Factors That Affect Telework Adoption: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract

Abstract Teleworking, this flexible way of working, has become possible for an increasing number of employed people as technologies have evolved and their use has become increasingly accessible. The need for businesses to digitize, coupled with a workforce familiar with the use of information and communication technologies, has led to the expansion of work tasks that can be performed in a different place from the traditional office. Teleworking has increased in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost 1 in 4 employed people teleworking in the European Union in 2021. Even if the trend in terms of the evolution of teleworking adoption is similar in the case of EU member states, there are significant disparities between states, in 2022, teleworkers accounting for between 4% and 40% of all employed people. In this paper, some of the factors that could explain these variations between EU member states are briefly presented. Therefore, using descriptive statistics and the results of specialized studies, correlations are highlighted between the adoption of teleworking and structural factors of the employed workforce, on the one hand, and the degree of digitization of the population, on the other. Cultural influences could also explain the management strategies adopted, how employees and employers relate to work, and the degree of autonomy employees have and feel at work. As a result, following cultural influences, it is proposed that the characteristic of the management model of different regions is proposed to be analysed in future research, to verify its impact on the adoption of teleworking.