Structure of Telework Policy Final Paper Proposal

Problem

• increasing traffic on roads (find wadot stats on increasing commute time in puget sound as cited in NCSL article)
  
• increasing gas consumption
• continuing air quality problems and need of governments to meet air quality regulations or risk losing federal dollars
  
• maintaining economic viability and competitiveness
  
• - workers have a tough time reconciling work and family life (EFAT doc)
• - workers have too little autonomy in the workplace (EFAT doc)
  
• - disabled workers have a tough time getting hired (EFAT doc - how true is this?)
• - fewer work opportunities for rural, elderly, and disabled citizens (NCSL article)
  
• retaining employees
• real estate costs from maintaining buildings for office space
• maintaining productivity
• reducing absenteeism
  

• "With growing concerns for the well-being of the environment, the economy, and society, telecommuting has been put forth as a solution to all of our problems. " (Telecommuting Essay by Samantha Edwards)
• Some things are a constant challenge - how can one improve productivity, reduce costs, lower congestion on roads, reduce gas consumption,
• Increases in traffic congestion mean increases in transportation spending
• When states don't meet EPA guidelines, they lose federal funding (Opportunities for Policy Leadership on Telework and Telecommuting)
• "Rising gas prices, clogged roadways and increased worries about climate change" NCSL article
  

Extent of the problem:

• How many people telecommute now? (See UCDavis telecommuting study below)
• How has the number changed?
• Extent of the environmental problem that increased telework might solve
• Extent of the economic problem that ...
• Extent of the social problem that ...
• 
  

Why this a public policy issue

• Increases in telework could lead to decreases in "peak-period congestion, fuel consumption, and criteria pollutants due to the decrease in commute travel" and "employment of broader segments of the workforce and related economic development, strengthening families and local communities, reducing residential-area crime (through greater neighborhood monitoring by home-based workers), improving public health (through reduced exposure to traffic accidents and communicable diseases, as well as reduced stress), and offering a response to foreseen (e.g. the Olympics) or unforeseen major events affecting workplaces (e.g. the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, or a major fire or flood) or the transportation system (weather emergencies, earthquakes, major construction projects)." (UCDavis study, p. 5, para 2)
• telework policy has implications for the quality of public goods and public services
  

Goals of Telework policy:

• "The social partners see telework both as a way for companies and public service organisations to modernise work organisation, and as a way for workers to reconcile
  work and social life and giving them greater autonomy in the accomplishment of
  their tasks." European Framework Agreement on Telework (EFAT) - http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_dialogue/docs/300_20020716_agreement_telework_en.pdf
• "Encouraging telework is a family-friendly, business-friendly public policy that promotes workplace efficiency and reduces strain on transportation infrastructure. It is incumbent on state government to support public and private sector efforts to promote widespread adoption of telework efforts." Virginial Office of Telework Promotion
  

Observations:

• Telework is a new form of work organization (EFAT, p. 1)
• Consider telework a "complex solution" (i.e., “a single intervention
  which is intended to solve many problems”; Salomon, 1998, p. 22) - UCDavis study
• Two groups I've seen so far - King county and GSA - implemented telework policies in response to local traffic closures (tunnels or bridges worked on that affect lots of locals)
• 
  

Questions:

• What is the status of the EFAT?
• What laws and rules does Washington currently have?

Policy Implementations

• Here is how King County implemented an incentive/grant program to promote telecommuting. I offers up to $5,000 worth of consulting services from a nationally known telework consulting firm
• Virginia created a special Office to promote Telework
  

Sources

• TELECOMMUTING: Will it change the organizationalstructure of business as we know it?Samantha A. Edwards: Literary Review samantha@nvrlnd.com Fall 1994 - http://www.teleworker.com/papers/telework.html
• 
  DATA AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES IN TRANSPORTATION, WITH
  TELECOMMUTING AS A CASE STUDY by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Ilan Salomon, and Sangho Choo - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/publications/2004/UCD-ITS-RR-04-29.pdf

Resources

• The Telework Coalition
• MRSC Washington
• commuterchallenge.org
• The originators of the term - JALA
  

Idea/Topic #2 for the final paper

Here is a second idea:

promotion of telework telecommuting as a public policy to reduce energy consumption

Virginia appears to consider this a public policy area/issue.

Promotion of teleworking as a public policy has connections to:

• reducing energy consumption
• reducing traffic congestion
• reduce office building energy costs
  
• possibly reducing/delaying state transportation costs
• improving air quality
• increasing employment for people with disabilities
• 
  

These are all areas/claims to test/challenge.

Questions

• I hear that some managers still have resistance to telework for their employees. How wide does this feeling spread? Why do they feel this way?
• How many states have laws or rules related to telework? What about Washington?
• What challenges/benefits have they found? What about Washington?
• How many eligible telecommute workers does Washington have? What is the definition of eligible?

Resources:

• California Legislative Analysts Office report for 2004
• Virtual exclusion and telework: Barriers and opportunities of technocentric workplace accommodation policy (From a google search with "telework policy framed in economic terms")
• An adoption model of telework for organizations
• Telework in Hungary

Idea/Topic #1 for the final paper

This is a site that came up from a google search on these words:

washington state information technology public policy challenges

http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/ and a press release asking state government to create a web site hosting an online searchable database of all tax rates in the state. With the site, state tax payers could identify the kinds of taxes they pay depending on their location in the various taxing districts of state.

Tags: transparency in government, taxes, IT, database