Flexible Work Arrangements: Conceptualizations and International Experiences - 9041119477 - 9789041119476

by: Isik Urla ZeytinoLu
September 1995, ISBN 9041119477
ISBN 13: 9789041119476
Hardcover

USD price: $219.00

In the world of work as it exists today, the old standards of fixed hours and location have been substantially weakened. Most employers, in fact, prefer to maintain a flexible system of work arrangements that gives them more control over rate of production, assignment of tasks, and economic circumstances. The global development of these new and extensive conditions of employment variously characterized as nonstandard, alternative, peripheral, contingent, or atypical has reached a point at which its significance for both employers and employees (as well as for society in general) can be fruitfully analyzed. Such analysis is the purpose of this book.

Twenty-six scholars present findings from a wide range of national experiences, including those of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although the bulk of the study is empirical, the conceptual approach with which the book opens pervades the entire analysis, so that important questions such as the following are raised frequently in differing contexts:

Do organizations send mixed signals about flextime to their professional employees?

What if anything compensates for the virtual elimination of "slack time" in the skilled labour market?

Are flexible staffing arrangements inherently discriminatory?

Do local managers tend to implement organizational strategic visions of good working life in a way that merely creates new compromises for their subordinates?

How do non-permanent workers balance anxiety and freedom?

Have flexible work arrangements affected traditional patterns of gender discrimination?

Does "nonstandard" often mean "substandard"?

Flexible Work Arrangements can be seen as a culmination of a trend among labour relations professionals that examines the effect of flexible work arrangements on individuals' career, family, health, and well-being, as well as effects on the workplace and the society. The direct result of research findings presented at the European Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association held at Oslo in June 2001, through its rigorous research and incisive comparative detail, it will be of great value to policymakers, employers, and unions, as well as to scholars in the field.

Preface SECTION I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Chapter 1. Conceptualizations of and International Experiences with Flexible Work Arrangements lşik Urla Zeytinogiu and Waheeda Lillevik SECTION II. CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE PHENOMENON Chapter 2. Heterogeneity in the Periphery: An Analysis of Non-Standard Employment Contracts lşik Urla Zeytinoglu and Caroline Weber Chapter 3. Puzzles of Unpaid Overtime lain Campbell Chapter 4. The Microregulation of Atypical Jobs in Italy: The Case of Collaborators Sonia Bertolini SECTION III. EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS - FROM WORKPLACE LEVEL TO MACRO LEVEL Chapter 5. Functional Flexibility: Implementation and Outcomes Clare Kelliher, Julie Gore and Michael Riley Chapter 6. Mimicking Internal Labour Markets: Can Regulation Create Job Ladders for Flexible Workers? Martyn van Velzen Chapter 7. What Price Flexibility? Perceptions of Flexible Work Patterns and Career Outcomes for Canadian Accounting Professionals Janet Romaine Chapter 8. Part-Time Work and Annualized Hours: The Case of the NHS Workplace Anne McBride Chapter 9. Job Precariousness and Income Instability: The Strategies of Non-Permanent Workers and the Role of Household as a Protection Against Risk Giovanna Fullin Chapter 10. Flexible Working Time and Interest Representation in German and British Banking Richard Croucher and Ingo Singe Chapter 11. Gendering Participation: The Impact of Part-Time Employment on Employee Participation Raymond Markey, Ann Hodgkinson, Jo Kowalczyk and Simon Pomfret Chapter 12. Fixed-Term Employment and Psychosocial Work Environment - Experiences in the Finnish Working Life Antti Saloniemi, Pekka Virtanen and Anna-Maya Koivisto Chapter 13. Part-Timers and Fixed-Term Workers - An Inquiry into National Strategies for Implementing Two ED Directives Annika Berg Chapter 14. Flexible Working in Finland - Sign of New IR or Just the Opposite? Salu Liihteenmiiki Chapter 15. Which Workers are Non-Standard and Contingent and Does it Pay? Dale Belman and Lonnie Golden SECTION IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS Chapter 16. Summary, Implications and Future Research Directions of Flexible Work Arrangements Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Gordon B. Cooke, List of Contributors, Index


This book is a volume in a book series: » Studies in Employment and Social Policy Set