Three generations of Telework: New <scp>ICT</scp>s and the (R)evolution from Home Office to Virtual Office

TLDR

New ICTs such as smartphones and tablets have enabled work to detach from traditional office spaces, allowing location‑independent work that has been anticipated since the 1970s and 1980s. The study aims to analyze technological advancements over four decades to illuminate the evolution of telework. The authors examine how successive technological innovations have driven distinct stages of telework, framing the evolution into successive generations. The authors find that contemporary location‑independent work modes collectively represent a revolution reshaping the relationship between paid work and personal life.

Abstract

‘New ICT s’, such as smartphones and tablet computers, have revolutionised work and life in the 21st Century. Crucial to this development is the detachment of work from traditional office spaces. Today's office work is often supported by Internet connections, and thus can be done from anywhere at any time. Research on detachment of work from the employer's premises actually dates back to the previous century. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jack Nilles and Allan Toffler predicted that work of the future would be relocated into or nearby employees’ homes with the help of technology, called ‘Telework’. Analysing technological advancements—the enabling forces of change in this context—over four decades sheds new light on this term: they have fostered the evolution of Telework in distinct stages or ‘generations’. Today's various location‐independent, technology‐enabled new ways of working are all part of the same revolution in the inter‐relationship between paid work and personal life.