TELEWORK IN SINGAPORE: THE ACTANTS, MOTIVATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Abstract

Telework is a method conventionally employed to boost socio-economic outcomes for both employers and employees by allowing workers to work away from the office. In addition, literature and real-life examples reveal the increasing promotion of this scheme to decrease travel-induced environmental harm while maintaining work productivity. Looking at the telework scheme in Singapore, this thesis recognises the motivations of the adoption and portrayal of telework by various stakeholders, with a focus on environment-related reasons. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of the telework network by unravelling participating actants and their motivations, while highlighting potential avenues to incorporate environmental agendas in Singapore’s context. This thesis employed the Actor Network Theory framework to guide the investigation of actants and their connections. While not exhaustive, the study found eight actants that make up Singapore’s telework network, namely transport agencies, workforce agencies, media outlets, companies, employees, international standards, international research and health agencies. Their respective publications revealed strong adherence to the socio-economic rhetoric but had few instances of any environmental motivations on their adoption or perception of telework. This depicted little reliance on telework for its environmental benefits in Singapore. In turn, this research identified potential pathways to involve environmental motivations for specific actants. The thesis was also interested in understanding the environmental benefits of telework in terms of carbon footprint reduced from the elimination of travel. Through company surveys and secondary data sources, teleworking employees in Singapore were found to reduce 82.9–87.5 tons of CO2 equivalent in a year, which is a reduction between 6663.6–10,616.5 tons of CO2 equivalent on a nation-wide context. This represents a reduction of 0.013–0.020% of Singapore’s 2018 emissions or 0.085–0.13% of the total transport emissions produced.