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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the imagery of flexible work arrangements in professional accounting employment, as presented in the Australian professional accounting journals from 2004‐2007.

The approach takes the form of a critical analysis of discourse in articles in professional accounting journals.

While talk of “balance” and “flexibility” is widespread in the professional accounting journals in Australia, accountancy is portrayed as an environment dominated by a “work hard, play hard” culture. Flexible work arrangements are presented as acceptable work practices when they provide a means of facilitating this culture, rather than as an alternative method of working.

The Australian accounting professional bodies continue to actively portray the long hours culture of professional work (and play) as the foundation of success, despite widespread concern about, first, the long‐term implications of such a lifestyle for employees’ personal wellbeing and, second, the lack of appeal of such working conditions for both existing and potential employees.

Despite the rhetoric of the need for flexible work practices to attract/retain accounting talent, accountants may find that there is limited support within the profession to facilitate career development while utilising such arrangements as part‐time work.

The imagery of the contemporary accounting work environment as presented in the professional journals has not been examined in the accounting literature. As these journals are a primary means by which the profession communicates with its members, they present a good basis for examining how the accounting profession wishes itself to be perceived.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and analysis of current legislation and various schemes and practices that are available to employers and employees in relation to work life balance, family friendly work arrangements, leave entitlements and diverse modes of flexible work in Ireland. Focuses in particular on the Library and Information sector.

Introduces the concept of flexible working, followed by a review of relevant literature. Outlines what flexible work practices are, giving details of various types of flexible working, both statutory and non‐statutory (in Ireland). Then, discusses why flexible work practices have emerged and details background legislation and the issues that the introduction of flexible working raises. Draws conclusions about best practice in relation to the management of flexible work practices.

It is argued that commitment to work life balance is now firmly in the mainstream and is part of the political agenda in Ireland and the rest of the developed world. Flexibility in work practice is becoming an integral part of employment, particularly in public sector organisations, which are in effect, leading the way on this issue. Flexible work practices have many advantages for both employees and employers. They also create challenges, especially in terms of management. It is important to balance the requirements of the organisation with those of the employees. Key factors in the successful implementation of flexible working are training and communication.

The article provides a firm basis for further investigation and discussion.

Increased access to flexible work arrangements has the prospect of enhancing work-family reconciliation. Under consideration is extent that managers assumed lead roles in initiating discussions, the overall volume of discussions that occurred, and the outcomes of these discussions.

A panel analysis of 950 managers over one and a half years examines factors predicting involvement in a change initiative designed to expand flexible work arrangement use in a company in the financial activities supersector.

The overall volume of discussions, and tendencies for managers to initiate discussions, is positively predicted by managers’ prior experiences with flexibility, training to promote flexibility, and supervisory responsibilities. Managers were more inclined to promote flexibility when they viewed it as a supervisory responsibility and when they believed that it offered career rewards. An experiment demonstrated that learning of professional standards demonstrated outside of one’s own unit increased promotion of flexible work options. Discussions of flexibility led to many more approvals than denials of use, and also increased the likelihood of subsequent discussions occurring, indicating that promoting discussions of flexible work arrangements can be a path toward expanding use.

The study identifies specific factors that can lead managers to support exploration of flexible work arrangement use.

Observes that historically, family and work were not separated in pre‐industrial societies in which life was a united whole, but that family and work are gradually becoming separated in industrial societies, as work becomes dependent, production becomes centralized, and the relationship of the individual with work impersonal. In Greece there is still some evidence of close relations between family and work due to the large number of very small family firms and the high proportion of the population working in small family farming lots. However, a large percentage of the population work in full‐time traditional jobs. Flexible working patterns such as part‐time, flexi‐time, annual working hours, parental leaves, job sharing, variable working time, telework, condensed working week, as well as contract, pay and task flexibility are not so extensively used in Greece and it is only since 1990 that they are gaining ground. Flexibility at work is a major tool in enhancing economic performance, fighting unemployment and promoting competitiveness. Apart from that, flexibility is needed because it can prove very useful in harmonizing family life with work obligations, provided it takes into consideration family needs, parental obligations and the right of employees to a better quality of life. Presents the current situation on work flexibility in Greece and examines these aspects of flexibility which can prove useful not only in enhancing economic performance but in providing better conditions for the reconciliation between family and work.

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.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Human resources are becoming increasingly important to organisations in regards to competitive advantage. Good human resource management requires ensuring employees have a good work-life balance. One way of promoting this is by means of flexible work arrangements (such as flexible work hours, working from home, and job sharing). Flexible work arrangements directly affect return on labour via work reallocation, and indirectly through job satisfaction and staff turnover. Not all flexible work arrangements have positive financial outcomes. Employers need to ensure good work reallocation to make the right flexible arrangements work for their organisations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Drawing on existing literature and ongoing research in large corporations, examines the impact of employer work‐family policies on the career development of women. A summary of evaluation research of work‐family policies and programmes, focusing on work‐related outcomes, reveals that relatively few studies have been conducted. Further, the primary focus of existing research has been to examine such outcomes as recruitment, turnover, absenteeism, morale and job satisfaction; few studies have examined the impact of use of family‐friendly policies on career advancement. Existing data indicate there is widespread belief that use of certain work‐family policies, particularly non‐traditional work arrangements, is detrimental to career advancement. Summarizes findings regarding the validity of this belief and deems them inconclusive. Discusses the influence of supervisors and corporate culture on the work‐family interface, and presents recommendations for further research.

The growing demands of work and life have shifted the concept of work-life balance to work-life integration (WLI). The success of integration depends upon the flexibility to perform the duties. This paper aims to explore the factors that affect WLI and the role of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) in the process of WLI.

Systematic literature review was used to explore the concept of WLI and FWAs. A bibliometric analysis was carried out with Bibexcel and VoSviewer.

This paper explained the organizational and personal factors that create the demand for WLI. The FWAs, perceived flexibility, technology and self-efficacy have important roles in WLI. The result of WLI can be enrichment or strain, depends upon how effectively the work-life domains are integrated.

This paper explores the work-life from both personal and organizational views. The findings of this paper will be useful to design the organizational policies and work arrangements that match the requirements of employees and organizations. This paper helps to develop the future research agenda of investigating the relations of WLI to performance, organizational policies and personal factors.

Under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, employees can request flexible working arrangements (FWAs) from their employers. Provision of FWAs is costly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They can, however, use FWAs to achieve competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate strategic positions associated with FWA availability in SMEs. It also examines the effects of size and industry sector on FWA availability in SMEs.

With a sample of 1,541 cases comprising micro, small and medium firms from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Business Longitudinal Database, binary regression models were used to analyse the relationships between FWAs and the independent variables: strategic position, firm-size and industry of operation.

Flexible working hours, flexible leave arrangements and roster/shift selection were used by SMEs pursuing a strategy focussed on human resources. In contrast, a strategic focus on cost correlated negatively with paid parental leave and flexible rosters/shifts. SMEs pursuing innovation were unlikely to provide flexible leave while job sharing was less visible in SMEs focussing on quality. An industry effect was evident with working from home unlikely for firms in industry sectors where employees had to be present at work. Micro- and small-sized firms were less likely than medium firms to provide FWA to their employees.

SMEs with competitive positions based on human capital could use FWAs to attract the required skills. Employees in SMEs that compete on cost may benefit from FWAs in the form of temporary and casual positions.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the “right to request” flexible working arrangements (FWAs), located in national policy and in organisational policy contexts, are brought to life in the workplace by employees and their managers. The authors seek to understand the nature and content of requests, the process followed in attending to requests, the scope of the arrangements which resulted and the implications for the work of both employees and managers.

The authors employ a case study method, investigating how formal “right to request” FWAs policies translate to practice within two large companies in Australia. The primary data focuses on 66 in-depth interviews with line managers, employees and key organisational informants. These interviews are triangulated with legislative, company and union policy documents.

Most requests were made by mothers returning from maternity leave. Typically their requests involved an attempt to move from full-time to part-time hours. The authors found a considerable knowledge deficit among the employees making requests and a high level of informality in the processing of requests. As a result, managers played a critical role in structuring both the procedure and the substantive outcomes of FWAs requests. Managers’ personal experience and levels of commitment to FWAs were critical in the process, but their response was constrained by, among other things, conflicting organisational policies.

The scale of the empirical research is possibly limited by a focus on large companies in the private sector.

The authors provide insight into the implementation gap between FWA policy and practice. The authors make suggestions as to how to make “right to request” policies more accessible and effective.

The “right to request” flexible working is an issue of critical importance to families, employees, managers, organisations and economies.

“Right to request” FWAs are relatively new in legislation and policy and thus the authors have an incomplete understanding of how they operate and come to life at the workplace level. The authors show a significant implementation gap between policy and practice and point to some of the critical influences on this. Among other things, the authors build new insight in relation to the interaction of formal and informal and the role and place of the direct manager in the process of operationalising the “right to request”.