Global Online Dispute Resolution System (Lessons Derived from Existing ODR Systems †Work of the United nations Commission
taxation, labour conditions and employment, privacy and data protection, product return, sales conditions, parcel delivery, labelling and information requirements
Therefore a coherent set of standards for SEPA payments must be devised which strikes a balance between the harmonisation
The important work of the Securepay Forum should also be transparent and properly communicated to all players
such as taxation, employment and social conditions, transport, environmental responsibility ï Legislation needs to fit this new channel in
They need specialised employees who can build, maintain and further develop their online business and,
and for business to have qualified employees Recommendation 15: Consumers and the commerce sector are need in of e-skills to shop
â We ran a survey of 100 senior executives on the commercial challenges of harnessing ICT to deliver
This leaves Europe†s policymakers and business leaders wrestling with two puzzles. First, why hasn†t heavy investment in ICT delivered the economic
executives on the commercial challenges of harnessing ICT to deliver increased productivity and growth. The survey participants include a mix
making technology work. The productivity growth gap between the US and Europe is partly down to differences
workplace are a major impediment to growth in Europe Weaknesses in managerial skills and technology awareness, and the lack of an innovation culture
change the way people work to take advantage of new technology Policymakers and business leaders have work to do
â ICT in the public sector. The executives we interviewed and surveyed believe the best thing
employment and (this being Europe) social inclusion as well as sustainable development. Yet the backdrop to this initiative was the growing recognition on the
labour productivity growth. The transatlantic productivity gap has diminished not since the Lisbon summit, even after the intervening economic
and have registered the fastest labour productivity growth over the 1996-2002 period. The exception is Ireland,
Labour productivity growth and ICT Aggregate labour productivity growth and ICT contribution to labour productivity growth
14 European countries and US, 1990-95 and 1996-2002, in percentage points 1990†1995 1996†2002
Labour prod. ICT Labour prod. ICT growth contribution growth contribution Norway 3. 11 0. 85 Ireland 3. 76 1. 90
Sweden 2. 95 0. 96 Sweden 2. 67 1. 33 Italy 2. 83 1. 09 Finland 2. 02 1. 40
labour productivity growth in the 1996-2002 period 10 Â The Economist Intelligence Unit 2004
to making technology work ICT development is only one of the important factors affecting growth.
contributions to labour productivity growth in Europe in the 1996-2002 period The UK, although among the better performers in
increases in labour productivity. Economists believe ICT capital investment has made a sizeable contribution to GDP growth in many developed countries in the past
Contribution of ICT-using services to aggregate labour productivity growth -0. 50 -0. 25 0. 00
This requires greater improvements in workplace efficiency that are more difficult to achieve but also provide
in labour productivity and other key macroeconomic indicators. By contrast, Ireland has outpaced even the US in ICT-led productivity growth, thanks mainly to a
Europe is skilled not short of technical workers Schools and universities produce a steady flow of graduates trained in software programming, network
of ICT knowledge in senior management and the failure of IT and business management to work
together effectively were cited as the two main barriers to maximising the benefits of ICT. These
Lack of ICT knowledge in senior management 38 Business and IT executives not working together effectively 34
Inadequate integration between different technologies in the business 30 Cost constraints 29 Inability to manage
Employee resistance to change 22 Other 3 Â The Economist Intelligence Unit 2004 17 Reaping the benefits of ICT
In addition to its work in R&d, Tekes recently launched a programme to encourage productive use of
Reorganising the workplace to adapt to new technology can involve anything from automating manual processes to overhauling product design
innovate with their products, services, work processes and organisational structures A clear example of the benefits of open competition
Promotion of common technology standards 36 Availability of good ICT education in primary and secondary schools 33
Policies to promote labour mobility 9 Policies to attract ICT skilled immigrants 10 Other 1 Which of the following government initiatives are most important to promote
Promotion of common technology standards 32 Availability of good ICT education in primary and secondary schools 43
The issue of labour market regulation is more contentious. Many economists argue that Europe†s labour market regulations are too restrictive and that
they deter companies from reorganising the workplace Policymakers and economists diverge, however, on the link between labour regulations and productivity
growth, and on the desirability of policy initiatives to effect change. If nothing else, the relationship between
labour regulations and ICT-led productivity growth will need to be explored more fully before politicians at
federal Ministry of Economics and Labour, cites the shortage of venture capital as one of the key barriers
volume of R&d work is conducted by universities and independent research institutes. In contrast to the US
-sized firms directly employ staff working in UCL laboratories on corporate projects UCL, with its links in the Wallonia region and
employees, suppliers and customers) the confidence to use them. Elie Simon, president EMEA of Sun
the executives we surveyed. Common standards remove much of the risk associated with investing in
are viewed by a majority of the executives we surveyed as â€oeimportant†or â€oeextremely important†to enabling
The central example is labour -market regulation, which most economists believe is too restrictive in most of Europe.
policymakers (as well as executives judging from our survey) do not see labour market reform as a priority
Certainly they will have enough to busy themselves with while this particular debate is resolved Five imperatives for policymakers
One targets the workplace, where public agencies can directly organise or support third-party initiatives to improve managerial and employee skills
in ICT use. This is particularly relevant to staff in SMES where such skills are need most in.
their own managers and staff, and provide incentives to encourage staff to undertake this training outside
the workplace. The organisations that will be most successful in harnessing ICT will train their staff not
only how to use new technology, but also in more challenging areas such as how to deploy technology
for competitive advantage. In particular, managers will need to understand better the benefits, risks and Part III
impact on workplace productivity. It is therefore incumbent on executives to ensure, through training and other mechanisms, that their managers are fully
aware of the potential benefits of an ICT investment as well as the specific workplace factors that may
complicate it, before a purchase is made ICT vendors carry a special burden of responsibility in this context.
and other mechanisms to promote employee involvement in decision-making; greater information -sharing; a more imaginative use of monetary
employee participation in job design; and modifying criteria for promotion to reward new ideas and innovation.
Training in change management can also help to ensure that organisations are both willing and able to adapt to
want to work with local authorities will have to be able to do business online by 2005. This requirement
workplace productivity lies with the executives and staff of European organisations, public and private sector alike.
It is up to managers to exploit the fruits of the initiatives discussed above and translate them into
considerable work that has gone into making the ICT investment measures comparable across countries, a number of question marks about the
a synthetic index covering labour, product and financial markets) and their possible interaction with ICT
-ditions, the tax regime, the macroeconomic environment and labour markets. The overall index is a simple average of the five category sub
leaves the ICT variable accounting for the major part of the 0. 52 percentage point difference in average
2003, †Commission Staff Working Document Gordon, Robert, 2003, â€oefive Puzzles in the Behavior of Productivity
Lack of ICT knowledge in senior management 38 Business and IT executives not working together effectively 34
Inadequate integration between different technologies in the business 30 Cost constraints 29 Inability to manage
Employee resistance to change 22 Other 3 What are the main external barriers to maximising the benefits of ICT
Promotion of common technology standards 36 Policies to promote competition in the ICT sector 35
Policies to promote labour mobility 9 Policies to redress under-representation of women in ICT jobs 2
Promotion of common technology standards 32 Development of e-democracy 15 Regulation to protect consumer interests 19
Communication and collaboration between employees 48 Customer relationship management 33 Integration of existing data/technologies 33
Communication and collaboration between employees 32 Supply chain integration 31 Integration of existing data/technologies 29
Senior management is briefed regularly on emerging disruptive technologies 20 How do you measure the benefits of ICT in your organisation
BEPA Bureau of European Policy Advisers EGDI e-government development index (United nations ESPAS European Strategy and Policy Analysis System
and transformations in the world of work and the labour market. Overall findings from all reports may be found in the Synthesis Report published by RAND Europe, while
This work is based on desk research in the form of a nonsystematic review of the academic and grey
of semi-structured interviews with experts from academia and think tanks, policymakers and leading thinkers from the private or voluntary sector further exploring the findings from the Delphi exercise and
For more information about RAND Europe or this work, contact Stijn Hoorens (hoorens@rand. org
In 2012, the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) commissioned RAND Europe to investigate further the theme of societal changes by drawing from the experience of the pilot project, by analysing key
6. Old and new labour †and work Each of the research reports published as part of this series revolves around one of the six themes.
The second phase of the research (expert consultation) harnessed the knowledge of leading experts worldwide for each of the themes studied through an approach based on the Delphi method.
Information from the expert consultation phase was used to discuss and to uncover further the surrounding uncertainty for each of the
social challenges, for instance by potentially revolutionising work, changing structural relationships between labour and capital, and returning manufacturing capabilities to developed national contexts
United states, Canada, Northern europe) in the case of 3-D printing (Desmoulin-Canselier 2012; Ratto 2012).
Schummer 2010). 1 Experts consulted in the Delphi 1 Castells (2011) defines the network society as †an informational society with networks serving as the basic structure
) In sum, these inequalities work against democracy and empowerment for some people, while at the same time producing expanded opportunities of political participation
Education is likely to become an increasingly critical national and personal asset in a globalised labour
with better labour market prospects for graduates, some of the literature has forecast a potential effect to
Despite the decreasing affordability of education, increasing unemployment caused by the financial crisis has led to increases in the number of students enrolled in higher education institutes as
education is seen as an alternative to unemployment. The composite effect of rising unemployment and tuition fees, however, has contributed to exacerbating inequalities in access to higher education (see Figure
E. 3. 1 on educational attainment in tertiary education. This trend, which is corroborated by the discussion in the Delphi exercise, is likely to continue into the coming decades (Lewis & Verhoeven 2010
Although the rising importance of ICT-based employment is likely to continue to favour the
-oriented) skills could result in a loss of intellectual diversity in the labour market (Cave et al. 2009;
technologies (work, health education etc High Continuing growing interconnectedness, but inequalities and fragmentation will persist Technological progress and
polarisation of labour market outcomes Low Social innovation, enabled by ICTS among other factors, will continue to
demand on labour market for certain skills ++Medium term Need to make educational systems responsive to these developments
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4. How should such an immunization system work 5. What kind of ICTS may be used to enhance delivery of healthcare services
healthcare workers to exchange ideas and provide medical solutions to various problems Mbarika, 2004. Healthnet uses low earth orbit satellites and phonelines to provide email
Users mainly physicians and medical workers connect to the network through Enhancing healthcare delivery through ICTS 147
are being used by healthcare staff for communication (e-mail), demographic studies and surveys, consultations and treatment guidelines (Kasozi and Nkuuhe, 2003
•Levels of motivation of health workers which is associated with level of facilitation remuneration, workload, provision of quality training which includes number of trainers
availability of equipment, promotional activities and number of skilled health workers and proper management •Effectiveness of monitoring of immunisation activities which involves the following
motivation of health workers Figure 2: Causal Loop Diagram for Healthcare System Two balancing loops B1 and B2 where a balancing loop is a negative feedback system that is
An increase in demand results in increased workload which reduces health worker motivation resulting in reduced level of service
and reporting as well as well-motivated health workers Insights from the causal loop diagram In order to reduce the disease burden, eventually to the point of eradication,
2. Health worker motivation. The provision of immunization services requires highly motivated health workers who are trained well,
remunerated, facilitated and with acceptable workload 3. Effective monitoring of immunization activities by carrying out regular supervisions of
different health centres/hospitals offering immunization services work in a cooperative environment and be able to exchange data and information on service delivery.
hiring and deploying staff processing and payments of staff salaries. Other activities include the purchase and delivery
Enhancing healthcare delivery through ICTS 151 of food for patients; collecting and analysing disease spread data in a country,
practices, transport, management of human resource (health workers) and vaccine wastage •Monitoring and reporting of immunisation activities which involves carrying out reviews
delivery of vaccines to avoid stock outs, training of community workers. The majority of health
facilities (5) stated that they needed to increase the number of health workers as well as training.
storage facilities, transport facilities, utilities, mobilization tools, laboratory supplies, staff housing, remuneration and allowances, recording facilities
the health workers. The tally sheets are forwarded to the health district level for entry into a
Health workers will use the PDA to access immunization information (diseases, vaccines, side effects, immunization schedule, stock management) from the immunization content management system.
children, health workers as well as preparing requisitions and facilitate distributions of vaccines to the various health sub districts and health units.
generate national targets, imports of vaccines and supplies, management of staff and equipment as well as enhance decision making process for long term plans
administration, storage, side effects through online accessibility to the medical workers as well as the public improving their attitude towards immunization
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Simple, low cost techniques that are sustainable should be developed based on the following
for operational level health workers. UNEPI/TRA Borooah, V. K.,(2003. Gender bias among children in India in their diet and immunization
from papers prepared for the OECD by a number of experts, in particular: David Audretsch, Bart Clarysse
•For SMES in the OECD, economic globalisation has created new competitors, especially in low labour cost
recruitment of university graduates and skilled personnel; awareness of new ideas and technologies; and incentives and institutional frameworks for improving collaborations within networks and clusters, including
the promotion of innovation. These policies must take into account the challenges and opportunities that new technologies and globalisation raise for small firms.
factors, many experts predicted the demise of SME competitiveness as globalisation increased. While many SMES have succumbed indeed to a deterioration of competitiveness,
of production, such as land, labour and capital, towards knowledge-based economic activities. The ability of SMES in the OECD to create,
and inter-country labour mobility. But in order to answer how these 1. During the last five years, SMES were responsible for more than 80%of the jobs created (European SME co
compete with the low-cost foreign producers,(3) substitute equipment and technology for labour to increase productivity,
Substituting capital and technology for labour, along with shifting production to lower-cost locations has resulted in waves of corporate downsizing throughout Europe and North america.
During the 1980s, one in about 25 workers lost a job, and in the 1990s the figured has risen to one in 20 workers
9. Much of the policy debate about globalisation has revolved around a trade-off between maintaining higher wages at the cost of higher unemployment versus favoring higher levels of employment
at the cost of lower wage rates. Globalisation has rendered the comparative advantage in traditional moderate technology industries incompatible with high wage levels.
high levels of employment †knowledge based economic activity. Emerging comparative advantage that is 2 â€oethe Death of Distance, †The Economist, 30,september 1995
employment has increased by 15%between 1992 and 1996, even though the mean income is 50%greater
yet the number of workers who can contribute to producing and commercialising new knowledge is limited to a few areas in the world.
Furthermore, demand for less skilled workers has decreased dramatically throughout the OECD, while demand for skilled workers has exploded. 6
11. Given the shift in comparative advantage towards more knowledge based economic activity many scholars have predicted the demise of SMES.
employee than do large firms. Audretsch (1995) identifies SMES as contributing 2. 38 times more
innovations per employee than do large firms. Other studies identifying different types of output measures
whereas few large corporations can work up much excitement over such small fish, nor can they accommodate small ventures easily into their
where the links between challenges, staff, and potential rewards are tight. †All-nighters†through which
consultants, and (2) R&d boutiques. As shown in table 1, the technology developing companies tend to be
rarely work with other companies; have no development activities; and rarely bring new products on the market.
%have staffs<10; 23%have staffs>250 SECTOR Predominantly from the following sectors: ICT services, high tech8, R&d
services. 50%are technical service companies (ICT, R&d Both from manufacturing and services, but less from the high
input is inherently different than the more traditional inputs of labour, capital and land because the value of
new economic knowledge include a high degree of human capital, a skilled labour force, and the strong
and other knowledge workers †as agents endowed with new economic knowledge 34. When the focus shifts from the firm to the individual as the relevant unit of observation, the
expected value of that knowledge, he has no reason to leave. On the other hand, if he places a greater value
a knowledge worker may choose to exit the firm or university where the knowledge was created initially.
and in a worker. The firm is created endogenously through the worker†s effort to appropriate the value of his knowledge through innovative activity
consultant Tom Peters claims that, "Old ideas about economies of scale are being challenged. Scale itself is being redefined.
An executive of a company that makes laboratory equipment explained that the typical Mittelstand strategy,
%while five-year employee growth was 9. 8 %44. One of the keys to the success of the German Mittelstand has been their strong commitment to
which leaves it vulnerable to competition from more technologically advanced companies. Customers eventually reward technological leaders that can
Indeed, non-marketing employees in the German Mittelstand engage in direct contact with customers at twice the frequency as in the largest
and financial employees in order to make sure innovative activities truly meet customer needs WK1 15 The Network and Flexible Production Strategies
â€oeit is not simply the concentration of skilled labour, suppliers and information that distinguish the
But doing so requires skilled labour, and high investments in human capital â'Continual innovation.
industry work in close physical proximity. The narrow division of labour common to large enterprises has been replaced by an organisational structure in
which employees perform a wide variety of different tasks 15 Porter (1990) provides examples of Italian ceramics and gold jewelry as industries in
which numerous firms are located within a bounded geographic region and compete intensively for new ideas
locations in close proximity to other firms within the network in an effort to preserve small effective work
new economic knowledge embodied in skilled workers tends to raise the propensity for innovative activity to spatially cluster throughout all phases of the industry life cycle.
which are made easier by the mobility of workers and technicians, the activity of technical consultants,
and commercial activity of capital equipment suppliers interaction with equipment manufacturers, which is repeated intense and socially embedded,
traditional inputs of production †land, labour, capital †and toward knowledge. As this shift has become
employees Technology Developers 1-3%of the SME population(>5 employees Non-Innovative SMES about 40-45%of the SME
population(>5 employees Potential Innovators about 40%of the SME population(>5 employees I III IV
II Source: Clarysse and Duchã ne, 2000 70. Both technology developers and technology users who have a sufficient R&d capacity are able to
successfully apply for R&d-grants or subsidies under the traditional technology policy structures. A recent
technology programmes, technical consultants are permitted frequently not to participate as contractors, so this category of SME is excluded often national R&d grant programmes, further limiting the number of
Firm size (employees) 47 43 73 R&d budget as%of turnover 21,7%32,1%10,9 %Growth during 1996-1999
in terms of employees 89%46%17,9 %R&d grants, as%of R&d budget19 11%27,6%16,8 %Source:
These organisations are typically technical consultants and count R&d as a â€oenon-core†activity Looking at firm growth rates during the three-year period preceding the study,
educated labour force. Public agencies have strong incentives to adapt their strategies to meet the needs of
engineers (or have a network of technical experts) who are trained to perform technological due diligence.
<250 employees and independent 25 Including CRAFT-projects (14,5%without CRAFT-projects 26 In respect of Belgian (Flemish) definition of the SME:
less than 200 employees 27 SME according to the Anvar-classification: less than 50 employees 28 Only related to equity financing organised by the main R&d granting institute
WK1 26 budget in the following years. R&d grants seem to have substantial additivity to the size of the R&d
A typical such SME might have three employees out of thirty who spend part of their time on R&d activities,
Technical experts in public research bodies or institutions are not of much assistance as their speciality is
world of technical experts and that of entrepreneurs is so large, there need to be mechanisms in place
In some countries such as the US, technical and business consultants are important carriers of innovation to SMES but their role in Europe remains limited so far
design work, often have an absorptive capacity that recognises and adopts new developments, but they lack
OECD, 1998, Technology, Productivity and Job creation: Best Policy Practices, Paris: OECD OECD, 1998, Main Science and Technology Indicators, Paris:
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