For better or for worse? An analysis of how flexible working practices influence employees' perceptions of job quality

By Clare Kelliher, Deirdre Anderson. 2008

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article is concerned with examining the relationship between flexible working practices and employee perceptions of job quality. In recent years a growing number of employers in the UK has introduced flexible working options for employees in response to increasing concerns over work–life balance and the desire to be seen as an ‘employer of choice’. At the same time there has been considerable policy debate among European Union (EU) members over job quality and the need to create not only more but better jobs. It might be expected that since flexible working affords a degree of choice to employees, it would impact positively on their perceptions of job quality. However, to date few studies have explicitly examined how flexible working can contribute to job quality. Where studies have examined outcomes relevant to aspects of job quality, the evidence is somewhat inconclusive. The research reported in this article was designed to explore how experiences of flexible working have influenced employees' perceptions of a range of job quality dimensions. The findings show a generally strong, positive relationship between flexible working and perceptions of job quality, but also that there are perceived costs to job quality, particularly in relation to longer term opportunities for development and progression, suggesting that the relationship is more complex.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9d29f3b1c19d1e7d72d45423bbb53c956e3eb9b3

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In General Health Professions

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Are Flexible Work Arrangements Associated with Lower Levels of Chronic Stress-Related Biomarkers? A Study of 6025 Employees in the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2019, background): “Among professional workers in the UK private sector (Kelliher and Anderson, 2008), flexible workers reported higher levels of job satisfaction than their non-flexible counterparts, alongside the somewhat paradoxical outcome of work intensification.”
Work‐life balance, travel‐to‐work, and the dual career household (2012, background): “Evidence suggests positive impacts; for example, higher levels of satisfaction with work, indicative of perceived improvement, have been reported among those using flexible working arrangements (Kelliher and Anderson, 2008; Hyman and Summers, 2004), women working part-time (Gregory and Connolly, 200”
Flexible work designs and employee well‐being: examining the effects of resources and demands (2015, unknown): “…increased feeling of autonomy is considered an FWD-related resource and is induced by control over work schedule (Kelly et al., 2011; Putnam et al., 2014), work location (Gajendran and Harrison, 2007; Kelliher and Anderson, 2008), and the use of communication technologies (Mazmanian et al., 2013).”
Development and validation of an instrument for assessing job demands arising from accelerated change: The intensification of job demands scale (IDS) (2015, background): “Constant connection to work implies that work never stops and therefore increases work intensity (Kelliher & Anderson, 2008).”
Not All Autonomy is the Same. Different Dimensions of Job Autonomy and Their Relation to Work Engagement & Innovative Work Behavior (2016, background): “Indeed, several studies confirmed that flexible work practices such as working from home or flexitime effectively impact the degree of work method autonomy of employees (Kelliher & Anderson, 2008).”
Flexible Working and Performance: A Systematic Review of the Evidence for a Business Case (2011, unknown): “Finally, several mediators or indirect links with performance (e.g. via job control or autonomy) as well as moderators (e.g. experience of using a FWA) emerged from different studies (e.g. Bailey and Kurland 2002; Gajendran and Harrison 2007; Kelly and Moen 2007; Kelliher and Anderson 2008).”
The New Era Workplace Relationships: Is Social Exchange Theory Still Relevant? (2018, background): “This is also related to the growing flexibility in working hours and the related growing tendency to work from home or in multiple company premises (Kelliher & Anderson, 2008).”