Working-time autonomy as a management practice

Michael Beckmann
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Michael Beckmann: University of Basel, Switzerland, and IAB, Germany

IZA World of Labor, 2016, No 230, 230

Abstract: Allowing workers to control their work hours (working-time autonomy) is a controversial policy for worker empowerment, with concerns that range from increased shirking to excessive intensification of work. Empirical evidence, however, supports neither view. Recent studies find that working-time autonomy improves individual and firm performance without promoting overload or exhaustion from work. However, if working-time autonomy is incorporated into a system of family-friendly workplace practices, firms may benefit from the trade-off between (more) fringe benefits and (lower) wages but not from increased productivity.

Keywords: working from home; self-managed working time; flextime; firm performance; work intensification; family-friendly workplace practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J81 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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