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The use of non-traditional working arrangements in firms in Latvia
BSc. Thesis First Draft
Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
November 23, 2009
Providing solutions to work-family conflict has been a serious concern
of managers and governments during the last decades. Many executives have
comprehended that reducing working hours, resigning from traditional working
weeks or providing other kinds of non-traditional (flexible) working
arrangements benefit both for the company and its employees. A serious stimulus to introduction of
non-traditional work arrangements has been the increasing number of women in
the workforce (Scandura and Lankau, 1997). Average female employment rate in the European
Unions 27 countries in 2008 was 59.1 per cent, but in
Some companies, especially in the European Union, are forced to change their working schedules due to requirements of governments or regulations of the European Union, regarding health, safety and social security. It especially relates to work of women and older workers (Study on the impact of working time, 2006). Many companies introduce flexible work arrangements on the ground of the need to deal with more flexible markets and short product cycles, as flexible work schedules allow continuing firms operations even for 24 hours, 7 days a week (Wirtz, Giebel, Schomann and Nachreiner, 2008). Other firms offer flexible work programs to increase employees motivation, morale, and loyalty (Scandura and Lankau, 1997), or to attract and retain young, talented professionals who nowadays demand not only high remuneration, but also good working conditions and enough free time for their personal life (Huff, 2005; Ostermann 1995). Annual survey conducted by International Communications Research on behalf of Robert Half International has found that problem of finding qualified staff has increased, as well as time spent on recruiting. Therefore, 63% of employers surveyed confirmed that they offer flexible working schedules in order to prevent qualified workers from leaving the company (Robert Half International, 2007).
A growing body of literature investigates the gains and losses from using flexible working arrangements. A research done for the European Commission has shown that flexible working time arrangements result in increased employee job satisfaction, lowered absenteeism rate and lower levels of overtime (Study on the impact of working time, 2006). Eventually those arrangements might lead also to improved productivity (Scandura and Lankau, 1997).
Although there are many recognized
benefits from the use of flexible working time arrangements, Latvian companies
are characterized only by intermediate level of flexibility (Chung, Kerkhofs and Ester, 2007). Moreover, no previous
research has explored the impact from use of flexible working schedules in
firms in
In order to test the hypothesis, a survey of employees, measuring job satisfaction (by Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire) and organizational commitment (by using Organizational Commitment Questionnaire developed by Porter and Smith in 1970) will be employed. The results from companies that have non-traditional working arrangements will be compared to companies that have traditional working arrangements; further on results will be discussed (outlining the advantages and disadvantages from use of flexible work arrangements, as well as suggestions for management) and conclusions drawn.
To better balance life and work, many companies in Europe and the
According to Johns (1996), job satisfaction refers to a collection of attitudes that workers have
about their jobs. Johns distinguishes two aspects of satisfaction: facet
satisfaction (having different attitudes towards several aspects of job, as the
work itself, management, compensation, colleagues etc.), and the overall
satisfaction (a combined indicator that accounts for the attitudes towards all
facets). People tend to spend a major part of their life in work, and previous research
has showed that up to one quarter of variation in overall adult life
satisfaction is determined by satisfaction with work. Moreover, meta-analysis
in research has revealed a positive link between job satisfaction and
individual performance (Harter, Schmidt & Keyes, 2002). Therefore,
employers also in
Organizational commitment stands for an individuals identification with the goals of the organization, how much the individual values membership in the organization and the degree to which they intend to work to attain organizational goals. In previous research organizational commitment has proved to be positively correlated with job satisfaction (Scandura and Lankau, 1997), meaning that satisfied employees are also more committed to their job and devote extra energy to fulfill their duties, compared to unsatisfied employees. Therefore employers have to give their subordinates the chance to build up their full potential (Newell, 1995). According to Chung, Kerkhofs and Ester (2007), workers are constantly searching a balance between work and private life, and thus also bigger flexibility. Flexible work arrangements could be a good solution in this case. According to Hewitt (1993), the best result can be achieved if a flexible work arrangement program is implemented in such a way that it benefits both: the employer (reducing unit costs and improving the return on capital) and employees (achieving a balance between work and private life).
Establishment Survey on Working Time and Work-Life Balance (ESWT)
20042005 results show that 25% of companies surveyed in Latvia offered varying start and end times, but no accumulation of hours
(i.e. an employee might come to work later or earlier but he still has to work
for a constant number of hours each day), 12% of companies offered to accumulate hours, but gave no compensation by full
days off (i.e. employees could work longer hours on some working days and accordingly
leave work earlier on other days). However, 15% of
companies surveyed allowed using accumulated hours for full days off, and
13% offered compensating for accumulated working
hours by granting additional days for yearly vacation. Although the results for
About 50% of companies surveyed in
The problem of aging population in the world,
According to recent research done by Personnel Today (2009) existence of
flexible working options has increased substantially in
Companies are often reluctant to introduce flexible working schedules,
because it is perceived to be costly in terms of management time, for instance,
and because people are used to working in traditional office hours (Schaefer,
2005). However, many well-known companies (e.g. Ernst & Young, Procter
& Gamble) have once successfully introduced flexible working arrangements
in some parts of their organizations and now phase these practises to branches
in other countries as well (Mohan, 1998). If those solutions are effective,
local companies in
Along with several studies on employment and job satisfaction done by
the European Union, and governmental institutions, a lot of research is done
about work-life balance, flexible work arrangements and their link to job
satisfaction and productivity. Cohen and Gadon (1978) suggest a framework
underlying greater employees commitment to work coming from harmony of time
spent for job and personal matters. They argue that flexible working schedules
help to achieve greater balance between working time and non-work activities,
which contributes to favourable employees attitude to work. Ronen (1981)
suggests a complementary model arguing that fulfilment of needs in both work
and outside work domains influences quality of life. Employees with flexible
working schedules have greater opportunity to react to personal time demands,
thus contributing to better quality of life. Moreover, Ronen argues
non-traditional working schedules provide greater autonomy and flexibility,
satisfying needs of self esteem. Golembiewski, Yeager and Hilles (1975) find
that both employees and employers see benefits in use of flexitime. More
precisely, flexitime is believed to improve the quality of life at the
worksite. Recent studies from
The work of Jay Kim and Anthony Campagna (1981) investigates the impact of flexitime on the employee absenteeism and performance efficiency. The results suggest that flexitime reduces the worker unpaid absenteeism significantly. In particular, the effect of decreased short-time unpaid absenteeism (two hours or less) is stronger than the one of long-term absenteeism. Therefore, it can be stated that flexitime is used as a substitute for short-time unpaid absences as employees can adjust their working schedule to have necessary hours for their private purposes instead of taking unpaid hours. The results of this study also suggest that the positive impact of flexitime on employee performance is not constant and depends mainly on the nature of tasks performed (quality of performance decreases if extensive supervision and communication is needed between managers and their subordinates in completion of everyday tasks; however work results improve for employees whose work is not very task interdependent and who are given large autonomy) (Kim, & Campagna, 1981).
The work Absenteeism and Flexible Work Schedules by Jean McGuire and Joseph Liro aims to investigate not only the effect of flexible working schedules on the employee absenteeism but also the differences of the chosen flexible scheduling on absenteeism in particular. Two types of flexible scheduling were chosen in order to examine the effect on short-term and long-term absenteeism as well as to track difference between the two. The results showed that the group working staggered work hours had significantly lower rate of absenteeism comparing to the groups working fully flextime or fixed hours. The authors indicate that making a schedule for a quarter ahead makes employees feel greater commitment to the schedule than during fully flexible schedule. Moreover, the schedule planned ahead may encourage employees to appoint personal activities outside the working time in order they do not possibly conflict with work. However, the authors found no impact of fully flexible schedules on employee absenteeism. Therefore, the work suggests paying larger attention to the qualitative differences between the types of flexible working schedules (McGuire, & Liro, 1987
Wirtz, Giebel, Schomann and Nachreiner (2008) have studied the consequences from adaptation of flexible working hours on employees health and working rythms. They have found that such arrangements might cause desynchronization between biological, social rhythms and working time. As a result, employees might experience deterioration of their social life. Therefore, the researchers emphasize the importance of regularity of working hours, as well as a need to supply emoployees with enough free time.
Pierce and Newstrom (1983) have studied the relationship between dimensions of flexible work schedules and variables of employee attitude and behaviour. They found that work schedule flexibility positively affects employee performance, as well as decreases absenteeism; however, they found no significant connection between work schedule flexibility and job satisfaction. The authors conclude that the later is caused by intervention of perceived time autonomy, as respondents feel higher job satisfaction after increased time autonomy, and do not relate it to schedule flexibility.
Konrad and Mangel (2000) found that work-life programs show significantly bigger positive results in organizations that employ a high proportion of professional employees or high proportion of women, as well as those companies that have made substantial investments in their employees to build company-specific skills. Scandura and Lankau (1997) have investigated relationships of gender, family responsibility and flexible work hours with respect to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Their study revealed that women who perceived their companies offered flexible work hours had higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, compared to women who did not. Similarly, employees having family responsibilities showed higher commitment and were more satisfied with their work.
Bloom, Kretschmer and Reenen (2006) studied
732 medium sized manufacturing firms in the
Haserot and English (2002) study motives why many people argue against flexible work arrangements. They propose that those are not only the intended costs, but also stigma, unfamiliarity and resistance to change that restrain firms and managers from introducing FWA. However, not all researchers find flexible work arrangements as being positive. Almer, Cohen and Single (2004) study the use of FWA in public accounting and found that participants of FWA, especially males, are being viewed as less committed and less willing to make sacrifices in their careers.
A paper by Kelliher and Anderson
examine the effect of flexible working practices on employee perception of
several dimensions of job quality that include autonomy and control, job
satisfaction, work-life balance, and stress level. Conclusions were drawn from
a case study of a
As non-traditional working arrangements can be more often found in
international rather than local companies, we plan to survey employees and
managers of international companies that operate in
After these data are gathered, quantitative analysis will be made by
using statistical tools (e.g. STATA). The research aims to test hypothesis that
non-traditional working arrangements have a positive impact on job satisfaction
and organizational commitment of employees in
Dalton, D., & Mesch, D. (1990, June). The Impact of flexible scheduling on employee attendance and turnover. Retrieved from https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4035/is_n2_v35/ai_8621140/pg_10/?tag=content;col1
Kelliher, C., & Anderson, D. (2008). For Better or for worse? an analysis of how flexible working practices influence employees' perceptions of job quality. The International journal of Human Resource management, 19(3), Retrieved from https://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdf?vid=1&hid=7&sid=0618271a-749a-40fd-a381-6808aeaaa70f@sessionmgr12
Kim, J., & Campagna, A. (1981). Effects of flexitime on employee attendance and performance: a field experiment. Academy of Management Journal, Retrieved from https://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdf?vid=4&hid=106&sid=466c556f-797e-45c2-9492-483e2cdc417e@sessionmgr112
McGuire, J., & Liro, J. (1987). Absenteeism and flexible work schedules [Public personnel management Vol.16, No.1]. Retrieved from https://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdf?vid=4&hid=106&sid=14e83650-5489-4332-861b-c231e7b6e800@sessionmgr104
Personnel Today (2009). The Ageing workforce. Business Source Complete, Retrieved from https://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/detail?vid=2&hid=106&sid=8388b383-1a45-4a73-871b-7424a5c52a4b@sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9YnNpLWxpdmU%3d#db=bth&AN=39234630
Robert Half International (2007). Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations Report. Retrieved (2009, November 20) from https://www.rhi.com/downloads/RHI/rhi-us/InvestorRelations/pdf/EDGE_REPORT_2007.pdf
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