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Government and employers’ sources frequently emphasize that companies located in western Germany have traditionally been circumscribed in their pursuit of flexibility in staffing, working time arrangements and pay, due to the particular configuration of the German industrial relations system and labour market regulations. Examines to what extent recent deregulation and decentralization measures have actually enhanced the environment for greater labour flexibility. Then considers whether this has led to higher degrees of labour flexibility at the company level. The analysis of a number of key flexibility indicators reveals that, despite some significant broadening of the scope for greater labour flexibility since the late 1980s, companies seem, in general, not to have greatly altered their flexibility mix. In the light of the relatively high degree of functional flexibility in German firms, the pay‐offs from enhancing other forms of flexibility may be considered to be low.

This paper investigates the use of contractual working flexibility (temporary and part‐time contracts) by Spanish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A framework based on a contingency approach is used to identify variables that influence contractual working flexibility and is used to put forward a number of propositions and hypotheses that are tested using data collected from a survey of 602 Spanish SMEs. One‐way ANOVA analysis results reveal significant relationships between the level of contractual working flexibility and industry, life cycle, level of uncertainty, technological system, age, size and human resources practices. These findings are used to construct profiles of SMEs in relation to use of high and low levels of contractual working flexibility. The results suggest that various contingency factors as well as uncertainty, lead SMEs to develop different usage of contractual working flexibility.

This paper aims to discuss the importance of flexible working time arrangements in the United States (U.S.). Section I creates a framework to analyse the various dimensions of working time and their impacts. It examines the availability of flexitime and its potential costs and benefits to workers and employers. Section II describes the current distribution and differential access to flexitime by workers' demographic characteristics and by industry and occupational sector. Section III analyses these data to estimate the probability that workers with a given demographic or work characteristic have access to flexitime daily schedules. The fourth and final section discusses the implications of the findings. The empirical findings reveal that many workers are gaining flexibility in the timing of their daily work schedules, but access to flexible schedules remains uneven by characteristics of workers such as gender or race and by their jobs such as skill‐level, job status and hours status. Having flexible scheduling comes at the expense of working long average hours per week, or re‐locating to part‐time or self‐employment status or “unsocial” evening shifts. One implication of this is that a public policy aimed at flexible work hours for workers benefit must seek first to spread such flexibility to those who are currently not sharing it because of their occupation, industry or other personal or labour market characteristics.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of flexible working conditions on work‐family conflict in European countries. Flexible work has increasingly been used by employers to adapt to the demands of economic competition, often at the expense of employee's demands. Yet, at the same time, flexible work can provide a means to better combine work and family obligations. The paper seeks to explore which of these effects dominates for different types of flexible employment, paying specific attention to gender‐specific effects.

For the cross‐national analysis of work‐life‐conflict, the authors employ the latest wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2010, featuring a module on “Family, work and well‐being”. Binomial logistic regression is used to identify determinants of work‐life‐conflict both on the micro‐ and the macro‐level. In addition to looking at flexible work forms as a phenomenon per se, specific attention is given to the experience of different types of employment flexibilization throughout the financial crisis.

For both genders, irregularity and unpredictability of working hours negatively impact on work‐life conflict beyond the mere amount of working hours. Yet, higher autonomy in choosing one's work time is used very differently: While women tend to use their control over working hours to achieve a better work‐life‐balance, men tend to use these arrangements to increase their work commitment, thereby enhancing their perceived work‐family conflict. The authors argue that this gender‐specific use of flexible work arrangements might still reflect the traditional gender roles and gender‐segregated labour market structures. Adding to previous literature, the authors furthermore demonstrate that gender‐specific differences are also apparent in the effects of the most recent economic crisis.

By examining the effects of various types of flexible employment separately for men and women, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the gender‐specific effects of flexible work arrangements on work‐family‐conflict within European countries. The 5th wave of the ESS furthermore for the first time allows an empirical investigation of the effects of the recent financial crisis on work‐family conflict from a cross‐nationally comparative perspective.

As demographic changes impact the workplace, governments, organizations, and workers are looking for ways to sustain optimal working lives at higher ages. Workplace flexibility has been introduced as a potential way workers can have more satisfying working lives until their retirement ages. This chapter presents a critical review of the literature on workplace flexibility across the lifespan. It discusses how flexibility has been conceptualized across different disciplines, and postulates a definition that captures the joint roles of employer and employee in negotiating workplace flexibility that contributes to both employee and organization benefits. Moreover, it reviews how flexibility has been theorized and investigated in relation to older workers. The chapter ends with a future research agenda for advancing understanding of how workplace flexibility may enhance working experiences of older workers, and in particular focuses on the critical investigation of uses of flexibility in relation to older workers.

The purpose of this paper is to study organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as a variable to bridge employer’s and employee’s needs from employee counseling. This study examined the relationship between meaningful work, job satisfaction, and OCB and how their positive associations can be enhanced. The role of counselors was discussed, too.

A moderated mediation model was suggested with the mediation model of meaningful work, job satisfaction, and OCB and the moderator, work time flexibility. Intervention was implemented with the goal of increasing employee’s control over work schedule. Six analyses were conducted to compare before and after the intervention aiming for enhancing employee’s work time flexibility, and one year after the intervention. Comparison between the intervention and the control group was also implemented.

The result indicated that the intervention was effective but the effect did not last one year after the intervention. This study suggests the role of employee counselors at organization.

Psychological wellness of employees becomes an interest not only of employees but also employers to reduce cost from employee burnout and turnover. Employee counseling can be provided to improve employee’s psychological wellness and also to meet the goal of employers. Integrated perspective serving two purposes is suggested in this study.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether various flexible work arrangements produce different effects on alternative measures of job satisfaction in Europe. To test the existence of heterogeneity in the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction, the paper verifies whether this relation varies with workers' characteristics.

Empirical evidence is based on a representative sample of European employees taken from a specific wave of the Eurobarometer survey. An ordered probit estimator is used to get the relevant estimates and endogeneity problems have been addressed by exploiting the richness of the data‐set in terms of information on workers' attitude toward work and life (used as proxies of unobserved time‐invariant factors, which are the primary source of endogeneity).

A positive link was found between functional flexibility and job satisfaction and either no effect or a negative impact of quantitative flexibility. The positive impact of functional flexibility is greater when considering satisfaction for intrinsic aspects of the job. Estimates by workers' characteristics highlight interesting differences by age, skill and country of residence.

The major limitation is the cross‐sectional nature of the data, but there was no awareness of any panel data containing information on all the relevant variables of this analysis.

With respect to the existing literature, the paper simultaneously considers different types of flexibility and estimates their effect on different facets of job satisfaction, also considering the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction by workers' characteristics. This evidence may be useful to firms in designing more tailored flexibility packages.

This paper tests if there exists a subjective well-being gap between informal workers in the informal and formal sectors in urban China, and explores the mechanisms behind such differences.

The author develops a simple theoretical model to analyze the effects of the employment sector and work time flexibility on workers' happiness and conducts a descriptive study to examine the relationship between employment type and subjective well-being using the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 datasets, a nationally representative sample.

The results show that only dependent informal work in the formal sector impairs workers' happiness, while the effect of independent informal work is not statistically significant. The potential mechanisms suggest that independent informal workers have higher working time flexibility and can work more hours to increase their earnings, which increases their subjective well-being. However, it is difficult for dependent informal workers to earn more by working more hours due to poor working time flexibility.

This study indicates that informal workers in the formal sector have lower subjective well-being in urban China and deserve more attention from policymakers. The author also suggests that increasing working time flexibility and encouraging self-employment can contribute to the welfare of informal workers.

The aim of this study is to provide a useful conceptualization of flexible working times and to examine the relationships between flexible working times and employees' well‐being and peer ratings of performance. It is supposed that an employee's “time‐autonomy” would be positively related to performance and well‐being. On the contrary, an unfavorable effect of “time restriction” on well‐being is expected.

A questionnaire‐study was conducted among 167 German employees from 17 different organizations. Information about in‐role and extra‐role performance was also obtained via peer evaluations.

The data support a two‐factor structure of flexibility. The time restriction factor adds to the degree of exhaustion and the work‐nonwork conflict, while time autonomy diminishes these outcome variables. However, the flexibility dimensions are unrelated to performance.

The multidimensional conceptualization of flexibility allows for the detection of advantages and drawbacks regarding the effectiveness of flexible working time models.