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Industry 4.0 and its leading-edge components are transforming all aspects of human life with wide-ranging repercussions for managing production and workforce in the digital age. The traditional definitions of formal and informal employment are no longer applicable to our world, thanks to disruptions of various nature. The innovation landscape is radically altering the way work is done as well as where it is done, leading to an expansion of the gig economy with its freelancers, contract workers, agile workforce, or independent workforce who are constituting increasingly more temporary providers of labor. In addition to a tension between technological development and loss of jobs at the expense of individuals with lower set of skills, advancing technology is enabling new forms of organizing through facilitating new work arrangements. The new world of work is characterized by short-term contracts, fluidity, fragmentation, transience, temporariness, increased autonomy, and independence, on the one hand, and by precarity, financial instability, job uncertainty, and insecurity embedded in its very fabric, on the other, hence presenting both opportunities and challenges that need to be urgently addressed by researchers and policymakers. The inevitable tension between technology-driven developments in economy and labor markets is further exacerbated by the most recent pandemic and global economic recession, making scholarly and policy discussions all the more relevant.

Literature on virtual and other new ways of work is diverse and confusing, indicating a need for a framework to structure and systematize the related terminology. The purpose of this empirical study is to address the lack of empirical research on how well (and if at all) characteristics of employees' national and occupational culture determine the management challenges and employees' satisfaction with virtual work arrangements.

Empirical data was gathered using case study research. An Estonian and a Russian company operating in the service sector suited best as they had a diverse multinational workforce and several years of virtual work experience.

The paper concludes that occupational culture determines much better than national culture the employees' attitudes towards and satisfaction with virtual work arrangements.

The main limitation arose from the lack of national culture research in East European countries: for many of these nations, national culture dimensions/characteristics (e.g. like offered by Hofstede) are still unknown.

The results help service organizations' managers to prepare a multinational workforce better for virtual work, knowing ahead the potential challenges and thus train the employees based on their occupational culture background.

The paper contributes to theory by offering a framework which enables to systematize the diverse range of terminology used for new, flexible ways of work. The case studies reveal a huge gap waiting to be filled with research on national culture characteristics of East European countries.

This paper explores flexible working practices (FWPs) and takes a critical view that argues a need to consider not only access to digital technological resources but also the vast array of factors that constrain one’s ability to use technology for its intended benefits, as constituting the digital divide post-COVID-19 lockdown.

Using a critical evaluation of the extant literature, we engage in a conceptual undertaking to develop theoretical propositions that form the basis for future empirical undertakings. To theoretically ground the arguments raised, we deploy the ontological lens of actor-network theory to illuminate the socio-technical dimensions of the digital divide in light of FWPs.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to adopt socially distanced work practices has become a reality for many organisations. We find that the adoption of FWPs, enabled by digital technologies, simultaneously signals hidden inequalities. We also develop a conceptual framework which depicts user responses in different technology environments that can either be limiting or enabling for individuals’ work productivity.

With regards to the digital divide, attention has often focused on access to digital technologies, as the term “digital divide” portrays. The implication is that the array of factors and resources that individuals are heterogeneously networked to, which also constitute the digital divide, is often taken for granted. We take a different ontological view that brings to the fore other factors at play within an individual’s network of relations.

本文擬探索彈性工作安排,並以批判性的觀點、去論證當我們探討2019冠狀病毒病封鎖解除後的數字鴻溝究竟是由什麼組成時,我們必須考慮數字技術資源的使用權限,以及關注各個有關的因素,因這些因素限制了我們從應用技術獲得預期效益的能力。

我們對現存文獻作批判性的評價,藉此參與一項概念性的工作,以便能建立可以成為將來實證性工作基礎的理論命題;為使提出的論點能得到理論上的依據,我們使用行動者網絡理論的本體論鏡頭,去闡明鑒於彈性工作安排的數字鴻溝的各個社會技術維度。

由於2019冠狀病毒病大爆發的關係,許多機構和組織都因實際情況而需採用保持社交距離的工作安排。我們發現、當我們採用有賴數字技術的發展而成行的彈性工作安排時,我們同時也會使不為人知的不平等狀況浮現出來;我們也注意到、不同的技術環境會限制個人的工作生產力,又或相反地助其建立工作生產力;就此,我們建立了一個可以描繪就這些不同的技術環境、用戶會如何回應的概念框架。

就數字鴻溝而言,人們的關注總放在數字技術使用權限的差異上,就如數字鴻溝這個術語所塑造的形象一樣。這種關注可能帶來的影響是即使有不同的因素和資源、即使個人會以各種形式與不同的因素和資源聯繫起來,而這些因素和資源構成了數字鴻溝,人們卻把這些因素和資源視為理所當然。我們採用不同的本體論觀點,希望藉此使個人關係網絡內起著作用的其它因素能突顯出來、免被忽視。

Telework has been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, distance work performed through teleworking may hinder organisational operations in public services owing to lower-than-expected work performance. This research paper aims to explore how teleworking relates to work performance and flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sample included 178 managers and employees in public services. The relationships between the variables were evaluated using linear regression.

The findings indicated that telework affected work performance in public services in different ways. This research also explored the relationship between work performance and work flexibility. The findings revealed that telework had not improved the efficiency of public service work performance; however, the implementation of flexible work schedules owing to teleworking has improved the work performance of public services.

This study only focussed on organisations operating in the public services in Greece.

Teleworking in public services may negatively affect organisational operations due to lower-than-expected work performance.

This study could assist managers by showcasing that telework may be better implemented to improve work performance through work flexibility rather than as organisational change.

This novel research aims to gain a better understanding of the impact of telework on factors such as work performance and flexibility.

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐ day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for the trees and the automatic pilot syndrome takes over. This does not suggest that you do not know what you are doing ‐ on the contrary you are probably as switched on to whatever activity you are managing as anyone could be. What you could be missing, however, is the explanation as to why you are doing it. If this sounds familiar to you, what might be needed is a detached period from your work. By this I mean stay on the high ground for a while so you can get an overview of what you are doing and, more importantly, why you are doing it. How many managers, I wonder, get the opportunity to question what they are doing? If you allow yourself to slip into complacency then you and your organization will soon lose competitive advantage.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of usage of family friendly policies on the careers of women executives.

An in-depth and systematic review of literature on family friendly policies (FFPs) was carried out using Scopus database.

The study consolidates positive and negative consequences of usage of FFPs on women executives’ careers.

This study is one of the foremost attempts to consolidate the literature on different effects of usage of FFPs.

NOW, WITH THE AID of the European Community, the Equal Pay Commission and who knows who else, an Industrial Tribunal has smashed poor old Euclid right over his head. They have proved to their own satisfaction (if to nobody else's) that things which are unequal to any other thing are quite definitely equal to each other.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance and influence of paternity leave on individual level organizational outcomes. Drawing on signaling theory, the study examines the relationship between paid paternity leave entitlement (PPLE) and organizational attractiveness (OA) through a mediating path of anticipated organizational support (AOS). Furthermore, the study proposes that this mediated relationship would be conditional on traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) such that the relationship would be stronger for individuals who score low on TMI.

The study analyzed a moderated mediation model using the data from a survey experiment. Data were collected from 264 professionals enrolled in an executive education course and will soon be looking for employment.

The findings supported the mediating role of AOS between PPLE and OA. As predicted, the positive impact of PPLE on AOS and OA is stronger for individuals scoring low on TMI.

This study takes a multidisciplinary approach to understand the underlying mechanisms that impact decisions related to employers. It is one of the few studies that study paternity leave in the Indian context and makes important contributions to theory and practice.

Postmodern conditions and re‐evaluations of marketing theory are prompting a re‐consideration of marketing strategies and methodologies. This paper is concerned with research issues arising from these changes and uses the case of retailing financial services as an illustration. Groups of financial services customers, once assumed to be homogeneous, are proving to have individualised needs and are resisting conventional segmentation techniques. Behavioural consistency and orderliness are giving way to fragmentation and market instability in what is described as the postmodern era. Financial service retailers, structured, formalised and risk averse, may find that their preference for uniformity inhibits their ability to serve with diverse, evolving markets. A research agenda is proposed based on a juxtaposition of postmodern considerations and financial services retailing incorporating recent contributions to marketing thought.