by: Dr. Antonio Padilla Meléndez.
This article presents some of the results of our investigations into the optics of Business Management with regard to the use of telework in Spain.
In a global context, the majority of statistics show an acceleration in the growth of teleworking throughout the 1990s. Statistics from the Department of Transport in the United States estimates the number of American teleworkers as between 3.1 and 6.2 million. European statistics show a growth in the number of teleworkers in all European countries. The United Kingdom has gathered statistics showing the growth of telework. Germany and France also have an increasing number of teleworkers.
Telework in Spain developed slowly up to 1994. During this period most organizations were leaning on public initiatives such as the STAR program. Since 1994 multinational companies have been the primary force driving the growth of telework in Spain.
Spain is not at the same level as countries where telework is more common such as USA or the UK. However, we have been able to identify a number of important experiences.
In our work, we have considered the several definitions of telework or telecommuting provided by numerous authors, starting from the concept of Jack Nilles of 1973 (Nilles, 1994). Our concept of telework in an organization is summarized as follows (Padilla, 1996): Telework is a functional strategy of an organization based on working anytime, anyplace, thereby making the human resources more flexible.
After consulting a great variety of sources of information, formal and informal, we gathered information on 55 Spanish experiences representing approximately 1,703 teleworkers.
We categorized the data gathered into five fundamental variables in order to produce a homogeneous analysis of such a wide range of telework experiences. The five variables include: the telework mode; the number of teleworkers involved; the current state of telework; the year of beginning telework; and the activity of the company or project.
In this article I will explain the findings in the areas of telework mode and the current state of the identifed experiences.
In analyzing the mode of telework we found experiences categorized as: village of teleworkers and resort offices; telework at home; telework at home and mobile telework; mobile telework; and telecentres. The most common mode is the telecentre (34.5% of the total); followed by mobile telework (25.5%) and telework at home (14.5%).
Two experiences of villages of teleworkers existed. We classified them as villages as they included a mixture of all modes of classical telework. In the case of the ParcBIT (Telematic Park in the Balearic Islands), it has some characteristics of a resort office, although it was something more than an establishment of this type.
In analyzing the current state of telework we categorized each organization's telework program as: in study; empirical study concluded; operational; pilot project in progress; pilot project completed; or pilot project without enough information.
The data showed that 43% of the organization's telework programs were in study and 46% were operational. Telework at home was operational at 25% of the organization.
Our research concludes by affirming that telework is a form of working that is viable for organizations in Spain. The telework implementation in Spain is not at the level of other countries (the United States or the United Kingdom), but we expect it to grow in the near future. Considering this, management should incorporate telework concepts and methods to achieve success in the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bagley, M.; Mannering, J.; Mokhtarian, P. (1994): Telecommuting Centers and Related Concepts: A Review of Practice. Institute of Transportation Studies. University of California (USA).
Nilles, J. (1996a): "Teletrabajo y estrategia de negocio". Seminar: Cómo incorporar el teletrabajo a su estrategia empresarial. Grupo Especial Directivos. 18 y 19 de junio. Madrid (Spain).
Nilles, J. (1994): Making Telecommuting Happen. A Guide for Telemanagers and Telecommuters. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York.
Padilla, A. (1996): Los flujos de información telemáticos en la Dirección de Empresas. Análisis del Teletrabajo . Doctoral unpublished thesis. University of Málaga (Spain).
CONTACT:
Dr. Antonio Padilla Meléndez.
University of Málaga, Spain.
Email: apm@uma.es
web: www.uma.es/grupos/telyemp/apm.htm
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