European Journal of Information Systems(1998) Vol. 7, 221-231.

INHIBITORS AND MOTIVATORS FOR TELEWORK: SOME FINNISH EXPERIENCES

REIMA SUOMIDrSc (econ), Professor

Turku School of Economics and Business AdministrationRehtorinpellonkatu 3FIN - 20500 TurkuFinlandTel + 358 - 2 - 338 3409Fax + 358 - 2 - 338 3451Email reima.suomi@utu.fi

JUHANI PEKKOLALicSc, Senior Researcher

Ministry of Labour, FinlandWorking Environment DivisionResearch BranchEteläesplanadi 4FIN - 00101 HelsinkiFinlandTel + 358 - 9 - 185 6539Fax + 358 - 9 - 185 6567Email (X.400) G=Juhani, S=Pekkola, 0=TM, P=VN, A=Mailnet, C=fi

INHIBITORS AND MOTIVATORS FOR TELEWORK: SOME FINNISH EXPERIENCES

Abstract:Nordic countries have traditionally been forerunners in both usage of telecommunication andrestructuring of working life. Both elements are strongly involved in telework, and so there might be alesson to be learnt from Nordic telework projects. In the article, four Finnish telework initiatives arestudied. Reasons for starting them are sought and their results are being evaluated. Further factorsmaking the daily telework easier or more difficult are explicated. Conclusions are drawn from thecases, and their characteristics are compared with those of other European telework initiatives.

The article begins with a short introduction to the Finnish telework scheme. National strong and weakpoints in relation to telework are presented.

1 Introduction

Telework is a rich and much discussed topic with contributions in many areas, such as informationsystem science, psychology of work, organizational studies, environmental sciences and urbanplanning, just to name a few. This article is a trial to connect telework arrangements and their successesor failures to the broader societal context of the Nordic countries, yet keeping information andcommunication technologies in a central role as the case usually is in information systems science.

Nordic countries have traditionally been forerunners in both usage of telecommunication andrestructuring of working life. Both elements are strongly involved in telework, and so there might be alesson to be learnt from Nordic telework projects. In the article, four Finnish telework initiatives arestudied. Reasons for starting them are sought and their results are being evaluated. Further factorsmaking the daily telework easier or more difficult are explicated. Conclusions are drawn from thecases, and their characteristics are compared with those of other European telework initiatives.

Because of the high unemployment and pressure for competitiveness in international business, theFinnish society is too compulsed to look for added productivity and flexibility in production. Especialhits towards the Finnish economy not so severely suffered by other Western European countries werethe collapse of the Soviet Union eliminating a lot of actually very profitable export, and the growinginternational demand and preference for a stable currency, which turned national priorities to favour astrong Markka, resulting in a situation in which instead of currency flexibility other means forflexibility had to be found.

One part of that scene is labour market flexibility, where in addition to other structural reforms - suchas the concept of lifelong learning, different national retirement and educational plans, and drasticalchanges in demanded qualifications for workforce - advancement of telework has played a key role.

Our research objective is to find out, which kinds of goals Finnish telework projects set, how they arebeing fulfilled, and which kinds of difficulties and good things are met during the work. A second-

level objective is to find out whether the Finnish approach somehow differs from the other Europeancountries.

Our plan for this article runs as follow: In Chapter 2 we introduce the reader to the Finnish teleworkscheme. In Chapter 3 we introduce the readers into four cases. In Chapter 4 we analyze the cases indeeper detail in a thematic fashion and draw conclusions. Finally, we compare the Finnish approachwith approaches in other countries in Chapter 5. Conclusions follow in Chapter 6.

Methodologically, we follow a deductive path. From individual cases generalisations are deduced.Cases Telecom Finland and Nokia Data include action-oriented work by Juhani Pekkola, whereas thecases Archipelago-project and Kuusamo are being presented based mainly on secondary sources, andselected because they are so very well known and much cited in the Finnish telework discussion.

2 Telework as seen from the Finnish perspective

For arrangements in which workers work a considerable part of their working time outside normaloffice premises ‘Telework’ or in Finnish the quite straightforward translation Etätyö is the preferredterm in Finland, even though the idea of flexibility is very important for firms as well as for the societyas a whole: the concept of ‘flexiwork’ has too won some support. Finland, with no high urbanizationrate, finds no appeal for terms like ‘telecommuting’. The traditional Finnish definition of telework isnot deviating from international concepts and is (Suomen kansallinen ... ,1995) as follows:

telework is a working arrangement where at least some parts of the working tasks are performed outsidethe regular working place in an employee-employer -relation, and where information technology is animportant tool.

However, telework is a multi-faceted phenomenon, which should be understood in its wider context,not on the basis of a short definition. Facets of this wider context in the Finnish discussion are amongothers (Suomen kansallinen ..., 1995):

• telework is a part of a wider change process in working and organizational cultures leading fromthe industrial society towards the information society

• production of goods and services will be distributed through binding together geographicallydistant production entities and through introducing new partners into established productionentities in a way that benefits all - simultaneously possibilities for telework emerge

• an important part of the process is more intensive use of modern information andcommunications technology

• organizational cultures turn into cooperation-seeking and customer-oriented ones• continuous education for the work-force (lifelong learning) plays a paramount role• organization of work is based on flexible job categories and contents.

In fact Finland has got many characteristics that make telework a feasible possibility for thedevelopment of Finnish working life and society. The long distances and relatively scarce population

(5 million inhabitants) make the gains that could be obtained through telework very concrete, especiallyif there is the for Finns important aspiration of keeping the whole country populated. In addition tolarge mainland rural areas, there is a large archipelago with its special problems of communication andtransportation.

Enabling factors are the high education level of Finnish work-force and the well developedtelecommunication infrastructure available. At least in the following dimensions (related to thepopulation) Finland is among the five most developed countries in the world

• number of Internet hosts and domains• number of telephone main lines• number of mobile phone subscribers• amount of cash in circulation (least, referring to• developed electronic payment systems)

Telework awareness in Finland is very high: 75% of Finns are familiar with the term Telework(Luukinen & al 1996). Telework potential is too high: In total, there are about one million workersactive in professions where telework could be a viable solution. In 1980-89, the total work-forceincreased only by 4,6 %, while the number of people employed in information occupations connectedwith production and distribution of information rose 29 %. The absolute increase in the number ofpeople working in information occupations in fact rose more than the total increase in all other jobs(Sorsa 1993).

Actual telework utilization is growing fast. A study performed already in 1990 showed that some 5% ofall work force performs at least a part of its work at home with computers. In 1993 8,4% of the wageand salary earners applied, at least to some extent, telework , the figure for 1996 being 11% (Suomi-Pekkola 1997). As information occupations employed about 50% of the wage and salary earners, thismeans that every fifth potential employee actually performs telework (Suomi-Pekkola 1997).

In addition, the country is culturally and administratively very homogenous, which makes it easier forgovernment to take initiatives to advance telework (in comparison to countries with federal structuresand multiple languages). Actually, telework projects are strongly supported by government bodies. TheFinnish Ministry of Labour is very active in this field, and many universities study and run practicalprogrammes on how to advance telework. In addition, many government administrations and localmunicipalities run projects in order to advance telework.

There are, however, too factors that inhibit effective use of telework. First, the country is still verydependent on traditional industries, which offer fewer working places that could be turned into teleworkthan service-sector. Especially, the traditional Finnish paper industry seems rather increasing its shareof the total economy than losing it. On the other hand, the little old-fashioned industry structure toooffers possibilities for telework: the relatively large agricultural population has got a great need to getsome kind of extra work, which they could perform during the long winter months when agriculturalactivities run at a lower gear.

Issues connected with environment protection etc. have very little message in Finland in connection totelework. The country actually has only one big city, Helsinki, and even there traffic and other

population concentration problems have less visibility than in many bigger European or Americancities, not to speak of developing countries.

Table 1 Enabling and inhibiting factors for Finnish telework initiatives at the Nation level___________________________________________________Enablers

High education levelGood telecommunication and computer infrastructureSupport from public administrationLong distances, big expenses of commutingCultural homogeneity of the countryWillingness of rural agricultural population togain extra income

InhibitorsTraditional, non-information intensive work oriented industry structureLittle motivation from the viewpoint of- traffic elimination- environment savingCurrent high unemployment: no need for workarrangement changes

___________________________________________________

3 Some Finnish telework initiatives

In this and the following chapter, four Finnish telework projects are described, two in privatecompanies, two mainly driven by public authorities. In this chapter we describe the basic premises ofthe cases, and further analysis on the cases in conducted in Chapter 3, more in a thematic fashion.Juhani Pekkola performed case studies in Nokia Data and Telecom Finland, which are in detail reportedin (Pekkola 1993). Reima Suomi has been involved as educator and expert advisor in the Archipelagoproject, and material is too derived from several discussions with the project manager Tapio Penttiläfrom University of Turku. Material on the case Kuusamo is mainly based on (Juntunen 1993) and(Järveläinen 1997), but has too been derived from discussions with manager Henry Haglund, Telmor.y., the Finnish association for advancing usage of telecommunication networks in Finland.

3.1 Case Nokia Data

Nokia Data was a part of the Nokia concern active in manufacturing of paper, tires, cables, householdappliances such as televisions, and increasingly more information technology related products, such asmicrocomputers, terminal devices and information systems in the time when the telework initiativedescribed here started. Today Nokia concentrates solely on telecommunications, being especiallystrong in mobile communication. Nokia is Finland´s largest industrial company, with operations allover the world. Today Nokia Data is sold away from the concern and a part of the ICL company.

At Nokia Data, an organizational change was initiated in the mid 1980's when it was discovered thatthere had arisen a need for more intensive communication and integration inside the company. In orderto gain this goal, a campaign for a change in organizational culture was set up. One of its mostessential elements was communications culture, which could be advanced through more intensive usageof electronic mail. Before long, electronic mail was discovered to be the most appropriate mediumpossessing excellent prospects for developing the tools and methods of information work. Theelectronic mail became both a tool and a product for Nokia Data.

The top management of Nokia Data underlined the importance of avoiding formal control andencouraged the personnel into taking initiatives and responsibilities for their own work. Consequently,it was possible to execute liberal personnel policy with the support from the top management. Theformal control over employees' absenteeism and working hours was reduced. Instead, more weight wasput on the control over the results of work. Information work, development of hardware (their pricesconstantly being reduced), personnel policy and electronic mail enabled the employees to choose theirworking hours and where they wished to work.

In addition to person-to-person communication, the electronic mail system was developed furthertowards taking advantage of bulletin boards. These were implemented by work units and project teamsand it was possible for anyone to browse them anywhere, provided that a PC (equipped with acommunications program), a telephone set and a modem would be at one's disposal. This resulted to thefact that a part of one's tasks could be accomplished at home. Especially, replying to messages andscanning the bulletin boards for general matters concerning the company was quite common in theevening and during the week-end.

To sum up, telework resulted from the implementation of electronic mail system and the campaign for achange in organizational culture. Telework was considered to be an option for adding to competitiveadvantage.

Through the project, telework became a part of normal daily life, and is no more separately tracked inthe organization. What is most important, through the project the conceptual basis was laid for thesince then successful product TEAMWARE OFFICE TM.

3.2 Case Telecom Finland

Telecom Finland is the state-owned and -controlled telecommunication operator in Finland. It is by nomeans a monopoly company, and faces for example in local telephone traffic severe competition fromabout 40 private local telephone operators forming a nation-wide high-quality network. Old monopoliesof the Telecom Finland are breaking up in other sectors too, and the last monopoly to remain seems tobe that of the Nordic Mobile Telecommunication System NMT, which too is challenged by theEuropean GSM-system, allocated to competition too in Finland.

In May 1990 a decision was made as to starting an experimental project on telework. It was based on anidea of drawing advantage from telecommunications networks for making the activities within theorganization itself more effective. Furthermore, it was observed that telework would enable the

development of products and taking measures in issues relating to personnel policy besides businessactivity. Support from the top management was needed in carrying out the project because of theobjection from the side of the middle management.

The first stage of the experiment started in autumn 1990 by selecting and training the participants andtheir supervisors. At the turn of 1990-91, some sixty employees were involved with the experimentalproject.

On one hand, the telework at Telecom Finland was based on experimental projects and on the otherhand, established practices when it came to the organization of work. In principle, the experimentwould give a possibility for the deployment of distance work and lay a basis for a teleworkorganization.

The organizational changes and the reorganization of work in autumn 1991 delayed the implementationof telework. The general trend towards reducing personnel resources led to general uncertainty andlessened willingness to adopt new models of work organization. The wide-spread recession mentalitydecreased initiative and offered gloomy future prospects.

Nevertheless, telework seems to be a way of working to be reckoned with, no matter what thecircumstances will be in the future. In autumn 1992, the worst appeared to be over and a newqualitative level was attained. At present, the total number of teleworkers at Telecom Finland amountsto approximately 600 employees and is still steadily growing.

Thirty different aspects of making work more effective through telework were identified during theexperiment. They principally had to do with working environment, information technology,telecommunication, employees' private lives, the regrouping of staff and organizations into networksand the general policy of the company. On the other hand, thirteen dysfunctional points of viewregarding personal issues, working communities, the nature and function of the organization, equality inthe working life, negotiating methods and technical problems were identified.

To sum up, telework was a part of a campaign behind which there were individual ideas of reorganizingwork and tendencies towards giving vent to creative talent.

3.3 Case Archipelago-Project

A telework experiment with public interest runs in University of Turku. The University of Turku isrunning a project to keep the south-western archipelago of Finland populated and attractive forpermanent residents. Among many other initiatives, the project is running a telework initiative.

This project has run since 1991. A database of the interested teleworkers in the area and of their skillsand capabilities has been developed. The database contains some 200 teleworkers. Nearly everyone inthe database has been assigned telework employment opportunities, and some 50 of them have even setup their own commercial business. It has been estimated that in total working opportunities have beencreated to some 30 workers whole-timely and to some 60 workers part-timely.

A part of the programme has been extensive education for possible teleworkers. They have beeneducated in computer usage, telecommunications, group work, marketing, book-keeping, running andsetting up enterprises, negotiation skills, etc. For the public audience and political decision makers,there have been own targeted seminars and educational activities too.

In addition to the database and educational activities, the project has been very active in marketingtelework for possible employers. The idea is to get the big local companies interested in the topic.

Practical telework possibilities emerge not only through terminals at home, but even through “telework-cottages” or “telecottages”, public houses where users can use modern equipment and get help inoperational telecommunication matters. The project was running six such telecottages at its peaktimes, now their number is limited back to one.

Because this initiative is not connected to any especial organization, typical organizational questions donot emerge. Rather it is a question of organizing life in families in rural areas, where some extraoccupations are welcomed along more traditional occupations such as fishing, agriculture or small-scalehandicraft.

Despite the massive resources put on the project, there have too been difficulties. Finding employersfor the archipelago inhabitants is difficult, even though marketing has reached up to Stockholm area.There are maybe too shortages in the employee skills and even motivation. The project could beaccused of being too much centrally planned and run without real local interest in the issue.

3.4 Case Kuusamo

Kuusamo is a municipality in East-Finland at the Russian border. It is by no means a small community:18 500 inhabitants live in an area of 5800 square kilometers (1/8 of the area of the Netherlands). This,however, makes the population density very low, especially when a large amount of the population stillis concentrated on some few places.

Since 1987 Kuusamo has concentrated on five issues in developing telework (Juntunen 1993, 155):

1 development of know-how and culture in telematics2 implementation of information systems in business3 improvement of technical level in telecommunications4 information systems for the tourist industry5 emphasis on cooperation.

In Kuusamo, several Finnish families and companies have their holiday cottages, and Kuusamo is a keyholiday resort in Finland, especially for the skiing period. One of the ideas of Kuusamo is to keep theholiday-makers even longer in Kuusamo, through allowing them to perform their work throughtelework arrangements. The chances are good, since the prospective teleworkers often are of highprofessional expertise and status, and have good housing facilities available there in Kuusamo, whichwould otherwise maybe be left unused for long periods.

Especially in tourist branch, the municipality is working hard in order to become a national pioneer andknowledge-center. Both systems to be used direct by tourists and systems to be used by companiesoffering tourist services are developed.

In retrospect, the Kuusamo initiative was ahead of its time. Many of its technical solutions wereobsolete, and could and in fact are in many cases now implemented with much less effort throughmodern Internet- and especially World-Wide-Web technology. Insufficient systems are many timesmentioned as reasons why the initiatives did not work out as expected (see for example Järveläinen1996).

The difference to the Archipelago-project in Kuusamo is that in Kuusamo the municipality is the maincoordinator of the project, as in the Archipelago-project this responsibility lies with the (state-owned)university. The available resouces for the telework project are of course limited.

4 The Finnish initiatives studied in deeper detail: motivators, enablers and inhibitors,and results of the cases

In this section, we discuss in greater detail the main goals and motivations for starting up the teleworkprojects and the main and inhibitors but too enabling and work forwarding issues that were met duringthe projects. Then, encouraged by the example given by Richter and Meshulam (1993) in their articlewe discuss the telework consequences both at individual and organizational level. Further, we drawsome conclusions on the society level. A summary of the results is provided at the end of the chapter inTable 4.

4.1 Goals and motivators for the projects

The projects described here fall clearly into two groups: those initiated at a public administration leveland those initiated in one company. Even though the practical approaches were dissimilar, the finalgoal of all the initiatives was however the same: adding to the feasibility and competitiveness of theorganization or area of the project.

Better methods for organizing knowledge work were clearly visible in the Telecom Finland and Nokiacases. Both provide products for knowledge workers, and should of course themselves be showing agood example in applying new techniques and concepts such as telework. Both companies are evennational key players in their markets, and have a stake in the process of turning Finland into aninformation society. For Telecom Finland, it was too a question of better utilizing its own strength,telecommunication networks and producing new concepts and products for the teleworking community.

Explicit attention on attracting competent work force was present in all the initiatives. For themunicipalities, there is a question of tax income and even of keeping certain areas populated. For theorganizations, competition for skilled work force can be lessened through flexible work arrangement

facilitated among others by telework. Because of high unemployment (between 15 and 20 % in Finlandin period 1992-1997) this motivation has anyway been wiped away to a certain degree.

From the employer’s point of view, telework should be seen as a means to obtain organizationalflexibility. Through telework it is more easy to adjust to business fluctuation and changes in load.Flexibility can manifest itself in time, place, amount or quality. At least time flexibility seems hard toobtain in Finland, since telework is usually established with the idea of constant and ongoingemployment relationship, which offers no actual flexibility for the employers. First with the guaranteeof ongoing employment the idea of telework can be sold to trade unions and individual employees.Working relations where the quality of work is changed through telework are more easily established.Arrangements where employers buy working capacity from independent teleworkers are not understoodas telework in the limited sense of the word.

Another typical benefit sought from telework is that of savings in room costs. Unfortunately, however,these savings come to the picture first after a major investment in telework, and the costs associatedwith room are usually very inflexible. Furthermore, possible savings in room costs are often more thanoutweighed by the costs of getting a second set of computers and other equipment for the teleworker athome.

Table 2 Typical advantages of telework as expected by Finnish employers____________________________________________________* Organizational flexibility (time, place, amount and quality)* New forms of organizing knowledge work* Own product and company image development* Savings in room costs* Attraction of highly skilled work-force* Employee satisfaction___________________________________________________

4.2 Drivers and inhibitors for the daily work within the projects

In general, telework is welcomed from the side of employees, and is regarded as a special advantageand honour. Is telework connected with the crucial question of being able to live in a certain region, asin the case of the Archipelago-project, the positive reception is even greater.

Even in the two organizations we discussed here, top management commitment and especially theirconcrete actions were not completely in favour of telework. But especially the public projects ofKuusamo and Archipelago have suffered from too little interest from the side of prospective employers.Even when there is a general positive atmosphere towards telework, organizations struggling with costsavings find it difficult to document the possible savings acquired from telework.

Technical problems are a common excuse for unsuccessful telework projects. In our view the technicalproblems usually are not a major burden and usually emerge in the setting-up stage of the teleworkenvironment, and when the environment is up and running no more major problems usually occur. Atleast in Northern Europe the public networks used are very reliable.

Critical technical dimensions for the teleworker are usability of the working system and response times.Much depends on the system installation to be contacted by the teleworker, also on the employerscomputer system. If it has much downtime and high capacity utilization, the teleworker will sufferfrom bad system quality. Of course too the telecommunication network itself can cause delays,especially in packet-switched connections.

Success of failure of telework arrangements has a strong connection to the organizational andprofessional culture aspects.

Professional culture is a set of values held by a professional group. How information work is supervisedis a central part of the overall professional culture found in the organization. The success of informationwork is highly dependent on the organization having an organizational culture guaranteeing similarprimary preconditions for work for everyone (Blanc 1988). Our cases show that different professionalgroups have different possibilities to adopt to telework. For example for edp-professionals turning totelework seems to be easier than for many other groups, because of the traditional focus on results(lines of code) rather than used time.

As it comes to the organizational culture, many telework projects were actually seen as manifestationsof new organizational cultures. So, they in fact collided with the established organizational cultures,but could proceed because of the explicit support of the top management, which task of course is to setdirections for the organizational culture. Telework projects were also used as agents for changingorganizational cultures.

Finally, the hard recession ruling in Finland currently affects not only the labour market equilibrium,but too the general atmosphere of innovation and experimentation, as well as financing sources.Companies and even public authorities are less willing to grasp risky projects. Further, the recessionhas an effect on workforce mobility. The unemployed people have no motivation to move to big cities,but can as well stay at home in more rural areas, where at least social connections are and where livingis less expensive.

Table 3 Main enabling and inhibiting factors for telework initiatives as seen at the organizationallevel in the case organizations

___________________________________________________Enablers

Motivation to add to local or organizational competitiveness and feasibilityDesire to attract competent work forceHigh interest at the side of workersTelework usually feasible from the viewpoint of professional culture

InhibitorsLacking interest at the side of employersPossible gains hard to documentTechnical problemsHigh communication costsThe general recession with high unemploymentGeneral risk-averse atmospherePossible collisions with organizational culture

___________________________________________________

4.3 Results of the telework projects

4.3.1 Changes at individual level

Telework has been a target of contradictory views. On one hand, it is known that telework has beensuccessfully applied to the needs of both employers and employees, that it is cost-saving, that itcombines work with leisure, and that it has various positive social effects. Increasing personal freedom,the possibility to concentrate on work and expand the recruiting area etc. have been considered to havemotivated workers to enter into telework (Vorjans 1987, Huws et al 1990).

On the other hand, telework has been regarded as an exploitation of the female workforce and a meanto stimulate home industry disapproved by the trade union movement. The increasing monotonybrought on by work routine, the difficulties to maintain scope that supports personal coping with thework and to preserve one's competence are among the problems brought up in connection with telework(Kawakami 1983, Oldfield 1991, Vorjans 1987, 83).

What kinds of effects does telework then have on the total amount of work performed by teleworkers?According to our cases, usually, in the beginning, the personnel's working hours will increase as theyspontaneously prolong their work days by accomplishing time-consuming tasks. On the other hand,some extra time is compensated through the eliminated travelling time. In the beginning, teleworkersusually work more than what they used to do in normal working arrangements. Since object of controlis no more time usage, but the amount and quality of the results, even heavy extra workloads because oftelework or just in the work contents can remain unnoticed. Expanding and changing control systemsfrom time control to results control is one of the major tasks and challenges of telework.

For the worker, benefits of telework usually materialize only later. As experience grows and theteleworker no more has the feeling that he has to deliver “more” because of his priority status amongthe workforce, overtime work will be diminished allowing one to devote increasingly more time toone's family life and hobbies. In our cases, those who have been involved with telework have expressedtheir satisfaction because of the flexibility in time-usage.

How the daily work contents of the teleworker actually changes depends primarily on his/her skill level.As for the content of telework, three different views have been presented:

1 The job descriptions may take on a tayloristic trend for example due to technical reasonsrelated to the tools and especially due to the need for the standardization of decentralizedtasks. In other words, there is a segmentation of the tasks, their being split up betweenseveral work places (Oldfield 1991, Vorjans 1987).

2 The second view presented concerns polarization, that is, the view that teleworkers with thebest skills and a strong labour market position get a better work content than they did earlier,while those with less skills or otherwise of an weak labour market position experience howthe elements of work as well as their work content is deteriorating (Fischer 1992 ,Kawakami 1985).

3 On the other hand, there are views predominantly emphasizing the positive effects oftelework (Engström et al 1990, Huws et al., The State of California... 1990).

For us, the positive effects were most visible and no hints of taylorism or polarization could be seen.According to our cases, flexibility made possible through telework is appreciated by the employees.Especially some top professionals are maybe not even reachable in any other way than through differenttelework arrangements. There is even a tendency to see that telework arrangements are some kind ofprize for good performance. Often to the picture come the internal difficulties selected teleworkers meetin their working places. They are easily considered by other employees as some kind of elite with extraprivileges.

To sum up, our case studies found almost entirely just positive effects of telework for the individualworkers, if initial added workload and feeling of insecurity in the working and social relationships isignored.

4.3.2 Changes at organizational level

An empirical enquiry concerning Finnish companies in the information technology sector (Zamindar1995) showed that there were three statistically significant factors related to telework: well developedinformation technology infrastructure, the small size of the company and the application of team workall suggest success for telework projects. In case studies, result-orientated management and process-guided thinking have been considered as obligatory preconditions for successful telework application.

In the case of the Telecom Finland, a radical demonopolisation of the business field led to dramaticstaff reductions, an atmosphere where telework is difficult to establish.

As to the application of telework, it is most interesting to see that 80% of the Finnish teleworkarrangements are unofficial and only 20% of the teleworkers say that they have made an agreementwith their superior. So far, systematic telework programmes have been rare, and only in the mostadvanced - but also the most successful - companies has it been possible by innovative organization ofwork and by technology to progress to far-advanced R & D, customer commitment and strategiccompetitive advantages (Suomi-Pekkola 1997).

4.3.3 Changes at society level

At the society or nation level, it is not too critical to say that the big advantages and benefits of teleworkstill remain to be seen. We are first in a period of research, initial investment and education andconcept establishment.

It is important to note, that all the projects studied here had profound societal impacts, and actually hada function of turning Finland closer to the information society. Nokia Data and Telecom Finland, bothleaders in their information intensive industries, had to manifest that they are themselves willing to turn

into the new organization cultures demanded by the information society, and that they are not justexpecting this from others.

Another main societal issue is that of rural development. The issue of local or government initiativegets importance from the cases of Archipelago-project and Kuusamo. Both of these project failed insome aspects. A strong local initiative is needed, but in addition the needed resources should besecured. The societal challenge of future is to integrate these two needs.

Insert Table 4 here

5 Comparison between Telework initiatives in Finland and in the rest of the Europe

As can be seen from our analysis, the goals, practical settings for telework projects, as well as theresults vary very much even between our four projects. It is difficult to state which issues can begeneralized and which not. Here we anyway try to reflect the results against the Nordic societies.

In the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Island) the society structure, politicalsystem and general standard of living are very homogenous. Yet difference too exist: Denmark isclearly connected to the central Europe both geographically and through its longer membership in theEuropean Community. On the other end, Island is clearly the smallest society and is geographicallyvery isolated.

Especially Norway, Sweden and Finland have got the strong motivation to support the large (northern)rural areas. A wide network of telecottages has been established to the Nordic countries: 10 in Norway,39 in Sweden, 44 in Finland and 10 in Denmark in 1993 (Qvortrup 1993, 17). However, in 1997 thereis only one active telecottage left in Finland.

The Nordic countries have too been pioneers in the field of mobile data communications, which is notpurely to be seen as as technical innovation and infrastructure, but rather as a social innovation pavingway too for telework (see Arnbrak 1987).

In Europe, telework applications have a good growing potential. There are over 50 million personalcomputers in use in businesses in Europe, and over 60% of the work force is involved in informationmanagement activities. In general telecommunication infrastructures are well developed, and theeducation level of work force is high (Johnston 1994).

European Community has financed and stimulated actions in the area of telecommunication. Theattention has been Europe -wide. In addition to these European Community -level actions, all countriesare of course running their own development programmes.

The European community actions fall under three categories:

1 Telework stimulation

- decentralization of large organizations- development of networked telework centres- small business networking- urban and inter-urban traffic decongestion- supporting and co-ordination actions

2 Assessment of the social, environmental and economic impacts of advanced communications- macro-economical and trade impacts of advanced communications- employment trends related to use of advanced communications- potential impacts on European regional development and cohesion associated with use

of advanced communications- social trends in use of media and communications services- potential environmental benefits of advanced communications

3 Regional research co-operation- establishment of advanced communications and telematics research- supporting facilities in less favoured regions of the European Union- co-operation in science and technology- teleworking and information relay networks in central and eastern Europe.

Perhaps the biggest differences between the Nordic countries and the rest of the Europe can be seen inthe area of labour markets. The Nordic labour market is very unproblematic from the viewpoint oftelework, with the following characteristics (Bakke 1993, 77).- a fairly egalitarian atmosphere at work- a large degree of discretion for employees- participation in technology and organization development.

The national labour markets can be characterized by labour legislation and unionization rate as more orless regulated ones. High unionization rate and labour legislation supporting employees' labour marketposition can be seen as part of the regulation. The Nordic labour markets might be regarded asregulated ones in comparison with the U.S. and Central European ones where unionization rates arelower and the labour legislation allows less substantial benefits than in Finland and Sweden.

In the labour markets of Central Europe and the U.S.A., the teleworkers are not backed up byunambiguous legal status with its obligations for the employer, by the generally binding nature ofcollective agreements or by the support of the trade union movement. The maintaining of theemployment relationship and its benefits depends not only on the nature of the telework agreement butpartly also on national legislation (see Vega Ruiz 1992). In Central and Southern Europe, teleworkersare to a greater extent subject to an unregulated labour market than in the Nordic countries. For thisreason, the labour market standing and the elements of work of teleworkers in Southern and CentralEurope or in the U.S.A. greatly depend on personal skill.

The boom and labour shortage in Finland at the end of the 1980's affected the practice regarding the useof labour. International differences are also explained by the high work attendance rate among women

and the relatively insignificant number of part-time workers. The welfare state guaranteeing publicchild-care services for those who want them has also had its effect on the Nordic labour marketbehaviour. Thus the lack of child care possibilities is no motive for telework in the Nordic countries. InFinland, telework has not been used to draw on labour pools.

In the U.S.A. and Central Europe, the social benefits in connection with child birth and the child careservices provided by the government are more insignificant than in the Nordic countries. When thesocial norms adopt full-time or part-time domestic work among women, telework will constitute anopportunity of salaried employment to mothers of small children, and this opportunity will certainly beused.

The main reason for the unproblematic nature of telework applications in Finland and other Nordiccountries seems to be both the business strategy which is based on high skills among teleworkers aswell as on a labour market system which is avoiding problematic use of labour force. On the other handtoo European and American applications lie on the area of highly skilled work force - there is abusiness strategy based on high skills and on low skilled workers and a simple labour strategy. On thelatter case telework is both unproblematic and problematic from the labour market point of view.

Table 5 Main differences between telework possibilities in the Nordic countriesand in the rest or the Europe

____________________________________________________• Primary public interest often keeping scarcely populated areas inhabited• Long distances rather than traffic congestion problems a motivation from environmental side of

view• Better telecommunications infrastructure than in many especially Southern European countries• Industry structure more traditional and heavy-industry -oriented than in central Europe• Much interest from employees side because security of work-place no major problem• Working tradition based on equity and respect for employee autonomy: step to telework often

low• A tradition of including workers for projects implementing new systems and technologies:

telework too easily adopted through this tradition• High education level: many well educated professionals, whose work can well be performed

through telework and who have the needed discipline and autonomy• Current high unemployment a major motivation inhibitor

____________________________________________________

6 Conclusions

Telework is a hot topic too in Finland, and possible employers are in principle interested in startingtelework exercises. Some advanced companies in Finland - mainly on the area of telecommunicationsand information technology - are consciously using telework as a part of business strategy and personalpolicy. In working life there exists a growing amount of - usually unofficial - arrangements which arebased on information technology and flexibility in working hours. Telecom Finland and former NokiaData (today ICL) are some of the first examples. It is possible to find flexible work arrangements in

other economically successful companies too, such as many publishing houses, Digital EquipmentCompany and Sol (a major Finnish cleaning firm).

However, the practical arrangements to be made can turn out to be difficult ones. First, thetelecommunication costs caused can manifest themselves to be too high especially in environmentsneeding constant on-line connections because telecommunication is still quite expensive withderegulation and following price reductions first taking their initial steps. Especially,telecommunication costs are visible out-of-pocket costs. Inefficient time usage of personnel has too itscosts, but these costs are opportunity costs and not so clearly seen by the management. Technicalproblems belong to the picture, but can usually be solved, when it is not about a major bottleneck in thebasic infrastructure such as insufficient data transfer rates.

Secondly, the strong Finnish trade unions can too turn themselves against telework, even though in thelatest time the general opinion has turned increasingly in favour of flexibility of work arrangements. Ingeneral, the high unemployment ratio ruling at the moment makes employers less active in taking newinitiatives, especially if even little opposition is met with. However, employees become more active atthe same pace.

Thirdly, employers are not accustomed to the idea of telework, and all the possibilities of this workingarrangement are often less than well understood and used. There is clearly a big task of education andmarketing for the telework concept among the Finnish companies.

Telework is not something where you should play with the latest technology. The issue is more anorganizational one and usually standard products suffice. It is usually wise to use standard technicalsolutions that are available in economical and technical terms and which are easy-to-use and cost-effective for ordinary users. Of course software houses etc. can create special arrangements, but eventhese applications are usually based on standard information and telecommunication technology. Inaverage it seems to me that:- technical possibilities,- scenarios of new work organization and- economical solutionsare coming nearer each other and we are able to see the enlarging scale of business solutions in the areaof telework.

Even our short comparison between the Nordic and other European telework initiatives highlightedmany differences. There is reason to believe that many environmental factors are still maybe evenmore different in other countries, say in the U.S.A or in the Asia. No direct conclusions over differentcountries should be made in the area of telework (if anywhere).

No conceptual definition of telework was attempted at in this empirically oriented paper. The authorswish however to point out that the very concept of telework is a difficult one. If the central elements ofthe concept are information work, and working mode assisted by information and telecommunicationtechnologies, nearly all modern work in organizations falls under this category. So a technical point ofview is not adequate. Rather, the major tensions and most interesting research questions - and maybethe very term in itself - in telework materialize themselves in the relationship between the employee

and the employer - in the control over work: its timing, tools, organization, compensation and rewardsystems, and assessment of results.

The major inhibitor for telework seems to be lacking interest from the side of employers. From thispoint of view, research on the possible benefits and obstacles of telework should be intensified, mainlyfrom the point of view of individual organizations in competitive situations, but too from the viewpointof the society as a whole, where evidence of benefits is however already better documented.

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Interviews:

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Biography:

Reima Suomi is professor of information systems science at Turku School of Economics and BusinessAdministration. Finland. His research interest include among other cost and application aspects oftelecommunication and inter-organizational information systems. Juhani Pekkola is special researcherof the Finnish Ministry of Labour, concentrating on information society issues such as telework.

Table 4: The lessons from the four case projects summarized

Issue Nokia Data Telecom Finland The ArchipelagoProject

Kuusamo

Main goals of theprojects

Own productdevelopmentImproved workingknowledgeImprovingcompany cultureCompetitiveadvantage

Own productdevelopmentImproved workingknowledgeTaking advantage ofthe existingtelecommunicationsinfrastructure

Keeping thearchipelagopopulated

Keeping thewinter-leisurevillages populatedlonger periods.Adding tourism toKuusamo

Work during theprojectsInhibitors Uncertaintly of the

financialenvironment

ConstantorganizationalchangesJob uncertaintyMiddle managementresistence

Difficulty in findingemployersSkill shortages inspite of massiveeducation

ResourcesshortageMaybe too variedgoalsToo earlyapplication:technology notavailable

Drivers Top managementsupportTelework was apart of largerorganizationaltransformation

Top managementsupportNeed to manifestchanges in a changingmarket situation(monopoly lost)

National priority Strong localinitiative

Table 4: The lessons from the four case projects summarized - continued

ResultsPositiveIndividual level Flexibility in

working timesFeeling ofdevelopmentFlexibility in workingtimes

Jobs for certainindividuals

Not discussed

Organizationallevel

ImprovedcommunicationcultureReduction informal workcontrolNew productsderived

Telework establishedas a possible way ofworking

Not discussed Image ofKuusamoimproved

Society level Flagship ofinformationindustry lives upto modernpractices

Flagship of telecomm.industry lives up tomodern practices

Archipelagoremains healthy

A good exampleof drive for localinitiatives

NegativeIndividual level Added workload Not mentioned Massive educational

investments partlyin vain

Not discussed

Organizationallevel

Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned No long-termimprovements intourism orcottage-usage

Society level Not mentioned Not mentioned Too strong publicinterference

Similar initiativesare frozen for along time