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1 – 10 of over 6000Ellen Ernst Kossek, Brenda A. Lautsch, Matthew B. Perrigino, Jeffrey H. Greenhaus and Tarani J. Merriweather
Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being…
Abstract
Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.
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Jan De Leede, Linda Drupsteen, Esther Schrijver, Anneke Goudswaard, Nihat Dağ, Joost Van der Weide and Sarike Verbiest
The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility practices of SMEs, especially in times of economic growth and tight labour markets.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study approach is applied, with ten Dutch SMEs located in one small province with a similar labour market. A survey was executed as an intake, followed by 48 interviews with the entrepreneurs, HR and other managers and employees, and two focus groups in each company. The findings are based on an analysis of the approved case descriptions.
Findings
SMEs, like big companies, do not rely on one flexibility practice. Volume fluctuations are countered with all flexibility strategies, the mix fluctuations and the product innovations are mostly countered with flexible functions and flexible production technology. In general, the data suggest that flexibility strategies of SMEs can be characterised as ad hoc, reactive and with a short-term orientation.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should include other sectors and regions enabling to generalise the findings. Future research should have a longitudinal design to include the pathway dependencies of flexibility practices.
Practical implications
This study identifies the need to analyse flexibility demands; reduce flexibility demands before investments in flexibility practices; create production process flexibility; invest in labour flexibility practices only after the first three steps are taken; and develop basic and more advanced levels of flexible contracts, flexible functions and flexible working times.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the authors’ knowledge on the use of labour flexibility practices in SMEs. In addition, it brings empirical data on how these labour flexibility practices relate to the needs for flexibility and how they relate to other sources of organisational flexibility, such as a flexible market approach and flexible production technologies. Dynamic capabilities should include the suggested operationalisation of the flexibility practices.
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Lucio Todisco, Andrea Tomo, Paolo Canonico and Gianluigi Mangia
The paper aims to understand how the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) influenced public employees' perception of smart working and how this approach was used during…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to understand how the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) influenced public employees' perception of smart working and how this approach was used during the pandemic. The authors asked about smart working's positive and negative aspects and how these changed during the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explored the strengths and weaknesses of smart working before and after COVID-19. The authors interviewed 27 Italian public employees who had experienced smart working before the pandemic. The questions and discussion aimed to broadly explore the strengths and weaknesses of smart working and smart working's impact on working performance, work relationships and work–life balance (WLB).
Findings
Smart working had a widespread and positive impact on organizational flexibility. Smart working improved the response and resilience of Italian public organizations to the pandemic. However, some critical factors emerged, such as the right to disconnect and the impact on WLB.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest that the pandemic exposed the need for public administrations to consolidate work flexibility practices, such as smart working, by paying more attention to the impact of these practices on the whole organization and human resources management (HRM) policies and practices.
Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to the literature on the public sector by discussing the positive and negative aspects of smart working. The study also provides managerial and policy implications of the use of smart working in public administrations.
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Roman Soucek, Amanda S. Voss, Hans Drexler and Klaus Moser
Digitalization and flexibility of workplaces as aspects of new ways of working are associated both positively and negatively with employees’ well-being. However, the mechanisms…
Abstract
Purpose
Digitalization and flexibility of workplaces as aspects of new ways of working are associated both positively and negatively with employees’ well-being. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship are not clear yet. We present work intensity as a link between new ways of working and psychological well-being. Furthermore, we address two job resources to alter this association: autonomy and boundary control.
Design/methodology/approach
Overall, 1,099 employees of a public administration organization participated in the survey and answered a web-based questionnaire. The organization was in the transition to new ways of working including the introduction of a digital filing system and remote work.
Findings
The results of regression analyses provided evidence that flexibility and dissolution of boundaries were positively related to work intensity, which in turn was associated with emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Thus, new ways of working were negatively associated with psychological well-being, mediated by work intensity. Further analyses revealed that the job resources of autonomy and boundary control moderated the relationship between flexibility respectively dissolution of boundaries with work intensity. Thus, these job resources acted as buffering factors and mitigated the association of new ways of working with work intensity.
Originality/value
The results indicated that work intensity could be perceived as a conceptual bridge between new ways of working and psychological well-being providing a promising target variable for the deployment of job resources to preserve employees’ well-being.
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Eunhwa Yang, Yujin Kim and Sungil Hong
This study aims to understand how knowledge workers working from home during COVID-19 changed their views on physical work environments and working-from-home practices.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how knowledge workers working from home during COVID-19 changed their views on physical work environments and working-from-home practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a survey targeting workers in the USA recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. A total of 1,651 responses were collected and 648 responses were used for the analysis.
Findings
The perceived work-life balance improved during the pandemic compared to before, while the balance of physical boundaries between the workplace and home decreased. Workplace flexibility, environmental conditions of home offices and organizational supports are positively associated with productivity, satisfaction with working from home and work-life balance during the pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
While the strict traditional view of “showing” up in the office from Monday through Friday is likely on the decline, the hybrid workplace with flexibility can be introduced as some activities are not significantly affected by the work location, either at home-based or corporate offices. The results of this study also highlight the importance of organizations to support productivity and satisfaction in the corporate office as well as home. With the industry collaboration, future research of relatively large sample sizes and study sites, investigating workers’ needs and adapted patterns of use in home-based and corporate offices, will help corporate real estate managers make decisions and provide some level of standardization of spatial efficiency and configurations of corporate offices as well as essential supports for home offices.
Originality/value
The pandemic-enforced working-from-home practices awaken the interdependence between corporate and home environments, how works are done and consequently, the role of the physical workplace. This study built a more in-depth understanding of how workers who were able to continue working from home during COVID-19 changed or not changed their views on physical work environments and working-from-home practices.
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María Cervini-Plá and José I. Silva
This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the gender gap effects of childcare restrictions. Specifically, not using professional childcare services due to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the gender gap effects of childcare restrictions. Specifically, not using professional childcare services due to issues like access, quality or costs. Additionally, we explore the long-run consequences of extended work interruptions for childcare.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a specialized cross-sectional module from the 2018 Spanish Labor Force Survey, we estimated a set of linear regression models to capture the short and long run effects of childcare restrictions in labor market outcomes.
Findings
We identify substantial gender gaps in labor force, employment, full-time employment and hours worked among parents facing childcare constraints. In contrast, parents without such restrictions experience much lower gender gaps. The long-run analysis reveals that mainly career breaks lasting 2 years or more significantly diminish the labor supply and employment rates of mothers.
Originality/value
Our study goes beyond examining the effects of childcare restrictions on mothers’ labor market behavior and explicitly studies the gender disparities related to these restrictions. Moreover, our database includes information on work flexibility for childcare, allowing us to explore whether such flexibility can help mitigate these gender gaps. Additionally, we assess the long-term effects of work interruptions due to childcare responsibilities on women’s labor outcomes.
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The retail sector is not largely studied in Italy. The study offers a comparison between youth retail shift work in Milan and London. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The retail sector is not largely studied in Italy. The study offers a comparison between youth retail shift work in Milan and London. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the one hand on youth work and on the other hand to the debate on agency and structural factors in life planning, representation of the future and the transition to adulthood, observed in the United Kingdom's and Italian labour market. Even if the second one is a Southern European Country, these contexts are both characterised by a service-oriented economy and the widespread of precarious and flexible jobs.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative methods were used: one year of ethnographic observation, 50 interviews and two focus groups were carried out between 2015 and 2018 with retail workers and trade unionists. The contexts are Corso Buenos Aires in Milan, Italy, and Oxford Street in London, United Kingdom. Analysing young workers' discourses, the author identifies narratives that allow to grasp their present agency and imagined future.
Findings
Observing the crisis of the narrative (Sennett, 2020) allows to highlight the social consequences of working times on young workers' everyday life and future. The author argues that young workers struggle with the narrative of their present everyday life and the representation of the future. This relates to the condition of time alienation due to the flexible schedules and the fast pace of work in retail, both affecting the work-life balance.
Originality/value
The social consequences of flexible schedules in retail and fast fashion sector, which are new issues not yet sufficiently explored, are here investigated from the perspective of young workers. The study is focussed on the representations of young people working with customers in social and economic contexts characterised by flexible schedules and the deregulation of shop openings, the so-called 24/7 service society, not largely investigated in the sociological scientific literature, above all in the Italian context.
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Johan Ingemar Lorentzon, Lazarus Elad Fotoh and Tatenda Mugwira
This paper aims to explore the impacts of remote auditing on auditors’ work and work-life balance.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impacts of remote auditing on auditors’ work and work-life balance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopted a qualitative online survey approach using open-ended reflections from 98 highly experienced auditors. The survey design aligns with a “Big Q” approach to qualitative data. The reflections were interpreted through the theoretical lens of the social presence theory.
Findings
Auditors underscore that remote auditing has improved their work-life balance since it offers flexibility, greater autonomy and efficient use of time. However, they believe less social contact due to remote auditing can hurt their work.
Research limitations/implications
This study aimed to holistically comprehend the concept of work-life balance in a remote auditing setting. Therefore, the study refrained from making comparisons based on demographic information (e.g. gender, experience and type of audit firm).
Practical implications
The findings highlight the need for adopting flexible work arrangements that prioritise auditors’ well-being. This is critical for making the audit profession attractive and enhancing overall audit quality. Updated regulatory guidance and controls are needed concerning the use of technologies in remote auditing to ensure high-quality audits.
Social implications
The findings of this study can positively reshape public perception of the audit profession. Firstly, enhanced work-life balance can improve audit quality. Secondly, incorporating emerging technologies in auditing can result in society perceiving auditors as adaptive to innovation and technological advancement that has been touted for their potential for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of audit and audit quality, potentially enhancing societal trust in auditing.
Originality/value
The findings of this study complement the auditing literature that has mainly focused on the traditional work paradigm, requiring in-person presence. The authors identify potential challenges emanating from auditors’ remote work and propose solutions for audit firms to improve work-life balance in a remote work setting.
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This study aims to analyze the relationship between telework and teleworkers’ characteristics and the work-nonwork conflict (WNWC) in the Brazilian context, investigating time…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the relationship between telework and teleworkers’ characteristics and the work-nonwork conflict (WNWC) in the Brazilian context, investigating time spent in eight nonwork dimensions and the more affected dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was quantitative and descriptive. A survey was conducted with 299 professionals’ teleworking in Brazil. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and analysis of variance.
Findings
Results show diversified interests other than work and family among teleworkers, variation within the affected nonwork dimensions in the WNWC, and that teleworkers’ WNWC is negatively associated with time flexibility and manager support and positively associated with individual preference for segmentation as a boundary management strategy.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights the need to include more nonwork aspects in telework studies to influence organizational practices. The main limitation is the nonprobabilistic sample.
Practical implications
Knowing more about teleworkers’ WNWC will help organizations improve lives by implementing practices and building a cultural environment that preserves nonwork time.
Social implications
The study reinforces demands from new family arrangements and an aging society: organizations have to prepare to have teleworkers who want or need to dedicate time to interests besides family or children.
Originality/value
It progresses towards a broad understanding of nonwork besides family to understand teleworkers’ WNWC.
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This paper aims to explore key collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration and remote work during the time of COVID-19. The purpose of this exploration is to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore key collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration and remote work during the time of COVID-19. The purpose of this exploration is to improve the understanding of technology-supported collaboration in order to achieve individual and organizational success with the adoption, use and implementation of virtual collaboration in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data is collected from 55 graduate students during a time of work transition due to COVID-19. This paper distills key collaboration technology affordances identified from participant feedback.
Findings
This paper identifies topics of virtual collaboration success as well as challenges related to organizational transitions during COVID-19. The findings from this work relate to four collaboration technology affordances including: (1) flexibility and productivity, (2) social connectedness and organizational culture, (3) technology support and (4) management and leadership. Additionally, this research provides insight into the complexities of virtual collaboration in these areas while also making recommendations for the post-pandemic future.
Originality/value
This research makes a contribution through the analysis of a unique set of data elaborating on participant experiences during a global pandemic as well as through the exploration of future implications.
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