Strategic management - Skemman



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Does part-time work make employees more efficient? Importance of context in assessing flexible work arrangements

??ra ?orgeirsd?ttir

Supervisor: Run?lfur Sm?ri Stein??rsson Faculty of Business Administration February 2012

Does part--time work make employees more efficient?

Importance of context in assessing flexible work arrangements

??ra ?orgeirsd?ttir

Ds thesis Strategic management Supervisor: Run?lfur Sm?ri Stein??rsson Faculty of Business Administration Department of Social Sciences University of Iceland February 2012

Does part--time work make employees more efficient? Importance of context in assessing flexible work arrangements. 30 ECTS final thesis to the completion of a M.Sc. degree at the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Iceland. ? 2012 ??ra ?orgeirsd?ttir This thesis or parts of it cannot be reproduced without the permission of the author. Printed: H?sk?laprentun Reykjavik, 2012

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Foreword

d Z --time work make employees more efficient? Importance of ZZZZZ of a M.Sc. degree in Strategic Management at the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Iceland.

The thesis is 30 ECTS and was supervised by Professor Run?lfur Sm?ri Stein??rsson. The data gathering took place between January and July 2011 in the Netherlands and the following analysis and compilation of the thesis was completed in December 2011.

The author would like to thank her friends who assisted in finding respondents to interview and the respondents for agreeing to have an interview on the subject. She would also like to thank Anna D?ra Valsd?ttir for proofreading the thesis and Brynd?s Bj?rk ?sgeirsd?ttir for giving some helpful tips along the way. Lastly, she would like to thank Gu?mundur Kristj?nsson for the support, motivation and help throughout the creation of this thesis.

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine employee perceptions of flexible work arrangements with special emphasis on part--time work, in light of the different contexts they find themselves in. It further seeks to understand the effects of part--time work on ZZZ

The literature review discusses various contextual factors that impact employee perceptions, such as public and organisational context and management and colleague support. It further explores outcomes such as work--life balance and discusses the existing theories on work effort change and work intensification in relation to flexible work arrangements. It ends with a discussion on the role of individual factors such as personality, motivation, life situation and gender.

The study was conducted through 13 qualitative interviews conducted in the first 6 months of 2011 in the Netherlands. The goal was to get a holistic picture of the effects and perceptions of flexible work arrangements through interviewing respondents of different nationalities and professions.

The findings suggest that contextual support and trust play a significant role in determining how employees perceive their flexible work arrangement and the subsequent outcomes of it. Furthermore, they indicate that perceived efficiency increase and in some cases intensification of work seem to be a by--product of flexible work arrangements. However, they also indicate that such efficiency increase cannot be attributed to the work arrangement alone as various other factors have an impact, such as the aforementioned context as well as individual differences in personality, motivations, life situations and gender.

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