To continue reading When Work Works - Flexibility: A Critical Ingredient in Creating an Effective Workplace, download as a PDF here.

excerpt from WHEN WORK WORKS
FLEXIBILITY: A CRITICAL INGREDIENT IN CREATING AN EFFECTIVE WORKPLACE
By James T. Bond*, Ellen Galinsky,* and E. Jeffrey Hill**
Prepared and Published with Support from IBM

It is more challenging than ever to manage effectively-to recruit top talent, to engage and retain this talent, and to maximize productivity-in the face of fierce competition, more complicated jobs, and changing workforce demographics. Growing numbers of employers are managing quite differently than they did only two decades ago: they are giving their employees greater shared responsibility, flexibility, and support in carrying out their work without moment-to-moment oversight and direction by supervisors. Such employers provide a vision of the future-worth publicizing and emulating to spur further productivity gains and a better quality of life for all Americans.

Historically, management was exercised from the top down with relatively little input from the employees actually responsible for day-to-day operations-a command-and-control model of management. In the past several decades, however, management practice has begun to change rather dramatically-motivated by desires to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance overall organizational performance and returns on investment.

Growing numbers of organizations have explicitly or implicitly embraced quality assurance practices, learning organization principles and teamwork-all of which give employees more control and responsibility in their jobs. Quality assurance practices encourage employees to take initiative to ensure product quality and customer satisfaction. Learning organizations reach deep into the ranks to identify more effective ways of working and provide learning opportunities for employees to develop their skills. Employee teams have broad responsibility for deciding how work gets done, while also being held accountable for output and quality. All of these factors can lead to higher employee engagement, greater job satisfaction and productivity, and lower turnover.

Saying that these changes have occurred is not just conjecture on our part. Families and Work Institute conducts the largest and most comprehensive study of the U.S. workforce, The National Study of the Changing Workforce1, and can make comparisons with the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey2. It is clear that larger proportions of employees have greater learning opportunities on the job and more shared responsibility in performing their jobs in 2002 than in 1977, as shown by just a few indicators in Figure 1.

* Families and Work Institute
** IBM and Brigham Young University

1Bond, J.T. with Thompson, C., Galinsky, E. and Prottas, D. (2003) Highlights of the National Study of the Changing Workforce. New York: Families and Work Institute. In our 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, we surveyed a representative sample of 2,810 wage and salaried employees to examine (among other things) the relationships between experiences on the job and outcomes that are important to employers. Because we interviewed employees-not their managers-we are reasonably certain they are telling it like it is.

2Quinn, R.P., and Staines, G.L. (1979). The 1977 Quality of Employment Survey. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.

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