Alternate Work Schedules, Productivity, Leave Usage, and Employee Attitudes: A Field Study

Abstract

Alternate work schedules reduced leave usage significantly during a nine month intervention time period in a government iigency. The effects of the change on individual productivity were mixed. Employee satisfaction with work schedules increased significantly, while other traditional satisfaction variables were not significantly affected by the work schedule intervention.η the past 15 years alternate work schedules (AWS), especially flexitime, have become widely used in business and government in the United States. Al though these interventions have been reported by the academic community (Nollen and Martin, 1978; Golembiewski 1978 Golembiewski , 1980 and the business community (Fields, 1974; Cottrell and Walker, 1980), there have been relatively few longitudinal studies. Kim and Campagna (1981) and Orpen (1981) have conducted empirical studies on flexible work hours which report generally positive effects. Orpen (1981) employed a pretest and posttest design and utilized random assignment to control and experi mental groups. Satisfaction, performance (ratings) and productivity (output) were tested and the independent variable was working hours. The research design of OrEdward J. Harrick is a professor of management at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. His teaching, research and consulting interests are in areas of personnel, productivity and general man agement. He is accredited at the senior level by Personnel Accreditation Institute.GeneR. Vanek is administrative officer at the U.S.D.A. Farmers Home Administration Finance Office, St. Louis, Missouri. He was a hearing officer and a senior personnel management adviser in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In his present position, he has a wide range of managerial and ad ministrative responsibilities.Joseph F. Michlitsch has taught organizational theory, general management and policy and strategy at Southern Illinois University and the University of Minnesota, where he received his Ph.D. His research interests are in managerial decision-making, environmental uncertainty, and organizational structure and control. Downloaded from pen's study was carefully developed and well documented. The sample of 64 clerical workers is somewhat limited, but the time frame of six months provides a reasonable degree of program maturation. The Kim and Campagna study was also well designed and contained pre-post data, control and experimental groups, and hard data com parisons. The Kim and Campagna and Orpen studies are among the few which have utilized rigorous research designs. Golembiewski and Proehl (1978) provided an ex tensive review of 32 empirical studies in the public sector and reported only two which utilized statistical treatment to test the data.Studies by several researchers (Craddock, Lewis and Rose, 1981;Latona, 1981; Orpen, 1981;McGrath, 1980) found that employee satisfaction increased after the implementation of an AWS program. In a recent study, however, Dunham and Pierce (1983) found that while employee satisfaction with work schedules increa...

Organizational Influences, Public Service Motivation and Work Outcomes: An Australian Study

“…In their comparison of the work motivations of public and private sector employees, Buelens and Van den Broeck (2007) found that public sector workers were more motivated by a desire to work in a supportive work environment. Positive relations between employees and their work colleagues (Kalleberg 1977) and supervisors (Harrick et al 1986) have been reported to raise employees' job satisfaction. Similarly, a positive correlation has been found between organizational commitment and employee-leader relations (Benkhoff 1997;Camilleri 2006;Dunham et al 1994).…”

Job Satisfaction in The Public Service

“…Positive work relations with co-workers (Kalleberg 1977) and supervisors/ managers (Harrick et al 1986;Reiner and Zhao 1999) have been reported to raise job satisfaction. There is some empirical evidence that, compared to private sector employees, government workers show a stronger desire to work in a supportive working environment (Buelens and van den Broeck 2007); place a higher importance on their co-workers and superiors (Posner and Schmidt 1996); and respond more favorably to a people-oriented leadership style (Zeffane 1994).…”

Social Support and Work-Family Conflict

“…For example, studies have shown that perceived organizational support is related to high organizational commitment, high satisfaction, and lower turnover Harrick, Vanek & Michlitsch, 1986;Schaffer, Harrison, Gilley & Luk, 2001;Thierry & Meijman, 1994;Thompson & Pottas, 2005). For example, studies have shown that perceived organizational support is related to high organizational commitment, high satisfaction, and lower turnover Harrick, Vanek & Michlitsch, 1986;Schaffer, Harrison, Gilley & Luk, 2001;Thierry & Meijman, 1994;Thompson & Pottas, 2005).…”