Alternative Work Arrangements Research Articles

Alternative Work Arrangements and Organizational Actions: Internal Auditor Behavioral Responses and Organizational Outcomes

SUMMARY This study delves into the perceptions of remote work among internal auditors. We examine the impact of an organization’s policies and procedures related to alternative work arrangements (AWAs) and its socialization tactics on auditors’ work behaviors. Using a phenomenological approach, our analysis is based on semistructured interviews with 13 highly experienced internal audit leaders across various industries. Using Social Exchange Theory (SET) as a theoretical lens, we identify positive and negative behavioral responses to company AWA policies and the socialization tactics used by internal audit functions (IAFs). These responses encompass variations in employee satisfaction with work and the work environment, identification with the IAF, turnover intentions, and professional development. We contribute to SET theory by highlighting contextual factors influencing worker responses to their employer’s actions regarding AWAs. Regarding practical implications, our findings offer insights into how organizations can potentially retain internal audit talent. Data Availability: Data not publicly available; contact the authors. JEL Classifications: M42; M51; M53.

The Impact of Distributive Justice Perceptions on Alternative Work Arrangement Participation Intentions in Public Accounting

Turnover and staffing issues are consistently ranked among public accounting firms' most critical issues, but the post-COVID-19 work environment adds new and unique challenges. Now that employees have experienced remote work, many do not want to return to the office. However, if employees do not believe they can be successful using a flexible work arrangement at their current firm, they may go elsewhere. The need for successful flexible work programs is exacerbated by the declining interest in the accounting profession, which is increasing the accounting labor shortage and making competition for talent even greater. Accounting firms need to understand what factors impact an employee’s decision to participate in an alternative work arrangement (AWA). This study explores factors that impact AWA participation intentions using organizational justice perceptions. Using a sample of 135 public accountants, distributive justice perceptions surrounding AWAs were found to be positively related to AWA participation intentions. This finding extends the current AWA literature and provides valuable information to public accounting firms. This result informs firm leaders about the importance of equitable career outcomes when employees are considering AWAs. Firms can leverage this insight to ensure performance evaluation metrics focus on specific, measurable employee outputs, which should help ensure that work-related outcomes are consistent between employees regardless of their work arrangement.

Flexible working and well-being: evidence from the UK

Abstract Recent technological advancements have facilitated alternative work arrangements. This paper investigates how flextime and working from home (WfH) relate to workers’ well-being using longitudinal data drawn from the Understanding Society study for the UK. It accounts for individual, job, and family characteristics while controlling for individual fixed effects. Additionally, it employs the Oster test to examine the potential influence of unobserved variables. Results show that men experience improved job satisfaction and mental health with flextime arrangements, while women predominantly benefit in terms of job satisfaction. Additionally, women adopting remote work report heightened satisfaction with job and life, and better mental health, whereas men primarily report greater job satisfaction. Interestingly, flextime effects are stronger for men, while WfH is more beneficial for women. Some heterogeneous effects are also found by parental status, age, and income groups.

Leveraging brand reputation for job engagement in the digital food delivery context

The rise of alternative work arrangements, driven by technological advancements, has become a significant aspect of the gig economy, particularly in the digital food delivery sector. The appeal of flexible work and instant deliveries offered by food delivery apps represents a key trend within the gig economy, and lay the forefront of gig workers' organizational commitment and job engagement. This study empirically examines the association between digital food delivery and the job engagement of gig workers. Although, for gig workers who seek opportunities on digital platforms, it is essential for them to become partner with a reputable brand mainly to showcase their best selves to potential employers. Hence, the study explores the effect of brand reputation as a moderator on the relationship between gig workers' organizational commitment and job engagement. The survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 354 gig workers in the digital food delivery industry, primarily from metropolitan areas. In this study, a two-step approach was employed to analyze the relationship between the variables. Initially, a theoretical model was developed based on the strategic paradigm found in the literature. Subsequently, structural equation model analysis was performed to identify significant associations between the variables. The results of the study demonstrated a significant positive relationship between digital food delivery and the job engagement of gig workers. Additionally, the moderating effect of brand reputation was observed, with a more substantial impact seen among workers employed by brands with a strong reputation. These findings suggest that digital food delivery platforms and brands should prioritize improving gig workers' job engagement. Finally, the study discussed implications and recommendations for future research.

Alternative Working Arrangements And Teachers’ Competence in the New Normal

The objective of this study was to ascertain the significance of the correlation between alternative working arrangements and the competence of elementary school teachers in the context of the "new normal." The research was conducted using a descriptive-correlational method and involved 40 teachers serving as respondents from seven public elementary schools in the Matina District, Davao City Division. Data was collected using a researcher-developed instrument. The findings indicated a high degree of implementation of alternative working arrangements and extensive competence among teachers. Additionally, a notable correlation was established between alternative working arrangements and teachers' competence within the new normal framework. All aspects of alternative working arrangements were found to significantly influence teachers' competence. The study recommends the implementation of pertinent policies, mechanisms, and strategies to support teachers, particularly through coaching and the application of effective strategies and techniques to mitigate potential emotional hindrances. School administrators can utilize these findings to enhance teacher competence and optimize the teaching-learning process, ultimately improving lesson delivery. Furthermore, the study findings can serve as a foundation for evaluating and instituting school improvements aimed at enhancing existing alternative working arrangements and teachers' competence..

A Taste of Telework: Effects of Remote Work Arrangements During and After the Global Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes in global work dynamics including mandating telework for most of the U.S. federal workforce to protect employees from health and safety hazards of the communicable virus. Although not ubiquitous, many federal employees had experience with these arrangements because they voluntarily chose telework prior to the pandemic through provisions in the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. Using the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), which focuses on telework perceptions and experiences, this study explores the effect of the involuntary telework mandate on employees’ attitudes toward telework after several months through a prospect theory framework. Findings demonstrate that several factors including previous telework experience and experiential learning may influence employees’ preference for and voluntary selection into telework moving forward. These dynamics suggest an endowment effect for telework among employees who gained telework experience before and during the pandemic. In addition, employees may choose telework as an alternative work arrangement when they are not satisfied with their organizations or jobs but want to maintain employment. These findings suggest that agencies should continue to offer robust telework opportunities to satisfy and retain employees.

Work in the platform economy: a systematic literature review

PurposeWith the increasing global popularity of the gig economy encompassing freelancers, online platform workers, self-employed, on-call workers and other temporary contractual workers, this study aims to review research focusing on the gig economy to explore the nuances of working in various alternative work arrangements. We aim to enhance the understanding of existing literature and highlight underexplored areas for future research.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review of 258 studies based on gig economy and gig work was conducted. It follows systematic search criteria and SPAR-4-SLR protocols. The analysis uses different gig worker profiles given by Watson et al. (2021) to categorize studies, followed by thematic analysis to identify patterns in the literature.FindingsOur analysis of studies on gig economy shows that the majority of existing literature is based on gig service providers. Within this literature subset, major areas of study are work conditions, financial conditions, emergence and role of collectives, the impact of algorithmic management and the impact of rise of the gig economy on entrepreneurship. There is little research focusing on gig goods providers, gig data providers, agency gig workers and traditional gig worker profiles. More focus is also needed on emerging markets and markets transitioning to the gig economy.Originality/valueDiffering from reviews that have attempted to define gig work and workers, we focus on literature on the lived experiences of gig workers. By reviewing studies on different gig worker profiles, we are able to highlight future research directions for pointed sample sets and comparative underexplored areas.

The impact of alternative arrangements, contingent jobs, and work secured through an app on the well-being of working age adults: Results from the California Work and Health Survey.

There is recognition of the growing prevalence of alternative work arrangements, contingent jobs, and work secured through an app. However, there have been few systematic efforts to understand the impact of these forms of work on individuals and households. The data derive from the California Work and Health Survey administered to a sample of the working age population of the state solicited through random-digit dialing of cell phone numbers. 4014 individuals completed the survey, 26% of those with an in-service cell phone number. We present odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from logistic regression estimating the impact of being an independent contractor, in other forms of alternative work arrangements, in contingent jobs, and in work secured through an app, on economic and health status and working conditions in main jobs, with and without adjustment for covariates. Several of the forms of work analyzed are associated with lower earnings and higher rates of wage theft, household poverty, benefit recipiency, and expectation of hardships in food, housing, and medical care in the immediate future. Association between the forms of work and current health status is less consistent. However, several forms of work are associated with working conditions known to be risk factors for subsequent health problems. Public policy to mitigate the adverse impacts of work, largely developed in the 20th Century when there was an identified workplace, may be insufficient to protect workers' well-being for alternative work arrangements, contingent jobs, and work secured through an app.

TWO STUDIES EXAMINING THE INTERCONNECTED EFFECTS OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE BENEFITS, EMPLOYEE RECOMMENDATIONS, AND JOB QUALITIES ON EMPLOYEE ATTRACTION AND JOB ACQUISITION INTENT.

Our proposal is based on Spence's (1978) signaling theory, which states that companies intentionally boost their attractiveness as employers by communicating about work-life balance benefits, positive employee recommendations, and highly desirable job attributes. In order to test these theories, we do two experiments. Findings from our initial study corroborate the combined and direct effects of these factors on an applicant's attractiveness as an employer. In a two-part, two-level collaborative design, we were able to do this by using carefully crafted scenarios to manage and impact the positive effects of work-life balance, employee ideas, and job attributes. A total of 320 MBA students from India were polled for this data. Examining information gathered from 360 Indian graduates of MBA programs using a 3x2x2 cross-subject design, Study 2 assessed the impact of three unique alternative work arrangements.

TEARS OF HOPE: THE PLIGHT OF WORKING STUDENTS UNDER TVL-LATE AFTERNOON PROGRAM

This study investigated the challenges faced by working students enrolled in the Technical Vocational Livelihood Late-Afternoon Program (TVL-LAP) and examined the impact of their employment on their academic performance. The research design employed was descriptive-qualitative, using a phenomenological approach to capture the participants' authentic stories and experiences through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Thematic analysis using Creswell’s (2013) six steps in the qualitative data analysis process was applied to identify prominent patterns within the interviews, which were categorized according to the main themes and core ideas. After the data analysis, three (3) essential themes emerged across all the study questions. Essential themes in the experiences and challenges focused on providing for economic needs, meeting multiple demands, and seeking consideration. Self-motivation, finding time to study, and compassionate teachers and peers were revealed as essential themes in coping mechanisms. Commitment to goals in life, the value of support from God and others, and helping oneself surfaced in shared insights. Findings suggest that providing flexible schedules or alternative work arrangements, offering academic support services, encouraging peer support groups, and providing training and support in time management and problem-solving can help students become more resourceful and efficient in balancing academic and work responsibilities.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0758/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The gig verse: building a sustainable future

PurposeDespite the popularity of gig employment amid the changing business landscape, gig scholarship is somewhat limited and the untold reality about gig is yet to be fully revealed. This study aims to critically address the nature of gig employment, its ambiguities, evolution, theoretical premises and the appropriate future road ahead.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a dual analytical approach – bibliometric and thematic analyses. After incorporating the exclusion–inclusion criteria, the authors identified 2,135 articles for the bibliometric analyses by using VOSviewer. Additionally, for the deep-delving synthesis, the authors conducted thematic analyses following Braun and Clarke (2006), based on 351 papers.FindingsThe findings revealed that gig work, in its different forms, is emerging as an alternative work arrangement with respect to the future of work. This study also identified multilevel perspectives of gig employment along with its holistic nomological network. Finally, this study offers some critical research directions that should help enhance the theoretical and practical strengths of this nascent scholarship in future.Research limitations/implicationsThe review findings are limited in nature owing to the paucity of quality research papers published in the said domain.Practical implicationsThe paper brings more clarity to what gig is and isn’t, along with its critical perspectives from multilevel lenses.Originality/valueThis paper identifies critical perspectives related to gig work and suggests appropriate directions for future gig work related scholarship.

Legitimacy versus incentives: Explaining the difference between early and late union responses to nonstandard employment in the Netherlands

With the spread of alternative work arrangements across European labor markets, union responses to nonstandard employment have increasingly received scholarly attention. Based on a process-tracing analysis of the Netherlands between 1971 and 1996, I propose an alternative framework for understanding the divergence between early and late union responses to nonstandard employment. Rather than a choice between cooperation with management or outsiders, this case study shows that trade unions initially faced a dilemma between a legitimacy-based and an incentive-based strategy when nonstandard employment took off. Whereas the first strategy is inherently exclusive, the latter allows for more inclusive union responses. Contrary to the incentive-based strategy, the attractiveness of the legitimacy-based strategy decreases with higher levels of nonstandard employment, explaining why inclusive union responses typically become more dominant over time.

Opening the Black Box of Self-Employment: Identifying Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States

Opening the Black Box of Self-Employment: Identifying Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States

Exploring the endogenous effects among car dependency, work arrangement choice, and daily travel using the 2017 NHTS data

The paper presents an effort in investigating the cause-effect relationships among telecommuting, car dependency, and trip making behavior. Data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) was used to develop a structural equations model (with latent constructs) to examine the endogenous effects between the decision to telework, the degree of car dependency, and the number of daily trips. Using confirmatory factor analysis, car dependency was measured by vehicle ownership, annual mileage, and car use frequency. The model provided interesting insights. Car dependency had a negative (both direct and total) impact on telework, an inference that confirms the role of car dependency as a resistant factor against alternative work arrangements and potentially any other new tech-based policies. In the opposite direction and surprisingly, telework encouraged car dependency, which might indicate that teleworkers tended to utilize the relaxed temporal-spatial constraints for non-work trips, and they were unlikely to give up private vehicle ownership simply because of their option to telecommute. Second, number of daily trips tended to increase the probability to telework, confirming the positive endogenous role of daily activity patterns on work arrangement decisions in a daily framework. Lastly, the significant negative impact of telework on daily trips was positively mediated through car dependency, leading to a smaller negative total impact on daily trips. Our study confirms that the association between telework and trip generation is quite a complex and multi-faceted relationship, leaving the argument regarding whether or not telework increases the number of daily trips as a debatable topic that calls for further exploration.

Alternative work arrangements: Individual, organizational and environmental outcomes

Flexible working models are widely used around the world. Furthermore, several countries are currently transitioning to a 4-day workweek. These working models have significant effects on organizational behavior and the environment. The study investigates the employees' attitudes and behaviors toward flexible working and 4-day workweek and the impact on the environment. The semi-structured interview method was used in the study to determine employee attitudes and behaviors; the carbon footprint calculation method was used to determine the environmental impact of a 4-day workweek. According to the study's findings, it has been discovered that there would be a positive impact on socialization, happiness, stress factor, motivation, personal time, mental health, comfort, work-life balance, time-saving, willingness, positive working environment, personal time, and physical health. Furthermore, a 4-day workweek reduced commuting emissions by 20%, resulting in a 6,07 kg tCO2e reduction per person. As a result, the study attempted to draw attention holistically to the positive effects of the flexible working model and 4-day workweek. The study is intended to serve as a tool for decision-makers and human resource managers.

Employee preferences for working from home in Australia

We surveyed 1,113 Australian employees with jobs that have some capability of being done remotely at least some of the time. Survey respondents were presented stated preference experiments where they were offered a choice between alternative working arrangements for their present job that varied in terms of ability to work remotely and wage rates. This data was used to develop and estimate a discrete choice model of worker preferences for remote working. We found that the average worker in our sample would be willing to forego roughly 4 - 8 per cent of their annual wages to have the ability to work remotely some workdays and/or workhours. However, we found considerable heterogeneity across our sample. Roughly 55 per cent of the sample were not willing to forego wages to have the ability to work remotely, while roughly 20 per cent were willing to forego 16 - 33 per cent in annual wages for the same. We found that attitudes towards the impacts of remote working on human relations were a significant predictor of these differences. Workers who did not value the ability to work remotely were more concerned about negative impacts on their relationships with their colleagues, supervisors, and the firm as a whole, as well as opportunities for learning and career advancement.

Alternative Work Arrangements During COVID-19 and Employee Wellbeing: An HR Process Approach

Alternative Work Arrangements During COVID-19 and Employee Wellbeing: An HR Process Approach

Work and identity in direct selling: meaning from work and exploitation in an undocumented immigrant network

ABSTRACT This article examines the work identities of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the direct selling industry, an alternative work arrangement in which they selling branded products and recruit others to join them as sales consultants. Drawing on qualitative research with undocumented direct sellers in Philadelphia, this research shows that direct selling pays in meaningful work and new identities, rather than in wages. While existing research documents the importance of hard worker identities for undocumented immigrants coping with structural marginality, undocumented direct sellers believe their work offers autonomy, education, and geographic mobility. Ultimately, multi-level marketing companies profit from undocumented workers’ precarity by promising freedom from work and from the struggles of enduring illegality.

Flexible Public Service Delivery: Views, Challenges, and Prospects of Government Workers in Times of Pandemic

The alternative work arrangements implemented in public organizations at the onset of the pandemic influenced both work and life of public servants. The current study explored the advantages of alternative work arrangements adopted by the local government units in Bataan. It also determined the organizational support of the organization to their employees for the continuous effective delivery of services during the pandemic. The study employed a quantitative descriptive study via a survey questionnaire from 200 respondents, recruited through snowball sampling, from the city/municipalities and the provincial government of Bataan. Using inferential statistics, the study analyzed how the advantages of alternative work arrangements and organizational support differ considering the sociodemographic characteristics. Moreover, the study explored the association between alternative work arrangements and organizational support. Results revealed that the alternative work arrangement was relatively advantageous to the employees and that the organization was relatively supportive of the new work setup. No significant difference was observed in the advantages of alternative work arrangements in terms of the socio-demographic profile. While there was no statistical difference in organizational support, respondents with single civil status reported receiving greater support than married ones. A positive moderate correlation was observed between the alternative work arrangements and organizational support. Results indicated that almost twenty percent of the variability in the alternative work arrangement can be explained by the variability in organizational support. The findings contribute to a better understanding of alternative work arrangements and organizational support, as well as practical recommendations for increasing the benefits to employees and maintaining productivity while enjoying work-life balance. Keywords: alternative work arrangement, remote work, organizational support

An Analysis of Organizational Support for Telecommuting in Public Accounting Firms

ABSTRACT Research suggests that organizational support for alternative work arrangements (AWAs) is essential for the effective implementation of AWAs in public accounting, yet studies consistently suggest that such organizational support is lacking. Despite mass adoption of telecommuting (one type of AWA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, recent evidence suggests that firms vary greatly in the extent to which they plan to support telecommuting in the post-pandemic environment. Using a sample of 133 public accounting professionals, we explore whether several factors under the organization’s control influence perceived organizational support for telecommuting, and whether such support is linked with perceived career penalties from telecommuting usage and turnover intentions. We find that supervisor support for personal/family needs and procedural justice regarding telecommuting requirements are positively associated with perceptions of organizational support for telecommuting. Further, greater perceived organizational support for telecommuting is associated with both lower perceived career penalties from telecommuting usage and lower turnover intentions.