The use of contractual working time flexibility by Spanish SMEs
| Pages | 164-186 |
| Date | 01 April 2003 |
| Published date | 01 April 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480310460207 |
| Author | Candelaria Ruiz‐Santos,Josefa Ruiz‐Mercader,Frank McDonald |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
The use of contractual working
time flexibility by Spanish
SMEs
Candelaria Ruiz-Santos and Josefa Ruiz-Mercader
Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain, and
Frank McDonald
Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Manchester, UK
Keywords Contracts, Working hours, Flexibility, Spain, Small- to medium-sized enterprises
Abstract This paper investigates the use of contractual working flexibility (temporary and part-
time contracts) by Spanish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A framework based on a
contingency approach is used to identify variables that influence contractual working flexibility and
is used to put forward a number of propositions and hypotheses that are tested using data collected
from a survey of 602 Spanish SMEs. One-way ANOVA analysis results reveal significant
relationships between the level of contractual working flexibility and industry, life cycle, level of
uncertainty, technological system, age, size and human resources practices. These findings are
used to construct profiles of SMEs in relation to use of high and low levels of contractual working
flexibility. The results suggest that various contingency factors as well as uncertainty, lead SMEs to
develop different usage of contractual working flexibility.
Introduction
The importance of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) as job creators
justifies the need to identify the factors that influence the employment
characteristics of these firms. In Europe around 98.9 per cent of firms are SMEs
and they comprise 99.9 per cent of the total businesses established in Spain
(DGPYME, 2000). The use of organisational flexibility is considered vital for
the success of SMEs (Fiegenbaum and Karnani, 1991; Maggina, 1992; Julien,
1993; Gupta and Cawthon, 1996; Moon and Fitzgerald, 1996; Le Blanc et al.,
1997; Lin, 1998; Mouritsen, 1999). However, empirical evidence on this subject
is limited. Moreover, although there is evidence that SMEs use different
patterns of organisational flexibility from large firms, the characteristics of
their use of flexible employment relations has not been extensively explored
(Heneman, 2000; Julien, 1993; Wagar, 1998).
A definition of organisation flexibility, based on post-modern and resource
based theories, includes the ability to deliver cost-efficient responses quickly to
changes in the business environment and to adapt and anticipate changes that
affect the goals of firms (Bueno-Campos, 1992; Ahmed et al., 1996; Albizu-
Gallastegui, 1997; Hitt et al., 1998; Volberda, 1998). Different approaches can be
used to attain these goals. These include flexible organisational systems
(Handy, 1990; Ostroff and Smith, 1993; Ashkenas et al., 1995; Pettigrew and
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PR
32,2
164
Received September
2001
Accepted August 2002
Personnel Review
Vol. 32 No. 2, 2003
pp. 164-186
qMCB UP Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/00483480310460207
Fenton, 2000), flexible human resources practices (Atkinson, 1984; Atkinson
and Meager, 1986; Pollert, 1988; Albizu-Gallastegui, 1997) and flexible
manufacturing systems (Gerwin, 1986; Ban
˜egil-Palacios, 1993; Corre
ˆa, 1994;
Pagell and Krause, 1999; Koste and Malhotra, 1999).
Studies such as Gunnigle et al. (1998) found that one of the clearest
trends among European organisations has been the move towards greater
use of functional, financial and numerical flexibility. Many firms, including
SMEs, have pursued greater levels of orga nisational flexibility by
introducing numerical flexibility in the use of human resources, including
the use of a-typical employees, such as temporary contracts and part-time
work, to enable firms to reduce labour costs rapidly in the face of changes
in demand (Hewitt-Dundas, 1997). The opposition of trade unions has been
regarded as one of the strongest impediments to the utilisation of these
practices (Gooderham and Nordhaug, 1997). Legislation emerging from the
European Union to protect a-typical workers from some of the unacceptable
aspects of flexible working (European Commission, 1993, 1995) has also
influenced the development of flexible working practices (McDonald, 2000).
Nevertheless, in the past decade there has been a clear trend to increase the
use of flexible working practices, especially numerical flexibility, as a key way
to develop labour market flexibility in Europe. The number of people employed
with short-term or part-time contracts has expanded in nearly all European
countries while the proportion of permanent full-time contracts has declined. In
Spain, organisations developed numerical flexibility mainly through
contractual working time flexibility based on temporary contracts rather
than part-time working. This pattern of numerical flexibility stemmed from the
legal system developed in the Franco period. However, changes in the legal
framework governing employment relations has led to changes in the use of
other types of a-typical work (Albizu-Gallastegui, 1997; Ferna
´ndez-Sa
´nchez,
1996), but the characteristics of Spanish employment practices remains
different from much of the rest of Western Europe. Spain and Italy have the
lowest rates of part-time contracts (around 7 per cent in 1996) compared with
the UK (over 20 per cent), but Spain had the highest percentage of temporary
contracts with 33.6 per cent (Brewster and Hegewish, 1994; McDonald and
Tu
¨selmann, 1998).
Several studies have focused on numerical flexibility (Atkinson, 1984;
Brewster and Hegewish, 1994; Brewster et al., 1997; Hutchinson and Brewster,
1995; Mayne et al., 1996; Gunnigle et al., 1998; Salas, 1998; Valverde et al., 2000;
Tarondeau and Voudouris, 2001), but they do not specifically examine the SME
sector. Moreover, as pointed out byValverde et al. (2000, p. 658): “further
research is needed in the search for tools to study the contingencies where
using different types of flexibility is convenient for the firm and the individual
employees”.
The use of
contractual
working time
165
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