eWork: a definition

EMERGENCE defines eWork, or telemediated work, as the relocation of work that is:

• Digitised: ie uses information which can be processed by a computer; and

• Telemediated: ie can be transmitted over a telecommunications link.

The broadest definition of eWork encompasses any work that is carried out away from an establishment and managed from that establishment using ICT for receipt or delivery of the work.

EMERGENCE classifies the various forms of eWork using two broad distinctions:

1. a legal distinction: between work carried out internally within the organisation (ie by people contracted to work directly for the organisation as employees) and work that is outsourced, and therefore normally carried out under a contract for the supply of services.

2. a distinction between work carried out by groups of workers on shared premises (normally a building that could be described as an ‘office’) and that which is carried out by individuals acting in isolation away from ‘office’ premises. These people might be working from their homes, or working nomadically from a variety of different locations, for all or part of the working week.

These distinctions are summarised in the diagram below and provide a two-by-two cell matrix within which all forms of eWork so far identified by researchers can be grouped.

Typology of eWork used by EMERGENCE

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© 2002, Institute for Employment Studies