Introducing telework in a public and bureaucratic environment: a re-regulationist perspective on a non-conventional change

Taskin, Laurent [UCL]

Teleworking is part of the strategy of modernisation of public organisations in Belgium and is largely perceived as a management device coming from the private sector that is not adapted in a public environment. It also deeply challenges traditional organisation of work, like bureaucracy. Based on a case study conducted in a Belgian federal public agency where telework had to be implemented, this article studies the re-regulation process at work. Its main contribution is to argue that the adoption of such organisational change depends on the ability to re-negotiate the prevailing organisational conventions.