Line Managers’ Rationales for Professionals’ Reduced‐Load Work in Embracing and Ambivalent Organizations

This study examines line managers’ rationales regarding reduced‐load work (RLW), an emerging talent management practice allowing professionals to reduce their workload and take a pay cut, while actively remaining on a career path. Unlike flextime and telework, RLW addresses professionals’ core problems of rising work hours and workloads. Interviews with 42 managers in 20 North American employers suggested that managers were more likely to support RLW for employees whom they saw as (1) high‐performers, (2) flexible in their use of RLW, and (3) doing conducive jobs. Interviews with 20 HR experts and 24 senior executives revealed four dimensions of organizational support, two cultural (senior management support and discourse on career penalties) and two structural (adaptation of HR systems and organizational diffusion). In embracing organizations there was a higher frequency of more supportive managers than there was in ambivalent organizations. Managers’ rationales were connected to their organizational contexts, albeit loosely, suggesting managerial implementation agency. The same rationales were more likely to be used in supportive ways in embracing contexts and in less supportive ways in ambivalent contexts. This study suggests that managerial and organizational support for flexible talent management practices dovetail in nuanced and important ways. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Family-friendly work practices and their outcomes in China: the mediating role of work-to-family enrichment and the moderating role of gender

Based on a survey of a sample of employees (n = 726), we examine whether work-to-family enrichment mediates the relationship between two types of flexible work arrangements (i.e. flextime and a compressed workweek) and two work-related outcomes (job satisfaction and turnover intention). In addition, we examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between flexible work arrangements and work-to-family enrichment and between work-to-family enrichment and the work-related outcomes. The results show that work-to-family enrichment acts as a mediating factor between flexible work arrangements and outcomes. In addition, the relationship between work-to-family enrichment and turnover intention is stronger for female employees. Finally, the implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The adoption of innovative work practices in service establishments

Using data from the 1994 US National Establishment Survey, the author investigates differences between manufacturing and service establishments in the use of five innovative work practices: total quality management, self-managed teams, job rotation, job sharing and flextime. Service establishments are more likely to use job sharing and flextime. Manufacturing establishments are more likely to use total quality management and self-managed teams. These results hold when controlling for establishments’ business strategies, worker demographics, institutional connections and use of technology. Determinants of adoption of total quality management, self-managed teams and flextime also varied by sector.     

Human resource manager insights on creating and sustaining successful reduced‐load work arrangements

Although human resource managers have critical insights into the successful implementation of reduced‐load work arrangements, relatively few studies focus on their perspective. These arrangements are a growing work form for employees who choose to work less than full‐time with a commensurate decrease in salary. Qualitative data analysis was used to identify key success factors noted in interviews with 52 HR managers in 39 companies. Individual employee characteristics (e.g., self‐regulatory work habits) were viewed as most critical. Also important were the design of the arrangement (e.g., clarifying the arrangement in advance) and workgroup relationships (e.g., positive supervisor‐employee relationships). We conclude with eight new takeaways for HR managers on how to create and sustain successful reduced‐load work arrangements and directions for future research and practice. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Managerial perceptions of project stability

This research investigated the importance of stability (ability of schedules to absorb disruption) to project outcomes. Managers involved in aviation systems development were surveyed for their perceptions of importance and usefulness for project attributes and performance management measures. Traditional measures of cost, schedule, performance, and earned value were compared to proposed measures of stability. Stability and earned value had both importance and usefulness to the managers. Stability was perceived to be as important as the more common measures. Perceptions differed depending on program size, scope, and stage of completion and between managers depending on experience and certification level.     

Making Good Things Last Longer: The Role of Savoring on the Relationship Between HRM and Positive Employee Outcomes

This work studies sales managers’ perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices, and the mediating and moderating processes through which these practices are linked with affective commitment. Specifically, we tested whether work engagement mediated the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and affective commitment using a sample of 117 sales managers from one large retail store. Furthermore, we tested whether managers’ savoring strategies would moderate the positive relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and work engagement, and if the strength of the hypothesized indirect effects were conditional on the use of savoring strategies. Results showed that the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and affective commitment was mediated by work engagement. In addition, savoring strategies were found to moderate the relationship between perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and work engagement, so that the highest levels of work engagement were found in individuals who reported high perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices and high use of savoring strategies. Finally, results support a conditional indirect effect of performance‐oriented HR practices on predicting affective commitment via work engagement when levels of savoring strategies were moderate to high, but not when their use was low. Altogether, these results demonstrated that work engagement and savoring strategies represent key elements in explaining how perceptions of performance‐oriented HR practices are associated with affective commitment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Organisational flexibility and HRM in the hotel industry: evidence from Australia

The hotel industry is renowned for its poor pay and employment conditions and a low take‐up of HR practices. It is generally believed that the industry has relied on a lowcost, numerically flexible and disposable workforce. Recently, however, there has been debate concerning the extent to which managers in the hotel industry are embracing high commitment HRM and functionally flexible work practices. This study seeks to shed light on this question by analysing large‐scale survey and interview data on the hotel industry in Australia. While hotel workplaces in general continue to be associated with high levels of numerical and temporal flexibility and greater informality of HR policies, it was apparent that larger luxury hotels were adopting more systematic employee management techniques and strengthening their internal labour markets through functional flexibility initiatives. Such firms were also pursuing numerical and temporal flexibility strategies, although in rather different ways.     

The relationship between high performance work systems and employee proactive behaviour: role breadth self‐efficacy and flexible role orientation as mediating mechanisms

Drawing on the contextual perspective, this study provides novel empirical evidence on how the organisational context (specifically, the firm's human resource strategy) has an effect on employee proactivity. We use matched data from managers and employees in 102 Spanish professional service firms to examine how high performance work systems contribute to enhance employee proactive behaviours through two motivational variables: role breadth self‐efficacy and flexible role orientation. Results of a multilevel study demonstrate that role breadth self‐efficacy mediates between HPWS and employee proactivity, but flexible role orientation does not mediate this relationship.     

Enhancing employee and organizational performance through coaching based on mystery shopper feedback: A quasi‐experimental study

Based on reinforcement theory, a quasi‐experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of (a) feedback obtained from (b) a relatively neutral third party (namely, mystery shoppers) that was obtained on a (c) variable interval schedule for managers to use to (d) coach their employees. An interrupted time‐series design showed that both employee and organizational performance increased as a result of this intervention. Performance dropped when this intervention was cut back and, subsequently, discontinued. These results were replicated in two additional restaurants. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

挣值法在天立广场项目进度控制研究

针对施工单位在天立广场项目进度管理方面存在的问题进行偏差分析,指出了挣值法在具体工程案例中的应用流程,从中分析项目进度滞后的原因,以便项目管理层及时采取纠偏措施进行调整,确保工程项目顺利实施,实现了对项目成本、进度的监控。     

Access to training and its impact on temporary workers

Does temporary work provide a way for individuals to improve their skill levels? Using a sample of more than 4,000 employees of US temporary staffing agencies, we analyse whether blue, white and pink‐collar temps get access to company training, and the impact of skill development on wages and employee retention. We find that less than 25 per cent of temps take part in training. Educated and experienced individuals are more likely to be offered training, but lower‐skilled individuals are more likely to take training when it is offered and spend more hours on it. Office workers who took part in training were more likely still to be with the agency a year later and experienced significant wage growth, while training had no effect on wage growth for blue‐collar workers. Skill development that took place on the job was associated with greater wage growth for all types of temps.     

THE FACTOR METHOD OF CALCULATING DISCRETION IN A FLEXIBLE WORK HOUR SCHEDULE

There has been a pronounced reluctance to experiment with flexible work schedules in so-called production areas, because of fears that the discretion granted individuals in their use of time would result in a fall in productivity. This article describes a first approach to calculating the amount of flexibility that can be given a group of employees in a production unit, in order to ensure that, even when they exploit the discretion to the full extent, there will always be work for everyone and other, interdependent, production units (or customers) do not suffer.     

附表计量法在工程预算编审中的应用研究

附表计量法主要是利用预先设计好的附表参数或计算结果作为工程量计算表中计算式计算式的方法。主要是在附表计量法中参照工程项目的计量特征进行独立设置的,因此不同的项目分布工程有着不同的计量附表。作为计算表附属的计量附表,在设置上可以相对灵活,还可以图文并茂,以便于预算的编制和审核,同样可以供工程施工管理相关人员使用,实现了一表通用、一表多用。通常我们在反复进行各个使用方法后,能够对计量附表中的错误进行及时纠正,以保证计量附表能够直接应用于计量全过程。     

Two heuristics for the deterministic,single operator,multiple machine,multiple run cyclic scheduling problem

The semiautomatic nature of machinery often makes it economical to assign more than one machine to a single operator. Multi-machine assignments are common in the textile, tooling and molding industries. They are also found where numerically controlled (NC) machinery are used and, more recently, where flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) are employed. Previous work on deterministic cyclic scheduling models has focused on determining the optimal number of usually identical machines with single runs to assign to an operator. In practice, the schedules are represented by man/machine charts.When, due to production requirements, we mix different types of runs with known times on non-identical machines, we have the deterministic, single operator, multiple machine, multiple run, cyclic scheduling problem. We present two heuristics for solving this more realistic generalization of earlier problems. For the nonidentical, multiple run case, the scheduling of the runs is crucial in minimizing the cycle time of the system. The integer programming formulation of small problems is large, and solving it directly could require excessive computation time on a large mainframe computer.Heuristic 1 selects the next machine run to schedule by minimizing the total immediate waiting cost of the operator and machines. The hourly machine costs reflect the relative merit of utilizing certain machines over others. Heuristic 2 first schedules the machine with the longest automatic processing time of run one. It then follows Heuristic 1 until the long processing time of the first run has ended. The next available run with the longest automatic processing time is then scheduled, and the process repeats. The underlying notion is that many short runs may be performed during the long automatic run of a machine.The heuristics are polynomially bounded, can be easily implemented on a mini- or micro-computer and in practice should be much faster than integer programming methods. In addition to the heuristics, we compute a lower bound on the cycle time. We use this bound as a measure of the effectiveness of a solution. If for a given schedule, the cycle time equals its lower bound, then the solution is optimal.Both heuristics were coded in FORTRAN on a CDC-6600 computer. An interactive version was also developed for a DEC PDP11/70. A detailed computational study is presented. In it, both heuristics solved 50 machine, 5 run problems in less than 10 CPU seconds on the CDC-6600. Computational experience indicates that the heuristics are efficient and often find schedules which have cycle times within 10% the lower bound.     

The costs and opportunities of doing diversity work in mainstream organisations

This paper provides insights into the impact that the shift from ‘equal opportunities’ to diversity management is having on the people who do diversity work. Equality officers have been largely replaced by diversity specialists, often with mainstream HR or business management backgrounds. They are often supplemented and supported by a new cadre of ‘part‐time’ diversity practitioners – diversity champions, drawn from middle‐senior managers. The study suggests that doing diversity work in the 2000s is a different experience from doing equality work in the 1980s/1990s. The ascendance of the business case and the depoliticisation of equality lend DM greater legitimacy and respectability. This, combined with the changing backgrounds and characteristics of diversity practitioners means that diversity work usually carries lower costs and potentially offers more opportunities than did equality work. The conclusion summarises the costs and opportunities, drawing out the main policy implications for the practitioners themselves and for organisations.     

The experience of teleworking: an annotated review

The paper reviews the contemporary literature on the experience of teleworking. Particular attention is paid to the socializing aspects of work and its comparative absence when working from home; economic considerations, both for homeworkers and for the firms; work satisfaction and motivation; supervision; roles and gender issues in homeworking; the organization of time and space; and, lastly, questions of self-discipline. The evidence reviewed is based on various teleworking trials conducted mainly during the 1980s; this information is supplemented by original research conducted by the authors which investigated the pros and cons raised by British Telecom operators who were due to take part in a teleworking trial. These operators anticipated many of the issues faced by those who actually had teleworking experience.     

Feminisation of the medical profession: a strategic HRM dilemma? The effects of family‐friendly HR practices on female doctors' contracted working hours

Health‐care institutions face a strategic HR dilemma. They need to attract female doctors from a tight, feminised labour market by offering family‐friendly HR practices (e.g. part‐time employment), often based on collective labour agreements, while trying to contain their labour costs by employing as many full‐timers as possible. In this study, we investigate which family‐friendly arrangements serve health‐care institutions' HR strategies best in terms of retaining female doctors' working hours. Data collected in 2008 from 1,070 Dutch female doctors indicate that offering family‐friendly HR practices such as flexible working hours (in contrast to part‐time working) minimise the strategic HR dilemma, since it offers scope for improving the work–life balance without encouraging female doctors to work less hours. However, the effect of family‐friendly arrangements on working hours is dependent on the family‐friendly workforce philosophy: only with proper support for career goals do women using family‐friendly arrangements work more hours.     

The trade-off between the net present cost of a project and the probability to complete it on schedule

In this article we consider the probability of not completing a project on schedule (or the risk of delays) and its effect on the net present cost of the project. We propose an efficient frontier that points out to management the trade-off between low risk, early start schedules and high risk, late start schedules. Early start schedules minimize the risk of delays at the cost of early investment in project activities and material. Late start schedules delay capital outlays while increasing the risk of not completing the project on its due date.The methodology developed in this study is aimed at strategic level decision making. At this level, decisions are based on incomplete information that calls for stochastic analysis and the introduction of uncertainty. Uncertainty in project management is introduced through stochastic activity duration and stochastic lead times of resources required for the project. The commonly used CPM analysis ignores those aspects of uncertainty. PERT analysis does consider the stochastic nature of activity durations but computes only the probability to complete the project on a given date for a single schedule.A crucial decision at the strategic level of project management is when to schedule activities with high value-added. The decision makers have to trade-off the advantages of delaying such activities, thus reducing the net present cost of the project, with the disadvantages associated with increasing the probability of not completing the project on time.The number of feasible schedules in a real project is typically large and exact analysis of all possible schedules is difficult to perform, if not impossible. This article presents a heuristic procedure that generates an efficient frontier representing the risk of delays versus the net present cost of the project. The efficient frontier is a decision aid for the manager who has to choose the appropriate schedule for the project.Most computer packages for project management are based on CPM (especially packages for personal computers). Our heuristic procedure is designed to be used as an extension to CPM analysis. The procedure starts with the early start schedule developed by CPM and, using the computed slacks, tries to delay activities with high value-added one at a time. At each iteration a Monte-Carlo-type simulation is used to approximate the probability of not completing the project on time. This probability is stored along with the net present cost of the project. The result of the analysis is a set of points on the plane representing the probability of not completing the project on time versus the net present cost of the project. Each point corresponds to a specific schedule. Management can choose the most appropriate schedule for implementation based on its attitude towards risk and its financial policy.A simple example is used to illustrate the heuristic procedure. In the example, a project with six activities and two types of resources is analyzed. Five schedules are generated with net present cost ranging from $45,000 to $8,191,000 and the probability of not completing the project on time ranging from 0.0001 to 0.75. Our experience with a real project of 400 activities is reported as well.The heuristic procedure can be implemented easily on advanced “Fourth Generation” packages for project management such as IBM's Application System (AS) or Metier's Artemis system. The heuristic procedure can also be implemented on personal computers by processing the output of any CPM package by the special subroutine that is developed in this study.     

Change from below: the role of middle managers in mediating paradoxical change

This article examines the role of middle managers in creating change in the Irish health service from interviews conducted with middle and senior level managers. The research examines the interface between top‐down and bottom‐up approaches to change and contributes to showing how ambivalence towards change by middle managers can at the same time contribute to the dismantling of structures and systems that are a necessary precondition for successful change to take place. However, the additional workload and tensions created by dealing with the interface between top‐down and bottom‐up changes may result in considerable additional workload and stress for the managers themselves.     

The perceived fairness of work–life balance policies: A UK case study of solo‐living managers and professionals without children

The ability to reconcile work and private life is a matter relevant to all employees, though not all may seek “balance.” Research indicates that organisational work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements often focus on the needs of working parents, with one potential outcome being “family‐friendly backlash,” or counterproductive work behaviour from those without caring responsibilities. This paper analyses data from 36 interviews with childless solo‐living managers and professionals, exploring perceptions of fairness in relation to these policies. In contrast to previous studies, despite recognising a strong family‐care orientation in employer provisions, perceptions of unfair treatment or injustice were not pronounced in most cases, and thus there was little evidence of backlash/counterproductive work behaviour. The paper uses and develops organisational justice theory to explain the findings, emphasising the importance of situating individual justice orientations within perceived organisational policy and wider regulatory contexts. It also emphasises the importance of evaluating fairness of work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements in relation to other aspects of the employment relationship, notably opportunities for career development and progression.