There is a copious literature on teleworking based on case-studies of individual employers. Many of these are second-hand, or based on repeat interviews with companies which have already been studied. Treat these with care. Firstly, even if the company was typical the first time it was studied, by the time an army of researchers and journalists has been in and out of the door it will have become so self-conscious that it will no longer be so. Secondly, organisations change and adapt, and case-study information goes out of date very quickly.

Secondary analysis of existing case studies is particularly fraught with difficulty. Even assuming that the first researcher was interested in testing the same hypotheses as you, and therefore asked the 'right' questions, you have no way of knowing how complete his or her access was, what information may have been withheld or distorted, what conscious or unconscious bias he or she may have brought to the questioning process or the respondent to the answering process, or in what ways his or her interpretation was subjective.

If you are trying to find out what is actually going on in typical workplaces, beware too of companies which promote their teleworking schemes too hard. They are usually trying to sell you something. There are also a large number of organisations around which call themselves teleworking consultancies and which exist to promote teleworking. They frequently make an excellent job of this, but their research may be suspect since it is unlikely to be objective

In order to be sure of unbiased results, you will have to undertake the tedious business of random sampling, making sure that you offer your interviewees complete confidentiality. This is what we usually do at Analytica, and this means that we cannot offer you the details of potential interviewees. To maximise your chances of scoring a quick 'hit', you could start with those sectors which are known to be above-average users of teleworkers - e.g. IT companies, local authorities, publishers, translation agencies, text conversion bureaux etc.

Finally, make sure you respect the confidentiality of your interviewees. However much you may be pestered by journalists, other researchers or would-be job applicants to disclose their identities, it is unethical to do so without their express permission.