Flexible Employment Practices Research Articles

Hatred out of love or love can be all-inclusive? Moderating effects of employee status and organizational affective commitment on the relationship between turnover intention and CWB.

Owing to the prevalence of flexible employment practices around the world and increasingly loose employee-organization relationships, employee turnover intention is gradually becoming normalized. This study aimed to examine the counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) of employees with turnover intention in the hybrid employment context. Drawing on the psychological contract process perspective, this research endeavored to examine whether higher turnover intention is associated with greater levels of CWB and to determine whether and how the association between turnover intention and CWB differs across temporary and permanent workers by considering organizational affective commitment. The results of analyzing 211 pairs of two-wave subordinate-supervisor matching data from a Chinese service company indicated that turnover intention is positively related to CWB, and the association is stronger for temporary workers than permanent ones. Such difference is caused by permanent workers' higher organizational affective commitment than temporary workers. The findings' implications for theory and research are provided in hybrid employment.

Pandemic Pressures in Universities and their Libraries: a View from Australia

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted Australian universities and their libraries but has been felt most strongly by students and staff who are already marginalised. This article, written by Kay Tucker and Becky Batagol, draws upon both published literature and the authors’ own experiences as a librarian and academic employed at Monash University, Australia's largest university. Important lessons from the pandemic for universities and university libraries at times of crisis and disaster include: actively recognising and responding to structural inequalities amongst students and staff; organising services so that all can participate to their fullest ability; providing students with opportunities for social connection, enhanced digital capabilities, safe and inclusive spaces and accessible materials; as well as flexible employment practices.

Why Does Inequality Increase with Flexible Employment?

We develop and test a theory on why the inequality between novice and veteran workers may exacerbate with “flexible” employment practices—that allow employers to hire and fire workers more freely. Literature suggests that novice workers cannot rely on flexible employers to give them opportunities for building a career or accumulating skills, thus suffering from an exacerbated inequality. But employers using flexible employment practices may initially hire those whose skills have not been demonstrated but seem promising, compared to “committed” employers that hire workers for the long term, because flexibility allows employers to experiment instead of having to commit for a long term. Thus, the inequality of opportunities may decrease with flexible employment. Nevertheless, flexible employers may be less likely to continue hiring novice workers for the long term than veteran workers, insofar as novice workers on average are revealed during the experimentation stage to have lower skills than veteran workers. Consequently, more experimentation in the industry may imply a competition lopsided in favor of veteran workers and eventually reduce the share of novice workers hired long-term, exacerbating the arguably more consequential inequality—inequality of long-term employment. We test and confirm this idea in the TV programming industry where being either the committed, or “straight-to-series,” program—that commits to producing an entire season and hiring actors for the entire season—or the flexible, or “pilot,” program—that evaluates the first episode before committing to producing an entire season and hiring the cast for that full duration—is deemed viable.

Female employment in hotels in Saudi Arabia and UAE

Purpose This paper aims to explore barriers to employment, problems caused by working, motivation to work and job satisfaction of women employed in hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach The study surveyed 385 women working in 75 hotels in KSA and UAE. The sample included citizens of KSA and UAE (n = 177), Arab and non-Arab expatriates (n = 208) and women with and without caring responsibilities for children or adults. The survey responses were analysed by stratifying the sample, using mean-comparison tests to consider sub-sample differences and regression analysis to quantify associations with job satisfaction. Findings Women in the sample with childcare or other caring responsibilities were more likely to report work-family conflicts which were in turn linked negatively to job satisfaction. These women were also the most positive about flexible employment practices. Nationals and expatriate Arabs reported higher levels of satisfaction with managerial aspects of their work. However, nationals in KSA recorded lower levels of job satisfaction in relation to pay and conditions and also said that low salaries were a barrier to taking up employment in the first place. Negative social attitudes towards women working in hotels were a particular concern for nationals and expatriate Arab women. Research limitations/implications The sample is not representative of all females working in hotels in UAE and KSA, and the results cannot be generalised. However, implications include the need to examine the experiences of self-initiated expatriate women and consider women as part of a family system. Originality/value The analysis is based on original data collected through fieldwork. The findings generate new insights on the experiences of women working in hotels in KSA and UAE.

New Public Management reforms in Europe and their effects: findings from a 20-country top executive survey

This article assesses the impact of New Public Management (NPM)-style reforms in European countries as perceived by top public sector officials. Using data from an executive survey conducted in 20 European countries, we look at the relationship between five key NPM reforms (downsizing, agencification, contracting out, customer orientation and flexible employment practices) and four dimensions of public sector performance: cost efficiency, service quality, policy coherence and coordination, and equal access to services. Structural equation modelling reveals that treating service users as customers and flexible employment are positively related to improvements on all four dimensions of performance. Contracting out and downsizing are both positively related to improved efficiency, but downsizing is also associated with worse service quality. The creation of autonomous agencies is unrelated to performance. This suggests that policy-makers seeking to modernize the public sector should prioritize managerial reforms within public organizations over structural transformations.

Flexible Employment and Subcontracted Labour Usage in State-Run Sugar Factories

The purpose of this paper is to question the sustainability of flexible labour usage at state run sugar factories. The study covers the flexible employment practices at Bor and Eregli sugar factories. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews. In the first part of our paper, there has been short evaluation about different theoretical frameworks accompanying with the expansion of flexible employment model in subcontracting. In the following part, the findings have been presented and discussed. Here flexible employment models in two sugar factories in line with subcontracting system have been examined under four titles (1) Wages, (2) Job Security, (3) Labour Health and Safety, and (4) Working Hours and Work Intensity. The results of the study emphasizes that the model in question makes precariousness perpetual for the large segments of working class.

Holding down half the sky: female knowledge workers and flexible employment in China's publishing conglomerates

Drawing on surveys and in-depth interviews with educated women working in the contemporary Chinese publishing industry, this article details the deterioration in their living and working conditions produced by the combination of conglomeration within the industry and the erosion of the state-supported welfare system. It pays particular attention to the role of flexible employment practices and revised organisational hierarchies in reshaping their work to fit the contemporary market for cultural production. These innovations, it is argued, have created more precarious working conditions, devalued their labour and left them less protected and more exploited.

Mobile Project Networks: Regional Dynamics in the U.S. Film and Television Industry

Labor mobility and flexible employment practices have been recognized as central constructs in research on creative industries. However, despite the increasing mobility of creative work, flexible employment practices have received much more attention than the geographic mobility of creative projects and workers. This article addresses this gap by studying regional network dynamics in the evolution of the film industry in Massachusetts between 2000 and 2010. The author shows that the geographic distribution and specific types of labor and nonwage spending in the Massachusetts film industry varied over time as a function of the regional project mix and policies designed to lure highly mobile projects to the region.

A re-examination of flexible employment practices in Japan

This article re-examines commonly held perspectives on flexible employment practices used in Japanese organisations. Recent research has concluded that market conditions have caused a shift away from lifetime employment and towards flexible employment. To examine this position, the literature is compared with statistics available from Japan's Nippon Keidanren, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Public Management Ministry, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, the United Nations and OECD. A synthesis of these sources demonstrates that flexible employment practices are part of a historic, not recent, model of employment. Concluding with an integrated table of key labour market statistics, the article highlights a Western academic tendency to rely on the macro-level three pillars model and not use meso-level labour statistics as a reference point to define flexible employment conditions in Japanese organisations.

Improving the representation of Indigenous workers in the mainstream childcare workplace

THIS ARTICLE IS CONCERNED with the under-representation of Indigenous workers in mainstream childcare services and the associated problem of the under-representation of Indigenous children in such services. Specifically, it focuses on workforce issues that serve as barriers to both attracting and/or retaining Indigenous staff. The research methods included focus groups, community consultations and interviews with key stakeholders in the childcare field, in order to identify Indigenous childcare workers' needs and preferences as well as those of their children, families and communities. An analysis of international and national literature on the Indigenous childcare workforce provided a context for the evidence presented from the focus groups and individual consultations, and as a point of reference to compare existing understandings to those arising from these discussions. The research findings highlight three key issues that serve as significant barriers to Indigenous people entering and/or remaining in the childcare workforce, and to Indigenous children and families accessing mainstream childcare services: the lack of the provision of culturally safe workplaces, the lack of flexible employment practices, and the lack of opportunities for Indigenous workers to receive on-the-job training.

Flexible Employment in Hong Kong: Trends and Patterns in Comparative Perspective

Abstract Through analyzing primary and secondary data, this paper argues that flexible employment practices in Hong Kong are largely employer-driven. This feature is explicable by the low level of government intervention in industrial relations, the development of the labor movement, and the Asian financial crisis that accentuated employers' prerogatives in employment relations.

Women Workers, Industrialization, Global Supply Chains and Corporate Codes of Conduct

The restructured globalized economy has provided women with employment opportunities. Globalisation has also meant a shift towards self-regulation of multinationals as part of the restructuring of the world economy that increases among others things, flexible employment practices, worsening of labour conditions and lower wages for many women workers around the world. In this context, as part of the global trend emphasising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the 1980s, one important development has been the growth of voluntary Corporate Codes of Conduct to improve labour conditions. This article reviews from a feminist interdisciplinary perspective the broad academic literature on women workers, covering the more classical debate on women workers in the industrialization process and entering into women workers in the global supply chains and women workers and corporate codes of conduct. The main argument is that this research on women workers is crucial to frame the issues of business ethics and in particular CSR and Codes of Conduct in the context of women in the global political economy. When this crucial knowledge is ignored, then the ethical policies of the companies also ignore the real situation of the women workers at the bottom of their supply chains.

Multinationals in the New EU Member States and the Revitalisation of Trade Unions

Fears of social dumping in the enlarged EU have raised the question of who can defend employees in the new member states. This article addresses the issue through case study research on US and German-based multinationals operating in the automotive sector in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. The evidence shows how trade unions and industrial relations institutions affect investors in different ways country-by-country, with some unexpected effects on the implementation of flexible employment practices by the investors. Foreign-owned enterprises witness cases of union revitalisation, breaking the “path-dependency” of post-communist unions, in spite of frequent employer hostility. Bottom-up factors such as production changes and local labour market trends are frequently found behind revitalisation, although foreign factors such as home-country models or international union solidarity occasionally also play a role. Such revitalisation, however, being company-based, raises issues on the capacity of trade unions to combine core worker representation with the defence of workers in the society as a whole.

‘The longest day’: ‘flexible’ contracts, performance-related pay and risk shifting in the UK direct selling sector

This article provides an account of the experience of highly casualized forms of work within the UK Direct Selling industry (double glazing, fitted kitchens etc.). The employment relationship in this industry has long been associated with no fixed hours of work, predominantly commission only earnings and ‘fictitious’ self-employment.As such, the experience of industry workers offers an insight into the potential consequences of deregulated employment over the longer term, providing evidence of the power imbalances, economic uncertainty, work/life imbalance and the impediments to non-work based relationships this entails. The article is based on an ethnographic study and focuses on the issues of ‘high’ and ‘low’ road flexibility, and the implications for the wider labour market of the extension of flexible employment practices.

Changing Patterns of Industrial Relations in Taiwan

This article examines changing patterns of industrial relations (IR) in Taiwan. Although trade unions have become more autonomous since the lifting of martial law in the mid‐1980s, trends such as the privatization of state‐owned enterprises, industrial restructuring, flexible employment practices, and importation of foreign workers hinder union development. The millennium may represent a turning point for workers and their organizations because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) replaced the Kuomintang (KMT) as the ruling party. This may further union independence and power because the DPP tends to be a more pro‐labor party. However, balancing the interests of workers and employers will still be a challenge for the DPP, particularly given employer opposition to many of the DPP's labor policies.

Flexible employment practices in Europe: country versus culture

Abstract This paper examines extent to which variances in flexible employment practices across fourteen European countries may be attributed to cultural variances. Data were gathered through a survey of human resource practices in 4,876 companies. The results indicate that national differences between flexible employment practices were explained by cultural differences. Specifically, we find use of part-time work is related to power distance and individualism; contract work is related to uncertainty avoidance and individualism; shift work is related to uncertainty avoidance, power distance and individualism; and telework is related to femininity.

Flexible employment practices in Europe: country versus culture

This paper examines extent to which variances in flexible employment practices across fourteen European countries may be attributed to cultural variances. Data were gathered through a survey of human resource practices in 4,876 companies. The results indicate that national differences between flexible employment practices were explained by cultural differences. Specifically, we find use of part-time work is related to power distance and individualism; contract work is related to uncertainty avoidance and individualism; shift work is related to uncertainty avoidance, power distance and individualism; and telework is related to femininity.

Human Resource Management Reform in the Korean Civil Service

Technological innovation leads towards borderless economic activities thatforce public organizations to reform. In the case of Korea, the impetus for undertaking human resource management reforms stems from the economic crisis of the late 1990s. A logical response to an economic downturn is to implement civil service reform to increase the ability to compete. New times and trends need to be actively utilized in the Korean public sector. As part of such environmental changes, the Civil Service Commission was established on May 24,1999, in an effort to build a more competent government. Reform measures include introducing an open employment system (to enable the recruitment of private sector personnel), performance-related pay (to encourage competitiveness in the public sector) and many other flexible employment practices (to modernize Korean human resource management in government). The reforms are expected to have a significant impact on transforming a heretofore rigid and unresponsive Korean Civil Service.

A workstyle revolution? A survey of flexible employment practices

A workstyle revolution? A survey of flexible employment practices

Policies for Managing People in Australia: What has Changed in the 1990s?

This article examines the principal ways in which human resource policies have changed during the 1990s in Australia. It reports on the findings of an international survey involving 22 countries. The survey indicates organiza tions changed significant aspects of their people management policies. These changes included increasing use of performance-based pay, flexible employ ment practices, training, performance appraisals, and more broadly designed jobs. Taken together, these developments imply an emphasis on improving employee performance while at the same time increasing the flexibility of labour. There is also evidence that the role of HR managers is changing.