Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

615.1 MethodologyThe statistical data mentioned in the previous section were used in such a way that we calculateda ranking <strong>of</strong> countries along each indicator. For the benefit <strong>of</strong> comparability we have convertedoriginal indicator values into standardised values with the country showing the highest value beingassigned the benchmark value <strong>of</strong> 100 (see Table 4). Each country was ranked according to itspeformance in each indicator. These ranks were added up and divided by the number <strong>of</strong> indicators,resulting in the AWAI Index values. In this first approach, single indicators were not weighted.The country coverage was restricted to the 10 EC Member States for which data along all indicatorscould be made available (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain,Sweden, United Kingdom). For one indicator we had to use estimates to compensate for missingdata in three countries (see footnote 9).This approach, while being very tentative, has the advantage <strong>of</strong> being based on rather easilyavailable data. Results can necessarily only be preliminary, but the AWAI Index seems to be thebest available compound measure on the development <strong>of</strong> new ways <strong>of</strong> working yet.5.2 ResultsThe results <strong>of</strong> the above exercise are summarised in the following overview (see Figure 4 and Table4). The higher the AWAI value, the higher the adaptability <strong>of</strong> work arrangements in the respectivenational labour markets.The group <strong>of</strong> countries with the highest index values, i.e. the highest levels <strong>of</strong> adaptability (theUnited Kingdom, Sweden and Finland) is made up <strong>of</strong> the ‘fast movers’, countries with highlyflexible and dynamic labour markets and labour forces. The second group (Denmark and theNetherlands, and also Germany and Ireland) can be described as ‘circumspect followers’, a middlegroup <strong>of</strong> countries which attempt at combining (positive) aspects from the past with adaptation tothe future, while the third group (Italy, France and Spain) may be called the ‘sedentaries’, i.e. theslow movers which are running the danger to miss the connection to developments in the rest <strong>of</strong> theEU Member States and to be overtaken by other countries, e.g. from Asia, which are developingvery rapidly.