Flexible work bundles and organizational competitiveness: a cross‐national study of the European work context

Abstract

SummaryThe present study explores the categorization of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) into bundles and their connection to organizational competitiveness in the European Union. The measures of competitiveness were performance, turnover, and absenteeism. Four moderators were used in the study, organization sector, industry sector, organization size, and organizational women-supportiveness. The analyses revealed four FWA Bundles, namely Non-Standard Work Patterns, Work Away from the Office, Non-Standard Work Hours and Work Outsourced. Non-Standard Work Patterns were found to be related to decreased turnover (in the private sector), while Work Away from the Office was related to improved performance and reduced absenteeism. Non-Standard Work Hours and Work Outsourced (within the public sector) were positively related to turnover, suggesting that these types are possibly not being used as true flexibility arrangements. Finally, post-hoc analysis revealed that Non-Standard Work Hours was related to increased performance only among Swedish organizations. Implications for management and future research are discussed.

Employee satisfaction and use of flexible working arrangements

“…Job-share has the potential to provide 'win-win'. Employers benefit from improved productivity, resilience, leadership, commitment, retention and knowledge sharing (Stavrou, 2005). Difficulties encountered include: communication problems between sharers, often requiring other employees to act as a link; one sharer being more competent than the other, and; increased work intensity if sharers are each given full-time workloads (McDonald et al, 2009).…”

Fathers’ Religious and Family Involvement at Home: Work and Family Outcomes

“…The range of scores was divided into tertiles to compare individuals with relatively higher and lower family involvement. Fortythree percent of respondents were in the high range (31-56), 33% were in the medium range (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and 23% were in the low range (0-21).…”

“…Work-family fit can be facilitated through flexible work options, which can increase individuals' abilities to manage work and family demands [9]. In fact, job flexibility has been associated with many beneficial family outcomes, such as increased involvement and decreased work-family conflict [26] as well as numerous work outcomes, such as job satisfaction, employee morale, and workplace performance [27] and organizational commitment and decreased turnover [28].…”

Flexible employment forms in different companies located in Budapest

“…The ever One of the aspects divides atypical employment into two groups: the one that is created by employers for flexibility, and the other one is introduced by governments in order to emancipate disadvantaged groups of workforces on the labour market, (Elbaum, 1988). Another possible way of classification is by special ways of employment: unorthodox distribution and number of working hours -part time, odd job -or special legal status and special way of working -home office, workforce rent, (Stavrou, 2005).…”