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The author tests the hypothesis that the effects of evening and night employment on working parents’ work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction depend on the reasons that individuals name for their schedules. Regression models are fitted to data from an original sample of 589 employed US parents. Partnered (married and cohabiting) fathers who work partially in the evening or night experience less work-to-family conflict if they report personal motives, but schedule motivation does not affect work-to-family conflict among partnered or single mothers. Partnered mothers who work primarily in the evening or at night report higher life satisfaction if they do so for personal reasons, but this effect is not found for single mothers or partnered fathers. Specifically seeing their schedules as facilitating family care matters for partnered mothers, but not fathers. Although nonstandard employment schedules have been linked to poor well-being among working parents, this is the first quantitative study to assess the role of worker motivation to the author’s knowledge. The results are suggestive because they are based on a nonprobability sample of modest size. However, they demonstrate the need for future studies of employment scheduling to collect information on worker motivations. Most night workers in the United States do not select their shifts for personal reasons, putting them at risk for work-to-family conflict and reduced life satisfaction. They deserve extra support in exchange for laboring while others sleep or spend time with family.

Nonstandard work schedules are increasingly common in today’s economy, and work during these nonstandard hours has a negative impact on health. Scholars investigating work schedules have yet to explore how marital status, which is linked with better health, may protect the health of US workers with nonstandard schedules. This study uses binomial logistic regression models to analyze pooled data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 6,376). Interaction terms are utilized to test if marital status variations occur in the relationship between work schedule and health for men and women.

The results demonstrate that while working a nonstandard schedule puts men and women at a lower odds of reporting good health compared to those who work a standard schedule, there is no difference in this relationship across marital status for men. However, nonstandard schedules are worse for the health of cohabiting and divorced, separated, or widowed women than for married women. The results indicate a significant interaction between work schedule and marital status exists for female workers and should be considered when examining the health of the population with nonstandard work schedules.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of schedule flexibility with performance and satisfaction in the work and family domains, and whether these associations are mediated by the work‐family interface. Possible gender differences in the putative benefits of schedule flexibility are also to be explored.

Using a sample of 607 full‐time employees in either schedule flexibility or traditional working arrangements the authors tested a moderated‐mediation model. Regression was used to test the mediation of work‐family and the moderation of gender to the schedule flexibility to work‐family path.

Both work‐to‐family conflict and work‐to‐family enrichment are mediating mechanisms in the relationship of schedule flexibility with outcomes. More specifically, full mediation was found for job satisfaction and family performance for both enrichment and conflict while partial mediation was found for family satisfaction with enrichment only and mediation was not supported for job performance. Finally, gender moderated the schedule flexibility to work‐family conflict relationship such that women benefited more from flexible working arrangements than men.

The paper adds value by examining a mediation mechanism in the schedule flexibility with the outcome relationship of the work‐family interface. It also adds value by including work‐family enrichment which is a key variable but has little research. Finally, it adds value by demonstrating that schedule flexibility plays a stronger role for women than men regarding the work‐family interface.

Despite the pressure on work-family polices arising from the increase in nonstandard working times in various sectors, only a few studies have addressed management practices in 24/7 workplaces. This paper aims to investigate the challenges Finnish managers face in meeting the various tensions stemming from nonstandard working hours and services operating 24/7. Two typical 24/7 work contexts are focused: the hospitality and retail industries and flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The emphasis is on management practices relating to the planning of work shifts and children’s care schedules.

Study 1 comprises focus group interviews with middle managers (N = 20) working in hotels, stores and service stations with restaurants and shopping facilities. Study 2 uses survey data on directors (N = 20) of centers offering flexibly scheduled ECEC services.

The results showed that management in 24/7 workplaces raises issues of fairness and social responsibility. Managers in both sectors were faced with constantly varying service demands, leading further to changes and unpredictability in employee working times. Alongside organizational goals, the business managers reported needing to consider employee needs and the ECEC service directors the well-being of parents and children. They also reported seeking the most cost-effective way to deliver services at a time of budget cuts.

The relatively small sample sizes and non-representative nature of the data restrict the generalizability of the results.

Service organizations need to design a 24/7 strategy that includes organizational communication and guidelines on fair work scheduling. Key issues in management are finding ways to enhance predictability within unpredictability, discussing the most common ethical problems and developing the skills needed to manage diversity. These are elements that should be included in management training.

The study contributes to the literature by focusing on seldom studied issues and innovately approached by comparing two work sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel analytical approach for workface planning practice in industrial-construction sector such that the construction work package (CWP) resource budget can be sufficiently planned for delivering possible field installation work package (FIWP) schedules with work uncertainty.

The relationship between CWP resource budget and FIWP schedules is first elucidated based on workface planning practice. The literature of work packaging, workface planning and project scheduling is reviewed. A novel analytical approach is then developed to quantify CWP resource budget based on a probability theory, in consideration of the probability of occurrence of feasible FIWP schedules formulated based on a resource scheduling approach. The results of case studies given by the new approach are cross validated by using simulation and optimization techniques.

The new analytical approach can assist workface planning by quantifying the expected CWP resource budget to deliver the FIWP work scope with certain activities that are planned at project level and with uncertain activities that are found at workface level.

The new analytical approach helps project and workface planners to reliably deploy CWP resource budget for delivering FIWP schedules instead of guessing the budget based on experience. An industrial-construction project for upgrading oil-sands refinery facility is used to show the practical implications.

This research develops a new analytical approach for workface planning practice to determine sufficient CWP resource budget for delivering feasible FIWP schedules with work uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of work schedules on work‐family conflict and synergy using the job demands‐resources (JD‐R) and conservation of resources models. The impact of resources including supervisor support, work schedule control and satisfaction, as well as the moderating effects of work schedules on conflict (synergy) and domain satisfaction are examined.

This quantitative study examined responses from organizationally‐employed respondents (n=2,810) from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce using MANOVA and multiple regressions.

Work schedules were significantly related to work‐interfering with family (WIF) and work‐family synergy (W‐FS) but not for family interfering with work (FIW). Perceived supervisory support was significantly related to employee work schedule control and work schedule satisfaction. Perceived control of work schedule and work schedule satisfaction were significantly related to work‐family conflict and synergy. Work schedules moderated the relationship between work‐family conflict (synergy) and domain satisfaction.

Although based on a national probability sample, this study may suffer from common method variance since all measures were from the same self‐report questionnaire.

The results do suggest that solutions like increased schedule flexibility for all workers may not be efficacious in reducing work‐family conflict or increasing work‐family synergy. Employee control over work schedule, employee satisfaction with work schedule, and supervisor support need to be considered as well.

This study examined the impact of work schedules on work‐family conflict and synergy. It is noteworthy since very little research has been conducted on work schedules and synergy. The results also broaden evidence for the JD‐R and conservation of resources models.

Presents a microcomputer‐based finite scheduling approach to effective planning and execution of make‐to‐order production. Going beyond the traditional application of scheduling algorithms to prioritize jobs through work centers, the finite scheduling approach can be used to establish “smart” promise dates, manage the jobs through the work centers and enable supervisors to meet these due dates in the dynamic MTO environment.

Using data from an operational jobshop and a simulation‐based finite scheduling algorithm linked to pre‐ and post‐processing capabilities developed in Access, this research provides specific examples of establishing smart due dates and managing resources to meet those dates. We provide some what‐ifs in order to more fully explore the benefits of a finite scheduling system.

Through use of actual jobshop data, the paper demonstrates that finite scheduling can be effectively performed on standard computing equipment. It also provides an understanding of finite scheduling and demonstrates that such a system can be of significant value in a MTO environment.

Future research could review/compare various ERP packages and their scheduling components to provide guidance on selection and implementation.

The paper clearly indicates that managers, even of smaller companies, should be considering the use of finite scheduling.

The paper provides a new approach to finite scheduling using a combination of simulation and Microsoft Access on a personal computer. Additionally, it provides a very useful presentation for practitioners who want an understanding of finite scheduling and why they need to implement it.

Employees working nonstandard schedules outside the daytime hours of the Monday-Friday work week are increasing. Using Social Exchange Theory (SET), the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize relationships between scheduling preferences, attitudes, and retention indicators.

Survey data were collected from 343 US Postal Service mail processors (day, evening, or night shift; all shifts working weekends) from three cities. Multivariate analysis of covariance and multiple linear regression were used to test hypotheses related to participants’ perceptions of scheduling preferences and attitudes.

The authors found that preferences and attitudes toward shift worked had stronger relationships with each other and employee retention indicators for the night and evening shifts than the day shift, and these same relationships were stronger for the day shift when focussing on days of the week worked.

Although limited by generalizability concerns, this study provides a distinctive application of SET to work schedules and offers a unique perspective on how working nonstandard days and nonstandard times, individually, impact the employment relationship.

Better work schedule management, with increased flexibility and control, may be one way of reducing negative employee reactions to nonstandard schedules.

This study goes beyond the typical examinations of standard vs nonstandard shifts, to study multiple nonstandard shifts and examines the relationships of these schedules on employee retention variables, focussing on both shift and weekend work.

Major demographic trends are affecting the work schedules of U.S. employees with likely consequences for health and quality-of-life outcomes. These trends include long work hours, at least for some groups of employees, and an increasing proportion of employees in the U.S. and other countries who are working nonstandard work schedules. This chapter contains a review of the empirical literature linking the number of hours worked and the distribution of those hours at the individual and couple level to a variety of outcomes, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In addition, because the majority of U.S. workers live in dyads (Jacobs & Gerson (2004). The time divide: Work, family and gender inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), major attention is given to the impact of work hours on the employee's spouse as well as on the employee. It is also noted that the relationship between work hours and outcomes might be different among employed single women with children. Data are presented from two new studies conducted by my research team to fill some of the critical knowledge gaps. Finally, I suggest some directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for automatically determining the optimal allocation of police officers in accordance with the division and organization of labor.

The problem is defined as the problem of the goal programming for which the mathematical model of mixed integer programming was developed. In modeling of the scheduling problem the approach police officer/scheme, based on predefined scheduling patterns, was used. The approach is applied to real data of a police station in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This study indicates that the determination of monthly scheduling policemen is complex and challenging problem, which is usually performed without the aid of software (self-rostering), and that it can be significantly facilitated by the introduction of scheduling optimization approach.

The developed mathematical model, in its current form, can directly be applied only to the scheduling of police officers at police stations which have the same or a similar organization of work.

Optimization of scheduling significantly reduces the time to obtain a monthly schedule. In addition, it allows the police stations to experiment with different forms of organization work of police officers and to obtain an optimal schedule for each of them in a short time.

The problem of optimal scheduling of employees is often resolved in other fields. To the authors knowledge, this is the first time that the approach of goal programming is applied in the field of policing.