On the classification of telework

Information and communication technology (ICT) provides organizations with a whole range of new possibilities for performing work and structuring the organization. The technical, and to a certain extent the organizational development, has been rapid and there has not been the time for any consensus on concepts to evolve. This article is concentrated to a limited part of the area of organizations and ICT, telework and concepts related to telework. It is argued that many of these concepts—notably telework—have been used by so many authors in so many different ways that they have lost their specifity. They are defined in so many ways in different studies that they in each instance need to be further defined to clarify exactly what is being studied. The aim of the article is therefore not to propose new definitions but to show instead how it is possible to discriminate among telework situations by using dimensions, along which new ways of doing work can be further specified. We distinguish among forms of organizations such as telecommunicating, multiflex, mobile work, satellite office, and virtual organization. We also discuss concepts regarding work places, such as neighbourhood work centres, resort offices, satellite work centres and mobile workplaces. We discriminate between the telework situations by discussing dimensions for forms of organization and workplaces, respectively.