Information Society, Work and the Generation of New Forms of Social Exclusion (SOWING): National Report (Portugal)

The choice over the Portuguese case studies was based on the sample constructed for the application of the firm questionnaires, during the second year of the SOWING project, 1999. This sample was fulfilled of firms among several activity sectors: textile, manufacturing, electronics, transports and software industry, based on NACE – codes (2 – digit level). Thus, we agreed to include in a new database the remaining questionnaires and construct a sample with 113 observations. Concerning the organisational change we make a distinction of three categories of change. First we analyse changes taking place at the inter-firm level (outsourcing, subcontracting, geographic relocation), followed by changes at the organisational level (deconcentration/decentralisation, reduction of hierarchical levels, introduction of cost and profit centres). The third kind of changes analysed will be those taking place at the workplace level (job enlargement/enrichment, changing character of work, work load). The Portuguese studied companies presents a relative uniform pattern considering the variables social competencies, practical knowledge, responsibility and specialized professional qualifications.industry; information technologies; qualification; organisation; work

Smarter choices - changing the way we travel

Summary: In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of initiatives, which are now widelydescribed as 'soft' transport policy measures. These seek to give better information and opportunities,aimed at helping people to choose to reduce their car use while enhancing the attractiveness ofalternatives. They are fairly new as part of mainstream transport policy, mostly relativelyuncontroversial, and often popular. They include:. Workplace and school travel plans;. Personalised travel planning, travel awareness campaigns, and public transport information andmarketing;. Car clubs and car sharing schemes;. Teleworking, teleconferencing and home shopping.This report draws on earlier studies of the impact of soft measures, new evidence from the UK andabroad, case study interviews relating to 24 specific initiatives, and the experience of commercial,public and voluntary stakeholders involved in organising such schemes. Each of the soft factors isanalysed separately, followed by an assessment of their combined potential impact.The assessment focuses on two different policy scenarios for the next ten years. The 'high intensity'scenario identifies the potential provided by a significant expansion of activity to a much morewidespread implementation of present good practice, albeit to a realistic level which still recognisesthe constraints of money and other resources, and variation in the suitability and effectiveness of softfactors according to local circumstances. The 'low intensity' scenario is broadly defined as aprojection of the present (2003-4) levels of local and national activity on soft measures.The main features of the high intensity scenario would be. A reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 21% (off-peak 13%);. A reduction of peak period non-urban traffic of about 14% (off-peak 7%);. A nationwide reduction in all traffic of about 11%.These projected changes in traffic levels are quite large (though consistent with other evidence onbehavioural change at the individual level), and would produce substantial reductions in congestion.However, this would tend to attract more car use, by other people, which could offset the impact ofthose who reduce their car use unless there are measures in place to prevent this. Therefore, thoseexperienced in the implementation of soft factors locally usually emphasise that success depends onsome or all of such supportive policies as re-allocation of road capacity and other measures toimprove public transport service levels, parking control, traffic calming, pedestrianisation, cyclenetworks, congestion charging or other traffic restraint, other use of transport prices and fares, speedregulation, or stronger legal enforcement levels. The report also records a number of suggestionsabout local and national policy measures that could facilitate the expansion of soft measures.The effects of the low intensity scenario, in which soft factors are not given increased policy prioritycompared with present practice, are estimated to be considerably less than those of the high intensityscenario, including a reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 5%, and a nationwide reductionin all traffic of 2%-3%. These smaller figures also assume that sufficient other supporting policies areused to prevent induced traffic from eroding the effects, notably at peak periods and in congestedconditions. Without these supportive measures, the effects could be lower, temporary, and perhapsinvisible.Previous advice given by the Department for Transport in relation to multi-modal studies was that softfactors might achieve a nationwide traffic reduction of about 5%. The policy assumptionsunderpinning this advice were similar to those used in our low intensity scenario: our estimate isslightly less, but the difference is probably within the range of error of such projections.The public expenditure cost of achieving reduced car use by soft measures, on average, is estimated atabout 1.5 pence per car kilometre, i.e. £15 for removing each 1000 vehicle kilometres of traffic.Current official practice calculates the benefit of reduced traffic congestion, on average, to be about15p per car kilometre removed, and more than three times this level in congested urban conditions.Thus every £1 spent on well-designed soft measures could bring about £10 of benefit in reducedcongestion alone, more in the most congested conditions, and with further potential gains fromenvironmental improvements and other effects, provided that the tendency of induced traffic to erodesuch benefits is controlled. There are also opportunities for private business expenditure on some softmeasures, which can result in offsetting cost savings.Much of the experience of implementing soft factors is recent, and the evidence is of variable quality.Therefore, there are inevitably uncertainties in the results. With this caveat, the main conclusion isthat, provided they are implemented within a supportive policy context, soft measures can besufficiently effective in facilitating choices to reduce car use, and offer sufficiently good value formoney, that they merit serious consideration for an expanded role in local and national transportstrategy.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the many contributions made by organisations and individuals consultedas part of the research, and by the authors of previous studies and literature reviews which we havecited. Specific acknowledgements are given at the end of each chapter.We have made extensive use of our own previous work including research by Lynn Sloman funded bythe Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 on the traffic impact of soft factors and localtransport schemes (in part previously published as 'Less Traffic Where People Live'); and by SallyCairns and Phil Goodwin as part of the research programme of TSU supported by the Economic andSocial Research Council, and particularly research on school and workplace travel plans funded bythe DfT (and managed by Transport 2000 Trust), on car dependence funded by the RAC Foundation,on travel demand analysis funded by DfT and its predecessors, and on home shopping funded byEUCAR. Case studies to accompany this report are available at: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001233

Work Life 2000 Yearbook 2: 2000

This volume reported the proceedings of a series of international research workshops in 1999, funded by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life, in preparation for the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in 2001

Workspace methodologies : studying communication, collaboration and workscapes

This report consists of descriptions of methods, which are used for studying, evaluating and developing workplaces. Work environments are analyzed as layers or imbedded levels: as physical, virtual and mental/social spaces. In this analysis, Kurt Lewin's classical psychological concept 'Life Space' is used as well as the concept 'ba' provided by Nonaka, Toyama and Konno. 'Ba' refers to socially shared space, where people create, share and use knowledge. The concept of Ba unifies the physical space, such as an office space, the virtual space, such as e-mail, and the mental or social space, such as common experiences, ideas, values, and ideals shared by people with common goals as a working context. A hypothesis is that the support and/or hindrances of these spaces have a crucial influence on the activities of employees, groups and organizations. To design and develop workplaces it is fundamental to identify these facilitating and hindering work context characteristics. For this purpose, various methods are needed to collect data, to analyze it, to describe and model the environments, and to analyze their quality. In this report, some only methods are described. They are: social network analysis, sketching and photographing methods, communication analysis, work requirement and well-being analysis, simulation game method and multidisciplinary workplace study methodology. The described methods are examples of approaches and methods meant to cling to the challenges of workplace design.Tämä raportti koostuu työtilojen tutkimisessa, arvioinnissa ja kehittämisessä käytettyjen tiedonkeruu- ja analysointimenetelmien kuvauksista. Työn toimintaympäristöä eritellään eri tasoina tai kerrostumina: fyysisinä, virtuaalisina ja henkisinä/sosiaalisina tiloina. Tasoerittelyssä hyödynnetään Kurt Lewinin klassista, yksilöpsykologista 'elämäntila' käsitettä sekä Nonakan, Toyaman ja Konnon käsitettä 'ba'. Ba tarkoittaa sosiaalisesti jaettua tilaa, jossa olevat ihmiset luovat, jakavat ja käyttävät tietoa. 'Ba' yhdistää fyysisen tilan, kuten toimisto, virtuaalisen tilan, kuten sähköposti, ja henkisen tai sosiaalisen tilan, kuten yhteisesti jaetut kokemukset, ideat ja ihanteet. Oletuksena on, että näiden tilojen tarjoama tuki ja esteet vaikuttavat keskeisellä tavalla yksittäisten työntekijöiden, ryhmien ja organisaatioiden toimintaan. Työpaikkojen suunnittelun ja kehittämisen kannalta on olennaista tunnistaa toimintaa helpottavia ja estäviä tekijöitä. Tähän tarvitaan erilaisia menetelmiä kerätä työtiloja koskevaa tietoa, analysoida sitä, kuvata näitä ympäristöjä ja arvioida niiden laatua. Raportin kirjoituksissa kuvataan joitakin menetelmiä. Kuvatut menetelmät ovat: sosiaalisten verkostojen analyysimenetelmät, piirros- ja valokuvamenetelmä, kommunikaatioanalyysi, kuormitustekijä- ja hyvinvointianalyysi, simulaatiopelimenetelmä ja monitieteinen työpaikkojen tutkimusmetodologia. Esitellyt menetelmät ovat esimerkkejä tavoista paneutua työpaikkojen tutkimuksen haasteisiin

Brave New Wireless World: Mapping the Rise of Ubiquitous Connectivity from Myth to Market

This dissertation offers a critical and historical analysis of the myth of ubiquitous connectivity—a myth widely associated with the technological capabilities offered by “always on” Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This myth proclaims that work and social life are optimized, made more flexible, manageable, and productive, through the use of these devices and their related services. The prevalence of this myth—whether articulated as commercial strategy, organizational goal, or mode of social mediation—offers repeated claims that the experience and organization of daily life has passed a technological threshold. Its proponents champion the virtues of the invisible “last mile” tethering individuals (through their devices) primarily to commercial networks. The purpose of this dissertation is to uncover the interaction between the proliferation of media artifacts and the political economic forces and relations occluded by this myth. To do this, herein the development of the BlackBerry, as a specific brand of devices and services, is shown to be intimately interrelated with the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. It demonstrates that the BlackBerry is a technical artifact whose history sheds light on key characteristics of our media environment and the political economic dynamics shaping the development of other technologies, workforce composition and management, and more general consumption proclivities. By pointing to the analytic significance of the BlackBerry, this work does not intend to simply praise its creators for their technical and commercial achievements. Instead, it aims to show how these achievements express a synthesis that represents the motivations of economic actors and prevailing modes of thought most particularly as they are drawn together in and through the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. The narrative arc of this dissertation is anchored by moments of harmonization among political economic interests as these shape (and are shaped by) prevailing modes of producing and relating through ubiquitous connectivity

Virtual Organizations in Practice: A European Perspective

The paper reports results from a European Union (EU) project dedicated to Virtual Organization (VO) research. It aims to consolidate VO reference models and related modeling methodologies based on experiences acquired in thirty relevant EU funded research projects. The research reveals the complex reality of deployment and adoption of VO practices and identifies a number of organizational, legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technical challenges faced by VOs, presented in the form of open questions for the research community

Modelling and testing the definitions of teleworking within a local council environment

Teleworking was defined in terms of comprehension: root definition, conceptual definition and abstraction definition. The definitions were subsequently modelled in terms of four theories: socio-factors of teleworking (model 1 of 4), maturity model of teleworking (model 2 of 4), technical factors of teleworking (model 3 of 4) and taxonomy of teleworking (model 4 of 4). The modelling of the definitions of teleworking as stated adds further comprehension to the concept of teleworking. Teleworking is a socio and technical working practice and so, the research study turned to the socio aspect: there were a number of socio-factors (minor and major) identified as per existing literature. Subsequently, major socio-factors were mapped to a teleworking maturity model in terms of layers, resource, policy and connectivity. The technical aspect of the research study was able to identify and divide factors into dimensions, attributes and organisational roles. The three models (socio, technical and maturity) were brought together in terms of taxonomy of teleworking: an amalgamation of the socio and technical factors of teleworking in addition to three layers of a maturity model. The research methodology followed a positivist viewpoint with socio-factors measured using 7-point Likert scales. There were a large number of measures for socio-teleworking and so two research methods were adopted to reduce the number to a manageable amount namely: initial questionnaire design and Q-sort study. Following exclusions, a web-based survey was created with the remaining socio-measures of teleworking. The web-based survey was conducted in terms of a pilot study (at councils in the north of England) before surveying 264 employees at Council-Z (the primary study). Data collected from Council-Z was analysed in terms of confirmatory factor analysis. Theoretical models (factor structures) were created in terms of resource, policy and connectivity. The factor structures of each stated layer were tested for consistency to data. Four factor structures of resource were identified, A, B, C and D. Factor structure D showed the highest level of convergence of theory to observed data that is, the best-fitting model. Six factor structures of policy were identified, with factor structure C2 the most favourable in terms of exclusion of ambiguities and model-fit statistics. Three factor structures of connectivity were identified and for each of the absolute and incremental fit statistics factor structure B was consistently within the cut-off values for good model-fit, factor structure B was also the best fitting model. In terms of the utility of the study, definitions of teleworking and the modelling of the definitions have improved understanding of the research area. The extensive number of factors of teleworking identified through the theoretical modelling process and the measurements of these have demonstrated improved measurement techniques. The best-fitting models as per the confirmatory factor analyses have broad applicability to other similar organisations, and finally the data from the three best-fitting models can be utilised by Council-Z to introduce informed teleworking initiatives. In terms of limitations and future work, technical factors were out of scope in this research study. Hence, types of teleworking practices linked to technical factors of teleworking would be future work as would studies of the linkage between the socio-and technical factors. In terms of the taxonomical model empirical validation would be sought of each of the seven major socio-factors in terms of factor structures. This study empirically tested for each of the three layers of the maturity model, as opposed to each of the major socio-factors within the three layers. Furthermore, additional factors may be identifiable through future work, adding to the taxonomy and in turn, the comprehension of teleworking would be enhanced alongside further standardisation of teleworking definitions and measurements

Application for a PhD by published work

The body of research presented here represents an important contribution to knowledge in the field of the future of work with particular reference to work facilitated by Information and Communications Technology (ICTs). The work encompasses a number of levels of analysis: the macro level, the organisational level and the workforce level. It has explored previously neglected areas of self-employment, and has contributed to understanding of both corporate and self-employed telework. The submission document is organised as follows: following the list of submitted work the Introduction explores the background to the research area, and then provides a detailed commentary on each piece of submitted work, including clear information on the author's contribution to publications which are co-authored. The Conclusion outlines how the research has added to the existing body of knowledge in the subject fields, and this is followed by a Literature Review which sets the submitted work into the broader context of research on telework and the future of work and employment