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Management Decision

Flexible working: changing the manager's role

Janice Johnson

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To cite this document: Janice Johnson, (2004),"Flexible working: changing the manager's role", Management Decision, Vol. 42 Iss 6 pp. 721 - 737

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Flexible working: changing the manager’s role

Janice Johnson

School of Business, De Montfort University, Bedford, UK

Keywords Flexible working, Employees attitudes, Job commitment, Line managers Abstract There are no guarantees of anything in life except death and taxation and so in the meantime organisations must respond to the dynamic changes thrust upon them in order to ensure a means of survival and continuity. The last century saw many changes in work itself and the practice of work. The trend continues into this century where it is almost impossible to visualise how

• ne will be working and in what areas. Yet one needs to have a vision of the future organisation and

the future worker in order to begin to manage the necessary structural, technological and psychological changes involved. This paper explores aspects of the changing nature of work and some of the strategies organisations are using to help manage a more demanding (for leisure time and shorter/flexible working hours) worker. It will also examine the changing role of line managers as they attempt to manage the atypical worker and solicit their commitment. Implications and conclusions will highlight the challenges faced by organisations and their workers.

Introduction Slack (1991) argues that the search for lean and mean competitive forms, simultaneously delivering goods and services which are “right first time, quickly on time, cheaply and flexibly”, has triggered the quest for futuristic competitive

• rganisational forms. For example the emergence of the “hollow corporation”,

dedicated to minimising internal and external transaction costs. When traditional ways of working are eroded what then happens to the traditional ways of managing performance in the organisation? The future organisation then necessitates and has to facilitate, the perceived future worker and it is the task of managing these new age workers, in a new way, which is the challenge for line managers. Work according to Terkel (1977), is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor, in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday to Friday sort of dying. It is “this sort of dying” that organisations must seek to avoid. In their quest for a flexible, motivated, committed and willing workforce, success factors must be placed upon good people management practices and positive psychological contracts which may then result in the desired productivity, profitability and agility (Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD), 1994). In the field of

• rganisational behaviour there is reassurance from two factors: there will persist in

being a change from the past as well as continuity with the past. Work in a Western capitalist society is no exception. Noon and Blyton (1997) suggest there have been new theories, ideas, technologies and practices replacing the old ones, while there have continued to be important resonance with the past. An example of the changing realities of work is, they suggest, new working life patterns. This means the traditional hours of 9.00am-5.00pm, five days per week, from leaving school until retirement at 65 years old, is no longer (assuming it ever was) the dominant pattern of employment. For the employer and for the employee, this can mean flexibility – it can also mean previously uncharted challenges, as both parties attempt to create a working

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• Vol. 42 No. 6, 2004
• pp. 721-737

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10.1108/00251740410542302

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relationship, which simultaneously recognises and realises the needs of the business and the worker. This is significant in two respects. First, there is the recognition that such an alignment will involve new forms of work organisation and management, argued by some (Strachan and Burgess, 1998; Huws et al., 1996) to represent a rhetorical device to justify the erosion of employment conditions and exploitation. Secondly, by making an explicit link between employees’ personal needs (e.g. family responsibilities) and business objectives, attention to changing work practices so that both the individual and the organisation benefit are difficult to ignore (Rapaport et al., 1998). This paper aims to explore how organisations are managing new age flexibilities and how the role of the line manager must respond to managing increasingly atypical

• workforces. New expectations within the psychological contract will also be

scrutinised as a means of accommodating the new ways in which working is being

• expressed. The conclusions will evaluate some of the problems inherent in the

managing of an atypical workforce. The search for flexibility In an increasingly global and competitive market, employers continue to strive to maximise recruitment opportunities and the talents of their employees in order to ensure their retention, continuity, motivation and flexibility. Organisational flexibility has been driven by changes in the nature of the markets, changes in technology and as a result of increased competition. Ulrich (1998) debates that in the new economy, winning will spring from capabilities such as speed, responsiveness, agility, learning capacity and employee competence. In order to capitalise upon these core competences

• rganisations need to ensure their dexterity by ensuring work continues, even away

from the traditional places of work, through establishing trust and quality communications; focusing on product instead of process and the careful negotiation

• f objectives and workable agreements (Nilles, 1998). Hanami (2000) iterates upon the

common change trends in employment, mentioning clearly for example: declining stability and security in employment and a growing irregular labour force. Further stating that globalisation of product markets and technological change go hand in hand, resulting in ultimate attempts to achieve flexibility through downsizing, extensive use of contract labour and lean management systems. The need for “chameleonic” managers, have never been more evident. Demographic transformations and changes in the structure of society have also resulted in a shift in social trends, for example an ever-ageing population along with the highest ever proportion of women in employment, estimated to be 12 million in Spring 2000 (Department of Trade and Industry, 2000) has created variations in the way employment terms are offered. Moreover, a dramatic increase in lone parents, currently around 20 per cent (Office for National Statistics, 1996) and an increasing number of people with responsibilities for caring for dependants is the new weave of this millennium’s current social fabric. Combining this scene with a pressing imperative (by EU legislation, government, trades unions, progressive employers, etc.) to balance such responsibilities with working life, now depicts the new employment relationship. A survey of 2,500 students in 11 different countries (Cooper, 2000) found that 57 per cent considered achieving a “balanced lifestyle” as their top priority. Although new information technologies create new work opportunities while simultaneously increasing the use of contract labourers and flexible work locations (Ladwig et al., 2000), the negative side according to Deery

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(2000) is “burnout”, emotional exhaustion and higher absentee rates. All these developments have led to significant changes in the way production is organised and managed and how work is viewed not just as a means to receiving pay as reward but also that the work organisation exists as a place, which bestows a degree of social value on both high and low human capital. Analysts Piore and Sable (1984), have argued that these changes mark a fundamental shift in the principles upon which capitalism is organised, from Fordism to post-Fordism. These shifts (i.e. volatile niche markets, differentiated production, multiskilled labour, intense competition on quality and price, globalised world economy, etc.) has meant that firms need to respond much more quickly to changes in market demand, by developing new and leaner approaches to managing production, such as upskilling rather than the deskilling of workers; a move towards broader based jobs; increased levels of responsibility for workers and scope for more discretion in the way workers do their jobs, ensuring degrees of flexibilities are built in to expedite ready and easy manipulation of the employee. This growth of “non-standard” forms of employment taken together with changes in the

• rganisation of work and the design of jobs have been seen as part of a wider process of

employment restructuring, incorporating strategies which enable the full agility of the competitive organisation. This means that employing organisations have: reduced the size of their workforces; and/or transferred certain tasks from full time permanent staff to part time or temporary staff; and/or transferred certain tasks from directly employed staff to agency workers or sub-contractors; and/or reorganised work of direct employees so that they can take on a wider range of tasks. In other words “temporary work”, posited by Fahlbeck (1998), can be seen as perhaps posing the most serious threat to the integrity of the “non-commodity principle” as symbolised in the ILO’s “Declaration of Philadelphia”. Thus it is concluded the flexibilisation of labour arrangements represents a paradigm shift in working life. These currents of change began to be observed during the 1980s also coinciding with the ascendancy of other

• rganisational/work practices such as quality management techniques and the

increasing validation of HRM. In 1984, John Atkinson at the University of Sussex (UK) argued that as a result of these changes, that a new model of the firm was emerging which he called the “flexible firm” (Atkinson, 1984). The main premise of the flexible firm is that it divides its workforce into different segments each employed on different terms and conditions, which reflect the nature of their contribution to the production

• process. Popular and managerial interest in workforce and organisational flexibility

continued to grow in this area and other writers have built upon this work, notably Handy (1991), with his introduction of the “Shamrock Organisation” and Ackroyd and Proctor (1998). However the essence of the framework remains the same with distinctions between a core and peripheral workforce. The core comprises workers who are drawn from the primary labour market, who have the security of permanent contracts and important skills to the employer. These employees are expected to be functionally flexible. The periphery can be subdivided into several segments. The first peripheral group are drawn from the secondary labour market, but are still internal to the organisation with a degree of permanence. The second peripheral group comprises individuals who find greater difficulty breaking into internal labour markets and whose employment prospects tend to be precarious. Organisations thus seek to manipulate these flexibilities – numerically, financially, functionally and temporally, to gain competitive advantages and increase employees’ commitment to the

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• rganisation. However, Ogbonna (1992) argues that employees change their

behaviours in line with management expectations, but not their values and beliefs. In this sense their commitment becomes questionable, as they are not fully aligned with the organisation. This question of commitment and the psychological contract in having a flexible workforce will be considered later in this paper. Carnoy et al. (1997) note that in their study of workers in Silicon Valley (USA), that flexibility as a labour market tool permeated this geographical area far more than in the USA as a whole. They also found that increases in flexible practices were not merely driven by competitive pressures but also by high turnover rates and inter-firm mobility which was desired by the most skilled employees. Employability in this dynamic area of work sustained only by increased networking through various firms, continuous development and heightened mobility, adding to the attractiveness of the worker. Flexibility was thus seen as mutually beneficial in some industries by both parties

• concerned. However, caution must be exercised, because this might only apply to

highly skilled workers as opposed to lower skilled individuals (Carnoy et al., 1997) which might then result in the subsequent formation of “ghettos” of employees on less favourable terms and conditions of employment (Emmott and Hutchinson, 1998). Flexibility: balancing work and life Interest in researching flexible working arrangements has been growing, as such practices have been heralded as the way to reconcile or balance increased pressures of work and family life (Dex and Scheibl, 2001). Supporting this is the conviction that the culture of working long hours, which characterises many organisations and

• ccupations, creates work and family conflict and stress (Lewis and Cooper, 1988)

and is usually counterproductive (Hewitt, 1993). Organisations attempting to support such a work-personal life balance have developed “family-friendly employment policies” (Burke, 2000), to ensure that they remain attractive to workers in the war for

• talent. Flexible arrangements tend to include part time or reduced hours, additional

career breaks, assistance with child care and eldercare, extensions to statutory maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, emergency leave working, job sharing, compressed work weeks, voluntary reduced time, flexible work schedules and working from home programmes. Some are with pro rata employment benefits but all have the potential to challenge traditional patterns of work (Lewis, 1997). The

• rganisational inducement to develop flexible family friendly policies has, in part, been

a response to political pressures and equal opportunity ideologies. However, flexible approaches to working arrangements in the new millennium have also developed from a sound business case. Organisations are being levered into recognising skill shortages, along with the need to recruit and retain employees with family

• commitments. Lewis (1997), argues that the proliferation of contracting out, temporary

contracts, and other forms of work which increase flexibility from the employers perspective, and transfer risk and uncertainty from the employer to the employee, has actually created a growing peripheral or contingent workforce to whom family friendly polices do not generally apply. Contingent work, according to Barker (1995), is the solvent, which dissolves the older forms of workplace privilege. In this context, Lewis (1997) suggests family friendly policies are created for a core workforce whom the

• rganisation wishes to retain and motivate, but who are aware that no guarantees

exists about job security. Research on the work-employee interface (Shamir, 1992),

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predominantly conceptualises the ideal worker as someone in attendance at a centralised location outside the home from 9-5pm, five days per week. The Work Life Balance Challenge Fund (WLBCF) has recognised there is no one generic policy that will suit every business but instead highlights some of the business benefits which might be obtained such as; a recruitment tool to attract the best talent; a retention tool for valued employees a support to improved customer services; a return on investment for women returners; increased morale, commitment and loyalty; reduction in absenteeism, sickness and stress; improved productivity and performance, to name but a few. Supporting the WLBCF findings, the Demos (1997) Report on Generation X stated that 37 per cent of men and 46 per cent of women want a “job that gives their life meaning” and further that 80 per cent of mothers and 88 per cent of fathers want “more time with their families”. A survey of 2,000 UK managers (Ceridian Performance Partners, 1999) found that one third would change their jobs if they felt they could improve their work life balance. Gemini Consulting (1998) surveyed 10,000 managers in Europe, the USA, Russia and Japan and found that balancing the needs of work and personal life was the most or the second most important attribute in a job. In a Chartered Institute of Personnal and Development (CIPD) (2002) survey of 1,000 members, the report found that paternity leave had increased to 44 per cent and also that the public sector is leading the way in flexible working arrangements offering a wider variety of options. Only 26 per cent of private sector organisations offered flexitime compared to 79 per cent of public sector organisations. The research suggests that being able to integrate domestic and work responsibilities in an acceptable pattern is likely to reduce stress levels, absenteeism and sickness in addition to having an impact on staff retention and customer satisfaction. Offering flexible-working arrangements is frequently seen as an innovative resolution, however it is not all positive and the management of flexible practices as organisations evolve also needs to be examined to ensure that not just processes evolve but also the practice of

• management. Sullivan and Lewis (2001), agree that even less is known about the

management of the work-employee interface in the context of an independent worker with a non standard work pattern who may or may not attend a central location for some of the time. Therefore the implications for line managers (charged with

• perational and general management responsibilities) and human resource

management practitioners (from whom people management policies are determined) who are attempting to manage this atypical workforce must also be considered to ensure a sustainable integration of product, processes and practices for effective

• rganisational performance.

Flexibility: changing the role of the line manager As roles begin to evolve and change in organisations, line managers will have to learn potentially new ways of thinking and doing and from them, derive new attitudes and role behaviour. Robbins (1998) defines a role as “a set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit”. The role for people in organisations will begin to morph to reflect the new efficient organisational practices demanded by the technological rigour of the new millennium, as organisations embark upon radical innovative and cost-reducing strategies to gain sustained competitive

• advantages. According to the IPD (1994) managers will now assume a more facilitating

co-ordinating role making better use of integrated management and communication

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systems and ensuring full integration of the atypical worker. The function of the line manager must then, be likened in this environment to one of a flexible architect seeking to construct, assimilate and integrate product, policy and practice more effectively via strategies geared at reflecting the changing nature of work. Their role then becomes even more multi-faceted as their task also at this juncture is to stimulate and motivate all, to plan effectively for these changes. The development of core competences in the areas of both behavioural (skills and attributes) and technical (knowledge and experience) become vital as new technology will affect how and where work gets done and managers will need to discover how to make technology viable whilst staying ahead of the information curve and learning how to leverage information for business results (Ulrich, 1998). Emergence of flexible workforces has led to core-periphery strategies being pronounced more, for example the rise in areas such as teleworking and home-working can include, Paauwe (1995) suggests, lone tele-hunters/workers, and the creation of tele-outposts (maximising digital and electronic communication systems) to support other types of home-workers who are increasingly opting out of the formal office structure for a variety of reasons. These illustrations are a few of the issues that managers need to respond to in determining a strategy for supporting these lone workers for whom this constitutes the preferred way of making a valid contribution to the organisation, especially in the case cited earlier of the Silicon Valley workers (Carnoy et al., 1997). This point stresses the importance that work should be done in effective places, soliciting a desired mutuality to the knowledge-productive workforce of today, for example eliminating a daily fifty mile journey to and from work just to be present, when tasks can easily be done using home-to-office equipment, enabling communication systems and the electronically receipt of outputs. Storey (1992) suggests that the role of the line manager is changing from specialist to generalist moving from production managers that are technical, reactive and specialist in nature, through to manufacturing managers who are technical but proactive, having a more generalist view and ultimately onto the business manager who is commercially

• riented, proactive and possesses a holistic view of the business. Therefore, it may be

stated that traditional style foremen/supervisors are being gradually replaced by younger, carefully selected (for abilities) and extensively trained first line managers (Storey, 1992). According to Hunt (2001) the successful organisation is one where the preferred structure is within naturally occurring communities as opposed to hierarchies which have the greatest potential to be high performing organisations. Hunt (2001) continues, saying that when organisations are communal, managers have different roles with emphasis on coaching, protecting and supporting as distinct to planning, organising, directing and controlling. Other key competencies to surface would also include the need for effective leadership as part of responsible autonomy; explicit decision-making, which would incorporate the need for transparency and clear

• bjectives; persuading and influencing skills to ensure that staff do perform even away

from their place of work; considerable drive and energy to be a constant source of motivation and support to staff. These skills are not automatically inherent nor can be acquired overnight. Organisations need to step into this breach to ensure that if there is a sound case for flexibility that it will provide the necessary management development to ensure its success. However, Staunton and Giles (2001) demonstrated that in a study

• f 450 UK organisations that management development had grown in importance in

recent years, but continues to be the victim of poor management practice. Dissonance

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exists, and the conclusion arrived at is that more development does not necessarily deliver better managers, but in the absence of anything else, it’s better than a “do nothing” strategy. Key issues for managers in managing flexibly Emmott and Hutchinson (1998) identify 6 broad areas for consideration: casualisation, control, commitment, continuity/career development, consultation and communication. On the issue of casualisation, which emphasises the relationship between managers and people employed by sub-contractors to the business, then one strategy for managing would be to ensure frequent meetings of project teams with both direct employees and sub-contracted staff present, so key issues are addressed in a spirit of togetherness and expectations of the product design, delivery, etc., fully understood. This way it is possible to continuously draw the key actors together so the script is fully learned and mistakes minimised and to also solicit degrees of commitment through team learning and training. Controlling these employees is generally understood to be achieved by some form of performance management, where clear goals and targets are set; means for monitoring performance created and a co-relation between effort and reward established. However, the manager is no longer confident in telling the employees how to do their jobs, but realise more emphasis must be placed upon employee’s own understanding of, and ability to deliver what is needed. This would help to reinforce the position of trust within the organisation on both sides. There would exist at this stage cost implications for training and development, and whether this would be afforded to all types of atypical workers similarly. I f employees are to show commitment, then employers must necessarily also be committed to their employees. This is perhaps highly contentious in a time when low trust is experienced through mergers, downsizing, lay-offs, etc. Increasingly questionable is the model of mutual trust. In a 1996 survey by the UK Institute of Personnel and Development, it was shown that 72 per cent of employees have some trust in their organisation to keep its promises and

• commitments. However, by contrast, a number of European countries tend to

suggest lower levels of trust. Unless managers are more effective in maintaining the confidence of their workforce, there must be some doubt about their ability to manage flexible employment contracts. The manager’s ability to deploy the workforce flexibly is often essential to business performance; however reducing the workforce may have damaging effects on the business in terms again of trust and commitment. Where continuity/career development is considered as a means to solicit commitment and promote employability then the key business drivers must be trust and commitment and not via short term or fractured employment relationships. Emmott and Hutchinson (1998) mention Rover (UK) as one example where employers have sought to offer workers a deal based upon using redundancies as a last resort and thus committing them to a long term employment relationship. Consultation and communication are vital in eliciting trust and confidence and will balance the loosening up of management control by enabling employees to make a contribution in the interest of improving business performance and enhancing whatever model of trust exists. However, managing flexibly also has cost implications for the firm, such as the retention of high skilled employees who demand high wages and may still result in high labour turnover costs

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to the firm. However this could be offset by reduced absenteeism by this group. Increase costs of training casuals and contractors for example, who might not offer further continuity of employment to the firm, resulting in recurring training costs. Higher direct costs for example, part-timers who receive pro rata benefit, coupled with the cost of more complex administration to facilitate the different types of workers (Emmott and Hutchinson, 1998). Firms are thus placed in apposition of evaluating all benefits accrued against these costs to make their business case for managing flexibly. Flexibility: the employees’ role So where does this leave our future flexible-leisure-oriented worker? The concept of empowerment and responsible autonomy may well surface here in response to delayering, leading to devolution of responsibility, arising because of the competitive environment, cost reduction, customer responsiveness, etc. Empowerment of employees, ensuring their responsibility for quality, continuous improvement and self-monitoring (even whilst working from home), linking simultaneously with Guest’s (1987) other tenets of HRM: flexibility, commitment and integration. Important issues raised by the concept of empowerment are often those of covert management control and manipulation; the monitoring of work -how achieved? And by whom? Management? Co-workers? Electronic surveillance? However, illustrative successful practices can be drawn from the Bodyshop (UK) learning and development programme (Stredwick and Ellis, 1998), which provided an empowerment-supporting programme. The goal of this programme was to support and encourage an empowered, pliable

• rganisation through self-managed learning, pushing decision-making and

responsibility downwards. Rank Hovis (UK) used empowerment to unleash employee potential, providing supervisors with the opportunity to run their own budgets and to haggle with suppliers over terms and conditions ensuring degrees of financial flexibility in the organisation. Norfolk County Services (UK) linked empowerment to career planning and upward organisational mobility through encouraging staff to use their initiative and to also participate at consultative

• committees. Seemingly, organisations must employ appropriate and relevant tactics to

move people around and foster responsiveness to customers in order to improve and sustain organisation effectiveness. However, the concept of flexible work is not always so easily configured and certainly in parts of Asia, traditional labour relations has placed much emphasis on long time loyalty and attachment to the organisation on the part of the employees, based primarily upon job security and seniority based wages systems (Hanami, 2000). In response to fierce international competition and rapid technological changes, countries such as south Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are seeking new techniques for managing and motivating flexible workforces, such as 360-degree feed back, performance evaluation, assessment centres, skill and performance based pay systems, etc. (Kim and Yu, 2000; Chiu and Han, 2000). Emmott and Hutchinson (1998) remark that the contractual relationship between the employer and employee has also become more variable partly as a result of increased reliance on performance linked pay and the importance placed upon performance

• assessment. The significance of collective agreements, applying standard terms and

conditions to large groups of employees has also been substantially reduced. Intrinsically, this might increase the employees identification with the employer whilst also diminishing the benefits of trade union membership. The game has been changed

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and even in Asia it is now seen that managers must acquire new ways of managing to combat the fierceness of competition (Hanami, 2000) or as we have seen in the Silicon Valley case (Carnoy et al., 1997), risk losing high skilled workers to the competitors. However, even though both west and east face similar problems, care must be taken in implementing western solutions in an Asian context when culture, values, etc. are still markedly different, even though globalisation has brought dimensions of work much

• closer. A number of issues have emerged so far in attempting to understand the

complexities of meeting the expectations of workers desiring greater freedoms and control over their working lives and employers expecting greater flexibilities, whilst relinquishing some control in the process of working. Instrumental to any mutuality being established is the re- constitution of a new psychological contract as a key issue for consideration for co-operation and co-optation into any new scheme of working. Changing the contract terms It has been traditional to ally full time permanent work with the concept of a relational

• r “old style” psychological contract. Relational contracts contain terms which may not

be readily valued and which broadly concern the relationship between the individual employee and the organisation (Guzzo and Noonan, 1994). Its components encompass factors such as the provision of commitment, company loyalty and trust in management on behalf of the employee, in return for competent management,

• pportunity and a sense of belonging (Maguire, 2002). The other aspect of the

psychological contract, the “transactional” contract, contains those terms of exchange, which have a monetary value, are specific and time limited. Both aspects are understood to interact. Changes in the transactional terms of the contract often influence the kind of relational rewards or expected obligations perceived by the employee, for example when the employee forgoes job security then there is a greater expectation of career development to aid future employability or higher rates of pay/benefits to compensate an uncertain future with the firm. Organisational and work changes frequently impact heavily on the employee’s psychological contract. As the management practices of an organisation respond to changing environmental conditions and as employees adjust to new working arrangements, they will reappraise their psychological contracts in order to renegotiate both employees’ and their employer’s level of commitment and sense of obligation. Conventional management thinking has been inclined to associate short term, part time, flexible and temporary, non-permanent working with “new” or transactional psychological contracts. Employees holding such contracts are, according to MacDonald and Makin (2000,

• p. 86) “. . . unlikely to have high levels of commitment to the organisation”. Suggesting

somewhat, that staff have a different psychological relationship with their

• rganisation – a transactional bond, that emphasises the economic elements of the
• contract. On this basis, it is possible to speculate, that an explosion of non-traditional,

flexible working arrangements could result in a concomitant slump in the level and number of employees who deem their psychological contract as relational. Research undertaken by MacDonald and Makin (2000) in the holiday sector sought to determine the level of commitment and the expectations held by “flexible” employees. Their findings surprised and contradicted the suggestions by Rousseau (1990), having discovered that there was no significant difference between employees in the subscales for transactional and relational contracts. Examination of the items comprising each

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set of the scales revealed that the non-permanent staff scored significantly higher on the relational item of career development, affective and normative commitment and job satisfaction. While the findings were unexpected and generalisations undertaken with extreme caution, there might be a significant implication for managers attempting to manage an atypical workforce. Organisations will continue to seek to engender a sense of commitment and loyalty among the workforce, but it has to be achieved by developing a new kind of commitment – a new kind of psychological contract, in which, like professionals, they will be moved by a new kind of loyalty to develop their own disciplines and skills (Hiltrop, 1996). The focus in organisations needs, therefore to shift from attempting to offer incentives and rewards based on career development through promotions, status, job security toward personal reputation, team working and challenging assignments. The focus will need to be on enhancing employability

• security. Other strategies available for HR practitioners to consider in managing the

atypical worker emphasise the need to be realistic in presenting the potential challenges of, for example, working alone and away from other colleagues. The challenge of the actual work has been shown (Meyer et al., 1989) to have a strong influence on the level of commitment demonstrated by the employee. Increasing

• pportunities for self-development, designing tasks and structures that promote a

sense of accomplishment, can aid identification with the organisation. As Herriot (1992) suggests, one of the key tasks facing managers is to reconcile two sets of expectations: the organisations need for loyalty and the atypical workers need to create and develop their own protean career characterised by an increasing loyalty to themselves. If this is the potential scenario, it could be suggested that the management function within

• rganisations will need to develop relationships at a relational level which

demonstrates an explicit approval of the “new” behaviours and ways of working. Implications and conclusion Cooper (2000) focused on a number of flexible practices as the key to establishing a balanced working life in three key UK organisations: Glaxo Wellcome, British Telecom (BT) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In the case of Glaxo Wellcome, the organisation was forced to re-examine working practices due to the intensity of competition for scarce labour in the job market. This was supported by the National Work-Life Forum (1999), which argued that there would be a surge in such employment practices in the next few years because of the tight employment market. Also asserting that graduates will not want to work with companies unless they are prepared to be progressive in their working hours policies. Cooper (2000) found that people working long hours are less productive and that employees with a better work life balance are more productive. Glaxo Wellcome experienced a cultural shift in embracing flexible practices, soliciting successfully buy-in from workers and managers alike. However it is also true to say that the practicalities of flexible working as agreed in Glaxo Wellcome must also fit in with the organisation’s business needs. A CIPD (2002) survey on “flexible work trends” reported that flexible working policies need the support of senior management to be able to function properly with only 33 per cent of their members claiming that their

• rganisations were supportive, but a less encouraging 24 per cent stating the reverse.

In Holton and Wilson’s (2002) research on “true flexibility”, 250 senior managers in UK were surveyed. These managers recognised that there were significant obstacles to the

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development of flexible working practices, the most frequently cited as practical issues which trip up efforts to introduce flexibility such as: flexible working not seen as a priority issue; others regard people who work flexible hours as “not working”; and managing people with flexible work arrangements takes more time and effort. Cooper (2000) highlighted that when looking at BT it was determined that a strong culture of presenteesim had a potentially damaging effect on staff, their families and the work

• community. This was also supported by a further CIPD (2001) survey on being

“married to the job”, which reported that nearly a third of employees surveyed who were still working more than 48 hours a week, have reported that in the last twelve months their employer or manager has reorganised work systems or made efficiency improvements that have enabled them to reduce their hours or workload. BT’s approach to flexible working was based on a pilot scheme run in Exeter and Cardiff (in the UK) and has now extended nationally, the option to vary hours over days to include the accumulation of hours. This has proven so successful that motivation and morale as well as enthusiasm and loyalty have shown a marked increase. However, in BT there has not been the expected stampede for flexible contracts, and requests must also demonstrate that there will be no detriment to work or colleagues. BT also distinguished between life-style friendly with family friendly policies, arguing that flexibility is not just about married people with children, which in some instances can create workforce resentment. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) adopted a more proactive approach where anyone working too long was advised to take a holiday

• r time off in lieu arguing that the long hours culture of presenteeism “isn’t good for

individuals and it isn’t good for business”. With this in mind managers were expected to review the next employee work project sensitively and be able to replace it with something less demanding if required. PwC surveyed 150,000 staff and found that achieving a healthy work-life balance is a top priority. It is reasonable to comment that to make the shift, organisations must re-examine their attitudes first as a means of changing the culture. This raises the question that it’s not whether there exists a flexible working policy, rather it is whether the policy is endorsed by a supportive culture or not. The reality being that people will choose not to take up offered flexibility if they feel that their career will suffer. However there are some doubts around the conceptual standing of flexible working according to Marchington and Wilkinson (2002, p. 28) with publications on the subject, “veering between descriptions of flexibility at work to predictions that the flexible firm is the design of the future, through to prescriptions that this represents what

• rganisations ought to look like to be successful”. Legge (1995), asserts that it is

difficult to conclude which is being used and it has led to allegations that flexibility has been “talked up” in order to support successive governments ideological stance on market deregulation and “lean” organisations. Questions also arise about the costs and benefits of flexibility. It is widely assumed that the flexible firm is naturally and automatically more efficient than its “inflexible” counterpart and that part time workers, temporary workers and sub-contractors offer employers advantages over secure permanent staff. The evidence is inconclusive. Over the past few years there have been a number of surveys attempting to throw light upon the reality of movement towards flexible working practices (Rajan et al., 1997; Casey et al., 1997). All seem to indicate a consistent, albeit patchy move towards the use of some flexible practices (some for more strategic reasons). A report by the Policy Studies Institute (Casey et al.,

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1997) drew evidence from the Labour Force Survey (Department of Trade and Industry, 2000) and a number of case studies and came to the conclusion that there had been a considerable increase in the use of flexible working time over the past decade and that now more than half of all employees worked variable hours every week. There had also been a growth in the number of people working part time or on a temporary basis and a slower growth in the use of subcontractors. Flexibility in practice, Neathey and Hurstfield (1995) found, that employers were making increasing demands on all employees to become more flexible, both in working flexible hours and in functional flexibility, although the greatest emphasis was on flexibility in part time working. Beatson (1995) in a DoE publication revealed strong evidence in the manufacturing sector in improving flexibility. It seems that the move towards flexibility and post-fordism has made the contradictory nature of management more explicit than it has been for many years. On the one hand labour is a cost that has to be minimised and

• n the other hand there is a greater need than ever before for co-operation and

commitment from workers in order that new systems of production can operate. Recent reports (e.g. The Independent, 2001, 2002) on Consignia’s failing fortunes have blamed their lack of financial, functional and numerical flexibility along with the co-existence

• f old and new management practices which eventually resulted in the haemorrhaging
• f revenue and profits whilst blame was being sought instead of remedies found.

Consignia has paid and is still paying the ultimate price for attempting to minimise labour costs (for greater agility and flexibility) without soliciting fully, the co-operation and commitment from both the trade unions and the workers. This traditional

• rganisation seemingly clung on to practices and processes (both management and

workers) which were no longer appropriate in this time and so perpetuated the erosion

• f the effectiveness and viability of the business over time.

Certain organisations, it would seem fair to suggest, are seeking to manage workers by reference to family friendly policies which seek to simultaneously achieve three

• bjectives. First, to “socially and organisationally reconstruct” the traditional image of

the ideal employee. Second, continuing to search for the most effective way of utilising human capital and potential and thirdly, seeking a level of employee commitment, traditionally associated with a relational psychological contract (Rousseau, 1990); yet paradoxically, offering contracts and conditions of employment predominantly associated with transactional psychological contracts (MacDonald and Makin, 2000) and providing numerous opportunities for this type of contract to take precedence. Murphy and Jackson (1999), draw attention to the potential impact of continued erosion

• f the foundations of trust and relational expectations in the employment contract.

They suggest that at the societal level, not just the organisational level, such an effect would cause the psychological landscape of work to be so fundamentally altered that any employment structures relying on relational contracts would become difficult to

• maintain. The subject of “management” therefore becomes considerably wider than
• ne confined to a HR/line management issue. Not withstanding the wider implications

highlighted by Murphy and Jackson (1999), there continues to be an estimated 1.1 million people, or 0.8 per cent of the workforce employed simply as teleworkers. If a broader definition is adopted – including people employed on corporate contracts, people working from home with line/HR agreement, the figure is estimated to be 10 per cent of the UK workforce (Sparrow, 2000). Management is required to consider two aspects, the operational management of the individual worker engaged in

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non-standard working arrangements and the need to address the competencies required by the line manager to successfully perform in this effectively new, managerial role. Basic competencies, such as establishing mutual trust and flexibility are key for success. Whiddett and Hollyforde (1999) highlight several other behavioural indicators within a flexible competency framework for line managers that need to be exhibited for effectiveness. Competencies in managing relationships with workers, internally, externally and through maintaining the external network: in supporting, managing and providing direction for the team; in gathering and analysing business information and ensuring that appropriate decisions are made. Responsibility for personal development and developing a culture of learning and an environment for developing ideas – ensuring team’s capabilities are focused and harnessed usefully. Being able to achieve business results through planning deadline management and

• bjective setting. Stredwick and Ellis (1998) move this theme along by discussing the

shift in the nature of the now flexible employee that also now needs to be managed in a different way. Moving from employee to entrepreneur exercising judgement, intuition and vision and going beyond the success required in a formal “job”. Stredwick and Ellis (1998) argue that, with the employee-entrepreneur on the ascendant there are now new transitions from employee package to entrepreneur package; from formal job role to boundaryless role; from written job description to total engagement via agreed

• bjectives and work parameters; from obedience and conformity to risks/results and

from following procedures to using creativity/initiative, to name but a few. To be effective, flexible practices need to be formally implemented, communicated and managed within the organisation. The Littlewoods Organisation (UK), winner of the 1999 Employer of the year award run by the national charity “Parents at Work”, achieved this by providing, for example, all working parents with an information pack. Pilots were conducted to demonstrate to managers how re-designed working arrangements operate in practice. Work design teams were established to provide a forum in which to discuss how new working arrangements can be structured in terms

• f hours and specific tasks to meet the needs of the organisation and the individual
• worker. Each business unit manager has responsibility for work life issues, which are

included within the managerial appraisal system. In addition managers are provided with a budget and support staff to assist in the implementation of the Equality Business Plan as part of their own development plan. Managers can access additional support via a centre of excellence and employees have access to a telephone help-line,

• pen seven days a week. Recognising management resistance to managing diversity

and encouraging employees to consider flexibility as an entitlement rather than a favour, particularly in circumstances where jobs are insecure, highlights the need to empower employees to feel entitled to seek the support they require to enable them to complete work effectively. Lewis (1997) identifies that supporting managers via training, net-working, sharing knowledge and practicable management development allows them to understand more clearly the importance of managing diverse working practices aligned with the business strategy as central to the success or otherwise of flexible policies. This paper has explored in its brevity, the changing nature of working arrangements as we continue to move through the twenty-first century. It has highlighted how new working arrangements offering greater flexibility assist

• rganisations to respond to its business needs to improve retention, recruitment, gain

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commitment and loyalty and maximise employee potential. It has also drawn attention to the need for organisations to be cognisant of changes in organisational culture emanating from a reconstruction of the ideal worker and the need to support the individual workers and the managers in learning how to adapt to new working

• arrangements. In its exploration, attention has been drawn to the myriad link-changes

in work relationships, flexible policies and the need for a different kind of managing. The advances in information and communication technologies are increasingly allowing for “hollow” organisations where costs can be saved and monies invested elsewhere for organisational growth and development. Key to this growth in managing people away from the traditional office interface is the establishment of trust through acceptable methods of performance management (if not surveillance) and the measurement of results considering also issues such as costs, quality-of-life effect, e.g. impact of belonging, visibility, apprehension on flexible workers such as telecommuters and homeworkers, as well as environmental impacts such as air pollution and energy consumption in the home. Critical to the effectiveness of managing away-workers is the re-negotiation or movement from traditional psychological contracts to flexible ones at critical stages in the career transition of the worker. Questions too abound as to how then do organisations aim to manage the careers of the workers who are not always present or are they expected to work more as employee-entrepreneurs as suggested in this paper. Issues arise also for the home-based worker, of self-training and instilling a sense of discipline in completing a serious day’s work. More importantly for the home-worker in multi-occupancy units, is in training the household to, according to Nilles (1998), accommodate business visitors; reduce the likelihood of continuous noise; the avoidance of toddler tension and even drop-in traffic. A final consideration that needs to be mentioned is that not all are suited to this kind of working and like change of any kind, resistance might be

• presented. But like changes of any kind affecting work design in a productive and

seemingly positive way, it often will happen.

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