New study shows
Research from Cass Business School and Cranfield School of Management has confirmed that flexible working can increase employee job satisfaction and organisational commitment.
However, the researchers discovered that employees who establish flexible working arrangements through informal discussion with their line manager are judged to perform much better than those who use formal flexible working arrangements.
The researchers surveyed 2665 UK employees across four private sector organisations with established flexible working practices that were available to all employees, not just those with parenting and caring responsibilities. There was a nearly even split by gender and most were professionals aged between 30 – 49 years-old.
The researchers examined the relationship between flexible working arrangements designed to accommodate employees’ needs (eg remote working, flexitime, compressed working) and performance appraisals.
They then considered the indirect effects of employee performance via job satisfaction and organisational commitment. They also analysed whether the associations varied according to whether the flexible working arrangement was set up via a formal policy or informal negotiation between the employee and line manager.
Report co-author Professor Lilian de Menezes, Cass, said the research showed a positive association between both informal and formal flexible working arrangements and job satisfaction and organisational commitment.
“Giving employees the opportunity to work more flexibly gives them more autonomy over their working lives and this gives them a sense of job satisfaction and loyalty to their employer,” she said.
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