Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

193IntroductionThe ongoing economic and social change, which is <strong>of</strong>ten referred to as the transition to aknowledge-based economy, generates several new challenges. These challenges are confronted bynot only companies and individuals, governments, labour market organisations (social partners),and researchers are also faced with these new questions and must find suitable answers andsolutions. Three major aspects define the changes:• knowledge is becoming the driving force for productivity and an increasingly important factor<strong>of</strong> production,• new ways <strong>of</strong> work are emerging which affect all <strong>of</strong> its dimensions, e.g. working time, workplace, work contract and the content <strong>of</strong> the work.• human resources are becoming a crucial factor in achieving competitive advantages inknowledge-intense industries.At the same time a selection process seems to occur. It is the divide between employees who areable to apply and utilise knowledge and those who have insufficient or no capabilities in this field.A shortage <strong>of</strong> skilled labour on one hand and discrimination or high unemployment rates on theother hand reflect this development.Some great hopes as well as many open questions and challenges are connected with the process<strong>of</strong> developing into a knowledge-based economy.Let’s start with the hopes:Networking structures stand as the metaphor for the new organisations <strong>of</strong> the knowledge-basedsociety. On the one hand they seem to promise unlimited diversity and possibilities to expandour horizons for thinking and working. At the same time the inflexible, traditional structures <strong>of</strong>institutions and regulations are cracking open. A quite obvious example for this phenomenon isthat while business and work organisations become open and distributed, the accompanying legalframework is still based on the expectation <strong>of</strong> permanent business and workplaces.Networking makes barriers permeable or even disappear not only within but also betweenorganisations. More openness and transparency are the result. For companies the relationshipbetween partners, customers, suppliers etc. becomes more direct. Therefore the traditionalorganisational structures and hierarchical functions become dysfunctional and can now presentsevere obstacles.The new organisational structures are promising and demanding more autonomy for employees.The application <strong>of</strong> information and communications technologies (ICT) are expected to makework easier in production as well as in <strong>of</strong>fices. They might even lead to new ways <strong>of</strong> work or acompletely new definition <strong>of</strong> work.In order to make some <strong>of</strong> these hopes come true, we must grapple with many open questions andchallenges: