Flexibility in Digitalized Working Worlds: Use and implications of telecommuting and digital work communication across European countries

在当前关于工作数字化的争论中，工作地点灵活性的承诺是最突出的特征之一。信息和通信技术等数字技术越来越多地使工人能够与主管和同事沟通，并从任何地方访问与工作有关的数据和信息，而不受其位置和正式工作时间的限制。根据现有的研究，这种数字化带来的灵活性可能伴随着风险和机遇。一方面，这些研究表明，雇主可能会通过期望员工更多地工作来利用这种灵活性；另一方面，数字化带来的灵活性可能是员工更好地整合工作和个人生活的一种方式。本研究项目的主要目的是确定以下因素：1)数字诱导的灵活工作机会是否服务于雇主的灵活性利益和/或员工的灵活性利益；2)数字诱导的灵活工作机会是否削弱或加强了性别和阶级特定的劳动力市场参与模式以及工作与个人生活之间的感知冲突。为此，本项目研究a)数字基础设施和社会制度（如家庭和劳动力市场政策）对数字工作通信和远程办公的使用和影响的相互作用的重要性；b)性别和职业依赖性如何变化；c)员工如何感知遵循或偏离理想员工规范的组织工作文化，理想员工几乎没有家庭义务，优先考虑工作，如何调节或抵消国家影响。在超过25个国家的欧洲社会调查2020/21的初始轮换模块的基础上，将考虑到个人和国家具体信息，应用分层分析。

IIn the current debate about the digitalization of work, the promise of locational flexibility is one of the most prominent features. Digital technologies such as information and communication technologies have increasingly made it possible for workers to communicate with supervisors and colleagues and to access work-related data and information from anywhere, regardless of their location and official working hours. According to existing research, this digitally induced flexibility may be associated with both risks and opportunities. On the one hand, such studies suggest that employers may take advantage of such flexibility by expecting employees to be more available for work; on the other hand, digitally induced flexibility may be a way for employees to better integrate their work and personal lives.The main objective of this research project is to identify the factors which determine 1) whether digital-induced opportunities for flexible working serve the flexibility interests of employers and/or flexibility interests of employees and 2) whether digital-induced opportunities of flexible working weaken or strengthen gender and class specific patterns of labor market involvement and perceived conflicts between work and personal life. For this purpose this project studies a) the importance of the interplay of digital infrastructures and societal institutions (e.g. family and labor market policies) for the use and implications of digital work communication and telework, b) how this varies in dependence of gender and occupation, and c) how employee perceived organizational work culture which follows or deviates from the norm of an ideal worker who has few family obligations and prioritizes work mediates or counteracts national influences.Based on the initiated rotating module of the of the European Social Survey 2020/21 with more than 25 countries hierarchical analyses will be applied considering individual as well as country specific information.