ETHICOMP 2004 – ‘Challenges for the Citizen of the Information Society’ 14-16 April 2004, Syros, Greece

MOST RELEVANT DRIVERS AND CONSTRAINTS INFLUENCING PORTUGUSE TELEWORK DIFUSION Flávio Nunes1 Abstract The use of telecommunications to partially or completely replace daily commuting to and from work, is predicted to have a great impact on various fields of society, both directly and indirectly, and because of that it has been a subject of an intense technical and public debate for a few years now. However, the high expectations have not yet been realized, ranging from decrease of commuting costs to timesaving or the diversification of employment in peripheral and rural areas. The slow adoption of teleworking practices, among industrialized countries, calls for empirical studies with careful analysis of all elements that may influence its implementation, which would allow some international comparability in order to respond to the information needs of policy makers. This paper reports the empirical findings of several surveys conducted among enterprises in Portugal in order to identify and summarize relevant drivers and constraints that may influence the implementation of telework in the portuguese business environment, and in addition, attention will also be given to the perceived social advantages and disadvantages of pursuing organizational teleworking programmes on portuguese citizens, as individuals and as employees. This paper will be concluded with some ideas about the evolution of Portuguese Government policies and legislation in this field, as well as the presentation of some common characteristics that will help us to draw the profile of the Portuguese potential teleworker. Keywords e-work, telework, Portugal, information society

1 Introduction In the beginning of the 90’s, with the substantial improvements of electronic equipments and telecommunication infrastructures, the telework concept was definitively linked with the use of information and communication technologies to enable people to work at a distance from their employers (Huws, 1991; Weijers, Meijer and Spoelman, 1992; Oborne, 1992). Since then, it is consensual that the definition of telework excludes the ‘outworkers’2, which means that work supervision must be exercised and work results presented, at least partially through telecommunications. In 2000 with the establishment of the EMERGENCE project3 the eWork concept was defined as a term “to refer generically to any type of work which involves the digital processing of information and which uses telecommunications link for receipt or delivery of the work to a remote employer or business client” (Huws, 2001, p. 2). Nowadays this is the term currently favoured by the European Commission, although it does not refer to distance (as the prefix ‘tele’) it has the benefit of not being confused with telecommuting4 (like telework constantly is), and avoiding over-specificity it is not restricted to a particular form of remote work, such as homeworking, telecommuting or mobile working.

It is obvious that resulting from the nature of telework itself (or eWork), as a concept which borders are very vague, it is extremely difficult to define and measure it5. It is likely that definitions, policies, and guidelines will continue to be refined as additional empirical experience will be progressively gained, and as a result of more fundamental structural changes in the ‘nature’ of work relations and organisational forms, made possible by electronically mediated interactive processes. Specially in what concerns to spatial organization of work, not as traditional workplace with a fixed geographical space but as a set of networks and relationships (in other words, the workplace today is, potentially, anywhere where electronic networking is possible: planes, trains, hotel rooms, airport lounges...). Although the large-scale implementation of telework has not yet occurred in Portugal, in the first part of this study we will try to pick up and analyse some visible trends in order to understand the effective role of telework during the past years in Portuguese society. It is widely understood that the promotion of telework can not merely be based on the high level of awareness, if concrete results are to be achieved, systematic actions are needed and must be improved to allow the attitudes and technical facilities in public and private organizations, as well as facilitate their decision-making concerning teleworking experiments. For this reason, to understand better and evaluate these trends related to the dissemination of telework during the past years, it is important to analyse the evolution of portuguese government policies and legislation in this field. What are the main political objectives? What instruments have been created to help the appearance of teleworking programmes on portuguese companies? With which results? These questions need to be answered in the second part of this paper. Although Portugal has been somewhat slow in formally adopting telework practices, one of the main results of this paper suggests a high number of potential teleworkers in Portugal. During a research that I have conducted on the APDT (the main Portuguese Association for the Development of Telework) it was analysed almost one thousand information demands to this institution (between 1998 to 2002). The last part of this paper summarizes the results and findings of this empirical work, which give us the opportunity to understand better the profile of the portuguese potential teleworkers, in terms of age, gender, qualification and residence patterns, as well as a better knowledge about what are the most important difficulties to someone who recognise telework as a way of increasing quality of living and well being standards, but can not yet start working in this new form of work organization.

2 Portuguese dissemination of telework: a synthesis of empirical findings In this point we will focus and systematise the main empirical findings of several surveys conducted among enterprises in Portugal (Table 1). This comparison analysis definitely was a grateful help to identify and summarize relevant drivers and constraints that may be influencing the implementation of telework in the portuguese business environment. Before we present the main highlights, we can state that the process of telework diffusion in Portugal has been mainly explored under several academic dissertations, in spite of the interest revealed by a few collective research projects, developed with a significant contribution of public funds. Although the large-scale implementation of telework has not yet occurred in Portugal, the research objectives are mostly concerned with the further implications to business and rearrangements of work processes, with a comparative lack of interest and attention in what concerns the perceived social advantages and disadvantages to portuguese citizens as individuals and as employees. Furthermore, the total absence of official statistics about the

introduce of these new working methods, obviously create great difficulties to researchers work and lead to the fact that almost all analysis are based on postal inquiries, some of them with no representative preoccupations. Table 1. The main objectives and methodological approach of several collective research projects and academic dissertations, conducted in order to understand the diffusion process of telework in Portugal and its further implications. OBJECTIVES METHODOLOGY Araújo, E. (1998) it is an academic dissertation with the The methodological approach was based on 2 casepurpose of evaluating the portuguese situation about the studies and interviews/inquiries to 52 workers from 6 social effects of telework, the relevant factors to services firms. telework implementation, and the perception of this work practices from the potential teleworkers. Fiolhais, R. (1998) it is an academic dissertation with the The methodological approach was based in eight purpose of giving a framework about the main impact of extended interviews with teleworkers, all of them the adoption of formal telework practices in the from the same firm (Hewlett-Packard Portugal), Portuguese labour jurisdiction. which may be the first firm in Portugal to undertake an explicit practice of telework. Silva, A. et al. (1998) it is the most deep and exhaustive The conclusions achieved under this research project, study carried out in Portugal, supported by European result from a very diversified methodology (crossing Commission funds, with the main objectives of a quantitative and a qualitative approach): 637 describing the diffusion process of telework in Portugal answers to an inquiry sent to a sample of 3500 firms, and its future tendencies, as well as drawing a pro-active 5 detailed case-studies in enterprises involved with strategy to promote this new work practices. the adoption of telework practices, 35 interviews with relevant Portuguese actors for the progress of telework (Government agencies, local authorities, employees trade unions, economic associations,…), a focus-group with 13 national experts in employment and ICT’s, and also an homepage where any concerned person was allowed to give their opinion about the research subject. Simões, J. (1998) it is an academic dissertation, The methodological approach was based on 44 developed in order to discover the main implications of answers to an inquiry sent by e-mail to a sample of telework in management of Portuguese services 700 firms. companies. Correia, A. (1999) is an academic dissertation that The methodology focuses a case study about a pilot intends to evaluate the implications of telework for project of homeworking developed in the biggest management models and in what concerns to workers telecommunication company in Portugal (Portugal expectations. Telecom). Gomes and Aouad (1999) it is related to an academic Interviews, questionnaires and case studies were the dissertation with the purpose of study how telework will chosen methodology. result in changes occurring in Lisbon Metropolitan Area housing stock (typology, dimension…). Sousa, M. (1999) it is an academic dissertation that was The methodological approach was based on 39 developed with the goal of identifying the main factors answers to a mail inquiry sent to a sample of 170 that are obstructing the telework diffusion in Portugal. information processing firms. Brandão, M. (2001) presents the results achieved with It is a progress activity report about a practical the PORCIDE project, which main objective consists in project, which methodology consists in promoting a the use of telework to develop the capabilities of consortium of several companies, each one of them physically handicapped people, helping them to market providing different contributions: project leadership their services and achieve full professional integration. and technical know-how; telecommunication infrastructures, internet communications, marketing/advertising, hardware and software. In a subsequent phase the selected individuals were provided with the necessary equipments and training, and an on-going support, focused on technical matters as well as social integration issues. Santana and Rocha (2001) it is a research conducted The methodological approach was based in 97 with funds from the AveiroDigital IST action plan answers to an inquiry sent to a sample of 550 firms. (Social Integration by Telework). The main objectives were to determine the availability of firms located in Aveiro District to adopt new working methods provided by telework, and to discover the managers opinion about which activities are available to be done in telework, particularly by employees with special needs. Roldão, A, (2002) it is an academic dissertation with the The methodology involved a spatial statistical

objective of evaluating the reduce of commuting trips by teleworking practices in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, as well as to determine what kind of influence it reveals on actual decision options about housing location.

analysis of official inquiries about daily commuting trips, and the application of theoretical models about the use of urban soil, introducing telework as an explain factor of housing location option.

Comparing all these studies, we can state that in Portugal, telework is a very embryonic working practice. From all modalities of telework, in Portugal the more representative ones are the informal and occasional telework from home (mainly involving computer experts) and the mobile telework. Nevertheless, there are few cases of formal and structured implementation of telework programmes in portuguese firms. According to business managers opinion, telework is perceived more as a way to reduce costs than a way to improve productivity and quality (a drawback that results from the reduce of team-work benefits). This assumption outcomes from the fact that telework is elected overall as a way to spin-off some back-office tasks, in order to reduce some functioning costs through the service provider system. This outsourcing tendency could be responsible for the future use of telework as a way to weaken labour agreements, that can probably give it a negative image. According to portuguese business managers perception, the functions more adjusted to telework are those related with computer expert activities, or others less qualified, like word processing and databases fulfil, that reveals an unaccomplished understanding about telework. However, results achieved from some more recent questionnaires, seems to suggest that nowadays, between the more adopted functions to telework are also those that are not well controlled inside companies structure. Some managers revealed that telework is a good working method to have a flexible access to qualified services, and less expensive than inwardly. There are no significant technological limitations for the telework diffusion in Portugal. However there still are some relevant barriers in what concerns to ICT literacy in rural areas, to high telecommunication costs, to safety proceedings on the information transmission process, and in what concerns investment difficulties by some firms in constant ICT upgrading. Despite these constraints, and as pointed out by many international studies, also in Portugal the employer attitude is the main reason that blockade the diffusion of telework, specially because of the expected difficulties in what concerns control and supervision of the workers performance. The prevalence of traditional human resources management models, encourage scepticism between managers, increased by the lack of information and training about the viability of telework. Despite this general tendency, Portuguese services firms that have already developed telework programmes, made a positive balance of those experiments, underling the advantages related to the possibility to integrate employees with special needs in working schedules and the reduce of functioning costs. Doubtful and reticent attitude to telework is a common characteristic not only between managers but also between those employees who work in companies with a great probability to implement telework arrangements. Specially as a result of a lack of social and juridical protection, and also from an undesired decrease of surveillance and supervision (the traditional physical work relations will not easily change to an accepted remote control by objectives). Between employees there is the assumption that telework will probably conduct to a marginalized attitude from the employers. The traditional perception of work-time and work-space (defining characteristics of a acquired social “status”) are seen, by portuguese potential teleworkers, as determinant and blockade factors for the acceptation of fulltime telework. There are some resistance to bring work to intimate and familiar space, or to loose socialization hypothesis provided by the traditional work environment (fear of isolation).

In what concerns the inclusion benefit of telework to citizens with special needs, practical experiences carried on in Portugal since 1997 using telework to achieve the professional integration of handicapped people (the PORCIDE project involves around 80 handicapped people), has shown that much more than being a charitable investment it is a viable business, with benefits to clients that trust in these new working methods to outsource computer related activities, and benefits also in what concerns the promotion of the first steps of autonomy and competitiveness from a personal development perspective. However, the results seems to suggest that without instigating team spirit it would be impossible to reach the proposed targets, and that not all the workers involved showed suitability for this kind of work6. Concerning telework implications for housing planning and land-use policy in Portugal, and specially in some studies conducted in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, the impact of telework is not significant. Particularly in what concerns the reduce of commuting trips to those who work in a different municipality, or to the appearance of new housing location decisions. On the other hand, the residences of Portuguese workers, in general, are not big enough to accommodate an office suitable to work (the space requirements of the house are hard to meet in the Portuguese context). And, if a teleworker requires some public and social services nearby his workplace, satellite cities in Portugal do not meet this requirement, as they were planned for an overnight population. Finally, the most consensual conclusion from all these analysis, point out the recognition that Portuguese Government do not have a pro-active programme for the increase of telework practices in Portugal, for instance by promoting a network of telecenters throughout the country, or promoting a consistent and coherent action plan to spread information and training about telework practices (the general lack of knowledge about telework concerns not only employers but also employees). But the most expected contribution from the Government underlined in almost all these researches, was related to the promotion of important readjustments in the labour legislation, in order to give social and juridical protection to workers and to facilitate the establishment of telework programmes. The examination of the already promoted formal telework practices in Portugal, reveal the existence of several unusual problems that questioned the validity of the actual Portuguese labour jurisdiction.

3 The progress of Portuguese Government policies and legislation concerning telework The greenbook launched in 1996 to promote the information society in Portugal, clearly pointed out the need of the Portuguese Government to develop a jurisdictional framework in order to accommodate telework practices and facilitate its dissemination. According to the indications expressed in this strategic document, it should be the public administration sponsoring the first steps (supporting telework pilot-projects) in order to demonstrate the importance of telework, not only as an instrument of the inward development policies but as well as a contribution to better living standards in the metropolitan areas. However, those recommendations were not included in the set of governance priorities that shaped the Operation Programme for the Information Society (in spite of some punctual and non systematic actions promoted under some Digital Cities projects). It was only with the currently XV Portuguese Constitutional Government (that was sworn in 2002) that these recommendations began to be integrated in the Portuguese governance priorities. The new Portuguese Labour Act (promoted by the Ministry for Social Security and Work and approved in August of 2003, Law nº99/2003) includes a specific section related to telework (Table 2).

Table 2. Portuguese Labour Act (Law nº 99/2003, DR 197 S.I-A, 2003-08-27) Special rules related to Telework The telework contract must be written and should include: the tasks to be performed by the worker during and after the telework phase; the initial duration of the telework experiment; the equipments owners and who are responsible for the payment of maintenance and communications costs and a reference to the companies interlocutor that will follow the worker performance. The contract is valid for a maximum of three years, and after this period (or in the first month, in case of bad adaptation) the worker has the right to return to the initial position in the company. The worker may have a flexible working schedule, but the employer must respect the worker’s privacy and his family resting times (in case of homework, visits for supervision are only acceptable between 9 a.m. and 19 p.m.). The teleworkers should respect the maximum working hours (daily and weekly period) as any other worker. The employer should install and support the technical equipment and the telecommunication costs, and its used are restricted to the employers needs, excluding only the receive of trade union’s information. The teleworker should receive technical instruction on ICT’s, and may regularly contact other colleagues in order to avoid isolation feelings.

Correia (2003) points out the main dilemma of this new law, which is concerned to the fact that the teleworker must be connected (on-line) to the employer during the normal working hours. This rule implies a rigid and unadjusted behaviour which is contrary to the desired autonomy of time and space. As a response to this jurisdictional framework, there is an expected risk of the continuation of looking out for outsourcing options, which can be seen as the establishment of services providers agreements in order to dissimulate telework situations. Besides the legislation up-grading, in June 2003 it was presented the Action Plan for the Information Society, disclosing the priorities of the new Government for the Information Society Development. Between these political goals, emerge the telework as a factor of competitiveness, and it was declared that in order to encourage the basic conditions to its diffusion and adhesion the State should contemplate several efforts, namely in three kinds of actions: - promoting information actions, in a joint work with business associations, to explain the advantages of telework and their organizational impacts; - promoting training actions to teleworkers and potential teleworkers; - establishing a network of local telecenters throughout Portugal. As expected, direct consequences of this new political goal are not yet visible. However and resulting from some punctual dynamism of public local authorities, there are some advances with practical results. For instance, the lot of teleworkers registered in the Guarda telecenter have been providing services mainly concerned with translation (60%), word processing (20%) and web design (20%). Furthermore, others telecenters have been appearing as a result of the Regional Planning of Employment for the Oporto Metropolitan Area (the firsts ones opened in Vila do Conde, Valongo and Maia). The Institute for Employment and Professional Training promoted another positive initiative, launching recently a new programme with specific funds to promote telework training to handicapped people and also to support their future inclusion in the labour market. Although, in spite of this incitement policies that certainly may have a positive impact on telework diffusion, it is consensual that the essential readjustment process that will definitely contribute to achieve this objective, is the firms reorganization from traditional human resources management models into more actual and efficient ones.

4 Profile of the Portuguese potential teleworker In Portugal the Association for the Development of Telework (APDT) is operating since 1997 and have succeeded in attracting the attention of many potential teleworkers, benefiting from

the continuous interest of the media, which has been strategically important in bringing to the attention of the whole portuguese society the benefits of telework as a new way of working. This Association allowed us to collect and analyse 994 registers, up to July 2002, some of them concerning information of effective joint-members but the majority concerning preliminary contacts or specific information demands. This empirical work gives us the opportunity to understand better some common characteristics, very useful to draw the profile of the Portuguese potential teleworker. Concerning the gender category it was detected a very modest higher female representation (53,5%). However the analysis of age structure (Chart 1) and education background (Chart 2), clearly points out a remarkable higher representation of young people and with very high levels of knowledge qualifications. Almost 70% had less than 34 years old and had already attended a graduation course (57,2% of them with a graduation, master of PhD concluded). Chart 1. Age structure of portuguese potential teleworkers (APDT contacts) over than 70 65-69

years old in 2002

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The qualified Portuguese young people are definitely the ones that express more interest to adhere to telework, probably because they belong to the group that reveals more capabilities in the activities more adaptable to telework, as a consequence of the already known ICT illiteracy among other Portuguese groups. Concerning the main professions of potential teleworkers (Table 3), we can conclude that there is a clear coincidence with the portuguese business managers perception about the functions more adjusted to telework. Specially those concerned with computer expert activities, or others related to word processing and databases fulfil. There is not yet a great recognition of telework potentialities between workers that provide more qualified services (consultant activities). Table 3. Main professions of Portuguese potential teleworkers:

(% of APDT contacts: 442 valid answers) Computer expert (programmer, databases, systems management, software 24,9 operator,…) Administrative work, general office, secretarial 15,8 Teacher/Trainer 11,1 Design/graphic arts 6,1 Translator 8,1 Sales manager and sales assistant 4,1 Journalist 2,5 Manager/accountant 5,2 Chart 2. Education background of portuguese potential teleworkers (APDT contacts: 507 valid answers) high school student 0,4%

unfinished high school 4,7%

high school concluded 27% graduation, master or Phd concluded 57,2% graduation student 9,7% unfinished graduation 1%

Consultant Diversified others

3,2 19,0

Source: data collected on the APDT-Portuguese Association for the Development of Telework (July, 2002)

Trying to explain the relevance of teachers as the third professional category, we should analyse the main reasons that justify the intention of becoming a teleworker (Table 4). The more expressive reasons are those related to the need of a part-time job to increase monthly family income, or the fact of being unemployed. And it is known that in Portugal there is a high level of unemployment between high school teachers, and also a significant number of young teachers with a non complete working schedule.

Table 4. Main reasons to justify the intention of becoming a Portuguese teleworker: Needing of a part-time job to increase monthly family income Being unemployed Having some kind of physical disability Avoiding daily commuting and inflexible working hours Housekeeper who wants some kind of remuneration and to feel fulfilled and useful Student who wants some kind of remuneration Intending to live outside the city Retired who wants some occupation and extra-remuneration

(% of APDT contacts: 77 explicit reasons) 32,5 26,0 13,0 9,1 7,8 7,8 2,6 1,3

Source: data collected on the APDT-Portuguese Association for the Development of Telework (July, 2002)

Curiously these kinds of reasons to justify the ambition of becoming a teleworker, are not very usual between the specialized literature. The intention to avoid daily commuting, the working hours inflexibility, the physical disability, the need for a better conciliation between family life and working ambitions, are in Portugal reasons with some relevance but not so much as the intention of consider telework as another chance to find an occupation and increase the small salaries. This particularity also help us to understand better the age structure and education background that characterizes the profile of the Portuguese potential teleworker, since there is a worrying and well known unemployment rate among recently graduated young people. The findings of this empirical analysis concerning the residence patterns of the APDT contacts, show a higher representation of urban residents. From a total of 308 municipalities, 69% of them (213 municipalities) have not yet contacted the APDT, mostly municipalities without big cities (in population) and not so well provided with good levels of road accessibility (Figure 1). This can indicate that several initiatives are needed, if we want to explore more efficiently the potentialities of telework as an instrument of the inward development policies, by the positive contribute to the promotion of new opportunities of work in the rural areas of Portugal. We may conclude that more than 56% of all APDT contacts live in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, specifically in four municipalities: Lisbon, Oeiras, Sintra and Cascais (these 4 municipalities represent 71% of all APDT contacts of persons living in the 18 municipalities that composed the Lisbon Metropolitan Area). In the Oporto Metropolitan Area, representing 11% of all APDT contacts, the three municipalities of Oporto, Matosinhos and Vila Nova de Gaia, represent 71% of all APDT contacts of persons living in the 9 municipalities that compose the Oporto Metropolitan Area). This spatial pattern may suggest, that in Portugal the wish to adhere to telework, maybe directly concerned with the desire to avoid daily transport congestions to and from work, and by this way increasing quality of living and well being standards. To conclude we decided to analyse the most relevant types of information demands to APDT (Table 5). Table 5. Most relevant information demands to APDT: (in a total of 489 information demands) 1º What should I do to become a teleworker? 2º Has APDT got some teleworking opportunities to promote? 3º Where can I find a job in teleworking? (asking from references about: internet portals, teleworking job agencies, recruiter enterprises,…) 4º What is teleworking about? 5º According to my professional skills is there any chance to become a teleworker? 6º What should I do to become an APDT joint member? Source: data collected on the APDT-Portuguese Association for the Development of Telework (July, 2002)

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Figure 1. Portuguese spatial distribution of potential telew orkers, by municipality (2002) Potential telew orkers by municipality, 2002

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SOURCES: data collected on APDT - Po rtuguese Association for the Development of Tele work (rese arch d one in July 2002) INE (20 02) - A tlas da s Cida des de Portugal, Lisbo a, Insti tu to Nacio nal d e Estatística (2 001 data for cities pop ula tion )

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According to the hierarchy obtained, it is evident the need to promote actions to diffuse more detailed information about all aspects concerned with this new form of work organization. The last conclusion points out a considerable interest between the APDT contacts, to became teleworkers on their’s own count. For those, the main difficulty is to find an intermediate service (internet portal, teleworking job agencies or recruiter enterprises), where their professional skills could be confronted with real teleworking opportunities.

5 Conclusion Although there is a good deal of informal telework going on, as a result of a gradually increase use of ICT’s amongst households and companies, Portugal has been somewhat slow in formally adopting telework as a new way of working. As we exposed, this scenario is a result of a wide range of factors which can potentially affect the development of teleworking arrangements within the Portuguese context. For telework to really to take off, companies and public administration must change their organizational procedures, from traditional management (by controlling the performance of workers in a system based on hours worked rather than on results obtained) into more actual and efficient ones. Nevertheless it is important to point out that in Portugal, a reticent attitude to telework is common not only between managers but also between those employees who work in companies with a great probability to implement telework arrangements (fear of isolation and also of marginalized attitude from the employers). Other relevant barrier to the straightforward development of formal telework in Portugal, is the little sensibility from the central Government during recent years. However this perception seems to be changing with some policies presented by the actual Government. Namely, some significant readjustments promoted in order to fight the rigidity of a labour legislation designed for the well defined and routine jobs of the industrial economy, or the intention to promote a network of local telecenters throughout Portugal, or even a set of specific information and training actions, in order to explain the advantages of telework for employers and employees, and its organizational impacts. Despite these barriers, in some cases the reasons and impulses that justify telework adoption in Portugal, should be carefully analysed. Some studies alert to the possibility of telework being used as a way to spin-off some back-office tasks, through the implementation of service provider systems, what can be seen as a way to weaken labour agreements. Finally and in what concerns to the profile of the potential teleworker that have been contacting the APDT since 1998, the empirical analysis conducted in this paper allow us to state that Portuguese qualified young people, overall living in the central core of the two metropolitan areas, are the ones that express more interest to adhere to telework. Specially computer experts, administrative workers and other professionals that deal with functions more adjusted to telework, but also those who need a part-time job to increase monthly family income, or unemployed people that consider telework only as one more chance to find a professional occupation.

Acknowledgements This study is included on my PhD project, and it draws on joint work with Profª Iva Pires, who had decisively contributed to shaping my views of this subject, besides all the improved comments in the revision process.

I have also had the benefit of excellent conditions, provided by Eng. Miguel Reynolds Brandão and Drª. Isabel Rodrigues, during the period of databases fulfilling spend on the APDT – the main Portuguese Association for the Development of Telework.

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Notes 1

Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Minho (Guimarães, Portugal), [email protected] 2 As traditional piecework homeworker making no use of telecommunications as part of their work 3 Developed by the Institute for Employment Studies and leaded by Ursula Huws, with initial funding from the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme, and with the purpose of mapping and measuring eWork at a global level (Huws, 2001). 4 Niles (1995) defined teleworking as any form of substitution of information technologies for work-related travel, and telecommuting as the partial or total substitution of telecommunications technologies for the commute to work. 5 Qvortrup (1998) says that these definition problems increase specially when we intend to test the concept empirically (Are academics teleworkers? Are bank agencies telework centres? Are taxidrivers flexiworkers?). In this author’s perspective “as telework researchers we still lack a common conceptual language” (Qvortrup, 1998, p. 27). 6 The idea of this project, promoted by a consortium of private companies, has been expanded to other European Countries (with the name THINK project: Spain, Greece, UK, Italy, Lithuania), using the same techniques already tried and proven in Portugal.