earticle

영어

Telework has drawn attentions as an “option for new labor method using ICT” for longtime. Japanese Association of Telework consisting of researchers from various sectors for studying telework which had been difficult for recognition in the existing fields was established in June 1999. For last 20 years, the technologies have been greatly enhanced and ICT is indispensible from the contemporary era. According to the enhancement in the technologies, humankind in the 21st Century have new tools such as smart-phone as well as computer and people in the streets hold phone on their hands and present various contents on screen freely and work with their notebook computer in cafe and was it possible to imagine these scene in the contemporary society 20 years ago? It might be the scenes of the “society wherever people work depending on their situations” and “wherever workers can choose freely for their workplace” which have been pursued by many telework researchers. Telework is already available in the perspective of technical environment and the technologies have pervaded sufficiently in the society. However, the people in society have no sufficient consciousness of the ‘freedom of work place’ and even there are not sufficient organization cultures, laws, and systems for supporting it. This article, firstly, studies about the changes in telework and its definition and categorization. Next, merits and demerits of telework are studied. And then, focusing on the recent telework guidelines, the methods for introducing telework are reviewed. It is expected that this article will be helpful to introduce strategically telework available for work in place where it is an office due to the current Covid 19 outbreak.