Research strategies of election campaign communication research

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_strategies_of_election_campaign_communication_research 

Research strategies in the field of election campaign communication research are the decisions made concerning the objective, the scope, the sampling and the methodology used within a study of election campaign communication.

Research objective

The overall purpose of conducting election campaign communication research is to reveal how election campaigns are organized with regard to communicational aspects as well as to show how and with what effect election campaigns are covered by media reports. A further goal refers to examining if and how country-specific context variables (e.g. history, political system) affect election campaign communication. In comparative election campaign communication research the objective is to analyze whether different countries share common practices with regard to the organization of campaign or the news coverage of elections.

When conducting election campaign communication research, the specific objective needs to be defined, going along with phrasing the research question. The objective as well as the research question is directly linked to the scope of a study.

The scope of election campaign communication research

There are two main campaign communication channels, which can be examined when conducting election campaign communication research:

• party-controlled election campaign communication
• party-uncontrolled election campaign communication

Party-controlled campaign communication refers to "planned, coordinated communication efforts by candidates [or] parties", which includes e.g. party advertisements in newspapers or on television as well as party-owned websites or blogs. Based on collected feedback from opinion-polls or media monitoring about party-controlled communication, parties and candidates constantly adjust their communication strategies.

In contrast to party-controlled messages, media coverage of election campaigns – whether in newspapers, on television or online – is party-uncontrolled. Party-uncontrolled communication can either be journalist-controlled or journalist-uncontrolled. Research on party-uncontrolled, journalist-controlled newspapers articles and television reports about an election may detect journalistic interventionism, which affects – whether intended or not – the electorate. Party- and journalist-uncontrolled communication refers to everyday communication about election related topics by the electorate. Often in contrast with national media, political science scholars seek to compile long-term data and research on the impact of political issues and voting in U.S. presidential elections, producing in-depth articles breaking down the issues

A third election campaign communication channel refers to shared control about election related communication between political actors and media actors, i.e. a combination of the two main communication channels. Partly party-controlled and partly party-uncontrolled campaign communication refers to televised leader debates of election campaigns or talk shows, in which candidates or party-members are questioned by journalists or media actors. The following table illustrates the possible election campaign communication channels that can be analyzed.

Election campaign communication channels

party-controlled	party-controlled and party-uncontrolled	party-uncontrolled
party advertising (print/broadcast/online) speeches by campaign candidates/party-members staged events of campaign candidates/ party-members local canvassing online activities (party websites, blogs, presence in social networks)|	talk shows with campaign candidates interviews with candidates on broadcast channels leader debates (TV)	journalist-controlled	journalist-uncontrolled
		news coverage (print/broadcast/online) e.g. news reports on news shows journalistic blogs	websites/ blogs by voters online discussions by voters conversations about the election by voters (face-to-face, telephone)

Apart from party-controlled and party-uncontrolled election campaign communication the attitude and behavior of the electorate can be examined within election campaign research. Voter orientations can be analyzed by looking, e.g., at the "voters' use of the Internet for electoral information".

Country sampling

With regard to election campaign communication research, two general approaches are possible:

• non-comparative, single-country research
• comparative research

Non-comparative research

Focusing on one single country allows in-depth analysis of the election campaign communication within this country. This way, variables influencing the campaign communication, such as the history and the political system of the considered country, can be taken into account. Joseph Trenaman and Denis McQuail, e.g., conducted a non-comparative, case study concerning the effects of television on political images in the British parliamentary election in 1959.

Approaches to election campaign communication research

Comparative research

Comparative research can either be spatial, i.e. comparing different countries, or temporal, which means taking a look at the campaign communication over time to examine longitudinal developments. A temporal analysis examining German newspaper coverage of election campaigns from 1949 to 1998, e.g., was conducted by Jürgen Wilke and Carsten Reinemann in 2001. Wilke and Reinemann showed an existing trend towards more interpretative coverage.

The goal of spatial comparative research is to show whether – despite all country-specific context variables – countries share common practices, e.g., with regard to the use of political commercials, the necessity for professional campaign consultants or the emerging importance of the media within election campaigns.

Comparative cross-country research can be differentiated with regard to the selection of particular countries. The possible options are:

• most similar systems, different outcome
• most different systems, similar outcome

Within a most similar systems-design, countries, which have similar media and political systems and thus share similar context variables, are compared to reveal possible differences. An example of a most similar systems-design is Jesper Strömbäck and Toril Aalberg's study on the news coverage of elections in the democratic corporatist countries Sweden and Norway.

If a most different system-design is used, the countries vary, e.g., with regard to their media system and their political campaign regulations. The research should reveal whether despite the differences similarities exist. The most far reaching study on election campaign communication using a most different system-design was conducted by Gunda Plasser and Fritz Plasser in 2002. Plasser and Plasser examined the attitudes and roles of political campaign consultants in 43 countries around the globe.

The number of cases

In comparative research a minimum of two objects or cases has to be taken into account. Two-country studies considering election campaign news coverage e.g. are Jesper Strömbäck's studies which take a closer look at the similarities and differences between Swedish and U.S. American news coverage during election campaigns. Since the results of two-country studies only have a limited ability to be generalized, further studies take on a rather global perspective and thus compare more than two countries. In general, a distinction can be made between small-N analysis, which allows e.g. in-depth analyses of up to ten countries, medium-N analysis and large-N analysis, which mostly make use of a quantitative approach with statistical analyses testing a small number of variables in many cases.

Research methods

Methodological developments

Political communication, and as a subfield of it election campaign communication, is studied within several disciplines of social sciences including communication studies, political science, psychology as well as sociology. Research across disciplines leads to the development of a variety of different research methods. In the past scholars mainly examined single countries, i.e. conducting non-comparative, case studies. Comparative election campaign communication research arrived in the 1970s. In contrast to simple observation, which was historically used as research method to reveal how political communication is received and which consequences result, today, study methods are more deliberate and systematic. Quantitative approaches, e.g., include the formulation and testing of hypotheses by sophisticated statistical analyses. Due to the development of new campaign techniques, such as party-controlled digital and data campaigning, or online news coverage, research strategies need to be further adapted.

Methods

Commonly used research methods in election campaign communication research are:

1. content analysis
2. survey research
3. experimental analysis
4. network analysis

Survey research (e.g. interviews with campaign consultants or voters) and content analysis (e.g. of newspaper articles or campaign advertising) are the most widely used research methods in election campaign communication research. Apart from the four research methods, there are further, infrequently used methods in election campaign communication research, such as linguistic analysis, which focuses the wording, meaning and context of chosen words within, e.g., political speeches by campaign candidates.

Election campaign communication can be examined using one single research method or a multitude of methods. A "multimethod study on the role of television during the European election campaign" in 1979 has been conducted by Jay Blumler, combining survey research of party-representatives and voters with a "content analysis of campaign reporting".

All research methods "start with the collection of data and finish with data analysis". In comparative research, either an emic or an etic approach can be applied. In an emic approach data collection measurements are developed culture-specifically, thus, e.g. creating a slightly adapted questionnaire for each considered country with regard to its systemic context. In contrast, an etic approach uses one universal instrument in all considered countries.

Content analysis as research method

Content analysis is a "systematic analysis of selected written, spoken, or audiovisual text". It "is the most hallowed and most widely used method of political communication research".

Focusing on party-uncontrolled media coverage of election campaigns single news articles or reports (newspaper/television/online) function as unit of analysis. An example of a study on party-uncontrolled communication is Frank Esser's research on the usage of sound and image bites within political news culture in France, (Germany), Great Britain and the United States.

A category that can be coded with regard to articles or broadcasts is the metaframe of politics (game frame vs. issue frame). The metaframe refers to whether an article frames politics in terms of a game or personality contest between political actors (game frame) or rather focuses the issue positions of a candidate or a party (issue frame). The contextual frame (episodic frame vs. thematic frame) is another category that can be analyzed when examining party-uncontrolled media coverage of election campaigns. An episodic frame refers to isolated reporting focusing on a specific event removed from its context, whereas thematic framing is present in news stories which position the event in a broader context or deal with its meanings for society. Within a content analysis the existence of journalistic interventionism can be detected. Applying certain editorial packaging techniques can e.g. lead to negative journalistic intervention, i.e. presenting a campaign candidate in a negative, anti-candidate way in the news.

With regard to party-controlled communication, e.g., election commercials or websites can be examined using a content analysis. In 1994 Christina Holtz-Bacha, Lynda Lee Kaid, and Anne Johnston, e.g., conducted a comparative study about election campaign television advertising in the western democracies (Germany), France and United States making use of content analysis as research method. Possible aspects that can be analyzed with regard to party-controlled television advertisings are their dominant format (documentary, issue, issue presentation, etc.), their focus (positive/negative) and their emphasis, i.e. whether the spot presents an issue or tries to create and maintain an image. Other aspects that can be examined using a content analysis are the production aspects of a television commercial, referring to the setting (formal/informal; indoors/outdoors), the camera angle or the sound characteristics. Which components are focused within an analysis always depends on the research interest and the research question.

Problems and challenges of content analysis

Manual coding in content analysis, conducted by human coders, is connected to high costs. High costs of manual coding arise partly due to the fact that coders must be trained to assure inter-coder reliability. Another challenge with regard to content analysis refers to the possible existence of multiple meanings of a message, i.e. of a given answer, and the coding of it.

Due to their changeability, the usage of online databases on election campaign communication (e.g. American National Election Study) as data source for content analysis can lead to further methodological problems concerning the traceability and the ability to replicate the study. Additionally, researchers critically have to consider the collection methods of the used data source.

Survey as research method

Survey research includes small-scale surveys, i.e. interviews using mostly open-ended structures, as well as large-scale surveys, which make use of standardized questionnaires. A survey can be conducted face-to-face, via telephone, or making use of computer-assisted services. To gain in-depth knowledge of campaign practices, interviews can e.g. be conducted with candidates or campaign committees who coordinate the party-controlled election campaign communication. The most far-reaching large-scale survey in comparative election campaign communication research is Gunda and Fritz Plasser's Global Consultancy Survey. The survey was conducted between 1998 and 2000 with 502 external political consultants from 43 countries including questions on their attitudes and their role definitions. The single interviews, consisting of 27 questions, were conducted face-to-face or via mail. The sampling reprised from membership lists of professional organizations, but also from using the snowball approach. A further in-depth survey was conducted by Plasser and Plasser with 24 American consultants about their experiences with regard to cultural barriers and challenges in international cooperations.

Problems and challenges in survey research

Survey research always has to make sure to define an adequate sample of interview partners. Finding such an adequate sample may bear some challenges, especially in comparative election campaign communication research. If scholars are not familiar with the local election network in a country they can deal with the complex task of finding e.g. major professional national campaign consultants by using membership lists of professional organizations or a snowball-sampling-approach. Disadvantageous, if a sample is not carefully selected, results may be biased. Internet survey research, in particular, is problematic with regard to selecting a representative sample.

If a study does not document its exact research design and instruments, the results are not transparent, which can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Therefore, the procedural method should explicitly be stated in a study.

Further challenges when using survey research refer to the statistical assessment and interpretation of answers to open-ended questions as well as the translation and phrasing of questionnaires. In standardized large-scale surveys the accuracy and veracity of answers cannot be assured, since the research relies on the interview partners' individual self-assessments of the questions and pre-formulated answers.

Experimental analysis as research method

Experiments, conducted in laboratory settings, allow the testing of effects resulting from mere exposure to controlled stimuli. This research method is primarily used in psychological approaches to election campaign communication research. Experiments can, e.g., detect the effects election campaign commercials have on the electorate. By exposing subjects to particular election spots and varying specific details in the ad, the variables causing an effect can be revealed. June Woong Rhee, e.g., makes use of two kinds of experiments within in his study on framing effects in election campaign news coverage. To examine the influence of framing effects on voters' interpretation of campaigns, a broadcast-print experiment and a broadcast-only experiment were conducted. As pretest, the participants of the study had to write a letter about the 1992 U.S. presidential election campaign. Afterwards the participants were confronted with print and broadcast news stories about the 1991 Philadelphia mayoral election campaign, which were created using a strategy or an issue frame and simulating the actual coverage. Conditions, e.g., within the broadcast-print experiment were strategy frames in broadcast and print news, issue frames in broadcast and print news, or a mixture, i.e., either an issue frame in printed news and a strategy frame in broadcasts, or strategy-framed broadcast and issue-framed print news. The participants of the experiments were "asked to read or watch the news stories for five days in their homes". After the five days of exposure to the manipulated news, the participants met with the experimenter and, as a posttest, had to "write a letter about the Philadelphia mayoral campaign". To interpret the results a content analysis was conducted by Rhee. The study revealed that "both strategy-framed and issue-framed print news stories are effective in influencing campaign interpretation".

Problems and challenges in experimental research

In election campaign communication research the obvious problem arising from laboratory experiments is to the artificial setting, which makes it difficult to apply results to situations in natural settings; this, e.g., refers to an intensive exposure to a campaign television advertising in an experimental setting in contrast to exposure to television advertising in a homey and distracting situation. Another challenge refers the sampling of experimental subjects. Mostly, college students function as participants in laboratory research, which may distort the results and limit their ability to be generalized.

Network analysis as research method

Within network analysis the focus lies on the interactive aspects of communication, revealing, e.g., which information is communicated and who communicates with whom. The communicators, i.e. the electorates or politicians, are seen as "nodes in a network of interdependent relationships". Network analysis can be used to examine "the channels of communications within large political units like a state" or smaller units like personal networks.

A network analysis of weblogs connected to campaigning in the German federal election 2005 was, e.g., conducted by Steffen Albrecht, Maren Lübcke and Rasco Hartig-Perschke. 317 campaign weblogs by politicians and non-political actors were examined along three dimensions of analysis: activity, interactivity, and connectedness. The sample was selected using search engines, existing pertinent lists and the snowball approach. Some of the aspects that were analyzed are the quantity of postings by the blog author, the quantity of feedback received from readers and "the connectedness of weblogs by means of blogroll links". The network analysis revealed the network structure of the blogosphere, showing that the interconnection of blogs was not that prevalent during the 2005 election campaign. Out of the 317 examined campaign weblogs the "majority of the blogs (187, 59%) had no blogroll links to other campaign blogs". Furthermore, party-oriented weblogs primarily link to weblogs of the same party.

Challenges within election campaign communication research

In election campaign communication research, especially in comparative research, some difficulties are faced:

Consideration of country-specific contexts

Since campaign operations are influenced by context variables, it is necessary to know those system-inherent variables when conducting election campaign communication research. "For empirical research this knowledge is essential for forming hypotheses and making predictions about campaign styles".

The systemic variables influencing modern campaigning are:

• the election system (e.g. presidential vs. parliamentary system, majoritarian vs. coalitional system),
• the structure of party competition (e.g. few-party vs. multi-party system)
• the regulation of campaigns (e.g. access to television advertisements, campaign funding),
• the national political culture (e.g. trust in politicians, turnout rates),
• the national media system (e.g. television-centered vs. print-centered, public service vs. autonomous broadcast systems),
• the current situation (e.g. current events, socio economic situation).

The context variables should especially be taken into account when choosing a most different systems-design, since they can be the possible causes of country-specific differences.

Theoretical diversity

In comparative research, international research teams have to face "difficulties that arise from differences in academic cultures". There are several strategies to deal with difficulties arising from the theoretical diversity in international research teams. Three strategies of how to manage this theoretical diversity, postulated by David L. Swanson, are:

• avoidance strategy
• pretheoretical strategy
• metatheoretical strategy

The avoidance strategy is regarded as the simplest approach when dealing with theoretical diversity of comparative research. The cross-national research is conducted by a team from one country or one cultural background and thus avoiding complexity and theoretical alternatives. "Using a pretheoretical strategy means that the international team of researchers agrees upon common research questions and the methods to be employed". "Studies are undertaken without a strict theoretical framework until results are ready to be interpreted". When the subject of study is approached in a metatheoretical way by an international research team a variety of theoretical backgrounds is used to analyze the data.

Linguistic challenges

Spatial comparative research on election campaigning does not only face linguistic challenges within an international research team but also with regard to analyzing news reports and campaign advertising from different countries or phrasing and translating questionnaires. To deal with linguistic diversity, a translation-oriented approach can be chosen. When conducting surveys linguistic equivalence of a questionnaire can be achieved by translating the original questionnaire into the language of the considered country and, additionally, translating it back into the original language. This translation procedure can be repeated until both questionnaire versions are equivalent. To achieve linguistic equivalence by translating questionnaires the specific connotations of used words need to be known by the researchers, because words can have different connotations in different cultural backgrounds.

Compilation approach

Comparisons of election campaign communication can either be conducted by one team looking at different countries (leading to theoretical diversity) or by scholars compiling case studies and drawing conclusions from them. Drawing conclusions from a compilation of case studies can lead to methodological problems. Country experts provide single report about the election campaign communication in different countries, eventually following guidelines designed by the editors. The methodological problem refers to the lack of a unified data set, i.e. the research within the countries does not use equivalent methods and measurements especially designed for the sample of countries (either using a more etic or emic approach to achieve equivalence). To deal with methodological problems rising from a compilation approach, several aspects have to be considered: creation of chapter homogeneity by following a guideline, awareness for the logic of comparative research, and creation of a systematized synthesis when drawing conclusions. Nevertheless, the validity of cross-national conclusions remains comprised, since no aggregate data set, derived from identical research conduction, exists. Nevertheless, the compilation approach can provide an insight into communication differences in election campaigns around the globe. Swanson and Mancini published such a compilation in 1996 to compare election campaign styles of eleven countries.

Functional equivalence

In spatial comparative election campaign communication research, "comparability and the maintenance of equivalence can be seen as the major problems". Research objects are not always equivalent, since they are integrated into different culture-specific contexts (e.g. in "social, political, economic, legal, and media contexts"). To conduct comparative research, the regarded objects, e.g. newspaper reports on election campaigning, have to be at least equivalent in their functionality.

Functional equivalence of the research objects should be tested on different levels of analysis, i.e. on the level of the construct (construct equivalence), on the item level (item equivalence) and on the level of the method (method equivalence). Item equivalence, e.g., refers to equally verbalizing items in a survey, i.e. exact culture-specific wording in questionnaires. To avoid item bias questionnaires need to be pretested, e.g. by using a translation procedure to deal with linguistic diversity. Construct equivalence does exist, if the object of investigation is equivalently embedded into the higher system level in all countries. Method equivalence summarizes three further levels of equivalence: sample equivalence, instrument equivalence, and administration equivalence. If the units of analysis or interview partners, e.g. campaign consultants, are equivalently selected in every considered country, sample equivalence exists. One aspect of instrument equivalence, e.g., refers to whether participants in an online survey are familiar with using computers and filling in online questionnaires. Administration equivalence, e.g., refers to attitudes of interviewers, not varying culture-specifically in a survey, which would lead to culture-specific statements.

If functional equivalence is not guaranteed cultural bias can occur leading to misinterpretation of results. Cultural bias results if country-specific variables are not considered in the analysis. When, e.g., comparing the length of news articles about election campaigns in different countries, they need to be standardized with the mean article length in each country.

In sum, the concept of functional equivalence implies realizing that applying identical research instruments in different countries does not necessarily lead to measuring exactly the same phenomenon, due to culture-specific differences.

Remote work

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_work 

Percentage of workforce that was home-based in 2019

 

Most respondents to the same climate survey in 2021-2022 believe that most of us will be working from home in 20 years to help save the planet.

 

The United States Marine Corps began allowing remote work in 2010.

Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, warehouse, or retail store. Instead, work can be accomplished in the home, such as in a study, a small office/home office and/or a telecentre. A company in which all workers perform remote work is known as a distributed company.

History

In the early 1970s, technology was developed that linked satellite offices to downtown mainframes through dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The terms "telecommuting" and "telework" were coined by Jack Nilles in 1973. In 1979, five IBM employees were allowed to work from home as an experiment. By 1983, the experiment was expanded to 2,000 people. By the early 1980s, branch offices and home workers were able to connect to organizational mainframes using personal computers and terminal emulators.

In 1995, the motto that "work is something you do, not something you travel to" was coined. Variations of this motto include: "Work is what we do, not where we are." During the Information Age, many startups were founded in the houses of entrepreneurs who lacked financial resources.

In 1996, the Home Work Convention, an International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention, was created to offer protection to workers who are employed in their own homes.

Since the 1980s, the normalization of remote work has been on a steady incline. For example, the number of Americans working from home grew by 4 million from 2003 to 2006, and by 1983 academics were beginning to experiment with online conferencing.

In the 1990s and 2000s, remote work became facilitated by technology such as collaborative software, virtual private networks, conference calling, videotelephony, internet access, cloud computing, voice over IP (VoIP), mobile telecommunications technology such as a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop or tablet computers, smartphones, and desktop computers, using software such as Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack, and WhatsApp.

In his 1992 travelogue Exploring the Internet, Carl Malamud described a "digital nomad" who "travels the world with a laptop, setting up FidoNet nodes." In 1993, Random House published the Digital Nomad's Guide series of guidebooks by Mitch Ratcliffe and Andrew Gore. The guidebooks, PowerBook, AT&T EO Personal Communicator, and Newton's Law, used the term "digital nomad" to refer to the increased mobility and more powerful communication and productivity technologies that facilitated remote work.

European hacker spaces of the 1990s led to coworking; the first such space opened in 2005.

In 2010, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 required each Executive agency in the United States to establish policy allowing remote work to the maximum extent possible, so long as employee performance is not diminished.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers began remote work for the first time. Cities in which the population of remote workers increased significantly were referred to as zoom towns.

Statistics

36% of Europeans interviewed by the European Investment Bank Climate Survey supported remote work to be favoured to fight climate change.

According to a Gallup poll in September 2021, 45% of full-time U.S. employees worked from home, including 25% who worked from home all of the time and 20% who worked from home part of the time.

In 2020, 12.3% of employed persons, including 13.2% of women and 11.5% of men, in the European Union who were aged 15–64, usually worked from home. By country, the percentage of workers that worked from home was highest in Finland (25.1%), Luxembourg (23.1%), Ireland (21.5%), Austria (18.1%), and the Netherlands (17.8%) and lowest in Bulgaria (1.2%), Romania (2.5%), Croatia (3.1%), Hungary (3.6%), and Latvia (4.5%).

In 2021, in the US 91% of people who work from home said they would like to continue to work remotely in the future. In Gallup's September 2021 study, 54% of workers said they believed that their company's culture would be unchanged by remote work, while 12% believed it would improve and 33% predicted it would deteriorate.

According to the United States Office of Personnel Management, in fiscal 2020, 50% of all U.S. federal workers were eligible to work remotely and agencies saved more than $180 million because of remote work in fiscal 2020.

Potential benefits

Cost reduction

Remote work can reduce costs for organizations, including the cost of office space and related expenses such as parking, computer equipment, furniture, office supplies, lighting and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Certain employee expenses, such as office expenses, can be shifted to the remote worker, although this is the subject of lawsuits.

Remote work also reduces costs for the worker such as costs of travel/commuting and clothing. It also allows for the possibility of living in a cheaper area than that of the office.

Higher employee motivation and job satisfaction due to autonomy and flexibility

Consistent with job characteristic theory (1976), an increase in autonomy and feedback for employees leads to higher work motivation, satisfaction with personal growth opportunities, general job satisfaction, higher job performance, and lower absenteeism and turnover. Autonomy increased remote workers' satisfaction by reducing work-family conflicts, especially when workers were allowed to work outside traditional work hours and be more flexible for family purposes. Autonomy was the reason for an increase in employee engagement when the amount of time spent remote working increased. Remote workers have more flexibility and can shift work to different times of day and different locations to maximize their performance. The autonomy of remote work allows for arrangement of work to reduce work-family conflict and conflicts with recreational activities. However, studies also show that autonomy must be balanced with high levels of discipline if a healthy work/leisure balance is to be maintained.

Remote work may make it easier for workers to balance their work responsibilities with their personal life and family roles such as caring for children or elderly parents. Remote work improves efficiency by reducing travel time, and reduces commuting time and time stuck in traffic congestion, improving quality of life.

Providing the option to work remotely or adopting a hybrid work schedule has been an incentivizing benefit companies used in new hiring.

A 2007 meta-analysis of 46 studies of remote work involving 12,833 employees conducted by Ravi Gajendran and David A. Harrison in the Journal of Applied Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), found that remote work has largely positive effects on employees' job satisfaction, perceived autonomy, stress levels, manager-rated job performance, and (lower) work-family conflict, and lower turnover intention.

Environmental benefits

See also: Mobility transition

Remote work can reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, with fewer cars on the roads.

Most studies find that remote work overall results in: a decrease in energy use due to less time spent on energy-intensive personal transportation, cleaner air, and a reduction of electricity usage due to a lower office space footprint.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the increase in remote work led to a decrease in global CO₂ emissions. Partially due to the decrease in car commuting, carbon emissions dropped by 5.4%, however emissions immediately increased to the same rate in the following year.

The increase in remote work had also led to people moving out of cities and into larger homes which catered for home office space.

Increased productivity

Remote work has long been promoted as a way to substantially increase employee productivity. A 2013 study showed a 13% increase in productivity among remotely working call-center employees at a Chinese travel agency. An analysis of data collected through March 2021 found that nearly six out of 10 workers reported being more productive working from home than they expected to be, compared with 14% who said they got less done.

Since work hours are less regulated in remote work, employee effort and dedication are far more likely to be measured purely in terms of output or results. However, traces of non-productive work activities (such as: research, self-training, dealing with technical problems or equipment failures), and time lost on unsuccessful attempts (such as: early drafts, fruitless endeavors, abortive innovations), are visible to employers.

Remote work improves efficiency by reducing or eliminating employees commute time, thus increasing their availability to work.

An increase in productivity is also supported by sociotechnical systems (STS) theory (1951), which states that, unless absolutely essential, there should be minimal specification of objectives and how to do tasks in order to avoid inhibiting options or effective actions. Remote work provides workers with the freedom and power to decide how and when to do their tasks and therefore can increase productivity.

Lower turnover intention and higher loyalty

Turnover intention, or the desire to leave an organization, is lower for remote workers.  Remote workers who experienced greater professional isolation actually had lower turnover intention.

A 2017 study showed that companies that offered remote work options experienced a 25% lower turnover rate.

Surveys by FlexJobs found that 81% of respondents said they would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options. In a 2021 study by McKinsey & Company, more than half of the workers supported companies adopting a hybrid work model, and more than a quarter stated that they would consider switching jobs if their current employer eliminated remote work options.

Access to more employees / employers

Remote work allows employees and employers to be matched despite major location differences.

Potential drawbacks and concerns

Drawbacks due to reduced face-to-face interactions

The technology to communicate is not advanced enough to replicate face-to-face office interactions. Room for mistakes and miscommunication can increase. According to media richness theory (1986), face-to-face interactions provide the capacity to process rich information: ambiguous issues can be clarified, immediate feedback can be provided, and there is personalized communication (e.g. body language, tone of voice).

Remote work requires the use of various types of media to communicate, such as videotelephony, telephone, and email, which have drawbacks such as time lags, or ease of deciphering emotions and can reduce the speed and ease at which decisions are made. Asynchronous communication tends to be more difficult to manage and requires much greater coordination than synchronous communication.

Face-to-face interactions increase interpersonal contact, connectedness, and trust.

In a 2012 study, 54% of remote workers thought they lost out on social interaction and 52.5% felt they lost out on professional interaction.

Remote working can hurt working relationships between remote worker and their coworkers, especially if their coworkers do not remotely work. Coworkers who do not remotely work can feel resentful and jealous because they may consider it unfair if they are not allowed to remote work as well.

Adaptive structuration theory studies variations in organizations as new technologies are introduced. Adaptive structural theory proposes that structures (general rules and resources offered by the technology) can differ from structuration (how people actually use these rules and resources). There is an interplay between the intended use of technology and the way that people use the technology. Remote work provides a social structure that enables and constrains certain interactions. For instance, in office settings, the norm may be to interact with others face-to-face. To accomplish interpersonal exchange in remote work, other forms of interaction need to be used. AST suggests that when technologies are used over time, the rules and resources for social interactions will change. Remote work may alter traditional work practices, such as switching from primarily face-to-face communication to electronic communication.

Sharing information within an organization and teams can become more challenging when working remotely. While in the office, teams naturally share information and knowledge when they meet each other, for example, during coffee breaks. Sharing information requires more effort and proactive action when random-encounters do not happen. The sharing of tacit information also often takes place in unplanned situations where employees follow the activities of more experienced team members.

With remote work, it may also be difficult to obtain timely information, unless the regular sharing of information is taken care of separately. The situation where team members don't know enough about what others are doing can lead them to make worse decisions or slow down decision-making.

From an anthropological perspective, remote work can interfere with the process of sensemaking, the forging of consensus or of a common worldview, which involves absorbing a wide range of signals.

Feedback increases employees' knowledge of results. Feedback refers to the degree that an individual receives direct and clear information about his or her performance related to work activities. Feedback is particularly important so that the employees continuously learn about how they are performing. Electronic communication provides fewer cues for remote workers and thus, they may have more difficulties interpreting and gaining information, and subsequently, receiving feedback. When a worker is not in the office, there is limited information and greater ambiguity, such as in assignments and expectations. Role ambiguity, when situations have unclear expectations as to what the worker is to do, may result in greater conflict, frustration, and exhaustion. In other studies regarding Job Characteristics Theory, job feedback seemed to have the strongest relationship with overall job satisfaction compared to other job characteristics. While remote working, communication is not as immediate or rich as face-to-face interactions. Less feedback when remote working is associated with lower job engagement. Thus, when perceived supervisor support and relationship quality between leaders and remote workers decreases, job satisfaction of the remote worker decreases. The importance of manager communication with remote workers is made clear in a study that found that individuals have lower job satisfaction when their managers remote work. The clarity, speed of response, richness of the communication, frequency, and quality of the feedback are often reduced when managers remote work. Although the level of communication may decrease for remote workers, satisfaction with this level of communication can be higher for those who are more tenured and have functional instead of social relationships or those that have certain personalities and temperaments.

Social information processing suggests that individuals give meaning to job characteristics. Individuals have the ability to construct their own perception of the environment by interpreting social cues. This social information comes from overt statements from coworkers, cognitive evaluations of the job or task dimensions, and previous behaviors. This social context can affect individuals' beliefs about the nature of the job, the expectations for individual behavior, and the potential consequences of behavior, especially in uncertain situations. In remote work, there are fewer social cues because social exchange and personalized communication takes longer to process in computer-mediated communication than face-to-face interactions.

Lessened work motivation

Skill variety has the strongest relationship with internal work motivation. Jobs that allow workers to use a variety of skills increase workers' internal work motivation. If remote workers are limited in teamwork opportunities and have fewer opportunities to use a variety of skills, they may have lower internal motivation towards their work. Also, perceived social isolation can lead to less motivation.

Motivator-hygiene theory differentiates between motivating factors (motivators) and dissatisfying factors (hygienes). Factors that are motivators such as recognition and career advancement may be lessened with remote work. When remote workers are not physically present, they may be "out of sight, out of mind" to other workers in the office.

Distractions

Though working in an office has its distractions, it is often argued that remote work involves even greater distractions. According to one study, children are ranked as the number one distractions, followed by spouses, pets, neighbors, and solicitors. The lack of proper tools and facilities also serves as a major distraction, though this can be mitigated by using short-term coworking rental facilities. Also, some countries such as Romania have tasked the national labour inspectorate the burden of carrying out checks at remote workers’ residences to see if the work environment meets the requirements.

Employee pressure to be seen as valuable

Remote workers may feel pressure to produce more output in order to be seen as valuable, and reduce the idea that they are doing less work than others. This pressure to produce output, as well as a lack of social support from limited coworker relationships and feelings of isolation, leads to lower job engagement in remote workers. Additionally, higher-quality relationships with teammates decreased job satisfaction of remote workers, potentially because of frustrations with exchanging interactions via technology. However, coworker support and virtual social groups for team building had a direct influence on increasing job satisfaction, perhaps due to an increase in skill variety from teamwork and an increase in task significance from more working relationships.

The inconsistent findings regarding remote work and satisfaction may be explained by a more complicated relationship. Presumably because of the effects of autonomy, initial job satisfaction increases as the amount of remote work increases; however, as remote work increases, declines in feedback and task significance lead job satisfaction to level off and decrease slightly. Thus, the amount of remote work influences the relationship between remote work and job satisfaction. Barriers to the continued growth of remote work include distrust from employers and personal disconnectedness for employees.

Challenges to team building; focus on the individual

Communication and getting to know other teammates happen naturally when everyone works in the same space, so with remote work, employees and supervisors have to work harder to maintain relationships with co-workers. This is especially important for new employees so that they learn organizational habits even when working remotely.

Three of the five job attributes: skill variety, task identity, and task significance, influence how much employees think their jobs are meaningful. Skill variety is the degree of activities and skills that a job requires in order to complete a task. An increase in skill variety is thought to increase the challenge of the job. Increasing the challenge of the job increases the individual's experienced meaningfulness, how much the individual cares about work, and finds it worthwhile. Remote work may not directly affect skill variety and task meaningfulness for the individual compared to when he or she worked in an office; however, skill variety and meaningfulness of individual tasks can increase when working in a group. If the work done at home is focused on the individual rather than the team, there may be fewer opportunities to use a variety of skills.

Task identity is the degree that the individual sees work from beginning to end or completes an identifiable or whole piece of work rather than only a small piece. Task significance is the degree that the individual feels his or her work has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people within the organization or outside the organization. Remote work may not change the job characteristics of skill variety, task identity, and task significance compared to working in an office; however, the presence of these characteristics will influence remote workers' work outcomes and attitudes.

In his book, "Together: The Healing Power Of Human Connection In A Sometimes Lonely World,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy asserts that face-to-face meetings, in-person collaboration, and "micro-moments" of community at work are what give people the essential feeling of belongingness and being part of a team.

Isolation and mental health

Research by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist and professor at Brigham Young University, showed the most important predictor of living a long life is social integration.

A study by researchers at the University of Chicago showed that routine interactions with people benefits mental health.

In a 2018 study, Sigal G. Barsade, an organizational behavior professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found that lonelier employees feel less committed to their employers and also to their co-workers.

Isolation due to remote work also hinders formation of friendships.

Although several scholars and managers had previously expressed fears that employee careers might suffer and workplace relationships might be damaged because of remote work, a 2007 study found that there are no generally detrimental effects on the quality of workplace relationships and career outcomes. Remote work actually was found to positively affect employee-supervisor relations and the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intent was in part due to supervisor relationship quality. Only high-intensity remote work (where employees work from home for more than 2.5 days a week) harmed employee relationships with co-workers, even though it did reduce work-family conflict.

Individuals may differ in their reactions to the job characteristics in remote work. According to job characteristics theory, the personal need for accomplishment and development ("growth need strength") influences how much an individual will react to the job dimensions of remote work. For instance, those individuals high in "growth need strength" will have a more positive reaction to increased autonomy and a more negative reaction to decreased feedback in remote work than those individuals low in "growth need strength".

A 2021 report from Prudential found that the majority of people prefer the hybrid model, and that two in three workers believe in-person interactions are important for career growth. The report also found that fully remote workers felt less entitled to take a vacation and believed they must be available around the clock. One in four workers felt isolated, and reported this as a major challenge. Ultimately, most workers want flexibility but do not want to give up the benefits available from working in-person with colleagues.

Information security

Employees need training, tools, and technologies for remote work. Remote work poses cybersecurity risks and people should follow best practices that include using antivirus software, keeping family members away from work devices, covering their webcams, using a VPN, using a centralized storage solution, making sure passwords are strong and secure, and being wary of email scams and email security.

In 2021, Vermont, South Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama, and Nebraska were named as the top 5 safest states for remote workers based on data breaches, stolen records, privacy laws, victim count, and victim loss.

A 2020 survey of over 1,000 remote workers showed that 59% of employees felt more cyber secure working in-office compared to at home.

Loss of control by management

Additionally, remote work may not always be seen positively by management due to fear of loss of managerial control.

Alleged drop in worker productivity

There have been conflicting data on the correlation between remote work and productivity. Some studies have found that remote work increases worker productivity and leads to higher supervisor ratings of performance and higher performance appraisals. However, another study found that professional isolation in remote workers led to a decrease in job performance, especially for those who spent more time remote working and engaged in fewer face-to-face interactions. Thus, similar to job attitudes, the amount of time spent remote working may also influence the relationship between remote work and job performance.

There may be a drop in remote worker productivity, which could be due to inadequate office setup.

However, surveys found that over two-thirds of employers reported increased productivity among remote workers.

Traditional line managers are accustomed to managing by observation and not necessarily by results. This causes a serious obstacle in organizations attempting to adopt remote work. Liability and workers' compensation can become serious issues as well.

A 2008 study found that more time spent remote working decreased the perception of productivity of the remote worker by management.

Jealousy in the workplace

Workers who do not have remote work privileges may be jealous of those who do, leading to workplace controversies.

Taxation complexity

Working remotely in a different jurisdiction than the employer can have tax implications that are not fully understood by remote workers.

Health impacts due to increased hours working

According to a 2021 report by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, remote work could potentially increase health loss among workers if it increases working time to over 55 hours per week.

Remote work during COVID-19

The extensive use of remote work under COVID-19 constituted a major organizational transformation. However, the implementation of remote work during COVID-19 is hurried, and new technologies and operating systems have had to be implemented without previous testing or training. Organisations reported concerns about losses in culture and productivity whilst workers were more concerned about declined in social interactions, internet connectivity and increased workload.

The remote work arrangement during COVID-19 is better for higher-paid and higher-management personnel in terms of productivity and reported well-being, whereas individuals at the bottom end of the earning spectrum experience reduced remuneration.

Remote work arrangement during COVID-19 has an impact on employees' financial stability and reduces social connection. According to study, the inability to meet financial obligations and maintain social relationships considerably increases reported family stress and domestic violence, as well as women's bargaining power; yet, obtaining financial help does not mitigate the issue.

Freelancer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer

Freelance (sometimes spelled free-lance or free lance), freelancer, or freelance worker, are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance workers are sometimes represented by a company or a temporary agency that resells freelance labor to clients; others work independently or use professional associations or websites to get work.

While the term independent contractor would be used in a different register of English to designate the tax and employment classes of this type of worker, the term "freelancing" is most common in culture and creative industries, and use of this term may indicate participation therein.

Fields, professions, and industries where freelancing is predominant include: music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, graphic design, translating and illustrating, film and video production and other forms of piece work which some cultural theorists consider as central to the cognitive-cultural economy.

Freelance practices

Types of work

According to the 2012 Freelance Industry Report compiled primarily about North America freelancing, nearly half of freelancers do writing work, with 18% of freelancers listing writing as a primary skill, 10% editing/copy-editing, and 10% as copy-writing. 20% of freelancers listed their primary skills as design. Next on the list was translating (8%), web development (5.5%), and marketing (4%).

Freelancing is projected to grow to $20–$30 billion in the next 5–7 years in India, and the freelancers in US will comprise 40% (approx.) of the workforce at the present growth rate.

Compensation

Depending on the industry, freelance work practices vary and have changed over time. In some industries such as consulting, freelancers may require clients to sign written contracts. While in journalism or writing, freelancers may work for free or do work "on spec" to build their reputations or a relationship with a publication. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.

Payment for freelance work also depends on industry, skills, experience and location. Freelancers may charge by the day, hour, a piece rate, or on a per-project basis. Instead of a flat rate or fee, some freelancers have adopted a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client. By custom, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion. For more complex projects, a contract may set a payment schedule based on milestones or outcomes. One of the drawbacks of freelancing is that there is no guaranteed payment, and the work can be highly precarious. In order to ensure payment, many freelancers use online payment platforms to protect themselves or work with local clients that can be held accountable.

Copyright

The question of ownership of a work's copyright arises when its author produces it on behalf of a client. The matter is governed by copyright law, which varies by country. The default ownership lies with the client in some countries and with the freelancing author in others. The degree to which either moral or economic ownership of a work for hire may be modified contractually varies by country.

United States

In the United States, where the federal constitution automatically grants ownership of the copyright only to the author, the contract agreement must explicitly use the language, that the product is "work for hire" , and that the copyright is transferred to the client. Otherwise, only the freelancer will own the right to reproduce the work. Registration of copyright is not required for ownership of these rights; however, litigation against infringement may require registration, as documented in the class action lawsuit, Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick. In that case, freelance writers sued publishers for copyright violations, though the case was eventually settled for the benefit of freelance writers whether or not they had registered their copyright with the Copyright Office. Copyright is rescinded only when a freelancer signs a contract specifying that they are "working for hire," or if they are hired into employment. These rights are further specified in U.S. copyright law, Section 101 in the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 USC §101).

Demographics

A 2018 McKinsey study found that up to 162 million people in Europe and the United States engage in some form of independent work. It represents 20-30 percent of the entire working age population.

The total number of freelancers in USA is inexact, as of 2013, the most recent governmental report on independent contractors was published in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. At that time, there were approximately 10.3 million United States workers (7.4% of the workforce) employed as independent contractors of all sorts. In 2011, Jeffrey Eisenach, an economist at George Mason University, estimated that number of freelancers had grown by one million. While in 2012, the Aberdeen Group, a private research company, estimated that 26% (approx. 81 million) of the United States population was a part of the contingent workforce, a category of casual labor that includes freelancing.

In 2013, the Freelancers Union estimated that 1 in 3 workers in the United States was self-employed (approximately 42 million), with more than four million (43%) of those self-employed workers as members of the creative class, a stratum of work specifically associated with freelance industries, such as knowledge workers, technologists, professional writers, artists, entertainers, and media workers.

In 2016, the Freelancers Union estimated that 35% of the workforce in the United States was self-employed (approximately 55 million). This workforce earned an estimated $1 trillion from freelancing in 2016—a significant share of the U.S. economy. In 2017, a study by MBO Partners estimated the total number of self-employed Americans aged 21 and above to be 40.9 million.

The total number of freelancers in UK is also inexact; however, figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the proportion of remote workers rose from 9.2% in 2001 to 10.7% in 2011. It has been estimated, however, that there are approximately 1.7 million freelancers in the UK.

Freelancing is a gendered form of work. The 2012 Freelance Industry Report estimates that more than 71% of freelancers are women between the ages of 30 and 50. Surveys of other specific areas of freelancing have similar trends. Demographic research on Amazon Mechanical Turk reveals that the majority of North American Mechanical Turk workers are women. Catherine McKercher's research on journalism as a profession has showcased that while media organizations are still male-dominated, the reverse is true for freelance journalists and editors, whose ranks are mainly women.

Benefits

Freelancers have a variety of reasons for freelancing, the perceived benefits differ by gender, industry, and lifestyle. For instance, the 2012 Freelance Industry Report reported that men and women freelance for different reasons. Female survey respondents indicated that they prefer the scheduling freedom and flexibility that freelancing offers, while male survey respondents indicated they freelance to follow or pursue personal passions. Freelancing also enables people to obtain higher levels of employment in isolated communities. The ability to pick and choose who the freelancer works with is another benefit. The freelancer interviews a potential client and they get to pick whether or not to work with that individual or company.

Freelancing is also taken up by workers who have been laid-off, who cannot find full-time employment, or for those industries such as journalism which are relying increasingly on contingent labor rather than full-time staff. Freelancers also consist of students trying to make ends meet during the semester. In interviews, and on blogs about freelancing, freelancers list choice and flexibility as a benefit.

Drawbacks

Freelancing, like other forms of casual labor, can be precarious work. Websites, books, portals and organizations for freelancers often feature advice on getting and keeping a steady work stream. Beside the lack of job security, many freelancers also report the ongoing hassle of dealing with employers who don't pay on time and the possibility of long periods without work. Additionally, freelancers do not receive employment benefits such as a pension, sick leave, paid holidays, bonuses or health insurance, which can be a serious hardship for freelancers residing in countries such as the US without universal health care.

Freelancers often earn less than their employed counterparts, although sometimes the opposite is true. While most freelancers have at least ten years of experience prior to working independently, experienced freelancers do not always earn an income equal to that of full-time employment. Feedback from members suggests that web portals such as Freelancer.com tend to attract low-paying clients that, although demanding very high standards, pay ~$10 per hour or less. Low-cost suppliers frequently offer to work at rates as low as $1–$2 per hour. Because most projects require bidding, professionals will not bid because they refuse to work at such rates. This has the effect of reducing the overall quality of the services provided.

According to research conducted in 2005 by the Professional Writers Association of Canada on Canadian journalists and editors, there is a wage gap between staff and freelance journalists. While the typical Canadian full-time freelancer is female, between 35 and 55, holding a college diploma and often a graduate degree, she typically earns about $29,999 Canadian dollars before taxes. Meanwhile, a staff journalist of similar age and experience level working full-time at outlets such as the Ottawa Citizen or Montreal Gazette newspapers, earned at least $63,500 Canadian dollars that year, the top scale rate negotiated by the union, The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. Given the gendered stratification of journalism, with more women working as freelancers than men, this disparity in income can be interpreted as a form of gender pay gap. The Professional Writers Association of Canada report showed no significant difference between the earnings of male and female freelancers, though part-time freelancers generally earned less than full-time freelancers.

Remote work is often cited as an attractive feature of freelancing, yet research suggests that it introduces new sets of constraints for the process of doing work, particularly for married women with families, who continue to bear the brunt of household chores and childcare despite increases in their paid work time. For instance, three years of ethnographic research about teleworkers in Australia conducted by Melissa Gregg, a Principal Engineer and Researcher in Residence for the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing at UC Irvine, raises concerns over how both physical isolation and continuous access enabled with networked digital media puts pressure on homeworkers to demonstrate their commitments through continual responses by email and to conceal their family or home life.

Internet and online marketplaces

The Internet has opened up many freelance opportunities, expanded available markets, and has contributed to service sector growth in many economies. Offshore outsourcing, online outsourcing and crowdsourcing are heavily reliant on the Internet to provide economical access to remote workers, and frequently leverage technology to manage workflow to and from the employer. Much computer freelance work is being outsourced to developing countries outside the United States and Europe.

Freelance marketplaces provide a marketplace for freelancers and buyers. Service providers or sellers create a profile where they include a description of the services they offer, examples of their work, and, in some cases, information about their rates. Buyers register and complete a basic profile, and then post projects outlining their requirements. Buyers will then bid for these projects on a fixed price or hourly basis. Many of these websites have user review sections that affect the reputation of freelancers who list there, and which may be manipulated.

Freelance marketplaces have globalized competition for some jobs, allowing workers in high- and low-income countries to compete with one another. According to a 2016 study by the McKinsey Global Institute, 15% of independent workers used online marketplaces to find work.

These marketplaces, including Fiverr and Lyft, have been criticized as exploiting workers.

Legal aspects

Many periodicals and newspapers offer the option of ghost signing, when a freelance writer signs with an editor but their name is not listed on the byline of their article(s). This allows the writer to receive benefits while still being classified as a freelancer, and independent of any set organization. In some countries this can lead to taxation issues (e.g., so-called IR35 violations in the UK). Ghost signing has little bearing on whether a writer is a freelancer or employee in the US.

Freelancers often must handle contracts, legal issues, accounting, marketing, and other business functions by themselves. If they do choose to pay for professional services, they can sometimes turn into significant out-of-pocket expenses. Working hours can extend beyond the standard working day and working week.

The European Commission does not define "freelancers" in any legislative text. However, the European Commission defines a self-employed person as someone: "pursuing a gainful activity for their own account, under the conditions laid down by national law". In the exercise of such an activity, the personal element is of special importance and such exercise always involves a large measure of independence in the accomplishment of the professional activities. This definition comes from Directive (2010/41/EU) on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity.

The European Forum of Independent Professionals defines freelancers as: "a highly-skilled subset of self-employed workers, without employers nor employees, offering specialised services of an intellectual and knowledge-based nature". Independent professionals work on a flexible basis in a range of creative, managerial, scientific and technical occupations; they are not a homogeneous group and as such, they cannot be considered or investigated as a whole. They are generally characterised by a large portion of autonomy, a high labour productivity, knowledge intensive performance, social commitment and a large dose of entrepreneurship and specialisation.

In the U.S. in 2009, federal and state agencies began increasing their oversight of freelancers and other workers whom employers classify as independent contractors. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Secretary of Labor have its Wage and Hour Division "focus on misclassification of employees as independent contractors during targeted investigations." The increased regulation is meant to ensure workers are treated fairly and that companies are not misclassifying workers as independent contractors to avoid paying appropriate employment taxes and contributions to workers' compensation and unemployment compensation.

At the same time, this increased enforcement is affecting companies whose business models are based on using non-employee workers, as well as independent professionals who have chosen to work as independent contractors. For example, book publishing companies have traditionally outsourced certain tasks like indexing and proofreading to individuals working as independent contractors. Self-employed accountants and attorneys have traditionally hired out their services to accounting and law firms needing assistance. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service offers some guidance on what constitutes self-employment, but states have enacted stricter laws to address how independent contractors should be defined. For example, a Massachusetts law states that companies can hire independent contractors only to perform work that is "outside the usual course of business of the employer," meaning workers working on the company's core business must be classified as employees. According to this statute, a software engineering firm cannot outsource work to a software engineering consultant, without hiring the consultant as an employee. The firm could, however, hire an independent contractor working as an electrician, interior decorator, or painter. This raises questions about the common practice of consulting, because a company would typically hire a management consulting firm or self-employed consultant to address business-specific needs that are not "outside the usual course of business of the employer."

Etymology

Although the term freelancer is commonly attributed to Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Ivanhoe (1820) to describe a "medieval mercenary warrior" or "free-lance" (indicating that the lance is not sworn to any lord's services, not that the lance is available free of charge), a previous appearance occurs in Thomas N. Brown in The Life and Times of Hugh Miller (1809), p. 185. It changed to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was recognized as a verb in 1903 by authorities in etymology such as the Oxford English Dictionary. Only in modern times has the term morphed from a noun (a freelance) into an adjective (a freelance journalist), a verb (a journalist who freelances) and an adverb (they worked freelance), as well as into the noun "freelancer".