Alternative work arrangements (AWA) policies allow employees to select varied work schedules that are both conducive to the organization’s goals and to employees’ personal needs. Though common in the business sector, such policies are rarely articulated within American colleges and universities. Practitioners within the student affairs profession regularly work beyond the average 40-hour week due to the fundamental nature of their work with students’ co-curricular involvement outside of the classroom; as a result, the lack of work-life balance can result in high employee turnover which can be detrimental to an organization. Utilizing grounded theory, a qualitative methodology that allows researchers to espouse new theories to explain phenomena based on data, 14 student affairs practitioners employed at a large research institution in the southeast were interviewed to examine their experiences which emanated from the institution’s AWA policy implemented in 2007. The emergent theory collectively affirmed the importance of flexibility as participants indicated that they expected variations in their work hours given the unusual hours that are commonly associated with the student affairs profession. They reported benefits such as better work-life balance, increased productivity, reduced stress, and increased job satisfaction. Conversely, participants expressed concerns that AWAs were not consistency available to all employees and awareness of the policy was limited. They also experienced feelings of guilt and often felt the need to prove that they were working. Finally, participants recommended that AWA policies should be transparent, regularly assessed, and benchmarked against existing policies at other universities. Results provided evidence of how proven strategies used in corporate human resource models can be applied in a higher education setting, and the findings further suggested that employees and employers could greatly benefit from the establishment of formal policies that allow flexibility in the workplace through the use of AWAs. Implementation of these policies may provide employees with more opportunities for work-life balance, thereby improving job satisfaction and increasing employee retention in the student affairs profession.

The effort to harmonize work self-realization with the care of children brings parents in the Czech Republic number of problems. Gender stereotypes cause that it is mainly women who must cope with the double load. This thesis deals with the most problematic areas such as the lack of alternative employment or small extension of alternative care for childern. The aim is to define the reasons for this and propose possible solutions that makes easier harmonzation of family and work in the Czech Republic.

The primary aim of this survey is to: * explore whether there is potential for job-sharing in the South African labour market; * * describe the characteristics of potential job-sharers and to explain why Job-sharing would be an appropriate and feasible solution to unemployment, massive retrenchments, poor quality ofwork life (QWL) and low worker productivity Job-sharing has been used in many developed countries to address a variety of problems at the individual, organisational and national level. These include allowing workers to have a balance between their work and non-work life; to increase worker productivity and QWL and to increase employment opportunities. The literature survey affirms that these problems are prevalent in Africa as a whole and in South Africa specifically. The survey results reveal that the environment in South is Africa is conducive to jobsharing and that slightly over one third of the workers and organisations and two thirds of the jobseekers are willing to job-share. The results of this study also reveals that QWL, productivity and unemployment does influence the willingness to job-share and that approximately 80% of the employees would rather either job-share, work-share or opt for some other alternative than to have retrenchments. Thus by implication, job-sharing would address the problems relating to poor QWL, low worker productivity, fewer employment opportunities, as well as massive retrenchments in South Africa. The study has also explored possible reasons and obstacles to job-sharing and found that whether these are perceived as significantly important or not, depends on whether one is an employer, employee or job-seeker . The job-seekers feel more than others, that there is no reason insurmountable or obstacle preventing the introduction of job-sharing by which to avert their unemployed status. There are also differences in willingness to job-share among subgroups with regard to the industry, area of work, position held in the organisation and the availability of job-sharing positions in the organisation. This thesis reports that there is potential for job-sharing in the South African labour market, to address a variety of problems pertaining to workers, organisations, job-seekers and, therefore, the whole nation at large. / Business Management / D.B.L.

The primary aim of this survey is to: * explore whether there is potential for job-sharing in the South African labour market; * * describe the characteristics of potential job-sharers and to explain why Job-sharing would be an appropriate and feasible solution to unemployment, massive retrenchments, poor quality ofwork life (QWL) and low worker productivity Job-sharing has been used in many developed countries to address a variety of problems at the individual, organisational and national level. These include allowing workers to have a balance between their work and non-work life; to increase worker productivity and QWL and to increase employment opportunities. The literature survey affirms that these problems are prevalent in Africa as a whole and in South Africa specifically. The survey results reveal that the environment in South is Africa is conducive to jobsharing and that slightly over one third of the workers and organisations and two thirds of the jobseekers are willing to job-share. The results of this study also reveals that QWL, productivity and unemployment does influence the willingness to job-share and that approximately 80% of the employees would rather either job-share, work-share or opt for some other alternative than to have retrenchments. Thus by implication, job-sharing would address the problems relating to poor QWL, low worker productivity, fewer employment opportunities, as well as massive retrenchments in South Africa. The study has also explored possible reasons and obstacles to job-sharing and found that whether these are perceived as significantly important or not, depends on whether one is an employer, employee or job-seeker . The job-seekers feel more than others, that there is no reason insurmountable or obstacle preventing the introduction of job-sharing by which to avert their unemployed status. There are also differences in willingness to job-share among subgroups with regard to the industry, area of work, position held in the organisation and the availability of job-sharing positions in the organisation. This thesis reports that there is potential for job-sharing in the South African labour market, to address a variety of problems pertaining to workers, organisations, job-seekers and, therefore, the whole nation at large. / Business Management / D.B.L.

This thesis deals with the alternative work arrangements in Europe, namely flexitime and part-time. The theoretical basis is built on the theory of preferences and takes into account household labour supply considering also household production. The aplication part compares and contrasts situation in corresponding European countries with special reference to identification the differences between men and women. As a next step, regression and correlation analysis is used in order to identify relationship between part-time ratio and other variables. It was found that there is no relationship between part-time ratio and gender wage gap. Furthermore, there is a statistically significant relationship between GDP per capita and women part-time ratio, which helps to explain the differences among corresponding countries.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze and verify the existence of causality between employment rate, unemployment rate as independent variable and fertility rate as dependent variable. Two stated hypotheses are being verified within this thesis. First of them says that by decreasing employment rate also the fertility rate decreases. Second says that decreasing unemployment rate has an impact on growth of fertility rate. The final part of essay deals with today´s often discussed concept of work life balance which in many countries supports high economical activity of women and higher fertility simultaneously. It draws attention on positives of alternative work arrangements as well as on negatives and deficits which goes together with its practicing. In the end of the thesis different possibilities of effective work life balance management are suggested.