Schedule preferences, congruence and employee outcomes in unionized shift workers

Abstract

Purpose – Employees working nonstandard schedules outside the daytime hours of the Monday-Friday work week are increasing. Using Social Exchange Theory (SET), the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize relationships between scheduling preferences, attitudes, and retention indicators. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 343 US Postal Service mail processors (day, evening, or night shift; all shifts working weekends) from three cities. Multivariate analysis of covariance and multiple linear regression were used to test hypotheses related to participants’ perceptions of scheduling preferences and attitudes. Findings – The authors found that preferences and attitudes toward shift worked had stronger relationships with each other and employee retention indicators for the night and evening shifts than the day shift, and these same relationships were stronger for the day shift when focussing on days of the week worked. Research limitations/implications – Although limited by generalizability concerns, this study provides a distinctive application of SET to work schedules and offers a unique perspective on how working nonstandard days and nonstandard times, individually, impact the employment relationship. Practical implications – Better work schedule management, with increased flexibility and control, may be one way of reducing negative employee reactions to nonstandard schedules. Originality/value – This study goes beyond the typical examinations of standard vs nonstandard shifts, to study multiple nonstandard shifts and examines the relationships of these schedules on employee retention variables, focussing on both shift and weekend work.

What does schedule fit add to work–family research? The incremental effect of schedule fit on work–family conflict, schedule satisfaction, and turnover intentions

“…A comparison of the respondents with the population showed that more senior, older, higher paid, female, and full-time employees were more likely to return the survey and thus our sample is more representative of stablecareer grocery store employees than the entirety of grocery store employees, which includes more young part-time workers with high-turnover rates. These differences are similar to those of other surveys of retail union members (e.g., Wittmer et al, 2015). Four months later, the second survey was mailed to the 985 members who returned the first survey and were still employed in the organization.…”

“…Second, researchers have used employees' attempts to change schedules as a proxy for schedule misfit. For example, Wittmer, Shepard, and Martin (2015) captured whether schedule preferences were met by measuring whether employees requested to change their work schedules, finding that these bids were related to attitudes towards schedules, particularly for those working non-day shifts. However, this strategy may underestimate misfit as employees may be unable or unwilling to request a schedule change even if fit is poor due to organizational norms or poor relationships with supervisors.…”

PERAN MAINTENANCE DALAM MEMODERASI PENGARUH SCHEDULING TERHADAP KINERJA MASKAPAI PENERBANGAN (Studi Pada Garuda Indonesia Airline)

“…Maka dari itu, aktivitas penjadwalan ini berkaitan dengan penugasan dan aktivitas petugas, crew, maupun staf karena dianggap mampu meningkatkan produktivitas karyawan yang kemudian dapat memberikan kontribusi pada kinerja organisasi apabila dilakukan dengan tepat(Wittmer et al, 2015; Suptihati, 2014). Lebih dalam dijelaskan dalam penelitianBilling et al (2013) bahwa penjadwalan kegiatan dapat menurunkan hal-hal negatif antara struktur tugas dan keterlibatan pekerjaan yang kemudian dapat meningkatkan kinerja baik dari suatu perusahaan.…”