult or adolescent version (both have 126 questions) Social network member questionnaire (16 questions) Manager questionnaire (18 questions) Colleague questionnaire (11 questions) When it comes to the distribution, we constructed a questionnaire package for each worker consisting of: Work style questionnaire and Quality of Life questionnaire (for completion by the worker), Social Network member questionnaire packages (social network member questionnaire and adult or adolescent Quality of Life questionnaires), Manager questionnaire, and Colleague questionnaire. The questionnaires for each individual were packaged into a labelled envelope, including a covering letter with instructions for completion, a return envelope and contact details of the researchers. We also included a small incentive voucher value approximately 15 Euros as a 2001 EURESCOM Participants in Project P904 EDIN

26 page 26 (67) EURESCOM Project Report Thank You to the workers for taking part. The workers used approximately 45 minutes to complete their questionnaires. Figure 4.2 indicates the size of each questionnaire. Social network members were defined to workers as being any family member or friend with whom they had a close relationship and/or they lived with or met with frequently. Children between 13 and 18 were also included, subject to the permission of parents. It was emphasised that involvement of any members of the social network in this study was entirely voluntary. Worker questions Social Network Members quest Manager 18 questions Colleagues 11 questions Figure 4.2: Self-administered distribution of questionnaires Informants The informants for the study were recruited from four participating countries: Iceland, Norway, Portugal and the UK. Within each country, a number of companies were approached using a variety of formal and informal contacts. The companies approached were in sectors where we had reason to believe that some telework was going on. 14 companies agreed to participate in the study. Of these were 5 companies in the computer (hardware and software) sector, 4 in the telecom sector, 1 in the insurance sector, 1 in the finance sector, 2 in the consultancy sector, and 1 in the seismic/oil sector. Once agreement had been obtained from a company, individual workers were then approached with the company s permission, as it was important to have the cooperation of workers, their managers and their colleagues. Of a total of 531 workers that had agreed to take part in the study, 224 responded. Of these 7 were excluded because they were missing essential information (number of days worked at home). This left us with 217 valid responses from workers. We wanted to balance the sample on the basis of Gender and Days worked at home, and finally by nationality in order to improve the proportion of workers from Portugal, Iceland and Norway. To avoid unnecessary reduction of the sample (which is likely to happen in any balancing process), we analysed both sampled and unsampled data set for differing results. As there were only small differences uncovered, the results are in general presented on the basis of the unsampled data set (217 workers). For a more detailed description of the workers, see chapter 5.1. Table 4.1 shows the number of responses received from each respondent type (Worker, Manager Colleague and Social network member) after exclusion of non-valid Worker responses. Note that of the 281 responses from social network members, 114 were from partners of teleworkers. Table 4.1 Number of responses within the joint sample Respondent type Frequency Worker 217 Manager 127 Colleague 239 EDIN EURESCOM Participants in Project P904