The future of work: Trends of telework in Italian SMEs between 2005 and 2009

Abstract

New ways of conducting the working activities are emerging among enterprises. In such a context, research have investigated only marginally the evolution of telework adoption even thought continuous investments in Information Technologies have allowed to develop telework practises especially for tasks that do not require physical proximity to the customer. Thus, this paper examines the telework diffusion among companies, trying to identify how technological, organizational and environmental contexts influence its diffusion. Drawing upon a largescale sample survey conducted among firms in Italy in the 2005-2009 period, results show how technological and organizational contexts matter in each year investigated. Contrarily we have shown how with the progressive diffusion of telework practices, the environment influence over their adoption decreases of importance. Managerial implications are also discussed.