Controlling Hours of Work
| Pages | 3-11 |
| Published date | 01 March 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055517 |
| Date | 01 March 1985 |
| Author | R.A. Lee |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Controlling Hours of Work
by R.A. Lee, Department of Management Studies, University of Loughborough
Introduction
Organisational hours systems are a major feature of the
overall web of controls and influences which are applied to
employees. For this reason alone it is surprising how little
attention has been focused on them relative to other influence
mechanisms, such as pay, job design, appraisal systems,
budgets and so on. Yet when we consider that, with the
arguable exception of pay, hours systems have the most in-
trusive effect on the employee's total life pattern, their neglect
as a field of study is all the more disconcerting.
There has of course been flexitime[l], a system, or more
correctly a range of systems, giving employees some choice
of start and finish times, the possibility to carry forward
limited balances between settlement periods, and in some
cases the facility to accumulate credit towards half or full
days off.
Flexitime
was
a major advance in hours thinking and hours
practice. Equipment manufacturers estimate that over a
million workers enjoy some variation of the flexitime pat-
tern. Yet it must be said that most of the literature on the
subject has been very limited in its contribution to our
understanding of the total field of hours systems. Most
writers have been journalists rather than academics and have
concentrated their attention on whether or not flexitime is
a "good thing" on operational and humanitarian grounds[2].
Flexitime research has tended to compare flexitime with
fixed hours and draw conclusions as to their relative effects
on performance and people. The problem with this approach
is that it fails to recognise the full range of hours control
systems which might be used. The tendency to limit search
for alternatives is well documented in the literature on
managerial decision making[3]; this is not a justification,
however, for similar myopia from those who seek to develop
understanding about organisations.
A Continuum of Hours Systems
A useful idea when considering hours systems is the control
continuum shown in Figure
1.
The factor which varies along
the continuum is the degree of direction of employee hours
by management. Variable hours represents the system often
used for research workers, senior executives and sales
representatives in which their output is monitored, rather
than their attendance. Flexitime and its still widely used
precursor, staggered hours, are very common in white-collar
applications where limited employee freedoms appear to
cause few operational problems and have many advantages.
Fixed hours, a rigid pattern of start and finish times, still
represents the norm. As we proceed up the continuum
however
we
begin to find systems in which management have
rights to vary employee hours. The simplest cases are those
of organised cover and other forms of controlled shifts but
the recent publicity accorded to British Rail's use of flexible
rostering has demonstrated the possibilities for management
control on a day-to-day basis. At the extreme of the scale,
we would place police officers and members of the armed
forces whose hours may be totally controlled when the task
demands it.
This simple diagram does not, of
course,
represent all the
possible variations, but it serves to demonstrate that a
straight comparison of fixed hours against flexitime is poor
decision making when so many other alternatives exist. It
also serves to highlight the fact that the operation of manage-
ment controlled systems is something about which little is
known.
As the recession bites deeper and hard pressed
managements bid to increase efficiency, it may well be that
there will be more efforts to match hours control systems
to operational and market demands. British Rail may be
showing the
way.
Its system takes the form of eight-week pre-
PR 14,3 1985 • 3
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