Identifying good practice in flexible working
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459810238792 |
| Date | 01 October 1998 |
| Published date | 01 October 1998 |
| Pages | 490-503 |
| Author | Mary Creagh,Chris Brewster |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Employee
Relations
20,5
490
Identifying good practice in
flexible working
Mary Creagh and Chris Brewster
Centre for European Human Resource Management, Cranfield School of
Management, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK
Introduction: is flexibility good or bad?
The use of flexible working throughout Europe is a widely documented
phenomenon and a topic which concerns policy makers, businesses, and
employees (Bielenski et al., 1992; Brewster et al., 1997). The inclusion of an
employment title in the Treaty of Amsterdam makes employment an explicit
objective for action at EU level (TOA, 1997). There is now considerable evidence
that flexible working is widespread across Europe and growing in range and
extent (Brewster et al., 1997; CEC, 1994). There are widespread claims that
flexibility has a positive employment potential and there is increasing pressure
to adopt the rhetoric – and practice – of flexibility as a possible solution to the
current crisis of unemployment across Western Europe and hence that there
should be changes to legislation to encourage its use (CEC, 1994, p. 17). Others,
however have argued that flexible working leads to low wage, low skill, low
security employment (Pollert, 1991).
Our concern in this article is narrower: with the flexibility which is internal
to organisations, rather than the external, public policy driven, flexibility which
is rooted in macroeconomic concerns. The aim of this paper is to examine the
outcomes when flexible working practices were introduced into four European
companies. We examine three elements of flexibility: contract flexibility,
working time flexibility and task flexibility. We examine what happens to the
relationships and responsibilities, among and between management, trade
unions and employees when flexible working is introduced.
We begin by a brief overview of the theoretical arguments around this topic
and how they relate to our findings. We then describe the methodology that we
used to study flexible working and provide a brief description of the
circumstances surrounding each of the case studies. The following section
looks at the findings and how they relate to management, employees and trade
unions; and to the relationships among and between these groups. We conclude
by suggesting that the case studies provide some evidence of the emergence of
particular practices in the introduction and maintenance of flexible working
We are grateful to Directorate General V(A) of the European Commission for funding the research
on which this article is based and to the organisations and trade unions involved in carrying it
out, but wish to emphasise that the views expressed here are the authors’ own and no other party
bears any responsibility for them.
Employee Relations,
Vol. 20 No. 5, 1998, pp. 490-503,
© MCBUniversity Press, 0142-5455
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