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Article
Publication date: 19 June 2017

Sarah Wise, Christine Duffield, Margaret Fry and Michael Roche

The desirability of having a more flexible workforce is emphasised across many health systems yet this goal is as ambiguous as it is ubiquitous. In the absence of empirical…

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Abstract

Purpose

The desirability of having a more flexible workforce is emphasised across many health systems yet this goal is as ambiguous as it is ubiquitous. In the absence of empirical studies in healthcare that have defined flexibility as an outcome, the purpose of this paper is to draw on classic management and sociological theory to reduce this ambiguity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the Weberian tool of “ideal types”. Key workforce reforms are held against Atkinson’s model of functional flexibility which aims to increase responsiveness and adaptability through multiskilling, autonomy and teams; and Taylorism which seeks stability and reduced costs through specialisation, fragmentation and management control.

Findings

Appeals to an amorphous goal of increasing workforce flexibility make an assumption that any reform will increase flexibility. However, this paper finds that the work of healthcare professionals already displays most of the essential features of functional flexibility but many widespread reforms are shifting healthcare work in a Taylorist direction. This contradiction is symptomatic of a failure to confront inevitable trade-offs in reform: between the benefits of specialisation and the costs of fragmentation; and between management control and professional autonomy.

Originality/value

The paper questions the conventional conception of “the problem” of workforce reform as primarily one of professional control over tasks. Holding reforms against the ideal types of Taylorism and functional flexibility is a simple, effective way the costs and benefits of workforce reform can be revealed.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Atul Mitra, Nina Gupta and Jason D. Shaw

The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative assessment of the relationship between types of pay plans and several workforce‐level outcomes in 214 organizations. The plans…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative assessment of the relationship between types of pay plans and several workforce‐level outcomes in 214 organizations. The plans include pay that is skill‐based, job‐based, and market‐based. The types of workforce‐level outcomes include workforce flexibility, attitudes, membership behaviors, and productivity. The paper also assesses the relationship between the success of pay plans and workforce productivity/membership behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data from 214 organizations are used to test the hypothesized relationships using hierarchical regression analysis and partial least square techniques.

Findings

Results support a significant and positive relationship between skill‐based pay plans, workforce flexibility, and workforce attitudes. Skill‐based pay plans, when compared with market‐based pay plans, are found to positively relate to workforce membership behaviors, and workforce attitudes mediate this relationship. Similarly, workforce flexibility mediates the positive relationship between skill‐based plans and workforce productivity. The success of skill‐based plans depends on significant improvements in workforce productivity and membership behaviors. The fit between the pay plan and the facility's climate/culture moderates the relationship between workforce productivity and the pay plan's success.

Practical implications

The results indicate that skill‐based pay plans are superior for achieving several organizational and employee outcomes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for research and practice.

Originality/value

Limited comparative empirical evidence exists on the effects of different types of pay systems on organizational outcomes. The paper seeks to address this gap.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 November 2022

Naser Shekarian, Ronald Ramirez and Jiban Khuntia

Crisis response has emerged as a salient concern for firms in the onset of COVID-19. While research suggests that resilience is critical during such disruptions, there remains a…

Abstract

Purpose

Crisis response has emerged as a salient concern for firms in the onset of COVID-19. While research suggests that resilience is critical during such disruptions, there remains a need to examine how firms build resilience during evolving situations. This study focuses on resiliency created through operational flexibility and examines how firms developed resiliency to COVID-19 through an adaptation of three technology-based levers of flexibility: change in a firm's product and service offerings, the channel it uses for sales and the location of a firm's workforce.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a unique cross-sectional dataset generated from a survey administered by a reputable financial institution, from March 20 to June 20, during the inception of COVID crisis. This study uses ordinary least squares to analyze data from 6,076 firms across 20 countries.

Findings

Results indicate that flexibility through a combination of a change in a firm's product and service offerings, with movement to selling through a digital channel, had a positive impact on firm sales. However, flexibility through a combination of change in product and service offerings with workforce location changes had negative impacts. Robustness analysis indicates that negative impacts worsen in countries with higher digitization and in manufacturing and retail firms as compared to service firms, indicating the inflexibility of physical goods–based business models. Results highlight dimensions through which technology-based flexibility can take place and the benefits of flexibility on firm performance.

Originality/value

This study provides managerial insights into technology-based operational flexibility mechanisms that can be employed for building performance resilience during unexpected disruptions. Research findings inform firms facing supply chain challenges and inflation pressures of business today.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 75 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 May 2016

Lisa van Rossum, Kjeld Harald Aij, Frederique Elisabeth Simons, Niels van der Eng and Wouter Dirk ten Have

Lean healthcare is used in a growing number of hospitals to increase efficiency and quality of care. However, healthcare organizations encounter problems with the implementation…

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Abstract

Purpose

Lean healthcare is used in a growing number of hospitals to increase efficiency and quality of care. However, healthcare organizations encounter problems with the implementation of change initiatives due to an implementation gap: the gap between strategy and execution. From a change management perspective, the purpose of this paper is to increase scientific knowledge regarding factors that diminish the implementation gap and make the transition from the “toolbox lean” toward an actual transformation to lean healthcare.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional study was executed in an operating theatre of a Dutch University Medical Centre. Transformational leadership was expected to ensure the required top-down commitment, whereas team leadership creates the required active, bottom-up behavior of employees. Furthermore, professional and functional silos and a hierarchical structure were expected to impede the workforce flexibility in adapting organizational elements and optimize the entire process flow.

Findings

The correlation and regression analyses showed positive relations between the transformational leadership and team leadership styles and lean healthcare implementation. The results also indicated a strong relation between workforce flexibility and the implementation of lean healthcare.

Originality/value

With the use of a recently developed change management model, the Change Competence Model, the authors suggest leadership and workforce flexibility to be part of an organization’s change capacity as crucial success factor for a sustainable transformation to lean healthcare.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Susan Nancarrow

This paper discusses the pressures on intermediate care services to provide a flexible approach to staffing, including a constantly changing policy context, winter pressures and…

Abstract

This paper discusses the pressures on intermediate care services to provide a flexible approach to staffing, including a constantly changing policy context, winter pressures and different service remits. It suggests three ways that managers can address the issue of flexibility: the adoption of flexible team structures, flexible worker roles and flexible employment structures.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 11 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1997

Michael Riley and Andrew Lockwood

In situations where a volatile product market meets an unstable labour market, as is often found in customer contact service operations such as the hospitality industry, there is…

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Abstract

In situations where a volatile product market meets an unstable labour market, as is often found in customer contact service operations such as the hospitality industry, there is a need for the constant manipulation of labour supply to match labour demand. Functional workforce flexibility, where multiskilled staff are able to move from jobs in one department to jobs in another, presents an opportunity for solving part of the problem. Presents an approach to calculating the need for functional flexibility dependent on the identified discrepancies in labour demand and supply. Having identified the size of the need, a strategy needs to be developed for fulfilling that need. In implementing this strategy, two approaches are identified: planned whole job substitution and boundary loosening. While the planned approach offers the rational course for maintaining quality and productivity levels, there is evidence that an evolving approach may help to stabilize a highly volatile situation by breaking down barriers from within.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2007

Jim Hutchison and Sidhartha R. Das

To examine and analyze the decision process that a firm undergoes for acquiring an advanced manufacturing system to obtain manufacturing flexibility for its operations.

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Abstract

Purpose

To examine and analyze the decision process that a firm undergoes for acquiring an advanced manufacturing system to obtain manufacturing flexibility for its operations.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study approach is used to examine these decision processes. A conceptual contingency‐based framework from the literature is used to guide the analysis. The framework proposes that four exogenous variables – strategy, environmental factors, organizational attributes, and technology – guide a firm's decisions on choice and adoption of manufacturing flexibility, which has an effect on the firm's performance.

Findings

The analysis shows that these decisions are aligned with the various relationships in the framework. The framework therefore helps understand and explain the above decision processes. Further, the paper expands the concept of “fit” between the variables in the framework.

Research limitations/implications

Several research propositions are developed based on the findings of this study. The findings in this paper are limited to this case study only. The paper does not attempt to validate theory but applies it in the context of examining and analyzing a company's decisions.

Practical implications

The suggested relationships in the conceptual framework are found to be applicable in a business setting. Practitioners can use the conceptual framework to guide them in making decisions when acquiring advanced manufacturing systems to obtain manufacturing flexibility.

Originality/value

This case study captures richness and detail in the decision‐making processes of an individual firm that are missed by other types of research studies. It helps both academics and practitioners to gain a better understanding of these processes.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1989

Mike Brocklehurst

Post‐industrial predictions of a rapid growth in new technologyhomeworking have gained widespread currency to become part of theconventional wisdom. However the evidence…

Abstract

Post‐industrial predictions of a rapid growth in new technology homeworking have gained widespread currency to become part of the conventional wisdom. However the evidence, including primary research material, suggests that the claims for new technology homeworking, both regarding its extent and its alleged benefits, have been considerably overestimated. In particular, new technology homeworking by itself does not appear to open up opportunities for women to improve their position in the labour market; the demographic changes predicted for the 1990s may provide a better bet. Nevertheless, there is a danger in assuming that all firms apply the same strategy when employing homeworkers; at least three different variations can be identified and this has important implications for personnel managers. The overestimation of new technology homeworking stands in stark contrast to traditional homeworking where the extent has been considerably underestimated. This marginalisation of traditional homeworking stems in large part from the distortion caused by the conceptual split between private and public realms. The failure to find evidence to support the growth of new technology homeworking leads to a consideration of how the arguments may better be considered as rhetoric designed to advance a certain set of ideas – in particular that set associated with “privatisation” as a political ideology.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 June 2021

Suchitra Ajgaonkar, Netra Ganesh Neelam and Judith Wiemann

This paper aims to represent an exploration of drivers of workforce agility under the lens of dynamic capabilities to advance the existing workforce literature on agility and…

2506

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to represent an exploration of drivers of workforce agility under the lens of dynamic capabilities to advance the existing workforce literature on agility and strategic human resource management.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth qualitative interviews with senior information technology professionals, managers, directors and leadership were conducted. Data coding and analysis followed the Gioia methodology to develop a theoretical framework.

Findings

The theoretical paradigm of workforce agility is seeing revisions. In the past it was solely connected to resource-based view theory, current literature superficially speaks of the link with dynamic capability but lacks comprehensive and strategic understanding. The research brings in the evolutionary change by viewing workforce agility directly under the lens of dynamic capability theory and recognizes workforce agility as a high-level strategy. Based on the analysis of the qualitative interviews this study has developed a conceptual heuristic of workforce agility drivers, interlinked with dynamic capabilities micro-foundations – “sensing”, “seizing”, and “continual renewal”. This paper conceptualizes workforce agility as a response to high pressures for the dynamic capability of the company, which requires reconfiguration and redeployment of external and internal human resources and an inherent need to bring some stability to the internal resources of the company.

Originality/value

There is a growing body of literature linking organizational agility with dynamic capabilities, which overlooks workforce agility. This study is theory-based research on workforce agility, which guides practitioners in making human resource processes more agile.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1997

Julie Storey

At a macro level there is evidence of greater numbers of people involved in the working practices associated with the “flexible firm”, i.e. part‐time, temporary, agency workers…

1606

Abstract

At a macro level there is evidence of greater numbers of people involved in the working practices associated with the “flexible firm”, i.e. part‐time, temporary, agency workers and self‐employment. However, if flexibility is to provide the promised source of competitive advantage then we may expect to see, not only a rise in the numbers of people involved in these “non‐standard” forms of work, but also greater evidence of strategic approaches to flexibility within UK organizations. As average firm size continues to decline it is particularly important that we know something of the extent to which SMEs are adopting flexible working practices. In addition, as the majority of SMEs are non‐union, the commonly held assumption is that such firms have the freedom to be more flexible than their unionized counterparts. In order to investigate this area the article draws on national survey data and findings from two research projects. It concludes that, although there is greater incidence of non‐standard forms of work, the adoption of such practices in the SME sector is more a reflection of pragmatism than a radical new approach to flexibility.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

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