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eWork by country

The EMERGENCE study shows that there is considerable variation in eWork between countries (Huws, O’Regan, 2001).

eWork by country

(Source: Huws and O’Regan, 2001)

Countries with high levels of eWork seem to fall into two broad categories:

1. advanced high-tech economies such as the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, which make use of IST technologies for a wide variety of eWork practices

2. countries in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe such as Italy, Spain, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, which have very high levels of outsourcing, sometimes rooted in economic systems which favour small firms or with a large informal economy. The new information technologies have clearly enabled establishments in these countries to develop electronically-enabled subcontracting networks to a considerable extent

The larger economies of Germany and France, though to a lesser degree the UK, tend to have a lower incidence of eWork, perhaps because of the more strongly corporate models of industrial relations which exist in Germany and France. Possibly, there is a more highly educated in-house workforce to draw on and hence a lesser need to seek talent externally, in these countries.

It should also be noted that country differences, specifically their various national, cultural, legal and institutional environments, are probably the most important factors in accounting for many of EMERGENCE’s results in relation to different types of eWork.

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© 2002, Institute for Employment Studies