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Shorter Work Time, Hours Flexibility, and Labor Intensification
Abstract
Full-time work hours in continental Europe have recently both declined and become more flexible. However, evidence from France suggests that the reduction of work time has not clearly improved workers' well-being. This paper offers an explanation for this outcome using a simple bargaining model that analyzes the connections among work time, hours flexibility, and labor effort. The model suggests that in return for higher hourly wages, trade unions consent to greater management-controlled hours flexibility. Hours flexibility, in turn, leads to a deterioration in working conditions, including an intensification of labor effort, which becomes acceptable to workers only when work time is reduced. In this model, shorter work time does not reduce the overall effort of workers, and may indeed raise it. Consequently, workers' utility does not necessarily rise with reduced work time even if overall pay is unaltered.
... On average, this meant that a full-time worker could work only 2.5 hours of overtime per week, apart from the 35-hour week stipulated as full time. By 2002, this policy was fully implemented (Askenazy, 2004;Lehndorff, 2014). ...
... Through this way, the employer would still be adhering to the 35-hour week legislation. Moreover, this would mean that the employee would not be remunerated as overtime for the extra hours worked since this would be compensated by rostering the employee to work less hours during the next weeks (Askenazy, 2004). ...
... On another note, it was noticed that although there was a decrease in working hours, specifically from 40 hours per week to 35 hours per week, the total yearly productivity levels were not diminished. This was since the productivity per worker per hour increased (Askenazy, 2004). ...
The 40-hour work week has been the established working hours for at least the past century. During the past few years, discussion has taken place in a number of countries to seek whether this is still relevant in today’s world. In fact, some countries and companies have actually shifted from the 40-hour work week.
This dissertation seeks to study and answer whether it is time for Malta to follow suit what happened in other countries and start reducing its full-time working ours. To do this, the dissertation first evaluates the history of the current established 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week working week. Then it seeks to discuss the pros and cons of the 40-hour working week and reducing it, both in terms of health and safety whilst also in the economic terms. Moreover, it also seeks to study whether countries and companies who have reduced their working week have been successful. It also determines what were the driving factors towards such a shift.
The study gathered and discussed the attitudes and opinion of both the employers and employees in Malta regarding the current working hours. It further seeks to answer whether both parties are ready to reduce the working week.
It is hoped that this study shall be a good step forward into finding solutions towards a better work-life balance.
... The sole deviation from standard theories was the potential control of employers on productivity gains by introducing bargained overtime arrangements. Askenazy (2004) shows theoretically that in such a case, the bargaining process can induce significant productivity gains that help to maintain both productivity per head and monthly wages; consequently, a shorter working time can be associated with an intensification of work and poor job creation. This mechanism was not mentioned during the debate over the 35-hour working week reform. ...
... Crépon et al. (2004) extend these results by studying the impact of the reduction in working time on firm productivity. The authors show that companies that adopted the 35-hour working week experienced strong job growth after the cut in working time and insignificant losses in output per capita (consistent with Askenazy's model of bargaining over work organisation ;Askenazy, 2004). They suggest that the effectiveness in the decrease in the working week by companies drawing on the incentives provided by Aubry I may have resulted mainly from a policy of cutting unit costs. ...
... fluctuating and staggered hours, which are not always predictable in advance, or long days) are meant to be compensated for by shorter working times. However, it is difficult to know from a theoretical point of view whether work is less 'hard' (Askenazy, 2004). Empirical studies of employees' work confirm that it is difficult to obtain a single answer to such questions. ...
France, which is often seen as an unusual country with a rigid 35-hour working week, has experienced massive changes in its
regulation of working time in recent decades, including a progressive removal of 35-hour working week laws. These changes
have affected and continue to affect workplace organisation, working conditions, job creation, productivity and wages. The
35-hour working week policy represents a reduction in working time as well as a complex package that restructured French labour
law and that opened up a great deal of space for social bargaining. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution
of working time regulation and its political roots. It discusses the studies evaluating the 35-hour working week and examines
some of the basic consequences of reversing this policy since 2002. It also highlights unexplored lines of research on this
topic.
... There are various potential definitions of working time flexibility, emphasizing either the company side (e.g. Askenazy, 2004;Chung, 2009) or employee-centered flexibility (FlexPaths, 2004;Golden, 2009;Possenriede and Plantegna, 2011). The latter refers to the ability of workers to adjust their daily or weekly working hours in a way that best fits their preferences and constraints. ...
... The use of such practices is said to generate a positive organizational climate, which in turn can enhance firm performance. Indeed, providing more autonomy tends to be one of the "high performance" organization tools that may promote additional work effort or intensity per hour (Altman and Golden, 2004;Askenazy, 2004;Combs et al., 2006). ...
... Greater variation in workers' hours tends to reduce their well-being when the variation does not reflect their choice (Heisz and LaRochelle-Côté, 2006). The unpredictability of working hours (Askenazy, 2004), in particular for those with lower incomes (Lambert, 2000), can have a corrosive effect on worker job satisfaction levels. In France, "flexibility" that is considered to be wholly employer-centered is associated with increased mental strain on workers, largely because it gives them the feeling they are under time pressure and unable to do their job properly (Askenazy and Caroli, 2010). ...
This research synthesis paper attempts to summarize the various effects of working time, in its multiple dimensions, described in the research literature in the past years. It covers the available empirical evidence regarding the effects of both hours of work and flexible types of working time arrangements. It discusses in particular the effects of long working hours and flexibility in the timing of work schedules and their impact on both labour productivity and firm performance via the underlying long-run labour costs. It considers the various dimensions of working time and its features of interest, such as duration, flexibility, variability (unpredictability) and divergence from preferences (mismatches — overemployment and underemployment). It reviews the credible, state-of-the-art research studies, particularly those conducted since 2000, from many countries, so as to help inform discussions between the three social players and their experts. Those studies are both macroeconomic and microeconomic in scope, although the latter predominate. This paper covers the broadest possible range of relevant literature, by both discipline and country, including developed and developing countries. The literature is vast and nuanced, and inevitably some stones are likely to have been left unturned in this synopsis. The paper examines the effects of working time first on worker productivity and then on the longer run factors that affect costs. Individual performance and costs associated with the length and flexibility of working time can often influence firm performance. The paper considers the number of normal hours, short hours (less than 35 hours per week), and long hours (over 48 hours per week), but focuses on the observed effects of various types of flexible working time arrangements (i.e. flexitime, compressed workweeks, hours averaging, working time accounts/time banking, etc.) and different shift schedules. It refers to programmes, policies and practices initiated by employers that allow workers at least some discretion in adjusting the length and/or scheduling of their working time to meet their preferences.
... The analysis found that employees perceive traffic and transportation as the major issue that adversely affects productivity. Studies by Askenazy (2004) and Fagnani and Letablier (2004) found that fatigue arising out of commuting could negatively affect the productivity of employees. The TA revealed that the vast majority of comments (162) show that employees strongly believe that FWH could significantly influence productivity positively, as staggering working hours could help in adjusting their commuting time to be in tune with the normal rush hours. ...
... Quality of time has been found to be of paramount importance rather than the quantity of time spent at the workplace by Puech and Durand (2017). Better quality of time has the potential to positively influence engagement and increase the productivity of employees (Mohiya, 2019;Askenazy, 2004;Fagnani and Letablier, 2004). The new sub-themes that emerged from the study under this domain include breaks for lunch, sleeping and tardiness, and night/ morning people. ...
One of the most controversial HRM topics that have received extensive attention from academics and practitioners communities over the past two decades is flexible working hours (FWH) and its impact on productivity. Nevertheless, the work is focused almost exclusively on business and organizational aspects neglecting the employees’ and social perspectives, and thus far lacks a strong theoretical foundation, particularly social theory. Therefore, unlike other work, the present study focuses heavily on the employees’ perspective based on a social theory; namely: social exchange theory (SET). This study aims to explore and evaluate the antecedents for requesting FWH, mainly: employee and social-related factors, which affect their productivity. SET was found valuable to serve the aim of the research because it magnifies the importance of the employee as a partner who is in reciprocal social relations. Two mixed triangulated sets of qualitative data were collected, namely: semi-structured interviews and document analysis (cross-sectional and longitudinal). Thirty-two interviews were conducted with employees and with management. Document analysis is a novel source of data that was extracted from the company’s internal technological platform and contains employees’ first-hand computerized typewritten comments about FWH. The analysis of the findings reveals that the most significant factors found affecting employees’ decision to demand FWH for productivity are midday breaks, traffic/transportation, schooling, and social life. Moreover, the findings suggest that HR practitioners need to recognize employees’ social factors before applying FWH practice. This present research makes an original and important contribution to HRM scholarship and reflects theoretical rigor (social exchange theory), methodological (mixed triangulation methods), empirical, and practical. For example, theoretical contributions regarding SET’s reciprocity “black box” were highlighted. Moreover, the implication of the findings assists HR, in particular in Saudi organizations, to ensure the FWH contributes to overcoming these identified employees’ related antecedents.
... The plight of employees with unstable or unpredictable work schedules has become increasingly well-documented in the media (Cauthen 2011;Kantor 2014;Covert 2014;González 2014;Aarons-Mele 2014) and in the academic literature. There are drawbacks of erratic and uncontrollable work schedules for any employee, particularly those on nonstandard work times (Askenazy 2004;Costa, Sartori, and Akerstedt 2006;Heisz and LaRochelle-Côté 2006;Bohle, et al. 2011;McNamara, Bohle, and Quinlan 2011;Golden et al. 2011;Fagan et al. 2012;Glauber 2013;Wood, Michaelides, and Totterdell 2013;Kelly et al. 2014; Jacobs and Padavic 2015). ...
... Thus, reducing or minimizing instability in work hours, schedules, and workloads may improve workers' well-being, for a given level of daily or weekly hours and income. 17 Work schedules or shifts that are irregular are consistently found to be associated with assorted adverse outcomes for workers (Askenazy 2004;Costa, Sartori, Akerstedt 2006;Heisz and LaRochelle-Cote 2006;Camerino et al., 2010;Tucker and Folkard 2012;Olsen and Dahl 2010;Haley-Lock and Ewert 2011). One such study examined the extent to which work demands, including irregular work schedules, are related to work-family conflict as well as life and job satisfaction among nurses. ...
... Secondly, the history of voice regimes in establishments can be different from one historical period to another (Willman et al., 2009). For example, union presence at establishment level was much more common in France and in Britain in the 1980s than in 2012 (Blanchflower and Bryson, 2009;Goetschy and Jobert, 2004;Green, 2006;van Wanrooy et al., 2013;Askenazy, 2004). ...
... France has the lowest rate of private-sector union membership (5 per cent) among OECD countries (Askenazy, 2013) but union representation is quite high in most French industries (Pak and Pignoni, 2008). Askenazy (2004) argues that the weakening of collective movements has led employees to believe they are powerless to fight bad working conditions and a high threat of unemployment. The absence of collective movements and the fear of staying unemployed have increased the perception of work intensity since the 1980s. ...
La contribution de cette thèse est d‘examiner l‘évolution de la qualité de l‘emploi du point de vue de l‘établissement. Elle s‘appuie sur des données couplées employeurs - salariés issues des enquêtes comparables Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004 et 2011) pour le cas de la Grande-Bretagne et Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d’Entreprise (REPONSE 2005 et 2011) pour la France. Cette thèse contient trois chapitres et enrichit trois grands axes de la littérature existante. Le premier chapitre explore l‘impact des pratiques d‘ajustement au niveau de l‘établissement sur la qualité de l‘emploi en France pendant la crise. Le deuxième chapitre analyse le rôle du régime institutionnel en France et en Grande-Bretagne afin d‘expliquer la variation de la qualité de l‘emploi entre les deux pays. Finalement, le troisième chapitre examine les stratégies adoptées par les salariés pour composer avec leur salaire et leurs conditions de travail. Grace à la base de données couplées collectant à la fois des informations sur les employeurs et les employés (les enquêtes REPONSE, 2005 ; 2011), le premier chapitre fournit des preuves empiriques sur les liens entre changements d‘activité et qualité de l‘emploi dans deux contextes différents : l‘un, en 2005, économiquement favorable et l‘autre après la crise de 2011. De plus, ce chapitre vise à montrer comment un changement d‘activité interagit avec l‘emploi et quel est l‘impact sur la qualité de l‘emploi des salariés français. Les résultats confirment que la perception de l‘intensité du travail, l‘insécurité de l‘emploi ainsi que celle des perspectives de promotion ont changé après la « Grande Récession » de 2008-2009. Pour sa part, le salaire horaire est supérieur en 2011 relativement à celui de 2005. Bien que les salariés perçoivent disposer de davantage de chance de promotion et moins d‘instabilité de l‘emploi dans le contexte post-crise, les résultats montrent que la perception de l‘insécurité de l‘emploi s‘accroit et les chances de promotions sont perçues comme devenant plus rares quand à la fois l‘activité économique de l‘établissement et son nombre de salariés baissent.En s‘inspirant de de la théorie varieties of capitalism et de l‘approche power resource, le deuxième chapitre examine dans quelle mesure les caractéristiques macroéconomiques peuvent expliquer les différences de perception de la qualité de l‘emploi par les salariés entre les pays. De plus, le chapitre étudie l‘impact de la taille d‘entreprise sur la qualité de l‘emploi dans deux différents régimes institutionnels – la France et la Grande-Bretagne. Il appert que, dans les régimes duals, la qualité de l‘emploi est meilleure dans les grandes entreprises que dans les petites. Au contraire, dans les régimes d‘emploi de marché, la qualité de l‘emploi est plus faible pour les grandes entreprises que pour les petites. Ce chapitre 2 montre également que, en France, le salaire peut être considéré comme un élément complémentaire de la qualité de l‘emploi dans les grandes comme dans les petites entreprises. En Grande-Bretagne, cette relation est faible dans les grandes entreprises et non-significative dans les petites.Le troisième chapitre adapte au marché du travail, le modèle d‘Hirschman sur le comportement des consommateurs. Nous faisons l‘hypothèse que l‘insatisfaction liée à la rémunération doit favoriser la stratégie exit alors que l‘insatisfaction liée aux conditions de travail doit favoriser la stratégie voice et l‘action collective. La logique de cet arbitrage est basée sur l‘information : d‘abord, l‘information sur le prix des autres choix possibles est beaucoup plus accessible que l‘information sur la qualité. Ensuite, la stratégie voice produit plus d‘information que la stratégie exit et crée plus d‘opportunités pour des améliorations spécifiques. Afin de tester ces hypothèses, trois bases de données couplant des informations employeurs – salariés sont utilisées dans ce chapitre : des enquêtes Britanniques WERS (WERS 2004 ; WERS 2011) et, pour la France, les enquêtes REPONSE (2005 ; 2011) appariées aux données administratives sur les salaires et des flux de main-d‘oeuvre et l‘enquête SalSa (Les Salaires vus par les Salariés). Les résultats soutiennent l‘hypothèse d‘Hirschman pour les deux pays au niveau du salarié et au niveau de l‘établissement : une détérioration de l‘indice de conditions de travail augmente la probabilité de participation à l‘action collective alors que l‘augmentation du salaire horaire diminue la probabilité de quitter son emploi.
... In the Korean context, SWB measures have been used by Han et al. (2012); Kang (2010); Koo and Suh (2011); among others. lead to lower worker well-being, and increase the risk of burnout and cumulative trauma disorders (Ashkenazy, 2004;Brenner et al., 2004;Bakker et al., 2006). ...
... Workers who experienced an actual reduction in working hours report significantly higher increases in work intensity compared with those where actual hours failed to follow regular hours reductions. 16 Greater intensification of work can lead to lower worker well-being through higher levels of stress, fatigue and an increased burnout risk (Ashkenazy, 2004;Brenner et al., 2004;Bakker et al., 2006). ...
This article uses detailed longitudinal data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study for the period 1998-2008 to analyze the happiness impact of working hours reductions on workers and their families. The major contribution to the literature is the use of an exogenous reduction in working hours, due to the Korean Five-Day Working Reform, in a subjective well-being (SWB) model. The findings indicate that reductions did not have the expected positive effects on worker well-being. While satisfaction with working hours increased, reductions had no impact on job and life satisfaction. Thus, long working hours might not be as negatively related to worker well-being as predicted by theory. Moreover, positive SWB effects might be offset by rising work intensity.
... In Figure 3, we depict both MRS and R w δ as functions of ( ) We may see that, as it was established through expressions (6) and (7), both R w δ and MRS increase as unemployment rises (and makes δ rise). Furthermore, the parameterization allows us to gain some additional insights 16 . When unemployment is low and consequently δ is low then ...
... More recently, different approaches have been taken into consideration in order to deal with this issue. Some examples of this "new economics of work-sharing" are Contensou and Vranceanu[13], Marimon and Zilibotti[14], Rocheteau[15] or Askenazy[16]. In any case, these approaches are out of the scope of this paper.4 ...
Work-sharing measures aim to reduce unemployment. When politicians are more interested in fostering this kind of measures is when the official unemployment rate published in statistics rises. There is already an important body of research addressing this issue, but it has mainly focused on the labour demand side. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that unemployment is determined both by demand and supply. The neoclassical model of labour supply predicts that a reduction of standard working hours encourages labour market participation. In this paper we show that this unambiguous result vanishes precisely when high unemployment makes that search transaction costs cannot be considered negligible.
... There is a burgeoning relevant literature in the fields of occupational psychology, occupational health and safety, labor–industrial relations, organization of work and work–family conflict that empirically documents cases of adverse effects of long hours on various aspects of worker welfare such as health (illness and injury risk, through fatigue and stress) (Danna and Griffin, 1999; Sparks et al., 2001; Van Der Hulst, 2003; Caruso et al., 2004). New workplace practices that lead to greater intensification of work or time doing repetitive tasks lower worker wellbeing or raise cumulative trauma disorders (Ashkenazy, 2004; Brenner et al., 2004). The adverse effects of longer hours tend to be exacerbated by a worker's lack of control over the volume and scheduling of work hours (Maume and Bellas, 2001; Berg et al., 2004). ...
... The adverse effects of longer hours tend to be exacerbated by a worker's lack of control over the volume and scheduling of work hours (Maume and Bellas, 2001; Berg et al., 2004). Greater variability of work hours tends to reduce workers' utility (Ashkenazy, 2004). The most clear negative effects on well-being of excessive or unscheduled additional work are on workers' ability to balance their competing work and family responsibilities and on their stress levels (Cornell Institute for Workplace Studies, 1999; Fenwick and Tausig, 2001; Berg et al., 2003; Ganster and Bates, 2003). ...
Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effects of this uncertainty, a stochastic dynamic growth model with the public sector is examined. It is shown that deterministic excessive red tape and corruption deteriorate the growth potential through income redistribution and public sector inefficiencies. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that the increase in corruption via higher uncertainty exerts adverse effects on capital accumulation, thus leading to lower growth rates.
... To improve the company's performance in the nickel mining sector, 32 million tons of nickel ore are needed (Febriany Eddy, CEO of Vale Indonesia, 2022). The increase in production depends on the results of employee performance which ultimately improves the company's performance (Hill et al., 2008;Askenazy, 2004;Chung, 2009;FlexPaths, 2004;Golden, 2011;Possenriede and Plantegna, 2011). Factors that affect company performance are supply chain factors (Zhu et al., 2013;Zhao et al., 2018). ...
The purpose of this study is to explain the effect of supply chain integration on company performance mediated by government policies in strengthening macro and micro economies. The approach used in this research is the quantitative method. Where is the population of 5 nickel mining companies in Sulawesi, represented by 500 employees. From the total population, samples were then taken using the Slovin formula with a margin of error of 5 percent totaling 222 employees. Of these, 200 questionnaires returned with valid conditions. Smart PLS 3 was used to analyze the research data. The results of the research show that the supply chain has a significant effect on the company's performance. Improved company performance strengthened by government policies so as to increase the company's profitability significantly .
... The understanding of the flexibility of working hours is a system of applying flexible work arrangements, when employees are given orders to carry out tasks and responsibilities within a certain total time with greater flexibility or to work less than specified working hours by Hook and Higgs [15] [16][17] [18]. ...
The 4.0 industrial revolution in business changed the way of working, including changes in the work patterns of employees, who had to work at office to work at home using the internet, called as telecommuting employees. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of financial compensation and flexibility of working hours provided by e-commerce companies on the performance of their telecommuters. In this quantitative study, it was released that the financial compensation variable based on the T test had a coefficient of 0.126 and Sig. 0.195, which means there is no influence between financial compensation and telecommuting employee performance. As for the second independent variable, the flexibility of working hours based on the T test has a coefficient of 0.607 with Sig. 0,000, which means that employee flexibility is very influential in employee performance.
... From this point of view, new working regime and the management techniques which are based on a discourse of autonomy and selffulfilment, symbolizes in fact new forms of domination and new techniques of assujettissement. Firstly, the autonomy and personal involvement signifies in reality the augmentation of employees' responsibilization and the intensification of their work (Askenazy, 2004;Bell, 1975;Boltanski & Chiapello, 1999). Secondly, autonomy and responsibilization are used by employers as a way to assure employees' self-discipline on one hand, and on the other hand they enable employees to be more adaptable to flexible working hours which are seen as the nature of today's work. ...
This book contains peer reviewed papers presented at the various conferences organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) and especially the Social Sciences Research Division. Social sciences is currently at a cross roads. The subjects covered are so diverse and the methodologies so different that it is very difficult to compare results in order to advance the knowledge about the society. If we add the diversion of societies then it makes the communication between social scientists a thorny issue. The same social issue or problem is viewed differently depending on the country of origin of the principal investigator. However, bringing these social scientists together makes the communication easier and one can only hope that this can be for the best of social science research, useful to all societies of the modern turbulent world that we live in.
This is exactly the mission of ATINER, i.e. to bring social scientists together in the historic city of Athens in order to discuss the current developments and the future prospects of social science research. This book includes 17 essays written by social scientists coming from 12 different countries and five continents (Russia, USA, Brazil, Turkey, India, Georgia, South Africa, Slovakia, Italy, Latvia, UK, and Germany). The same dispersion is noted in the topics covered. It is an anthology of essays determined only by the specific interests of the authors. The 16 papers are organized into two sections: the first on society which includes five papers and the second on behavior and attitude with eleven papers.
Chapter one can be considered an introductory chapter to issues concerning the society. Kenneth Smith examines the concept of collective consciousness of society based on Durkheimian sociology one of the three modern founders of the discipline of social sciences. The other two are Marx and Weber. The term “modern” is used to highlight that social sciences was a favoured subject of ancient Greek Philosophers especially Plato and Aristotle. The former can be considered as the father of social sciences. Many ideas developed in the following chapters of this book depend on the foundations of social analyses such as the one described in this chapter.
Chapter two deals with Russia’s disabled people. The emphasis is on vocational training. Olga Borodkina, based on empirical research, argues that inclusive education is lacking behind in Russia. Most Russian Universities cannot facilitate disabled people. The author concludes that there are improvements but further changes are needed which require the collaboration of the state, educational institutions, society and people with special needs.
Chapter three examines the Latvian society from the prism of its ethnic and religious diversity. Julija Stare states that Latvia is one of the most diverse countries in the Baltics and Europe. The concepts of ethnicity and religion are examined by the author in terms of their interaction to produce a hybrid identity. The conclusion is that cultural diversity contributes to the creations of new, hybrid and different forms of identities.
Chapter four investigates the Turkish society. Ayça Yılmaz Deniz looks at Turkey’s working conditions. The author uses qualitative research based on interviews of 44 workers. The conclusions show that although employees do not take part collective resistence, they develop individual resistence strategies which she analyse by reffering Bhabha's conception of mimicry.
Chapter five looks at an important issue which relates to the spin off between research at a university level and the business sector. Sabrina Moretti & Francesco Sacchetti investigate the Italian case using the method of interviews of academics and examining how these researchers have reconciled the market demand for research and the academic objective of producing new knowledge.
Chapter six Deborah Zuercher, Jon Yoshioka & Teresa Rishel deals with teacher quality using an experiment from two islands: Guam and American Samoa. Content Area Specialized Teacher (CAST) facilitators are used to promote professional development. They authors discuss the results fo their study and provide recommendations.
Chapter seven is the first of the second part of the book which deals with behavior and attitudes. Sonia Sirtoli Färber looks at thanatology and mourning which includes different types of losses.
Chapter eight is an application of applied behavior analysis. Ishhita Gupta, Shefali Thaman & S. P. K. Jena used two case studies to evaluate the intervention of differential reinforcement of other behavior. A number of important conclusions are drawn and suggestions are made for future research
Chapter nine examines the aggressiveness behavior of 262 hopsital employees. Susan M. Stewart finds that dispositional aggressiveness was related to all forms of organizational injustice and workplace deviance.
Chapter ten looks at the behaviour of Oidipus the lenses of Loewald’s ‘Waning of the Oedipus complex’. The author, Zelda G. Knight, claims that going back to the original interpretation different psychoanalytic perspectives regarding the process of ‘growing up, growing old, and in between the two’.
Chapter eleven investigates the psychometric properties of the Death Obsession Scale (DOS) using a sample of South African university students. Solomon Mashegoane & Simon Moripe concludes that further studies are needed to test the basic hypotheses and the scale of measurement.
Chapter twelve examines emotions in human relations Tomáš Sollár, Jana Turzáková, Martina Romanová & Andrea Solgajová look at the relevant literature of reading emotions through facial expressions. A sample of psychology student and nursing students in Slovakia and the results were analyzed according to standardized manifestations of basic emotions and neutral expressions. Various implications for education and training are discussed.
Chapter thirteen measures passive discrimination using a lost-letter technique. This technique assesses community’s attitudes towards groups and institutitons. William Phillips, Afshin Gharib and Matt Davis sampled people from the USA, Poland, Italy and Germany. The basic hypothesis is that people are more likely to mail a letter addressed to an individual or organization that they feel neutral or positive about, than to mail a letter addressed to an organization or person they feel negatively about. They showed that there was no difference between the two names.
Chapter fourteen uses a scale to incorporate three components of an attitude: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Nino Javakhishvili, Johann F. Schneider, Ana Makashvili and Natia Kochlashvili discuss this scale in terms of empirical evidence and conclude that “social distance and tolerance scales are good measures of ethnic attitudes and values”.
Chapter fifteen studies integrated personality in a nontherapeutic background. Using a sample of public employees, Eva Sollárová and Tomáš Sollár show that more integrated persons choose proactively oriented strategies and high-integrated individuals are more likely to act proactively and make life opportunities.
Chapter sixteen examines social workers. Ergun Hasgul and Ayse Sezen Serpen examines empathy amng social workers using a sample of Turkish social workers. They found that female social workers possess more emphatic skills than their male counterparts.
Chapter seventeen uses evidence from Brazil to examine the rights of persons with disabilities. Raclene Ataide de Faria found that the group of people with intellectual disabilities is heterogeneous and their self-representation makes a positive self-image of themselves as students in regular schools.
... In recent years, rapid technological developments and labour market changes have stimulated discussions among academics and policymakers about the sustainability and desirability of the current full-time working model (35-40 h per week) and alternative ways of organising work in the future. Some recent studies predict that a substantial share of employment, especially routine and non-cognitive jobs (estimated to range from 9% in OECD countries to 47% in the USA) is at risk of being replaced by new technologies (Arntz et al., 2016;Frey and Osborne, 2017). The differential impact of technology on work could exacerbate bifurcation of working hours with substantial portions of the labour force working either excessively long hours or very short hours, leading to important health consequences (Messenger, 2018). ...
Recent debates about whether the standard full-time working week (35-40 h) can be replaced by a shorter working week have received extensive attention. Using 2015 European Working Conditions Survey data, this study contributes to these debates by exploring the relationships between job quantity, job quality and employees' mental health. Overall, we find that a job's quality matters more than its quantity as measured in hours per week. The results show that actual working hours are hardly related to employees' mental health but job quality, especially intrinsically meaningful work, less intensified work and having a favourable social environment, has positive effects on employee mental health, even in jobs with short working hours. Moreover, although working less than one prefers (under-employment) has negative effects, these negative effects become much smaller in size and non-significant in good quality jobs, especially in jobs with skill discretion and good job prospects. These findings develop the debates about a shorter standard working week by emphasising the continued and crucial importance of job quality in debates on the future of work. These results also suggest that policymakers should pay particular attention to job quality when addressing the dramatic reduction in total hours of employment in Europe following the COVID-19 crisis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
... From a different perspective, organizations' labor flexibility is associated with their ability to reduce the rigidity in the labor market. Askenazy (2004) states flexibility can be achieved through the number of jobs created, changes in the typology of tasks performed by an employee or changes in the number of working hours. In university spin-offs, the number of working hours is typically quite high, and it is not possible to follow the traditional timetable set by companies in the sector. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the human resource management practices and the associated dimensions of quality of employment in university spin-offs. Through this, it becomes possible to explore and recognize the practices and difficulties placed on the employees of university spin-offs.
Design/methodology/approach
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) framework to assess the quality of work in the European Union is adopted. It is used a qualitative approach through the development of four case studies at university spin-offs located in Portugal. These case studies relate to four sectors of activity, such as information technology, urban mobility, health and electronics.
Findings
The findings reveal that most of the challenges of quality of work in a spin-off university are common to those in an SME or micro company. Among these factors, the authors highlight the lack of job security, reduced or no social protection and very low income and nonwage pecuniary benefits. Other factors specific to university spin-offs also emerge, such as the numerous opportunities for skills development and training, the potentialities to become an entrepreneur and the high number of working hours that are necessary to face the vibrant market dynamics.
Originality/value
The study aims to contribute, in a theoretical and empirically grounded basis, to the knowledge about the quality of employment in a spin-off university. This work becomes relevant for policymakers to understand in depth the specific challenges faced by employees of a spin-off university.
... 在竞争激烈的"信息时代"，加班变得越来越普遍( Sparks et al., 2001)。人们越来越关注加班对心理 健康的影响。加班对员工的健康产生的不利影响包括身体健康，心理健康和行为问题以及生活失衡等 ( Danna & Griffin, 1999)。先前的研究表明加班对员工的心理健康有不利影响 (Van Der Hulst & Geurts, 2001;Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2006;Costa et al., 2004;Caruso et al., 2004)。 职业心理学和健康研究表明，每天或每周加班的员工往往会感到压力和疲劳加剧，因此面临生病， 受伤， 倦怠或工作和家庭失衡的额外风险。 如果加班是强制的， 则尤其如此 (Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2006)。 劳累过度会对员工的心理健康产生不利影响。 工作量的增加和加班时间的增加， 特别是在重复性任务中， 降低了员工的心理健康 (Ashkenazy, 2004)。加班容易造成负面情绪，例如抑郁，焦虑，紧张，烦躁不安和 易怒情绪( Danna & Griffin, 1999)。尤其，加班会导致与工作相关的压力，从而导致行为的改变，例如饮 酒增加，吸烟增加，睡眠障碍，暴力和冲突( Quick et al., 1986) 1879 心理学进展 短的员工(t = −5.3，p < 0.01；t = −5.8，p ...
... 8 The increased number of hours has sometimes been proposed as an alternative proxy for work effort. This has been criticized by various authors, including Green (2004) or Askenazy (2004), who point out that a reduction in working hours can actually be associated with the intensification of work effort. This is particularly relevant for Japan. ...
... Employers were also found to exchange working time reductions for increases in employer-led working time flexibility (Blyton, 1995;Tergeist, 1995). For instance, a reduction of working time to a 35-hour week in France gave rise to greater unpredictability and employer-oriented flexibility that required more effort from employees (Askenazy, 2004). ...
Work intensity is of central importance for organisational performance, as well as workers' health and well-being, yet its determinants at the workplace-level remain underresearched. This article addresses this gap by examining consequences of working time adjustments for work intensity and the role of control over scheduling in influencing when working time adjustments have stronger effect on work intensity. Working hours are analysed on three dimensions: duration, distribution and flexibility. Analysis uses the European Working Conditions Survey (2005–2015) and a sample of employees from EU28 countries. Findings reveal that work intensity is closely related to the timing of work. Working long days or weeks, at night, on weekends, and with changes in hours imposed by employers is associated with more intense work. Moreover, the impact of non-standard hours on work intensity differs depending on who (workers or employers) has control over their scheduling.
... 39), aiming to reduce unemployment, gender inequality and enhance work-life balance (Fagnani & Letablier, 2004). Research into the effects of the 35-hour week has produced mixed results (Askenazy, 2004;Fagnani & Letablier, 2004), including 2-3% loss of compensation for management and sales personnel, increase in leisure time and an overall perception of work-life balance, especially for women with young children, lower commute time, less fatigue, better quality of time, increased engagement/motivation of employees, and increase in productivity. Middle-and higher-income groups employees with more control over their work schedules were more likely to welcome this change. ...
In this review questions such as " What is a good use of time? " , " How can one achieve satisfaction with their time? " and " How can one's relationship with time contribute to their well-being? " are raised and discussed with regard to empirical research on various aspects of positive psychology of time. This paper differs from traditional approach to thinking about time in organisations in three substantial ways. Firstly, it reviews the existing empirical research on time use, focusing on the implications of this research for organizations and individuals. Secondly, it highlights the limitations of believing that time is infinitely stretchable and defined good time use as one that results in increased well-being, rather than productivity at the expense of well-being. Thirdly, although the workplace is in the centre of the paper, we view time use from a broader perspective of life and work-leisure balance. A range of evidence is considered, based on both objective and subjective time use studies, suggesting specific measures to increase well-being through time use, first of all, at workplace, but also touching on other domains, such as media, leisure, etc. Based on Self-Determination Theory, we argue that good time use results from choosing activities that help people to satisfy their basic needs and are directed at intrinsic goals (helping other people, establishing relationships, developing and growing as a person, maintaining health and balance in one's life). A pathway to increase basic need satisfaction and, as a result, happiness associated with good time use, is by supporting autonomy: giving people more opportunities for choosing and working towards goals that are self-congruent and intrinsic, benefitting both themselves and societies.
... 8 The increased number of hours has sometimes been proposed as an alternative proxy for work effort. This has been criticized by various authors, including Green (2004) or Askenazy (2004), who point out that a reduction in working hours can actually be associated with the intensification of work effort. This is particularly relevant for Japan. ...
... Issues related to work, including long work hours, work intensity, and work-family conflict have been attracting increasing attention from researchers and practitioners (Askenazy 2004; Bosiard et al. 2003; Journal of Health Management, 15, 3 (2013): 361–382 decrease it (Geurts et al. 1999; Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Kinnunen & Mauno, 1998; Michel et al. 2010; Thomas & Ganster 1995). In this research, work intensity, which seems related to work-family conflict, has been handled and its relation with work-family conflict has been tested. ...
The main purpose of this article is to advance the understanding of the relations between work intensity factors and work-family conflict factors in the collectivist culture pattern of Turkey. Data were collected using questionnaires from 462 health care professionals who are working in 25 different state hospitals and 12 cities in Turkey. SEM using by LISREL 8.0, hierarchical regression analysis, and ANOVA were used in analyzing the data.
The structural equation modelling results showed that work intensity factors were the significant predictors of work-to-family conflict factors for Turkish health care professions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that personal demographics and work situation characteristics accounted for a significant increment in explained variance on the time based work family conflict factors measure. Support was found for the hypothesis that samples would demonstrate a positive relation between work intensity and work-family conflict for Turkish health care professions.
There are no statistically significant differences of time, strain and behaviour based work-to-family conflict according to gender, age, marital status, having children and function. There is a significant difference between the work-family conflict levels of health care professionals according to number of children, education level, work hours per week and organizational position.
... The evidence seems to indicate that the stronger specific effect of FPS on productivity is related to a 'traditional' typology of wage premium, like individual FPS, where interactions with work organization innovations are limited and where trade unions are not involved, as the first-stage estimations show. Such types of schemes seem to be merely adopted in order to extract more effort from the employees in a way addressed to intensify the work pace, as indicated in a critical literature on organisational changes and work intensification (Green, 2004; Askenazy, 2004). This does not mean that only traditional pay for performance schemes are related to productivity. ...
Since the July 1993 agreement, the adoption of company agreements based on a link between compensation and company performance has spread, becoming quite significant a presence even at the local level, without, however, involving companies overall where collective bargaining takes place. Consequently, studies of bonuses have recently been addressed to the examination of this phenomenon also for firms located in specific geographical areas, not just with reference to a sample of them, in general of medium-large size, at the national level. In this study, company bargaining on performance-related pay [PRP] and/or pay for participation [PFP] is examined in the years 1994-1997 in Emilia-Romagna. First of all, forms of agreement on PRP/PFP are analysed to find out the incentive, risksharing and participation mechanisms suggested by economic theory and embodied within each contract. Secondly, an econometric analysis is carried out on the factors behind the introduction of PRP/PFP, and of the various forms it takes in practice. This paper summarises the results of a study carried out within the project MURST ex 40%
... An empirical study on workers engaged in a type of formal flexible work arrangement reported less stress and burnout than employees who are not involved in flexible arrangements . However, Ashkenazy (2004) based on econometric modelling of the impact of RWT on employees wellbeing, suggests that the RWT introduced in France to counter work intensification does not necessarily produce an improvement in workers' wellbeing. This may have happened because in the bargaining between employees and employers after the introduction of RWT, the pay and work intensity remained the same as before the introduction of RWT. ...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore psychological, social and work related health aspects of harm imposed on stakeholders, such as employees, their families and communities, by organizations while using efficiency based human resource management (HRM) practices.
Design/methodology/approach
– The ethical issues of negative externality (NE) or harm of HRM practices are scrutinized using ethics of care for a stakeholders' perspective. Further, the conceptual framework of NE of HRM is used to analyse the psychological, social and work related health harm of one of the strategic HRM practices, work intensification, a widely used practice to improve the efficiency of employees.
Findings
– It is evident from this article that NE of work intensification has become the major contributor to the psychological, social, and work related health aspects of harm on the stakeholders, and they as third parties render the costs for managing this harm.
Research limitations/implications
– The harm indicators and the associated costs are drawn from published research that was not conducted for the purpose of identifying the harm of the NE of HRM practices. Hence, it is suggested that it would be useful to develop a tool to measure the harmful effects of HRM practices on the stakeholders.
Practical implications
– The analysis of NE of work intensification can help managers to be proactive in introducing sustainable HRM strategies so as to minimize the harms of NE of HRM practices.
Originality/value
– The framework of NE of HRM provides a new insight that overutilization of human resources for maximizing an organisation's profit has an unsustainable impact on society.
... 9 The increased number of hours has sometimes been proposed as an alternative proxy for work effort. This has been criticized by various authors, including Green (2004) or Askenazy (2004), who point out that a reduction in working hours can actually be associated with the intensification of work effort. This is particularly relevant for Japan. ...
This paper aims at explaining two stylized facts of the Lost Decade in Japan: rising wage inequalities and increasing firm-level productivity differentials. We build a model where firms can choose between efficiency wages with endogenous effort and competitive wages, and show that it can replicate those facts. Using Japanese microeconomic data, we find support for the existence of efficiency wages in one group of firms and competitive wages in the other group. Based on those results, a simulation shows that the share of firms using efficiency wages has declined, within sectors, during the Lost Decade, as predicted by the model.
... In this view (intensification thesis) the management uses the 'new' organizational practices to strengthen control over workers' efforts and to intensify the pace of work. The work intensification that several economies have experienced in recent years (Green, McIntosh, 2001;Green, 2004;Askenazy, 2004;Fairris, 2004) can be understood as a result of technological changes in addition to reorganization. ...
Changes in organization of work and production certainly impact on the workers well being. Whether such an influence is positive or negative is an empirical matter, upon which the present work tries to shed light for a local production system located in Northern Italy. During the 1990s several economists and managerial scholars pointed to the positive effects on workers from the introduction of new forms of work and production organization; however, some more recent studies highlight its potential negative effects. In addition to the organizational innovations it is important not to overlooking other aspects of firms' innovation activity and industrial relations that may influence the working conditions. Cooperative relationships at firm level between union delegates and management are likely to be linked with good quality working conditions. Our empirical aim is twofold. First, we disentangle the role of innovation intensity in four different innovation areas (technology, organization, training and ICT), on working conditions. The evidence is mixed. On the one hand, innovations have an overall positive effect on working conditions. However, this effect is weak and for specific organizational aspects, is negative. Second, we confirm the relationship between cooperative industrial relations, at firm level, and working conditions.
... Second, a more prolific literature has examined society-level changes in the structure of work relationships, reflecting widespread concerns about fundamental changes in the way people work (e.g., Howard, 1995). Several parallel phenomena are worth noting here: changes in work relationships based on technological developments in the workplace (e.g., Griffith and Neale, 2001), increases in the variety of careers over the lifespan and shortening times spent in careers (e.g., Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006), the globalization of markets and concomitant issues of off-shoring labor (cf., Harrison and MacMillan, 2006), child labor (e.g., Cigno et al., 2001), and diminishing 7 Critical IO Psychology 17 power of local labor organizers (Goldfield, 1987), and the "flexibilization" of labor and the increase in spot contracts and part-time work among adults (e.g., Askenazy, 2004). All have led to a difficulty in using traditional career categories to describe the world of work. ...
... In this view (intensification thesis) the management uses the 'new' organizational practices to strengthen control over workers' efforts and to intensify the pace of work. The work intensification that several economies have experienced in recent years (Green, McIntosh, 2001; Green, 2004; Askenazy, 2004; Fairris, 2004) can be understood as a result of technological changes in addition to reorganization. In particular, the increasing diffusion of ICT (Brynjolfsson, Hitt, 2000; Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, Hitt, 2002) has been identified as a cause of stress among workers because of the possibility they provide to management to monitor and control workers more intensively (Green, 2004). ...
Given that recent studies highlight the potentially negative impact of ‘new’
or ‘high performance’ work practices on workers, the main objective of
the present study is to investigate the effects of such work practices on
workers’ well-being for a northern Italy local production system. In addition,
it is also important not to overlook the role of other firms’ innovation
activities and industrial relations. Thus, the empirical strategy aims to
disentangle the role of innovation intensity in four different areas (technology,
organization, training and ICT) and that of cooperative industrial
relations at firm level on working conditions. The evidence is mixed.
On the one hand, innovations have an overall positive effect on working
conditions. However, this effect is weak and for specific organizational
aspects, is negative. On the other hand, cooperative industrial relations are
always positively and robustly linked to workers’ well-being
... A lack of control over either the volume or scheduling of work hours may reinforce, compound or exacerbate the effects of long hours on workers (Fenwick and Tausig 2001; Bliese and Halvorsen, 2001; Berg, Appelbaum and Kalleberg, 2004). Greater variation over time in workers' hours tends to reduce their well being (Askenazy, 2004; Heisz and LaRochelle-Cote, 2006). A disproportionate share of all employees who control their work schedules, however, are professional and managerial employees (Gershuny; Lesnard and de Saint Pol, 2009). ...
One of the costs organizations may incur is those associated with controlling employees’ work hours and schedules. This chapter examines the empirical association between long work hours, ability to control their work timing and their self reported experience of adverse physical health. One such inflexibility is the inability of a worker to refuse extra work hours, so that it is more mandatory than strictly voluntary. The other is the inability to change starting and quitting times of work on a daily basis. In the 2002 General Social Survey Quality of Work module, a total of 28 percent of the employed face the working condition of mandatory extra work hours, about half say they are not able to set their own starting and ending time of work at least some of the time and 15 percent have both inflexible daily work schedules and mandatory overtime work. The analysis focuses on three direct indicators of physical pain and also indirect contributors, work stress and daily fatigue. Cross tabulations find that adverse effects of long and extra work hours are exacerbated when the overtime work is mandatory in nature and also if schedules are inflexible. Multinomial logistic regression analysis investigates the extent to which inflexibility is associated with more frequent back, arm and wrist or neck pain, risk of getting hurt at work, work stress or daily fatigue. It attempts to disentangle the detrimental effects of long work hours per se from the working condition that extra hours are required or schedules are flexible for employees. Extra work hours generally are associated with cumulative injury and chronic pain more than suffering an acute type of injury at work, and also with elevated work stress and daily fatigue. When overtime is perceived as mandatory it further raises the incidence of back and arm pain. In contrast, having inflexible start and end times is associated with suffering an acute injury at work. When regressions control for a wide range of demographic and job factors, including the heavy lifting and hand movements required at the job, back pain is more prevalent when overtime is mandatory than when voluntary, but arm and wrist pain is associated with long work hours per se. Back pain and arm pain are also associated with perceived safety of the workplace when overtime work is not strictly voluntary. Thus, for cumulative types of pain, the mandatory nature of overtime is often at least as important as the overtime itself. Investing in greater choice to refuse extra hours may be quite low cost and the return in terms of improved worker physical health and safety at the workplace may be high.
... In the same vein, worker participation is perceived as a method for co-opting workers into a managerial perspective in order to preserve hierarchical authority without bureaucratic control (Vidal, 2007). The work intensification that several economies have experienced during the 90s and in more recent years is explained, by some scholars (Green, McIntosh, 2001; Green, 2004; Askenazy, 2004; Fairris, 2004), as a result of the diffusion of HPWP. Parallel to the critical view a positive position maintains that the adoption of HPWP increases workers' well being (empowerment thesis) through a multiplicity of channels (Handel, Levine, 2004; Askenazy, Caroli, 2006). ...
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the relationships between working conditions, innovation activities and industrial relations in two local production systems located in the northern Italy, exploiting data collected through ad‐hoc surveys in 2004 and 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a recent stream of literature, which is still quite scanty, that addresses the issue of the implication for workers derived from the introduction of organizational changes. This topic is addressed and extended, taking into consideration both the role of firm level industrial relations and the role of other innovation activities that may influence working conditions.
Findings
The results seem to support the position maintained by the advocates of organizational changes. Job empowerment is spurred by the form of organizational changes usually defined as high performance workplace practices. However, such typology of changes in the organization does not seem to be linked with positive trends in safety/security and stress. At the same time the positive role of cooperative industrial relations on the working condition emerges, also as complementary elements to innovation activities.
Originality/value
This work confirms some relevant empirical results obtained in international literature about the linkages between organizational changes and working conditions. At the same time it provides an original perspective of analysis taking into account other influencing factors of workers' well being: good quality industrial relations at firm level and innovation activities such as technological innovation and ICT.
... In this view (the intensification thesis), the management uses the 'new' organizational practices to strengthen control over workers' efforts and to intensify the pace of work. The work intensification that several economies have experienced in recent years (Askenazy, 2004;Fairris, 2004;Green, 2004;Green and McIntosh, 2001) can be understood as a result of technological changes in addition to reorganization. In particular, the increasing diffusion of ICT (Bresnahan et al., 2002;Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2000) has been identified as a cause of stress among workers because of the possibility they provide to management to monitor and control workers more intensively (Green, 2004). ...
The shifting of labour demand toward relatively more skilled workers has been a hot issue in the economic field for many years. A consolidated explanation for the upskilling phenomenon is that technological-organisational changes have driven the labour demand with detrimental consequences for less skilled workers (skill-biased technological-organisational change). In order to upgrade the skill workforce the firm has at least two main channels at its disposal: the external labour market strategy, mainly based on hiring and firing mechanisms; the internal labour market strategies, which improve the skill base of the employees through training activities. The main objective of the present work is to verify the relations between innovative strategies and both the workforce composition and the training activities, within an integrated framework that also leads us to consider the role of specific aspects of the industrial relations system. The firm level analysis is based on original datasets which include data on manufacturing firms for two Italian local production systems, located in the Emilia-Romagna region. The results suggest that the firms use both the two channels to improve their skill base, which is actually related to the innovation activities, although there is weak supporting evidence of the use of external labour markets to upgrade the workforce skills: the upskilling phenomenon seems to be associated to specific innovative activities in the technological sphere, while specific organisational aspects emerge as detrimental for blue collars. On the side of internal labour market strategies the evidence supports the hypothesis that innovation intensity induces the firms to implement internal procedures in order to upskill the workforce, confirming the importance of internal labour market strategies. Moreover, we have recognized the important role of firm level industrial relations in determining the training activities for the blue collar workers.
... The new constraints linked to a more flexible work organization (fluctuating and staggered hours, which are not always predictable in advance, long days, etc.) are meant to be compensated by shorter working time. However, it is difficult to know from a theoretical point of view whether work is indeed less "hard" (Askenazy, 2004). Empirical studies of employees' work confirm that it is difficult to obtain a single answer to such questions. ...
France has experienced massive changes in its regulation of working time during the last decade. These changes generate natural experiments that may help to study a variety of issues in labor economics, including work sharing effect on job creation or productivity, labor relations or adaptation of firms to regulation. This paper provides a primer for researchers interested by working on these issues. It includes detailed information about the 35-hour laws and their progressive removal, and discusses the first wave of research evaluating these policies, that draws a contrasted picture. It also highlights some unexplored lines of research.
This study investigated the relationship between childcare support services and employee commitment in deposit money banks in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey in its investigation of the variables. The primary source of data was generated through self administered questionnaire. The target population for this study was 1197 employees drawn from the main branches of 19 deposit money banks in Rivers State. A sample of three hundred (300) respondents
was calculated using Taro Yamane’s formula for sample size determination. The hypotheses were tested using Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient. The tests were carried out at a 95% confidence interval and a 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed there is a significant relationship between child care support services and employee commitment to deposit money banks in Rivers State. The study thus concludes that child care support services significantly relate with employee commitment in deposit money banks in Rivers State, Nigeria. Therefore, the study recommends that management of Deposit Money Banks should create child care support assistance as this will help the employee. Which are crèche services, day nursery and after-school childcare.
Keywords: Child Care Support, Employee Commitment, Affective Commitment, Continuance
Commitment, Normative Commitment
In this paper, we exploit a panel of industry‐level data in European countries to study the economic impact of national reductions in usual weekly working hours between 1995 and 2007. Our identification strategy relies on the five national reforms that took place over this period and on initial differences across sectors in the share of workers exposed to the reforms. On average, the number of hours worked in more affected sectors fell, hourly wages rose, while employment did not increase. The effect on value added per hour worked appears to be positive but non‐significant.
Purpose
This article critically investigates a management-led experiment to institute a four-day work week with stated intentions of improving productivity and worker wellbeing. The article analyses the framing and implementation of the reduced work hours (RWH) trial, the responses of employees and the outcomes and implications of the trial. It raises concerns regarding the managerial appropriation of employee aspirations for more autonomy over time and improved work life.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a qualitative case study of a medium-sized company operating in the financial services sector in New Zealand. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 employees.
Findings
Our study finds that the promise of a four-day week attracted employee favour and individualised benefits. However, entrenched managerialist practices of performance measurement, monitoring and productivity pressures were intensified. Pro-social and collective interests evident in labour-led campaigns were absent. We urge greater critical scrutiny into seemingly advantageous “business case” initiatives for reduced work hours.
Originality/value
Little is known about what happens to concern for social and employee interests entailed in reduced working hours initiatives when a management-led initiative is implemented. Indeed, the majority of research focuses on the macro-level rather than interrogating the “black box” of firms. Our inquiry contributes to these debates by asking, how does a management-led RWH initiative affect employees?
p> Objetivo: refletir sobre as implicações do trabalho em Home Office no período da pandemia de COVID-19 na saúde dos indivíduos, sob a perspectiva da Teoria da Adaptação desenvolvida por Callista Roy. Método: estudo reflexivo baseado na aplicação da Teoria da Adaptação desenvolvida por Callista Roy relacionada às modificações do processo de trabalho impostas pela crise sanitária da pandemia de COVID-19, com ênfase no Home Office. Resultados: a Teoria da Adaptação de Callista Roy possui quatro modos adaptativos: fisiológico, autoconceito, desempenho de papel e interdependência. É possível verificar a interlocução de todas essas dimensões no trabalho em Home Office imposto pelo contexto da pandemia. Conclusão: a Teoria de Callista Roy subsidia as discussões sobre a possibilidade de adaptação neste novo contexto, seja de maneira pontual ou mediante transformações no processo de trabalho em longo prazo, superando limitações do indivíduo e descobrindo maneiras de se fazer e ser no campo do trabalho.
Descritores: Saúde do Trabalhador. Teoria de Enfermagem. Enfermagem. Pandemias. Infecções por Coronavírus.</p
What is the strategic value of flexible labor contracts to workers? To answer this question, we examine workers’ labor supply decisions when choosing among alternative work arrangements ranging from permanent and pensionable to fixed-term, shift work, zero-hour, and on-call to gigs. We then introduce the concept of real options as a framework in which to analyze contract valuation from the workers’ perspective. For a non-standard employment contract to have real option value, the contract must both lead to future choices and enable advantageous access to future opportunities. Using case studies from a diverse set of industries and guided by the real options framework, we examine when contract flexibility contains valuable real option characteristics for the utility maximizing worker, or the profit maximizing firm, or, surprisingly, both.
In a near future where manufacturing companies are faced with the rapid technological developments of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Industry 4.0, a need arises to consider how this will affect human operators remaining as a vital and important resource in modern production systems. What will the implications of these orchestrated and ubiquitous technologies in production – a concept we call Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) – be on the health, learning and operative performance of human workers? This paper makes three main contributions to address the question. First, it synthesizes the diverse literature regarding CPS and social sustainability in production systems. Second, it conceptualizes a holistic framework, the CyFL Matrix, and outlines a guideline to analyze how the functionalities of a CPPS relate to operational and social sustainability-related performance impacts at different levels of analysis. Finally, it presents an industrial use case, which the CyFL Matrix and the related guidelines are applied to. In doing so, the study offers first support to researchers and manager of manufacturing companies willing to define suitable operational and social sustainability-related performances for Human-centric Cyber-Physical Production Systems of the future.
This research explores the relationship between three different dimensions of work hours with individuals’ reported level of happiness — its duration, mismatch with preferences and flexibility over its timing. Using pooled data from the US General Social Survey (1972-2012) and two of its modules, we find many nuances in the association of the weekly duration of work hours and happiness level among those employed. This includes patterns by occupation, such as managerial-administrative vis-a-vis others, income levels and size of geographical location of work. Working hours just below 40 hours per week tends to be associated inversely with happiness, and also in the shortest hours of work bracket, depending on control variables. Happiness is also frequently lower at the level of weekly hours just above the 40-hour standard. In contrast, working very long hours is associated positively with happiness. However, this is virtually all attributable to the income level of the worker. Alternative indicators of work hours duration largely reinforce these findings. In addition, being underemployed — below one’s preferred workweek, willing to work longer, regardless of hours duration — is consistently associated with reduced happiness level. We offer possible explanations for these “underemployed worker” and “happy worker” effects in the US institutional context. Finally, indicators of flexibility employee-centered, such as setting of one’s work schedule, are strongly associated with greater happiness, robust through all control variables. The findings may provide support for public policies that are intended to curb both the incidence and extent of worker underemployment and to promote a legal right of employees to request and receive a preferred minimum workweek and/or reconfiguration of the duration, timing and flexibility of their work hours or schedule, in the pursuit of individual and national happiness.
This study aims to assess the demographic influences on work intensification (work-family conflict, work flexibility, managerial/supervisory support, child/elderly care and employee wellness) of office-based employees in a public sector organization. A survey method was adopted for this quantitative study, and a sample of 100 employees was drawn utilizing the simple random sampling technique. The differing responses and findings reveal significant differences with each demographic factor (age, marital status, race, education qualifications, position in organization, length of service and number of children) and at least one construct of work intensification. The study utilizes a self-developed questionnaire which was pilot-tested; and the validity and reliability was determined. An interesting finding in the study is that the volume of workload emerged with significant differences with five of the demographic variables. Based on the results of the study, the recommendations provide practical implications and a useful guide for managers who work with a diverse workforce with the goal of enhancing productivity and performance on an ongoing basis. The article culminates with a discussion of recommendations and conclusion.
This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the discussions in the preceding chapters. It is argued that in no country that engaged in 'straight' work-sharing (i.e., decreasing the workweek from, say, forty to thirty-five hours) created extra employment. In all countries there were and still are forces pushing for some form of work-sharing. However, the exact implementation is an equilibrium phenomenon that largely depends on a complex set of factors ranging from institutions, the size and international positioning of the country (contrast Sweden, a small open country, and France, a much bigger country with ambiguous feelings vis-à-vis globalization); the centralization or decentralization of union-firm bargaining (compare Germany, with industry-level bargaining, versus France, with relatively weak unions); and family preferences (contrast the Netherlands, where a significant proportion of citizens prefer women to take care of children, versus Sweden, where men are virtually mandated to take parental leave).
This article aims to contribute to knowledge regarding determinants of happiness by examining the independent role of worker discretion over working time, using data pooled from two years of a nationally representative US survey. Controlling for a worker’s income bracket and work hours duration, having work schedule flexibility in the form of an ability to take time off during the work day and, to a slightly lesser extent, to vary starting and quitting times daily, are both associated with greater happiness, whereas an ability to refuse overtime work is weak at best. The associations are generally stronger among workers paid by the hour than by salary. Utility functions thus may be improved by including the timing and flexibility of working time. Policies and practices that promote more employee-centered flexible working time may not only help workers alleviate work-life time conflicts, but also promote worker well-being generally, especially among hourly workers.
A theoretical economic model is developed to explain the disparities in flexible work scheduling observed across firms, workplaces, sectors, and time periods. Given heterogeneity in firms’ costs, the supply of flextime is determined by firms’ costs of enacting versus not adopting it. The innovative practice would be adopted if it generates net unit labor cost savings. If it is cost neutral, the extent to which the supply of flextime falls short of worker demand for it depends on the extent to which employers must accommodate employee preferences for more time sovereignty and are induced by policy incentives to switch to flexible scheduling.
A theoretical economic model is developed to explain the disparities in flexible work scheduling observed across firms, workplaces, sectors and time periods. The model incorporates features of the behavioral economics approach to explaining the adoption of workplace innovations. The supply of flextime provided by employers is determined by firms' perceived costs of enacting versus the costs incurred of not adopting it. The practice would be adopted if it is expected to yield net unit labor cost savings. While technological advances have increased firm capacity to provide them, worker demand for flexible work schedules still far exceeds the supply. In the case of cost neutrality, the extent to which the supply of flex-time falls short of worker demand for it depends on the extent to which employers either choose to or are forced to accommodate employee preferences for greater time sovereignty. The public goods property of flexible work schedules provide a strong case for subsidizing firms who adopt them as an incentive and to defray their start-up cost.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present review was to summarize the scientific literature about the consequences of long and nonstandard workhours and employee influence over workhours on different measures of worklife balance. METHODS: Literature with a focus on the social consequences of the organization of workhours on worklife balance was searched in large databases such as PSYC-info and PubMed; the result was supplemented with other relevant literature. RESULTS: An association between larger numbers of workhours and lower levels of worklife balance was strongly supported among women. For men, the results were less conclusive, while, for gender-mixed groups, an association between overtime work and lower levels of worklife balance was strongly supported. There was strong evidence that nonstandard workhours had a negative influence on worklife balance and some evidence that it had a negative influence on children’s well-being and on marital satisfaction. Employee influence over work schedule was associated with a better worklife balance in several studies. However, clear conclusions were difficult to draw due to methodological problems in the studies. Interventions that included reduced hours with wage compensation, rapidly rotating shifts, and increased influence on work schedules all showed positive effects on social life indicators. CONCLUSIONS: The social consequences of worktime arrangements are relatively well documented in the scientific literature. There is a need for intervention studies, longitudinal studies, and studies focusing on the influence on schedule, consequences regarding children’s development and well-being, and marital satisfaction.
This paper analyzes the consequences of compulsory reductions in working time on employment. The first part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of labor demand when the firm chooses the number of jobs and hours. This framework allows us to show that compulsory reductions in standard hours can increase employment only if wage compensation is sufficiently low. Then, the second part of the paper looks at the determinants of wages, hours and employment in different frameworks: perfect competition, collective bargaining, monopsony. It is shown that regulation of hours is justified and can even increase employment when competition is imperfect. However, compulsory reductions in working hours cannot systematically improve employment and welfare.
This paper uses the European Working Conditions Surveys to examine the intensity of work for male and female employees. The first section gives an overview of the usefulness of the survey for examining European Union (EU) working conditions and shows how women's intensity of work has been increasing faster than that of men, so that by the year 2000 there was little gender difference in the speed of work. Section two demonstrates that the intensity of work has a negative effect on health and work-life balance, and this effect is stronger for women than for men.
We investigate the impact of new work practices on well-being at work. We use a unique French dataset providing detailed information for a large representative sample of individual workers for year 1998. New work practices include the use of quality norms, job rotation, collective discussions on work organization and working time flexibility. Well-being at work is captured by occupational risks and injuries as well as various indicators of mental strain. After correcting for selection bias, we find that well-being at work of workers involved in the new practices is still significantly worse than that of other workers.
This paper considers causal inference and sample selection bias in non-experimental settings in which: (i) few units in the non-experimental comparison group are comparable to the treatment units; (ii) selecting a subset of comparison units similar to the treatment units is difficult because units must be compared across a high-dimentional set of pretreatment characteristics. We propose the use of propensity score matching methods, and implement them using data from the NSW experiment.
ShorterWorking Hours And Organisational Innovation Dynamics : Evidence from France During the Nineties.
This article uses a survey of French establistment with 20 or more employees to study the connections between shorter working hours and organisational changes. In the nineties, shorter working hours seemed part of an effort to adapt the work organisation to the technological environment, initially by investing in information and communication technologies and subsequently by reducing working hours and extending organisational innovation through multitasking and just-in-time techniques.
Across many European countries, the 1990s have witnessed an intensification of labour effort. Using data from The European Survey on Working Conditions (ESWCs), we find that Britain has experienced the fastest rise in work effort, while in western Germany, Denmark and Greece there has been very little effort intensification. Effort is higher in jobs that use computers more frequently, and, with the exception of Britain, higher in private sector than public sector jobs. Effort has increased faster in countries where trade union density has declined the most. However, there remains a significant shift in effort that is not accounted for by available explanatory variables.
This paper matches establishment-level data on workplace transformation (e.g., quality circles, work teams, and just-in-time production) with measures of cumulative trauma disorders at these same establishments to explore the relationship between “flexible” workplace practices and workplace health and safety. The results reveal a positive, statistically significant, and quantitatively sizeable relationship between cumulative trauma disorders and the use of quality circles and just-in-time production.
It is sometimes asserted that an era of faster economic growth has come about --the so-called New Economy. New technology, notably information and communications technology (ICT), is seen as a key factor at work, together with international economic integration. This report examines the issue from a labour market perspective. The findings suggest that sanguine predictions about the New Economy are unlikely to materialise unless the appropriate policy environment is in place, notably as regards employment and human capital development policies.
New technology holds the promise of higher economic growth, ...
True, new technologies hold the promise of higher economic growth and improved living standards. Besides the potential impact of technology on efficiency gains, ICT may provide opportunities for better utilising existing skills. In this regard, the availability of telework to groups so far underrepresented in the labour market is a positive phenomenon. Also, new technology will ...
A vast and often confusing economics literature relates competition to investment in innovation. Following Joseph Schumpeter, one view is that monopoly and large scale promote investment in research and development by allowing a firm to capture a larger fraction of its benefits and by providing a more stable platform for a firm to invest in R&D. Others argue that competition promotes innovation by increasing the cost to a firm that fails to innovate. This lecture surveys the literature at a level that is appropriate for an advanced undergraduate or graduate class and attempts to identify primary determinants of investment in R&D. Key issues are the extent of competition in product markets and in R&D, the degree of protection from imitators, and the dynamics of R&D competition. Competition in the product market using existing technologies increases the incentive to invest in R&D for inventions that are protected from imitators (e.g., by strong patent rights). Competition in R&D can speed the arrival of innovations. Without exclusive rights to an innovation, competition in the product market can reduce incentives to invest in R&D by reducing each innovator's payoff. There are many complications. Under some circumstances, a firm with market power has an incentive and ability to preempt rivals, and the dynamics of innovation competition can make it unprofitable for others to catch up to a firm that is ahead in an innovation race.
Cet article exploite une enquête représentative des établissements français de plus de 20 salariés pour étudier les relations entre la réduction de la durée du travail (RTT) et les changements organisationnels. Dans les années 90, la RTT semble s'incrire dans une dynamique d'adaptation de l'organisation du travail au contexte technologique. Les établissements réduisent le temps de travail pour approfondir l'innovation organisationnelle, à travers le développement de la polyvalence et du juste à temps. Les unités intensives en technologies de l'information et de la communication anticipent la réduction légale.
This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection as well as empirical evidence on the effects of patent rights. Then, the second part considers the international aspects of IPR protection. In summary, this paper draws the following conclusions from the literature. Firstly, different patent policy instruments have different effects on R&D and growth. Secondly, there is empirical evidence supporting a positive relationship between IPR protection and innovation, but the evidence is stronger for developed countries than for developing countries. Thirdly, the optimal level of IPR protection should tradeoff the social benefits of enhanced innovation against the social costs of multiple distortions and income inequality. Finally, in an open economy, achieving the globally optimal level of protection requires an international coordination (rather than the harmonization) of IPR protection.
European Social Statistics. Accidents at Work and Work-Related Health Problems
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European Commission. European Social Statistics. Accidents at Work and Work-Related Health Problems. Luxembourg: Eurostat, 2003
La Réduction du Temps de Travail en Lorrain: Enjeux, Négociations et Pratiques des Entreprises
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Jacquot, L. and Setti, N. La Réduction du Temps de Travail en Lorrain: Enjeux, Négociations et
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La Réduction Négociée du Temps de Travail
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Ministère du Travail. La Réduction Négociée du Temps de Travail: Bilan 2000-2001. Report to the
French Parliament, 2002.
Gender and the Intensification of Work: Evidence from the
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European Working Conditions Survey. Conference on Work Intensification, Paris, November
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Third European Survey on Working Conditions
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Merllié, D. and Paoli, P. Third European Survey on Working Conditions 2000, Luxembourg: Office
for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001.
Réduction du Temps de Travail et Intensité. Communication to the Conference " Intensification at Work
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Coutrot, T. and Guignon, N. Réduction du Temps de Travail et Intensité. Communication to the
Conference " Intensification at Work ", Paris, November 2002.
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Sauter, S. L., Murphy, L. R., Hurrell, J. J., and Levi, L. Chapter eds. Psychosocial and Organizational Factors, in ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, Geneva: ILO, 2002.
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Accidents at Work and Work-Related Health Problems
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Analyse de la Mise en Oeuvre de la RTT par des Entreprises Alsaciennes Ayant Opté pour la Loi de Robien
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DRTEFP d'Alsace. Analyse de la Mise en Oeuvre de la RTT par des Entreprises Alsaciennes Ayant
Opté pour la Loi de Robien. Administrative Report, 1999.