Flexible working in sport and recreation: current practices in Scottish public, not-for-profit and private leisure facilities

Abstract

Public sector leisure managers in the UK have, since the imposition of compulsory competitive tendering to leisure management in 1989, been struggling to reconcile the conflicts between becoming more consumer led and satisfying the needs of the 'recreationally deprived'. Budget cuts and an increase in competition from private sector leisure clubs has exacerbated this situation. More recently managers have had to operationalize the new Best Value policy that aims to ensure public services do not lose sight of the public sector principles of transparency and accountability in their attempts to deliver economy, efficiency and effectiveness. In tandem, a number of European Employment Directives have placed constraints on HRM practices. This paper explores the challenges inherent in managing employees within this environment and examines the preferred employment practices used by managers within the public, not-for-profit and private sectors of the leisure and recreation industry. An analysis of five case studies from across these sectors reveals differences in relation to the nature and extent of flexible working policies used by managers. Managers of local authority operated leisure facilities generally used a mix of strategies, partly to conform to changing demographic and household trends and the 'back to work' policies of their political masters as well as for 'business' reasons and to cater for employee work–life balance needs. Evidence was found that managers in not-for-profit leisure facilities were, with the approval of their Board of Directors, adopting a greater degree of flexible working practices as compared to their public sector counterparts. The highest proportion of full-time jobs were found within the private sector, although at less favourable terms and conditions of employment.