Towards workplace flexibility: flexitime arrangements in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to present and discuss the findings of a study on flexitime as a novel people management practice emerging in Sri Lanka. Specifically, the paper presents and discusses factors that predict the level of satisfaction with flexitime, differences in attitudes towards flexitime, the effectiveness of flexitime as a strategy to attract and retain employees, and barriers that hinder its use. Design/methodology/approach -A total of 108 employees involved in producing IT-related output as their primary job function, from 30 software development companies, responded to the self-administered survey questionnaire. In analysis, univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques were adopted. Findings -Flexitime allowed autonomy to employees to harmonize work and non-work demands on their time, resulting in better workplace relations. Overall, the findings support a non-traditional approach to people management. However, the findings also have important implications for the design or modification of flexitime arrangements. Originality/value -The majority of flexitime research is criticized for its theoretical nature, a failure to include statistical treatment of the data, and failure to pay specific attention to managerial and professional employees. Further, there is a marked absence of research-led literature in developing countries to clarify the way in which non-traditional people management practices work in different contexts. Specifically, no such studies have been conducted in the context of Sri Lanka.

Use of shift work in globally distributed software development

“…Several previous studies conducted in IT outsourcing sector in South Asia provide evidence that IT professionals experience increased stress in the workplace (Aziz, 2004; Budhwar et al , 2006) and working time is an important work characteristic (Perlow, 2001; Sarker et al , 2010; Wickramasinghe, 2010). Further, previous studies provide evidence that IT outsourcing firms have introduced value‐added initiatives, such as work schedule flexibility, to strategically enhance the performance of employees (Wickramasinghe and Jayabandu, 2007). However, these studies investigated IT professionals who work within the temporal bounds of the traditional workday in IT outsourcing sector in Sri Lanka (Wickramasinghe, 2009, 2010; Wickramasinghe and Jayabandu, 2007; Wickramasinghe and Jayaweera, 2010).…”

Practice of Workforce Flexibility-Internal, External, Numerical and Functional Flexibility

“…When considering the ownership of companies, four were locally owned, seven were joint ventures, and four were foreign owned. Although there were slight variations in flexible work-hour arrangements, the existence of core work hours and bandwidth and the implementation of this arrangement for job positions that were judged feasible were found to be common across the firms, as described in Wickramasinghe and Jayabandu (2007).…”

“…This can decrease the amount of stress, such as work arrival-related stress and stress over work and non-work time demands experienced by some employees (Haines et al, 2008). Women would be more likely to report higher levels of organizational commitment, retention, and job satisfaction than men when they perceive that a family-responsive policy is present in their organization than when it is not (Wickramasinghe & Jayabandu, 2007). Further, organizations with flexible work-hour arrangement are Volume 31, Number 4 / 2019 DOI: 10.1002/piq 359 more attractive to job seekers than those with a standard work arrangement.…”

“…In response to the offering of flexible work hour arrangement, employees’ overall positive feeling toward the employer increases, which may reciprocate with greater organizational commitment, reduced levels of stress and increased job satisfaction (Wickramasinghe & Jayabandu, ). Such positive attitudes are created due to several reasons.…”

The Concept of Work-Life Balance: It’s Applicability for the Female Employees in Sri Lankan Context

“…In this competitive day and age, organizations have come to the realization that people or human resource is absolutely critical to success as they initiate capital growth and technological expansion. People are all different and they have different profiles: they bring different life and employment experiences, qualifications, interests, skills, abilities and competencies (Wickramasinghe & Jayabandu, 2007). However, people need a certain degree of attention to efficiently and steadily perform at a high standard (Updegraff, 2004).…”