What is Telecenter/Telework Center

The argument of a paradigm shift in the organization of work is not new, it goes back to the post-Fordism debate, in which the dissolution of traditional production structures was predicted, especially as a consequence of the good results achieved by the flattening of hierarchies, as well as the practice of a more flexible and decentralized organization of work. Since then, the issue of flexibility in working arrangements has been central in order to make enterprises more competitive in a global economy, where fragmented and rapidly changing markets impose a more efficient use of human resources in order to respond to the changing external demands and opportunities. Sisson et al. (1999) distinguish two main approaches to workforce flexibility: numerical and functional. Numeric flexibility is the ability of the organization to adjust the quantity of labor to meet fluctuations in demand (for instance the part-time jobs or the temporary work). Function flexibility is about the ability to increase the level of responsibility of the workforce, which involves continuing training to enable employees to acquire new skills and competences (for instance the job rotation and the polyvalent workers), as well as collaborative approaches ensuring that employees become more responsible for organizing their own work (for instance the workplace flexibility that characterizes telework or the subcontracts dissemination).