Effect of flexible working hours on employee satisfaction and performance: A field experiment.

Abstract

The effect of flexible working hours on employee satisfaction and performance was investigated in a field experiment conducted in a federal agency among 64 clerical employees who were randomly assigned to either flexible or fixed working hours for 6 months. The results indicated that flexitime caused a significant increase in satisfaction but had negligible effects on performance, whether assessed by ratings or output. Future research should aim to uncover reasons for positive effect of flexitime on employee feelings about their jobs. As part of a general trend to reexamine patterns of working hours, an increasing number of work organizations have introduced flexible working hours for their employees. The essential feature of such schemes is that the starting and quitting times are flexible for employee, but that he or she must be there during a core working (Glickman & Brown, 1974, p. 34). Typically, organizations that adopt flexible working hours define a core time period during which all employees are expected to work and then allow a range of time before and after this period during which employees can decide on their own arrival and departure times. Despite its widespread adoption by many organizations, however, actual effect of flexible working hours on employee morale and productivity has yet to be demonstrated. With notable exception of studies by Golembiewski, Hilles, and Kagno (1974) and by Schein, Maurer, and Novak (1977), most of information regarding effects of flexible working hours has not been based on controlled studies but instead on managerial judgments, single case studies, and surveys of employee opinion (cf. Baum & Young, 1974). In their longitudinal study based on preattitudinal and postattitudinal measures, Golembiewski et al. found employee reactions to installation of flexible working hours to be generally positive. In their study among insurance clerks in five different working units, Schein et al. found a significant increase in productivity following initiation of flexitime in two of units but no change in other three units. As researchers of both these studies admit, however, no clearcut conclusions regarding actual effect of flexible working hours can be made from their