Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations

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Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations: An Overview
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Only single organisations among the efficiency oriented ones are advanced enough in their
telework experience to have exactly measured productivity. Only the internal papers of one of
them offered us an exact number of an average increase of productivity by teleworkers, which was
28%.
Measurement of results instead of perceived presence at workplace is the major difference
between teleworkers and their colleagues in the main office, as observed by our interviewees. In
routine work it is easier and more likely to be objectified: number of cases done, number of pages
translated and so on. For less standardised tasks regular face-to-face meetings with superiors serve
in monitoring as well in agreement of objectives for the next work period and are more flexible.
Our Swedish case shows the most advanced internalisation of work discipline with employees
writing diaries, exchanging experiences in staff meetings and investigating individual potentials
for an increase of productivity. Diaries have been also in use in the German pilot and served as
reliable material for precise and profound evaluation.
3.5. Top-down with bottom-up pressure
The introduction of telework in public administrations can be defined as a top-down phenomenon
with bottom up pressure. It is the exception that the emergence of decentralised work has been
perceived as a ‘self-organising’ process. It is seldom that the middle-management of staff
managers or IT project leaders regards themselves as the initiators.
Pict. 5: 
Initiative for the Implementation of Telework
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