The case for workplace flexibility has been largely established in the private sector, yet little is known about what facilitates or constrains employee access to flexibility options in governmental ...agencies. Focused on both flextime and flexible careers (career breaks, job sharing, and reduced hours), this study investigates how agency strategies, motives, resources, structure, and stakeholders shape employee access to workplace flexibility. The findings suggest that employee access to workplace flexibility is largely enhanced by strategic effort and agency motives, whereas agency structure shows limited impact. Agencies with bigger budgets provide employees more access to flextime, and those short of critical human capital tend to offer more options for flexible careers. This study concludes with the discussion of research findings and potential policy implications.
Dieses Buch behandelt das Phänomen «Mobile Erreichbarkeit». Diese kann als Brücke bezeichnet werden, die den Arbeitnehmer während der Freizeit mit dem Arbeitsverhältnis verbindet. Die damit bewirkte ...intensive Entgrenzung der Arbeit in örtlicher und zeitlicher Dimension ist vom Gesetzgeber nicht geregelt. Der Autor geht der Frage nach, in welchem Rahmen diese Entgrenzung rechtlich zulässig ist. Dazu bettet er die «Mobile Erreichbarkeit» in das dogmatische Fundament des europäischen Arbeitszeitrechts ein und setzt sich mit den praktischen Fragen ihrer Umsetzung auseinander. Diese Erkenntnisse münden in Empfehlungen zur Umgestaltung der Rechtslage, die sich sowohl auf den europarechtlichen Rahmen als auch auf dessen nationale Ausgestaltung beziehen.
The unprecedented extended COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns forced higher education institutions (HEIs) to find innovative ways to effectively deliver student tuition and support. The lockdown brought ...many challenges to the education sector, including increasing the blurring of the work-home boundaries. This study investigated how COVID-19 accelerated the blurring of lecturers' work-home boundaries in the College of Education at a distance education institution in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 15 lecturers. The results showed that a lack of workspace at many lecturers' homes forced them to work beyond normal office hours. One of the key findings was that complete segmentation and integration were impossible because these lines were continuously blurred during the pandemic. The demand for immediate feedback by students exacerbated the situation for many lecturers. There is a need for the design of fluid policies that can be readily implemented during times of emergency such as the pandemic.
This study investigated employees' motives for using two types of flexible work arrangements (FWA), flextime and flexplace. Using a sample of workers with high job flexibility (university academics), ...we examined both the prevalence of different motives (life management and work-related) and how these motives vary according to several individual differences (gender, family responsibility, marital status, and work-nonwork segmentation preferences). Overall, results indicated that employees are more driven to use FWA by work-related motives than by life management motives. Those with greater family responsibilities and those married/living with a partner were more likely to endorse life management motives, whereas individuals with greater segmentation preferences were more motivated to use FWA by work-related motives. Findings regarding gender were contrary to expectations based on traditional gender roles, as there were no gender differences in life management motives but women more highly endorsed work-related motives than did men. The main implications of the findings are that individuals recognize FWA as not only a work-family policy, but also as a potential means to increase productivity. Individual differences relate to why workers use available flexible policies. Additional theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Despite widespread public appeals, the evidence base linking worker health to workplace flexibility remains weak. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the potential health benefit ...of promoting schedule flexibility at work. Using data from several businesses across a variety of industries (N=19,704), this study tested hypothesized associations among employee participation in formal flexible work arrangements, perceived flexibility, and stress and burnout. Results indicated that stress and burnout was lower among workers engaged in all types of formal flexible arrangements, and that 30-50% of observed differences between workers engaged in flextime (either alone or combined with compressed workweeks) and those not engaged in a formal arrangement were explained by perceived flexibility. Evidence also indicated that the generally beneficial effect of schedule flexibility differs by gender and the employment arrangement of a worker's spouse or partner. This study provides clear support for advocates' calls for employers to expand flexible arrangements, particularly flextime.
Current Issues in Labour Relations Alan Gladstone, Russell Landsbury, Jack Stieber, Tiziano Treu, Manfred Weiss / Alan Gladstone, Russell Landsbury, Jack Stieber, Tiziano Treu, Manfred Weiss
2019, 2019-07-08
eBook
•Interrelationships among commuting-related fringe benefits are common.•The non-profit sector is more inclined to support sustainable commuting initiatives.•Firm location particularly affects the ...probability of obtaining fringe benefits.•The number of cars in the household is highly related to mode-specific allowances.
Mobility management measures taken by firms could potentially result in more sustainable transport choices and hence reduce traffic congestion and emissions. Fringe benefits offered to employees are a means to implement those measures. This paper explores the most common commuting-related fringe benefits currently provided by employers in the Netherlands, namely telework, flextime and allowance types like public transport passes, bicycle contribution, company cars and general financial compensation. By using the Dutch National Time Use Survey (TBO) 2005/2006, interrelationships among fringe benefits and correlations between company, employee, and (home and work) location characteristics and those employee benefits could be investigated. Logistic regressions and Tobit models are used for several estimations indicating the provision and the use of fringe benefits. The results show that relationships among fringe benefits exist, mainly between telework and flextime, but also between those flexible work arrangements and some types of commuting allowance. Furthermore, numerous job, person and geographical variables affect the probability of receiving and using the fringe benefits. For example, in the non-profit and the public sector sustainable commuting benefits are more often provided, the use of fringe benefits is strongly influenced by household composition and several allowance types show a significant correlation with the number of cars in the household. Moreover, firm location, in particular firm density, is highly related to mobility management measures taken by firms.
This study examines the influence of perceived flexibility in the timing and location of work on work-family balance. Data are from a 1996 International Business Machines (IBM) work and life issues ...survey in the United States (n = 6,451). Results indicate that perceived job flexibility is related to improved work-family balance after controlling for paid work hours, unpaid domestic labor hours, gender, marital status, and occupational level. Perceived job flexibility appears to be beneficial both to individuals and to businesses. Given the same workload, individuals with perceived job flexibility have more favorable work-family balance. Likewise, employees with perceived job flexibility are able to work longer hours before workload negatively impacts their work-family balance. Implications of these findings are presented.
Support for labour market flexibility has been growing internationally and in Australia for several decades (Sala et al. 2012; SEO 2013), leading to a more fluid set of working times. Employment and ...working times are recognised as a determinant of worker health, and while the effects of employment can be positive or negative for health, the distinguishing factor is the quality of the job characteristics, such as hours, income, flexibility, and degree of control (D'Souza et al. 2003). We review evidence regarding the influence of flexible work time on health behaviour and outcomes as relevant to Australia and New Zealand. The quality of evidence is generally of a high standard. While a clear cut answer regarding the positive or negative influence of working time flexibility is not apparent, current research indicates that flexibility policies may have detrimental effects on health through their impact on specific health behaviours.
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