17 November, 2003
© Beep Knowledge System and case owners, 2002-2003
Cases in Work and Skills
Executive summary of the case:
Timing of case
The experimental part of the project was implemented through July and
September 1996. However, already in 1995 research institutions developed
a study on the different areas of Rome. The follow-up consisted of the
Municipality’s will to develop further Telework projects in Rome
and allowed the birth of a network of telecentres (NEXUS
Geographic setting
The case took place in Rome, allowing various workers of the municipality
to telework from different locations (be it their home or a specific “telecentre”.
Type and use of ICT
Teleworking facilities: furniture, desktop computer, Fax, ISDN connection
and mobile phones
Main contributors
Main contributors to the case were the managers of the Municipality of
Rome as well as the participants (who also represented beneficiaries,
however)
Main beneficiaries
Virtually: all 26,000 employees of the municipality of Rome and (seen
the aim of traffic de-congestion – reason for LIFE funding) citizens
of Rome
Background
The 1996 telework pilot was the result of collaboration by the Rome Municipality
with a consortium of research organisations engaged in carrying out the
EU-funded Roma Tra.De project. Roma Tra.De (TRAffic DEcongestion), part
of the LIFE programme, was engaged to analyse whether telework in Rome
could have an impact on city centre traffic reduction and help improve
the quality of urban life. The Municipality in early 1996 presented a
proposal to the council in the paper "Approvazione Linea di Sperimentazione
di Techniche e Metodi del Telelavoro per il Progetto Europeo Roma Tra.De".
Press interest in the possibilities of telework had already been stimulated,
partly by a speech made by the Mayor of Rome at the international Telework
95 conference held in the city in November 1995 and by a presentation
by Roma Tra.De. held at the Rome Town Hall a month earlier.
Objectives
The objective of this case was to so analyse whether telework in Rome
could have an impact on city centre traffic reduction and help improve
the quality of urban life (TRA.DE stands for “traffic de-congestion”).
Resources (apart from ICT)
Usually teleworkers could work from home (75% chose this option), or from
a telecentre run by the Roma Tra.De consortium and which represented the
main resource apart from ICTs. The telecentre was made available free
of charge by DS Graphics Engineering. 5% of workers (mainly the archaeologists)
undertook “mobile work”, while an other 5% made various combinations
of these three possibilities.
Activities
Phase 1 – Analysis
Phase 2 – Operational predisposition of the experiment
Phase 3 – Teleworking experiment
Phase 4 – Evaluation of results and dissemination
Outputs and results
1. Increased employees’ performance due to their higher sense of
responsibility towards their job
2. Increase in awareness and strengthening of the process of re-organisation
and consequent utilisation of innovative new technologies and approaches.
Established structures, industrial relations, practices, routines etc.,
are all coming under scrutiny to facilitate learning and organisational
change.
Lessons and conclusions
1. Agreements and solutions should be flexible and decentralised.
2. There should be no a priori indications of the activities to involve
in telework.
3. Part-time telework is preferable. There are no reasons to substitute
completely traditional work with telework.
4. Participation to the experiment should be voluntary and with no effects
on the evolution of professional relations within the PA
5. Work at home vs Telecentres. In this case, Union representatives expressed
reserves, especially concerning telework at home (fear for worker’s
isolation). Collaboration can be facilitated by the availability of telecentres.
Unions are concerned about the loss of representation..
6. Telework vs Remote workThe case of 1996 in Rome’s PA highlighted
the fact that information fluxes for various highly professional activities
are sustainable through off-line technological solutions and dial-up communications.
The specific kind of informatic solution does not play a pivotal role
in the case.
Case description:
Background
The 1996 telework pilot was the result of collaboration by the Rome Municipality
with a consortium of research organisations engaged in carrying out the
EU-funded Roma Tra.De project. Roma Tra.De (TRAffic DEcongestion), part
of the LIFE programme, was engaged to analyse whether telework in Rome
could have an impact on city centre traffic reduction and help improve
the quality of urban life. The organisations engaged in the Roma Tra.De.
project were Innova Int., S3Acta, Fondazione Ugo Bordoni and DS Graphics
Engineering. In 1995, the Roma Tra.De. partners undertook the first phase
of the project, developing a matrix showing the origin and destination
of journeys in the main urban area involved. There were initial concerns
that, for institutional reasons, it would not be possible to progress
to a concrete telework pilot, to test the hypothesis behind the project.
Fortunately, these concerns proved unfounded, and it was possible to develop
the telework experiment. To a considerable extent, this was due to the
interest and commitment of the City's Alderman for Juridicial Policies
who from the summer of 1995 acted as a point of contact between Roma Tra.De.
and the Municipality and who in early 1996 presented a proposal to the
council in the paper Approvazione Linea di Sperimentazione di Techniche
e Metodi del Telelavoro per il Progetto Europeo Roma Tra.De.. Press interest
in the possibilities of telework had already been stimulated, partly by
a speech made by the Mayor of Rome at the international Telework 95 conference
held in the city in November 1995 and by a presentation by Roma Tra.De.
held at the Rome Town Hall a month earlier. The Alderman for Juridicial
Policies involved the Rome Aldermen of Personnel and Occupational Policies
in preparing for the pilot and the Municipality formally gave the go ahead
for the telework experiment in July 1996 (council resolution 2479/96),
by which stage the initiative had already got under way. The Tra.De. partners
undertook to monitor the environmental impact of the pilot. To be accepted
on to the telework programme, employees had to live some considerable
distance from the office, to know how to use data processing tools and
to carry out verifiable activities.
Objectives
The objective of this case was to so analyse whether telework in Rome
could have an impact on city centre traffic reduction and help improve
the quality of urban life (TRA.DE stands for “traffic de-congestion”).
Resources
Usually teleworkers could work from home (75% chose this option), or from
a telecentre run by the Roma Tra.De consortium and which represented the
main resource apart from ICTs. The telecentre was made available free
of charge by DS Graphics Engineering. 5% of workers (mainly the archaeologists)
undertook “mobile work”, while an other 5% made various combinations
of these three possibilities.
Activities
Phase 1 – Analysis
1. Creation of the origin/destination movements matrix
2. Analysis of organisational conditions within the municipality
3. Awareness interventions and project presentation
Phase 2 – Operational predisposition of the
experiment
1. Finding logistic and organisational solutions
2. Negotiations concerning institutional solutions for the experiment
3. Identification of operational units and employees to be involved in the experiment
4. Training employees selected to participate to the experiment
Phase 3 – Teleworking experiment
1. Kick-off of the experiment
2. On-going monitoring of activities
Phase 4 –Evaluation of results and dissemination
1. Qualitative analysis of results under different aspects (environmental, geo-territorial and organisational)
2. Publication of the project’s results
3. Evaluation of possible follow-ups at the Rome Municipality
Output and Results
1. Increased employees’ performance due to their higher sense of responsibility towards their job
2. Increase in awareness and strengthening of the process of re-organisation and consequent utilisation of innovative new technologies and approaches. Established structures, industrial relations, practices, routines etc., are all coming under scrutiny to facilitate learning and organisational change.
Lessons and conclusions
1. Arrangements and rules.
Agreements and solutions should be flexible and decentralised. In the
case under examination, all choices on how to enforce telework were delegated
to the interested operational structures and not chosen from the centre;
this proved that, concerning innovation, arrangements can be taken “on
the way” rather than in a pre-defined manner. In other words, on
matters such as making the organisation flexible, it may be wrong to set
out the phases of a programme’s rule settlement and solutions’
definition in terms of efficiency and optimisation without a previous
experimental period. It would be a good idea to allow gradual rule building,
freedom of choice and de-centralisation.
2. “Teleworkable” activities
There should be no a priori indications of the activities to involve in
telework. The case shows that it contributes to keeping organisational
decisions fluid and allows the “best options” to emerge. In
particular, with reference to the Roman PA, telework is suitable for different
situations
· Production situations concerning intermediate figures involved
in activities based on programming and objectives
· Production situations where the outcome’s quality can be
assured by technological equipment available at telecentres (that overcome
the lack of such equipment at the municipality)
· The activities chosen for distance work (e.g., cultural heritage
records, compilation of documents and reports, technical drawing, and
environmental data monitoring), were not subject to procedural regulations
and could be carried out off-line, with productivity facilitating assessment.
3. Part-time telework is preferable
There are no reasons to substitute completely traditional work with telework.
The case proved that part-time telework is easier to negotiate (for example
with the trade unions, which – in this case – expressed doubts
on the usefulness of the project) while, at the same time, is sufficient
to optimise different productive situations
4. Voluntary participation
Participation to the experiment should be voluntary and with no effects
on the evolution of professional relations within the PA
5. Work at home vs Telecentres
In this case, Union representatives expressed reserves, especially concerning
telework at home (fear for worker’s isolation). Collaboration can
be facilitated by the availability of telecentres. Unions are concerned
about the loss of representation..
6. Telework vs Remote work
The case of 1996 in Rome’s PA highlighted the fact that information
fluxes for various highly professional activities are sustainable through
off-line technological solutions and dial-up communications. The specific
kind of informatic solution does not play a pivotal role in the case.
It appears, then, that teleworking set-outs focused strongly on telematic
applications are not yet mature when applying them to a PA – such
as the Roman one. Telework, in such a context, should not be associated
directly (and inevitably) to “remote work” or “work on-line”,
since this could cause workers’ desertion.
References and links
Report of the Case Study, within the MIRTI handbook (from the Mirti project)
/www.mirti-on-line.org/handbook/inglese/case/2casrome.htm
www.telelavoro.it/html/sections.php?op=printpage&artid=109
In Italian
www.telenexus.telecomitalia.it/ Nexus Telecentre (In Italian)