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The study investigates to what extent empowering HRM practices (i.e., workplace flexibility, professional autonomy, and access to knowledge via ICT) and empowering leadership have the potential to motivate employees in displaying workplace proactivity in NWW contexts. The study builds on the empowerment theory to gain a better understanding of how employees are able to make choices in order to achieve the goals set in their work and how leadership can support this. A field study was conducted in four subsidiaries of a large Dutch bank active in the financial sector. In line with expectations, positive relationships were found between professional autonomy, access to knowledge via ICT and empowering leadership, on the one hand, and psychological empowerment, on the other. Also, in line with expectations, a positive relationship was found between psychological empowerment and workplace proactivity. Moreover, as hypothesized, psychological empowerment partly mediated the relationship between the HRM practices and empowering leadership and workplace proactivity. However, autonomy had a direct, negative effect on workplace proactivity. Also workplace flexibility was neither directly nor indirectly associated with workplace proactivity. Finally, HRM and leadership can be viewed as complementary as they combine different perspectives for employees in order to display proactive workplace behaviour. In conclusion, the empowerment process approach helped to disentangle the motivating elements that foster workplace proactivity in modern workplaces.

In blended working arrangements (BWAs), employees have discretion over when and where they work. Although BWAs are proliferating worldwide, the lack of predefined temporal and locational structures is unlikely to appeal to every employee. To investigate with whom and when BWAs cause positive reactions, we conducted two experimental vignette studies among full-time employees. In Study 1, we used a 2 (BWAs: yes vs. no) × 2 (development support: yes vs. no) between-subjects design (N = 212) and, in Study 2, a within-subjects design with the same factors (N = 114). Additionally, in both studies, we measured individual differences in autonomy orientation and personal need for structure. Study 1 showed that, relative to traditional working arrangements, BWAs enhance organizational attractiveness and intention to demonstrate organizational citizenship behaviour. In Study 2, in which employees could compare working arrangements, we only found effects of BWAs among employees high in autonomy orientation or low in personal need for structure. Development support for independent working was not found to moderate the effects of BWAs. By indicating which employees tend to prefer BWAs, our findings could help organizations determine employees’ suitability for such arrangements, which is likely to contribute to BWAs being effective.

En las últimas décadas, varias empresas han introducido espacios de trabajo alternativos, los cuales se han implementado a través de modelos de oficinas flexibles, ágiles y por tipo de actividad. La rápida difusión de estos modelos se justifica por la creencia corporativa de que estos pueden influir en las relaciones y los comportamientos organizativos de los trabajadores del conocimiento, a fin de propiciar una mejor colaboración y flexibilidad adaptativa. No obstante, la falta de investigación empírica sobre el tema, así como su naturaleza multidisciplinaria, limitan nuestra comprensión de las implicaciones de estos modelos sobre las compañías y sus empleados. El objetivo de la Tesis consiste en arrojar luz sobre las implicaciones de los espacios de trabajo alternativos, examinar la validez de los supuestos organizacionales que justifican su introducción, e identificar un conjunto de estrategias que las empresas y sus directivos pueden adoptar para lograr sus objetivos de transformación. Para lograr este objetivo, la Tesis está fundamentada en una colección de estudios que han sido diseñados para responder sistemáticamente a cuatro preguntas de investigación principales. El primer estudio identifica un marco conceptual preliminar para los espacios de trabajo alternativos, que se ha utilizado como modelo cognitivo para interpretar los resultados y delinear los límites del trabajo de campo empírico (RQ1). Este marco se ha sido utilizado y probado en un análisis exploratorio, dirigido a identificar sistemáticamente las barreras y factores habilitadores que las empresas encuentran cuando implementan los espacios de trabajo alternativos (RQ2). El segundo estudio explora las experiencias de los individuos y grupos de empleados en los lugares de trabajo alternativos, los cuales propician nuevas oportunidades y desafíos que se presentan también como tensiones opuestas (RQ3). Finalmente, el tercer estudio examina cómo los trabajadores del conocimiento interpretan el lugar de trabajo alternativo e implementan la su organización, mediante algunas prácticas espaciales que problematizan el estado de sus límites flexibles y permeables (RQ4). Basado en estos estudios, la Tesis presenta tres contribuciones importantes. En primer lugar, fomenta los debates sobre los espacios de trabajo alternativos, exponiendo nuevas evidencias empíricas en un área débilmente estudiada. En segundo lugar, desarrolla el concepto de espacios de trabajo alternativos, proporcionando un modelo de alto nivel que resume las diferentes áreas organizacionales en las que este se ha implementado y los debates suscitados. Esta Tesis sugiere la necesidad de vincular las discusiones sobre los diferentes aspectos de un espacio de trabajo alternativo bajo la misma premisa, para mejorar la investigación de los efectos de interacción entre las diferentes áreas implementadas. Finalmente, la Tesis contribuye al campo emergente de la sociología de espacio, esclareciendo el impacto de la reconfiguración espacial de actividades laborales y las relaciones inducidas por espacios de trabajo alternativos sobre los individuos y las empresas. En la práctica, esta Tesis identifica los enfoques disponibles para que las organizaciones y sus directivos manejen las tensiones y las amenazas de identidad que emergen en un nuevo entorno laboral u oficina. ----------ABSTRACT---------- In the last decades, several knowledge work organizations have introduced alternative workplaces that are implemented through flexible, agile, and activity-based office models. The rapid diffusion of these models has been prompted by the company’s belief that these may influence knowledge workers’ relations and behaviors at the office, in a way to be conducive to greater collaboration and adaptive flexibility. However, the lack of empirical fieldwork on the alternative workplaces and their multidisciplinary nature limit our understanding of their implications on companies and their people. The purpose of this Thesis is to shed some light on the implications of alternative workplaces, to test the validity of the organizational assumptions guiding their introduction and identify a set of approaches that companies and their managers can employ to fulfil the related objectives. To meet its purpose, the Thesis builds upon a collection of studies that have been designed to systematically address four research questions. The first study identifies a preliminary framework for alternative workplaces that has been used as a cognitive model to interpret the results and draw the boundaries of the empirical fieldwork (RQ1). The framework has been employed and tested in an exploratory analysis, aimed at a systematic overview of the barriers and enablers that companies encounter when implementing alternative workplaces (RQ2). The second study explores how alternative workplaces are experienced by individuals and groups of knowledge workers, by bringing new opportunities and challenges that cast themselves as oppositional tensions (RQ3). Finally, the third study looks at how knowledge workers interpret the alternative workplace and enact its organization, by means of spatial practices that problematize the status of its flexible and permeable boundaries (RQ4). Drawing upon these studies, the Thesis posits three important contributions. First, it feeds the discussions on the alternative workplaces, by bringing new empirical evidence in a relatively under-researched area. Second, it advances the concept of the alternative workplace, by providing a high-level model synthesizing the different organizational areas in which implementation and discourses have taken place. This Thesis advocates the need to tie the discussions on the different aspects of the alternative workplace underneath the same banner, to better investigate the interactional effects between different implementation areas. Third, the Thesis contributes to the emergent field of sociology of space, by shedding some light on the impact of the spatial reconfiguration of work activities and relations brought by alternative workplaces on people and companies. From a practical perspective, this Thesis identifies the approaches that are available to companies and their managers to handle the tensions and the identity threats that arise in the new office environment.

Burnout is a growing problem among healthcare workers. Whereas there are numerous predictors of burnout, this article explores the compounding effects of job and family demands among nurses and Patient Care Associates (PCA). This study used the 2018 survey data of the Boston Hospital Health Workers Study (BHWHS) to assess the relationship of job and family demands, workplace flexibility, and burnout (N = 874). In addition, it aimed to evaluate the moderating effect of workplace flexibility and job and family demands on burnout. Results of the study demonstrate that active and high strained healthcare workers are associated with higher odds of experiencing burnout as well as workers who reported perceived low workplace flexibility. In addition, workplace flexibility is associated with reduced odds of experiencing burnout. Workplace flexibility moderated the relationship of childless married healthcare workers and burnout. The study shows that workplace flexibility plays a critical role in potentially reducing odds of burnout in the healthcare worker population. Assessing the perception and accessibility to workplace flexibility among workers is imperative to improve worker well-being and the quality of care provided to patients especially the current effects to worker's health during a pandemic.

Mothers’ return to work following childbirth is widely recognized as a key stage in establishing employment arrangements that disadvantage them in the long run. This article investigates why mothers accept these unequal arrangements using data from a qualitative study of 109 Australian mothers. It focuses on mothers’ perceptions of the fairness and justice of the flexibility of arrangements they commonly enter into upon return to work. The article draws attention to the importance of different justice frameworks, distributive, procedural and interactional, in understanding women’s acceptance of gender inequality in paid work. The results indicate that most mothers view their workplace arrangements as fair, consistent with a distributive justice framework. Many women also place great importance on interactional justice, particularly in their experiences in negotiating flexibility. The article also identifies differences across employment type with women in jobs with career prospects more likely to invoke interactional justice frameworks than women in jobs with few career prospects.

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. This article presents data from a comprehensive study of hyper flexible and precarious work in the service sector. A series of interviews were conducted with self-employed personal trainers along with more than 200 hours of participant observation within fitness centres in the UK. Analysis of the data reveals a new form of hyper flexible and precarious work that is labelled neo-villeiny in this article. Neo-villeiny is characterized by four features: bondage to the organization; payment of rent to the organization; no guarantee of any income; and extensive unpaid and speculative work that is highly beneficial to the organization. The neo-villeiny of the self-employed personal trainer offers the fitness centre all of the benefits associated with hyper flexible work, but also mitigates the detrimental outcomes associated with precarious work. The article considers the potential for adoption of this new form of hyper flexible and precarious work across the broader service sector.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of social accounting at the micro level and examines the use of social reporting for constructive purposes through internal communication devices. It explores the discourse adopted by a large organisation in social accounting and reporting (workplace flexibility) through employee newsletters. In doing so the paper seeks to answer two research questions. First, what workplace flexibility practices are evident in the employee newsletters? Second, do management use discourse (including self-accounts) in newsletters for self-serving management control purposes or for the emancipatory purposes of benefiting employees? Design/methodology/approach – Content and discourse analysis are used to examine “workplace flexibility” practices portrayed within the newsletters. This study explores the discourse adopted by a large Australian financial institution, in its social accounting disclosure in employee newsletters. It does so by examining the discourse adopted by the organisation in relation to one aspect of social accounting, that is, “workplace flexibility” in the employee newsletters over the period 2003-2007. Findings – The paper finds the financial institution used its internal newsletters to influence employee attitude and behaviour, not as claimed for social “betterment” – justice, welfare, emancipation. The possibility of social accounting's emancipatory potential was suppressed by those responsible for providing the accounts. The paper found that management used discourse (including self-accounts) in the newsletters for self-serving management control purposes and not as claimed for benefiting employees. Originality/value – The idea that the organisation provides workplace flexibility for the sake of benefitting employees is questionable. The discourse found in the newsletters suggests that flexible work options instead appear to be aimed at garnering employee loyalty, with subsequent employer benefits of improved organisational performance. The organisation used the discourse on workplace flexibility to blur the boundaries of work and life and persuade the employees to work harder and longer, to continuously increase productivity. In doing so, the organisation camouflaged its own economic sustainability and profitability as workplace flexibility.

MBA Professional Report Employers widely utilize flexible work arrangements (FWAs) both to improve employee work-life balance and to increase organizational effectiveness. To date, the private sector has embraced FWA to a much larger extent than has the military. In this project, I outline the underpinnings of workplace flexibility and describe how it can potentially improve the military labor market. First, I outline a conceptual framework that addresses the work environment's dynamics and complexities while assessing the most common benefits and challenges found in FWAs. Second, I outline a military-centered five-phase process that facilitates the implementation of FWAs in the military work environment. The model is not a panacea, but is instead a comprehensive starting point to help management understand the importance of workplace flexibility, the positive effects from the organizations' and defense members' perspectives, and the elements of an implementation plan. http://archive.org/details/possibilitiesndl1094549501 Outstanding Thesis Lieutenant, Hellenic Navy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

This article explores workers’ experiences of flexibility, control, and autonomy in organisations with extensive contracting of staff from temporary work agencies (TWAs). The starting point for this article is in theoretical perspectives on workplace flexibility and organisational control practices. I argue that workers’ opportunities to control and have autonomy over their work and accomplish workplace flexibility are interconnected with the controlling practices that are present in their everyday working life. In organisations with extensive hiring of temporary agency workers (TAWs), this is complicated further, as workers from different organisations, with different management strategies, are working together at the same work site. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with TAWs and regular employees in three user firms with extensive contracting of TAWs. A questionnaire was also completed by them. The results show that there are few opportunities for either TAWs or regular staff to achieve workplace flexibility in terms of making choices about where, when, and for how long they are going to work. The findings contradict assumptions that formal differences between the employment conditions of regulars and agency workers affect their opportunities for workplace flexibility. Similar technical control systems were used in the user firms despite differences between assembly line production and customer support. Despite these similarities in the opportunities for flexibility for both groups of workers, the findings showed some differences between TAWs’ and regulars’ everyday experiences of flexibility and control. The findings showed how close surveillance by technological systems was intertwined with a normative control, which means the awareness among TAWs of their replaceable position implicates anxiety about the consequences of absence from work. As a consequence of their vulnerable position, TAWs were striving to prove themselves to be competent to both the user firms and the agency. This highlights the dualistic controlling practices that TAWs are subjected to by user firms as well as the agency in their everyday work. This constitutes an effective and powerful system of organisational control. Keywords: Temporary work agencies; technological control; normative control; dualistic control; workplace flexibility; call centre; assembly line (Published: 18 October 2012) Citation: Vulnerable Groups & Inclusion. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/vgi.v3i0.18913

Changing demographics and labour market structures are placing increased pressure on identifying work/life balance solutions, while global competition is forcing companies to look beyond traditional solutions to search for competitive advantage. Recent rapid technology developments facilitate a strategic application of teleworking, which, in suitable organisations, would appear to alleviate both of these issues. Despite this, the limited evidence that exists in the telework literature indicates a dearth of telework in Irish companies, and recent research on the reasons for this, form a gap in the literature. This study, empirically examines the key factors that influence the extent of telework in Ireland. Qualitative data has been gathered from thirteen semi-structured (eleven face-to-face) interviews with a combination of current and part-time teleworkers and managers. The exploratory approach employed, provides the opportunity to gain an invaluable perspective from participants with personal experience of working from home. The data gathered during this current study, offers some unique insights into teleworking in Ireland and highlights challenges which appear to be particular to the Irish context. While telework is seen in a positive light, by the respondents in this study, socio-cultural barriers to telework are identified. A recurring theme, emerging from this research, highlights the pervasiveness of a traditional management style, and an Irish culture of mistrust, which poses a particular challenge to those wishing to engage in telework. This current research also reveals a particular Irish need for social affiliation, through workplace interactions, which may account for the prevalence of ‘part-time’ teleworking in Ireland. Given the attitudinal challenges to telework within Irish organisations, the research findings suggest that there would be clear merit in piloting telework initiatives with carefully selected candidates. Multinationals and young dynamic businesses which remain open to innovative work practices, particularly in the services and technology sectors, are ideally positioned for such an initiative. Coupled with the extension of broadband, a successful outcome, with government sponsored PR, could pave the way for expanding the practice of teleworking in Ireland. This research would be of particular benefit to organisations and individuals considering the option of telework in the future.