The incidence and impact of flexible working arrangements in smaller businesses
| Date | 09 January 2007 |
| Published date | 09 January 2007 |
| Pages | 138-161 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450710719987 |
| Author | Gill Maxwell,Laura Rankine,Sheena Bell,Anna MacVicar |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
The incidence and impact of
flexible working arrangements in
smaller businesses
Gill Maxwell and Laura Rankine
Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
Sheena Bell
School of Business and Management, University of Glasgow,
Glasgow, UK, and
Anna MacVicar
Phoenix University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this article is to investigate the incidence and impact of FWAs in smaller
businesses in Scotland, as an integral part of a recent European Social Fund project. From theoretical
perspectives it discusses the influences on, and impacts of, flexible working arrangements. The focus
is then placed on the smaller business sector as regards its distinctive features and flexible working
arrangements.
Design/methodology /approach – The papers presents the fin dings from empirical wor k
comprising a large-scale survey of, and series of interviews with, owner-managers of smaller
businesses in Scotland.
Findings – Part-time work, time off in lieu, staggered working hours and shift swapping are the
main types of flexible work in smaller businesses. In many incidences flexible working arrangements
are requested by employees, operated informally, and centred on the business needs. There is
significant scope for greater uptake of flexible working arrangements in smaller businesses, especially
in services sector businesses. Positive impacts of flexible work arrangements in recruitment and
retention, enhanced employee relati ons, commitment and loyalty are found , together with
disadvantages of operational problems and administrative burdens. It is proposed that the gap
between the potential for, and current practice in, flexible working arrangements may be narrowed by
targeting information and guidance on such arrangements specifically to the owner-managers of
smaller businesses.
Originality/value – The literature on flexible working mainly concentrates on large organisations.
With the growing economic importance and distinguishing features of the smaller business sector in
the UK, there is a need to focus as much on this sector as large organisations.
Keywords Flexible workinghours, Small enterprises, Employers,Family friendly organizations,
Scotland
Paper type General review
Introduction
Flexible working is defined as “any policies and practices, formal or informal, which
permit people to vary when and where work is carried out.” Flexible working
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
The authors would like to thank Professor M. McDougall for her role in the project.
ER
29,2
138
Received 5 September 2005
Revised 21 February 2006
Accepted 13 March 2006
Employee Relations
Vol. 29 No. 2, 2007
pp. 138-161
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450710719987
arrangements (FWAs) do not necessitate, but may involve, a reduction in working
hours, so a further dimension of work variety is the amount of work. Types of flexible
working practices are numerous: part-time work, job sharing, flexitime, working from
home, time off in lieu, teleworking, term-time working, staggered, annualised or
compressed hours, shift swapping, self-rostering, breaks from work, and flexible and
cafeteria benefits are all FWAs which may support WLB. “Finding the right [work-life]
balance is important to all workers” (Vincola, 1999, p. 13), women and men alike as
Frame and Hartog (2003) stress.
The growing use of flexibility in the workplace is linked to the relatively recent
emergence of work-life balance (Maxwell, 2005) and family friendly employment
policies to support it (see www.flexibility.co.uk/flexwork/technology/anywhere2.htm,
accessed 29 October 2004).
The range of flexible work that support WLB can be seen in Glynn et al.’s (2002, p. 9)
recent scoping of contemporary WLB. WLB includes:
.how long people work (flexibility in the number of hours worked);
.when people work (flexibility in the arrangement of hours);
.where people work (flexibility in the place of work);
.developing people through training so that they can manage the balance better;
.providing back-up support; and
.breaks from work.
Dex and McCulloch (1997) testify to changing forms of FWAs in the UK. Despite there
being evidence of changing forms, the organisational motives for operationalising
FWAs is less obvious. However, the motives for the operation of FWAs as, for
example, labour cost reduction strategies or enablers of WLB – or both – is beyond the
main focus of this article, in its concentration on the incidence and impact of FWAs in
smaller businesses.
Much of the literature on FWAs concentrates on large organisations (Persaud, 2000;
IFF Research, 2005); comparatively little is known about FWAs in smaller businesses.
With the growing economic importance of the smaller business sector (Cromie et al.,
1999), deepening understanding of FWAs here becomes important. The aim of this
article is to investigate the incidence and impact of FWAs in smaller businesses in
Scotland, as an integral part of a recent European Social Fund project. The literature
review discusses influences on, and impacts of, FWAs. The smaller business sector if
also discussed from theoretical perspectives in terms of its nature and management,
and FWAs. On this foundation, the empirical work comprises an investigation of the
incidence and impact of FWAs in smaller businesses in Scotland.
Influences on flexible working arrangements
Government support of flexible working arrangements
Lending active support to the development of flexible working in the UK is the Labour
government who expressly included the topic of WLB in the political manifesto that
returned them to office in 1997. Though WLB is trumpeted by the government, Rop er
et al.’s (2003) survey of 2,000 human resource practitioners’ opinions on the ethics of the
government’s approach to WLB indicates some opposition to the government’s
contention of success. Furthermore, the Equal Opportunities Commission (2004)
Flexible working
in smaller
businesses
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