Self-managed working time and employee effort: Theory and evidence

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research at DIW BerlinThis series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science.The decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. Abstract: This paper theoretically and empirically examines the impact of self-managed working time (SMWT) on employee effort. As a means of increased worker autonomy, SMWT can theoretically increase effort via intrinsic motivation and reciprocal behaviour, but can lead to a decrease of effort due to a loss of control. Based on German individual-level panel data, we find that SMWT employees exert higher effort levels than employees with fixed working hours. Even after accounting for observed and unobserved characteristics there remains a modest positive effect. This effect is mainly driven by employees who are intrinsically motivated, suggesting that intrinsic motivation is complementary to SMWT. However, reciprocal work intensification does not seem to be an important channel of providing extra effort.JEL Classification: J24; J81; M50

Controlling Working Crowds: The Impact of Digitalization on Worker Autonomy and Monitoring Across Hierarchical Levels

“…Some studies focused on flexible work practices as these HR practices are more and more enhanced due to the intensive use of ICT Van Reenen 2006, Hill et al 2008). While some studies find evidence for a positive effect of flexible work practices on employee effort or performance, productivity and innovation (Bloom et al 2015, Beckmann et al 2017) and thus support the concept of a more decentralized workplace organization, others found that constant availability through modern ICT outside the regular working hours can cause work-family conflicts, job dissatisfaction and health-related problems (Boswell and Olson-Buchanan 2007, Askenazy and Caroli 2010). To shed more light on the matter, Viete and Erdsiek (2015) focused their attention on the complementarity between the use of mobile ICT and workplace flexibility.…”

Examining the link between flexible working arrangement bundles and employee work effort

“…For example, some studies show evidence associating remote working and reduced hours with more extensive and intensive work effort (Bloom et al, 2015;Kelliher & Anderson, 2010), while others find that flexitime has weak or negative associations with extensive work effort (Avgoustaki, 2016;White et al, 2003). And yet other studies show that employees with more flexibility to set their own hours tend to intensify their work and/or work longer periods when compared to employees with fixed hours (Beckmann, Cornelissen, & Kräkel, 2017;Lott & Chung, 2016;Putnam, Myers, & Gailliard, 2014).…”

Effort reduction of employer‐to‐employer changers: Empirical evidence from football

“…2 Despite the frequent occurrence 3 of E-to-E changes, few studies exist that empirically investigate behavioral changes in such contract situations. Past studies only analyze the distribution of effort (Dickinson, 2006), effort decisions at the end of probation periods (Ichino & Riphahn, 2005;Riphahn & Thalmeier, 2001) for employees with reduced working hours' contracts (Gralla, Kraft, & Volgushev, 2017), absenteeism (e.g., Scoppa, 2010a), self-managed working time (Beckmann, Cornelissen, & Kräkel, 2017), or effort provision after changes in employment regulations and protection (Bradley, Green, & Leeves, 2014;Cahuc & Carcillo, 2014;Jacob, 2013;Olsson, 2009;Scoppa, 2010b). Furthermore, previous studies show that temporary employees put forth more effort than employees with long-term contracts do (Engellandt & Riphahn, 2005), although there is also evidence for the opposite relationship (Buraimo, Frick, Hickfang, & Simmons, 2015).…”