Flexible Arrangements and Perceived Flexibility

Discuss about the Flexible Arrangements and Perceived Flexibility.

Introduction

In the recent epoch, the workplace is stylized and modernized by the fellow peer groups and the authorities. The workplace faces ‘paradigm shift’ in various working areas. The working styles have been changed in the recent years. The workplaces fuse technological innovation and collaborative enterprise in a distinctive manner. The report unfolds the modification of the organizational structure of the workplace in the recent era. It explores the future challenges that countenanced by both the HRM and employees. The topic that is chosen by the report is ‘work-life flexibility will replace work-life balance’. In the recent time, flexibility is a significant aspect that gives a new mold to the working life. The employees of the top multinational corporations demand flexible work schedule that replaces their hectic work routine. The report discusses the kernel of the topic and provides a fresh perspective of the workplace to the global audience.

The topic ‘work-life flexibility will replace work-life balance’ necessitates sedulous research work. According to research, flexible working space lessens tension and stress, which leads to a satisfying working experience for both the HRM and the employees. The flexible working schedule is important and its leads to better corporate performance. With increasing job satisfaction, the employees can happily dabble between office and home (Hegewisch & Gornick, 2008). In a nutshell, employees who have flexible working arrangements perform with élan. They experience effective mental and physical health (Hegewisch & Gornick, 2008). Due to an absence of stifling work condition, both the employees and HRM face low levels of stress and tension.  Because of an effective arrangement, both the employees and HRM remain creative and jovial. Being content with their jobs, they forget about ‘job switch’.  Therefore, ‘work life flexibility’ is significant and it governs the modus operandi of the working area.

Implications of Workplace flexibility for HRM and employees

Workplace flexibility is seen as an advantageous thing for either the HRM or the employees. It cannot be an option that can facilitate both the HRM and the employees. However, the concept of workplace flexibility faces hurdles that emanate from a problematic situation. The flexible work arrangements can cost the management to the hilt. It is difficult for them to implement such workplace arrangements, which outweigh the benefits. The flexible workplace arrangements can have negative implications. If the employees exploit the benefits of workplace flexibility then it might affect their position in the organization. Linda et al., (2013) claim the workplace flexibility functions as a panacea for work-like dissension. The research identifies three principal tensions (equitable VS inequitable, variable VS fixed and supportive VS unsupportive work arena). In order to handle these levels of tensions, one should deliberate on the revamping of the workplace culture. The HRM should build a policy of adaptability and make workplace flexibility an idealized one for both the employees and the HRM (Christensen & Schneider, 2015).

Several corporate organizations have effectively applied and executed workplace flexibility policies. These policies have been adumbrated after developing painstaking research. The implementation of flexibility policies entails considerable shifts in composite firm ethics culture and efficacy (Christensen & Schneider, 2015). These flexibility programs cannot be computed on daily basis (Christensen & Schneider, 2015). At the same time, many organizations have successfully outlined workplace flexibility.

 According to the survey findings, half of the employees of the renowned retail company (manufacturing sector) showed their unrelenting support for flexible work arrangements.  For instance, 55-56% argued that the members of the team have the cognizance of workplace flexibility. At the same time, 51% argued that the members of the work team are aware of the workplace flexibility (Pitt-Catsouphes et al., 2009). Based on the survey, 35% of the employers claim that they aim to provide workplace flexibility in 2015-16, which hitherto has not been provided to the employees of the top organizations. The flexible workplace arrangements involve flexible leave policies (early entry and exit or late entry and exit) (76%), effective telecommunication (41%), concentrated workweeks (33%), job cooperation (14%), regular sabbaticals (7%). The survey was conducted on 3000 working HRM professionals (Carlson et al., 2010).

Discourse of the key challenges

The manufacturing sector faced innumerable challenges while applying the workplace flexibility in the particular sector. However, the manufacturing sector has used two strategies that augmented the workplace flexibility. Firstly, several manufacturing firms motivate the workers to get trained in their tasks. At the same time, they are required to get trained in handling the tasks of workers based on the ‘upstream and downstream policy’ (Kavanagh, 2017). The mode of training ensures that the employees comprehend the changing dynamics of the work. The intensive training helps them understand the importance of input and output. It also makes them understand the concept of increasing productivity and the maximization of the profit. The modern manufacturing system is indispensable for the implementation of the ‘workplace flexibility’ (Beauregard & Henry, 2009). Due to the presence of the dynamic mechanism, the employees can share the task of other employees and compensate for one another. If one employee remains on leave, then another employee can share his task and complete it with ease. The concept of task sharing gains a colossus space in the modern working system. Due to this system, the policy of workplace flexibility gains ground (Berkman et al., 2010).

The workplace flexibility can easily be applied to the large firms. In principle, large firms have effective employees. It is divided into small business teams that are responsive to business operations. The most significant challenge is workers manifest productivity while they work from home. It is difficult for the authorities to regulate the function of the employees, who work from home. The authorities of the large firms find it difficult to monitor the productivity and implement such practices. Therefore, the workplace flexibility can also be a problematic thing for the employers of the top organizations. The National Study of Employers indicates that small firms (50-99 employees) more flexibility to their employees than the large firms (1000 employees).

The study aims to demonstrate the nexus between the work-life flexibility and work-life balance. The study shows that the employees, who function under flexible routine manifest higher levels of work-life balance. However, those working under conventional fixed-hours schedule have exhibited low levels of work-life balance. Therefore, work-life flexibility influences the work-life balance. The maintenance of the flexible work schedules can be a positive influence on the office-based employees (Hayman, J. R. (2009). Based on 2009 survey findings, 87% of the employees support work-life balance and flexibility is their career priorities. At the same time, 85% of the organizations believe that work/life balance programs are integral to improving the working situation for their employees (Council of Economic Advisors, 2010).

Impact of workplace flexibility

The workplace flexibility influences work-life balance. It helps to maintain physical and mental health. With the help of flexible working arrangements, the employees can dabble between home and office with ease. The employees can enjoy with their families and even plan an outing with them. The workplace flexibility provides refreshment to the employees. As a matter of fact, the employees can happily participate in all corporate decision-making programs. Therefore, workplace flexibility is very important and it propels employees into action.

The disclosure of many studies propose that adaptability in working outlines, in which decision or control is apparently going to impact the success and flourishing. For instance, a recurring pattern examination of specialists in made personality work environments found that "Operators who worked for a boss with low work-life adjust and innovative capacity will apparently have lifted CVD (cardiovascular contamination) risks in light of both biomarker appraisals and reports of master conclusions. They correspondingly rest thirty minutes less reliably than representatives with a supervisor with a great deal of openness and innovative in a relationship with work-family issues." (Berkman et al., 2010) A complex-triangular survey examining 2004-2005 data of pros from a colossal pharmaceutical connection decided "that individuals with invincible flexibility other than having a more productive lifestyle hone, for instance, better rest and self-assessed lifestyle. The results proposed that "when administrators are given the versatility they require, they will thus partake in more useful practices and evidently decrease negative achievement related outcomes, for instance, torment nonappearances, create, and changed business related obstacles." (Grzywacz et al., 2008)

A review of 2002 data from the Families and Work Institute's National Study of the evolving Workforce demonstrated that using 13 specific versatility evaluations, delegates with more access to workplace adaptability entails less excited medicinal issues. Self-booking of move intercessions and operator controlled fractional/early retirement were found to update success. It involves psychological well-being, rest period, tiredness, (checking systolic circulatory strain and heart rate, rest quality and sharpness; and self-assessed flourishing status) and furthermore flourishing (colleagues' social support and feeling gathering) and no tricky thriving impacts were seen. The examinations of extra minutes working, key booking, and settled term contracts found no essential results for physical, mental, or general flourishing or on any of the flourishing results surveyed (Aequus Partners, 2010).

The National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) encouraged by the Families and Work Institute discovered that specialists in more adaptable workplaces exhibited less negative surge among work and family life. The organization produces benefits for both affiliations and specialists (Kossek et al., 2015).

• For supervisors: less negative surge from occupation to work that vestiges capability;
• For delegates: less doubtful surge from work to life off the occupation that lessens the method for individual and family life (Bond and Galinsky, 2006). A meta-examination of 60 disseminated audits in the United States and Canada showed that specialists who have a higher business obligation or occupation push or contribute more noteworthy hugeness at work have more work impedance with their family life than family check with their work.

Support of Work-Family harmony

Work-family equilibrium has two estimations: work obstacle with family and family check with work. Qualities of the occupation and the work environment can have a positive or negative impact on family life, while parts of a delegate's family circumstance can affect the worker's execution and aura toward work (Byron, 2005). The accessibility of an assortment of adaptable work game plans can help operators bolster work-family esteem, which benefits both the worker and the business. A present examination of the impacts of the accessibility of logbook adaptability at work on the work-to-family interface found that flexible timetables reduced work-family fight for ladies, however not for men. Orchestrate adaptability enabled representatives to most remote point work-family strife, and besides to impel work-family overhaul and enhance working and execution at work and home (Carlson et al., 2010) An examination of manager utilized as a part of work environments in five specific nations found that operators working in a condition seen as more family strong experienced lower levels of work-family strife. Diminished work-family strife was in this way identified with the obvious business and family fulfillment, trailed by more basic general life fulfillment (Lapierre et al., 2008).

At a global accounting firm, "solid strategies engage agents to direct to relatives who wind up being weakened, including moms and fathers. Workers can have up to four months to help an adjoining relative through an emergency. Precisely when gotten a few information about the costs the affiliation's adaptability rehearses consolidate, the (delegate) giggled. "We're bookkeepers," she said; "we've totally thought to be all that, and let me guarantee you, the cost of our adaptability practices is nothing veered from the cost of losing unprecedented individuals and preparing and get new ones." (Families and Work Institute, 2007)

A medium-sized recognizing quality creator/merchant says: "We trust our family does their best work when they can be correspondingly beneficial as watchmen and social affair individuals. That is the place adaptability matters. We ensure operators can go to class rehearses with their young people, take gatekeepers to remedial blueprints and help with get-together works out. Giving this esteem has given us a more helpful, predictable and dependable workforce." (Families and Work Institute, 2007)

Effect of Work-life flexibility on Work-life harmony

Work-life adjust implies the farthest point of a man to esteem work and non-work responsibilities that may not by any extent of the creative energy intertwine family life. Work-life esteem gives an individual adequate time, objectives, and thriving to take an interest in exercises that move self-change and change (Bourke, 2010). Work-life esteem has three estimations: work obstruct with individual life, solitary life impedance with work, and work/particular life change (Christensen and Schneider, 2015).

A touch of propelling/publicizing firm in Michigan reports that "Working today may not be a decision, yet rather where the best limit works is a decision, especially for individuals who need to lead fascinating and colossal lives. They require their time at work to strengthen their life and family objectives. Our showing affiliation utilizes adaptability as an approach that helps the individuals like their work and views it as something that central focuses their family, rather than decreasing it. At a bookkeeping firm in Illinois, particular delegates arrange the versatile work strategy they require, accomplishing reviews that assist them explore the impact on business operations. Agents and their directors discuss these issues at more unmistakable length, and if all the apropos business issues and crisis strategies are particularly portrayed; the change is most likely going to be certified. Representatives who have taken an unflagging enthusiasm for this technique uncover to us they feel less uneasiness, handle singular emergencies more easily and have more open entryways for capacity building and job advancement, (Families and Work Institute, 2007).

Conclusion

Summing up, the report unravels the alteration of the hierarchical structure of the working environment in the current period. It investigates the future difficulties that countenanced by both the HRM and workers. The point that is picked by the report is 'work-life adaptability will supplant work-life adjust'. In the current time, adaptability is a critical viewpoint that gives another form to the working life. The representatives of the top multinational organizations request adaptable work routine that replaces their chaotic work schedule. The report examines the part of the theme and gives a crisp point of view of the working environment to the worldwide gathering of people. The theme 'work-life adaptability will supplant work-life adjust' requires painstaking exploration work. As indicated by research, adaptable working space diminishes pressure and stress, which prompts a delightful working background for both the HRM and the representatives. The adaptable working timetable is essential and it prompts better corporate execution. With expanding work fulfillment, the representatives can cheerfully fiddle between office and home.  Basically, representatives who have adaptable working plans perform with élan. Along these lines, 'work life adaptability' is noteworthy and it administers the business as usual of the working territory.

References

Aequus Partners. (2010). Workplace flexibility: Advice, training, research.

Beauregard, T. A., & Henry, L. C. (2009). Making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance. Human Resource Management Review, 19(1), 9-22.

Berkman, L. F., Buxton, O., Ertel, K., & Okechukwu, C. (2010). Managers' practices related to work-family balance predict employee cardiovascular risk and sleep duration in extended care settings. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(3), 316-329.

Berkman, L. F., Buxton, O., Ertel, K., & Okechukwu, C. (2010). Managers' practices related to work-family balance predict employee cardiovascular risk and sleep duration in extended care settings. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(3), 316-329.

Bond, J., & Galinsky, E. (2006). What workplace flexibility is available to entry-level, hourly employees? (Research Brief No. 3). New York, NY: Families and Work Institute.

Bourke, J. (2010). Flexibility and the GFC [global financial crisis], Australia's had a taste and there's no going back Balmain, New South Whales, Australia: Aequus Partners.

Byron, K. (2005). A meta-analytic review of work-family conflict and its antecedents. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67(2), 169-198.

Carlson, D. S., Grzywacz, J. G., & Kacmar, K. M. (2010). The relationship of schedule flexibility and outcomes via the work-family interface. Journal of Managerial Psychology

Christensen, K., & Schneider, B. (Eds.). (2015). Workplace flexibility: Realigning 20th-century jobs for a 21st-century workforce. Cornell University Press.

 Council of Economic Advisors. (2010). Work-life balance and the economics of workplace flexibility Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President.

Families and Work Institute. (2007). When work works: Making work work: New ideas from the winners of the alfred P. sloan awards for business excellence in workplace flexibility New York: Families and Work Institute.

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Grzywacz, J. G., Carlson, D. S., & Shulkin, S. (2008). Schedule flexibility and stress: Linking formal flexible arrangements and perceived flexibility to employee health. Community, Work & Family, 11(2), 199-214.

Hayman, J. R. (2009). Flexible work arrangements: Exploring the linkages between perceived usability of flexible work schedules and work/life balance. Community, Work & Family, 12(3), 327-338.

Hegewisch, A., & Gornick, J. C. (2008). Statutory routes to workplace flexibility in a cross-national perspective Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research

Kavanagh, M. R. (2017). The future of flex: recommendations for improving workplace flexibility.

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Kossek, E. E., Thompson, R. J., & Lautsch, B. A. (2015). Balanced Workplace Flexibility. California Management Review, 57(4), 5-25.

Lapierre, L. M., Spector, P. E., Allen, T. D., Poelmans, S., Cooper, C. L., O'Driscoll, M. P., Sanchez, J. I., Brough, P., & Kinnunen, U. (2008). Family-supportive organization perceptions, multiple dimensions of work-family conflict, and employee satisfaction: A test of model across five samples. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(1), 92-106.

Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Matz-Costa, C., & Besen, E. (2009). Workplace flexibility: Findings from the age and generations study (Issue Brief No. 19). Chestnut Hill, MA: Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.

Putnam, L. L., Myers, K. K., & Gailliard, B. M. (2014). Examining the tensions in workplace flexibility and exploring options for new directions. Human Relations, 67(4), 413-440.

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