The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between work organisation and the labour market status of employees in Sweden, during the years 2008 to 2012. The main interest is to analyse the probability of staying employed or not, and staying employed after the general retirement age.To assess this relationship three different data sources are combined. Work organisation is approximated with the NU2012 survey, which was conducted by the Swedish Work Environment Authority. We use an empirical combination of the questions, and the work organisation is assumed constant throughout the years. Separate regressions are estimated for each possible labour market status. The regressions are estimated with cross section models and random effects panel data models.We find that there is a relationship between work organisation and employees’ labour market positions. Numerical flexibility is found to affect the work environment and the individuals’ labour market statuses negatively. Decentralisation’s and learning’s impact on the individuals’ labour market status is, however, incoherent with theories and previous research. These results are probably due to the reverse time causality of the study. Finally we propose that it is important to investigate this relationship further to be able to make policy changes.

Dynamic Capabilities is a contemporary popular notion, incorporating the ability to adjust a company’s resources adequately to exploit opportunities, prevent threats and consequently retain competitive advantage. Teece et al. (1997) coined Dynamic Capabilities and triggered a wave of research on the topic. However the notion is still in its infancy through academic disputes, different viewpoints and multiple definitions. Consequently tool, measure and procedures of Dynamic Capabilities are absent. Likewise the research on a project management level is scanty and just recently caught attention amongst scholars. To further tap into this research area, this study aims to analyse how project managers in Bayer AG can, and do, reinforce Dynamic Capabilities within their strategic projects. Nevertheless this is a difficult undertaking and other theories linked to the idea of Dynamic Capabilities were utilized to substitute and support this study.   The research is based on the definition of Zollo and Winter (2002) who divides Dynamic Capabilities into three main levels. Learning (level 2) is at the core of the notion and comprises of Knowledge Management activities. Dynamic Capability (level 1) denotes the possibility and flexibility to translate knowledge into practice through the adjustment and re-location of available resources. The final outcome is the adjustment of the operations (level 0) and the modification of on-going processes. However numerous scholars, including this study, exclude level 0 as Dynamic Capabilities and merely see it as the final outcome. To substitute the gaps in theory, support available concepts and extend the view on the levels, other theories such as Knowledge Management and Risk Management are enclosed.   Analysis of theory as well as the practical investigation of project managers from Bayer AG, revealed that knowledge exchange is the predominant driver of Dynamic Capabilities. While theory stipulates that IT software should be adequate enough to provide fast and easy access to information, project managers highlight that their main focus is on a culture encouraging personal, honest and open communication. Contradicting the idea of Dynamic Capabilities, a majority of project managers highlight that projects are locked after planning, neglecting change during execution. However, budgets are spaciously calculated providing flexibility to attain further resources when required. Additionally, Bayer provides a large pool of available resources, a culture encouraging communication and freedom of choice to their project managers. Merely detailed feasibility studies, monitoring processes and control mechanism are enforced to ensure successful project completion. The ultimate source of project success is implied to be practical experience. The theory of Dynamic Capabilities has aroused curiosity encouraging for further, deeper research on the topic.

Flexibility is a term that is presumed to be meaningful across different levels of analysis in an organisation. It has been suggested that flexibility is required by organisations, groups, and individuals to deal with an increasingly complex and dynamic organisation and global environment. Authors have proposed that organisational flexibility enables a firm to achieve a better 'fit' with their environment and create a sustainable competitive advantage. The group level literature promotes flexibility at this level of analysis as important for group effectiveness and successful project completion. The individual flexibility literature suggests that people who are flexible are more likely to be satisfied and effective than individuals who are inflexible. Despite the importance placed on the construct of flexibility, it is a relatively under explored construct, both theoretically and empirically. This is due in part to the lack of definitional precision and inconsistency in the operationalisation of flexibility at each level of analysis. Consequently, little is known about the meaning of flexibility and the relationship of this construct with contextual and performance variables. This research addresses the limitations of the current literature on flexibility by developing a testable multi-level framework of flexibility. Flexibility is defined in this research as an organisation's, group's, and individual's ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. Three primary research questions were addressed in this thesis. The first question addressed what are the characteristics of flexibility at the organisation, group, and individual level of analysis. The second overarching research question of interest in this thesis examines how flexibility at each level of analysis is related to performance. The third overarching research question examined what factors impact flexibility at each level of analysis. To address these three research questions at each level of analysis, a theoretical review and an empirical study were conducted. The first empirical study, focused on flexibility at the organisational level of analysis. This study involved the exploration of seven specific research questions that were developed from the theoretical review. This study used cross-sectional secondary data of private sector Australian organisations. Flexibility was defined as proactivity, adaptability, and resilience. This research examined the relationships between each of the flexibility components and improvements in several organisational level outcomes. Also, the impact of the contextual variables level of organisational control, degree of structure, and competition changes on the flexibility-performance relationship was investigated. Analysis techniques included moderated regression analysis. Results showed support for the positive association between flexibility and performance. Flexibility interacted with competition and structure to influence performance, but control was found to have no moderating effect on the flexibility-performance relationship. The second empirical study investigated group flexibility. This study took a sequential, mixed method research approach, using qualitative data to explore group flexibility and quantitative analysis to explore the broad relationships found among variables from the qualitative research. Using this approach, this study addressed five specific research questions that were developed from a theoretical review, including defining group flexibility, the nature of group flexibility conceptualisation, the relationship between flexibility and group performance, factors that may enhance group flexibility, and factors that may reduce group flexibility. Findings showed group flexibility was described consistently between participants and the existing literature, proposing group flexibility is a group's ability to search and consider alternatives, be adaptable, and resilient. Results also suggested a positive relationship between group flexibility and several outcomes, including stakeholder satisfaction, personal development and satisfaction, group morale, and group confidence. The final study examined individual level flexibility. Based on the theoretical exploration of individual flexibility, in this study, individual flexibility was defined as the ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. This empirical research focused specifically on managerial level flexibility. Due to the similarities in descriptions of individual flexibility and managerial flexibility in the literature, the definition of individual flexibility was applied to the managerial level. The study investigated changes in flexibility levels over time using executive coaching as the literature promotes executive coaching as an individual flexibility developmental tool. This study examined eleven leaders undertaking executive coaching with individual flexibility being measured at three points in time, pre coaching, the middle of coaching, and post coaching. Findings were consistent with the proposition of the positive impact of executive coaching on flexibility as the data showed leaders' individual flexibility levels increased from pre coaching to post coaching, with a significant linear trend over time. The results of these three studies are integrated to inform the multi-level framework of flexibility which was developed in this thesis. This framework provides a systematic, comprehensive, and tangible definition of flexibility at each level of analysis, providing a rich description of the characteristics of each flexibility component. This research advances our understanding of flexibility, which I hope will encourage further research on the construct. For managers and practitioners, this research provides a clear description of flexibility at each level of analysis and offers indicators of flexibility at each level to encourage the measurement and development of organisational, group, and individual flexibility. Also, this research provides empirical evidence of the benefits of flexibility, helping to provide legitimacy for the inclusion of flexibility into the organisation, in areas including strategic planning, organisational design, group design, recruitment and selection, and training and development. Furthermore, this multi-level model allows practitioners to be more focused in developmental efforts for organisation, group, and individual flexibility. This research provides several interesting areas for future research.

Due to dynamic and rapid changing markets, technology has helped companies adapt to the market conditions and forced them to undergo a transition from permanent structures to more adaptable ones. Researchers have stressed that by implementing more adaptable structures, companies have a better chance to utilize both personnel and business resources. By implementing flexibility in working hours and place, firms increase their chances of better coping with dynamic changes in the business environment and better meet the individual needs of the employees. This leads to the subjective constructed concept timeplace flexibility. One neglected aspect in previous research, is the link between timeplace flexibility and the role of the leader when employees get increased control and responsibility over their schedules and tasks. Hence, the purpose of this study is to discuss what role the leader plays in a highly timeplace flexible organisation. By using an inductive approach together with a qualitative research method, three theoretical concepts- Leadership styles in flexible organisations, organisational communication and self-management- have been identified to support the understanding of the empirical findings. The empirical data is collected from two companies, which have implemented timeplace flexibility in different ways. The outcome of this study suggests the leader in highly timeplace flexible organisations to act as a visionary and communicate organisational goals. Emphasis is also on acting supportive and to coach the employees when they are faced with challenges. Although, individuals in a highly timeplace flexible organisation have a lot of responsibility and can somewhat be viewed to practising self-management, having a leader is considered to be significant. The direct control of the leader has decreased but instead, it can be interpreted as the control manifests itself via the internal business culture in forms of social values and norms. Consequently, the study can serve meaningful to leaders in highly timeplace flexible organisations or companies who wish to implement more adaptable structures.

Context. Flexibility in requirements management allows organizations to react quickly to changes in market demand. Organizations rely primarily on different documents to track projects, which are inefficient at maintaining traceability between requirements and other development artifacts. Finding a model to structure change impact analysis and change propagation is needed. Objectives. First, this thesis studies the current practice for enabling flexibility of scoping decisions. Second it evaluates the identified flexibility enablers – requirements centralization, requirements abstraction, and requirements grouping – in an industry context. The current practice is then contrasted with these flexibility enablers. Methods. To understand current practice, a case study was performed in industry. Data collection relied on interviews and document and repository observations, and grounded theory was used to analyze it. A solution containing the flexibility enablers was developed and evaluated at the organization where feedback on the tool was received. Results. The practitioners followed a strategy to handle changes in requirements where the impact analysis and decision making process were the most critical. Several challenges were identified which hindered flexibility for scoping decision. As a consequence, the studied project suffered from delay and budget overrun. The three presented enablers supported flexibility in decision making. The flexibility enablers facilitated decision making by providing a single, linked, consistent, and versioned set of requirements of multiple abstraction levels. Traceability between requirements was maintained which allowed propagation of changes between requirements. The multiple abstraction levels allowed for targeted viewing of the requirements based on role. Grouping requirements with implementation proposals provided traceability between the requirements and the design, which further helped change propagation. Conclusions. Although the studied organization followed standard procedures such as Change Control Boards (CCB) and change impact analysis (CIA) to enabling flexible decision making, they did not adopt any of the methods provided in recent studies. Additionally, the organization still depended on documentation to capture requirements and counted on their tacit knowledge to analyze the impact of changes. This hindered flexibility for scoping decision. Traceability as a strong point of centralization was aligned with previous studies in enabling flexibility while the family feature was a concept with no previous empirical evidence. We also proved that abstraction enabled flexibility, which has not been discussed in any previous studies. Similarly, we found no empirical evidence related to requirement grouping based on implementation proposals in enabling flexibility in decision making. Although the three enablers supported flexibility for scoping decision, the practitioners still had to invest a certain amount of manual work to benefit from them, since the tool did not handle everything automatically.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Background:Strategic flexibility and supply chain agility are integral for textile companies in developing countries to achieve success and competitive benefits. Technology is continuously being adopted in the supply chain process. However, some developing companies are lagging due to a lack of investment, poor infrastructure, lack of skilled workers, and other challenges. Developing countries face significant barriers to competing in the market. For instance, there is advancement in the supply chain for textile manufacturing that cannot be adopted by developing countries because of their conventional and rigid business model. Evaluating the relationship between strategic flexibility and supply chain agility in developing countries is imperative. Aim:This research aimed to discover the impact of different factors of strategic flexibility in the supply chain agility of textile companies in developing countries. Methodology:The research adopted a qualitative research method, utilizing semi-structured interviews with managers and employees of the supply chain process. We have employed two case studies i.e.Lucky Textile and Rainbow Textile, located in Pakistan. We used a thematic analysis technique to analyze data. Findings:The research identified three factors that influenced textile companies' strategic flexibility and supply chain agility. The factors include uncertainties in the environment, technology enablers, and organizational relationships. The technology enablers have been found more effective; however, the selected textile companies faced a lack of investment in technology adoption and usage of technology. Moreover, trust in partners, the commitment of partners, and shared vision between partners are three major factors involved to achieve supply chain agility and strategic flexibility. Conclusion:The adoption of technology can improve strategic flexibility and supply chain agility in textile companies in developing countries. Nevertheless, there is a need to adopt some useful steps like investing in technology, training and educating workers, building trust, and doing more research to enhance supply chain performance and satisfaction. Further research is required to discover the contribution of technology enablers to achieve strategic flexibility and supply and chain agility in other developing countries.

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The aim of this study is to investigate the employee's view of the workplace's flexibility in two contexts, in the office and at home. The study has a qualitative approach based on six semi-structured interviews of employees in four different organizations. Furthermore, the employees' experience of support, routines and structures have been researched as well as the advantages and disadvantages of working in two contexts. The results indicate that all respondents appreciate the flexibility in their working life. It has contributed to a simplified everyday life that concerns private affairs such as child pickup, training, social life and a sense of freedom. However, flexible work has its challenges such as the demarcation between work and privacy becoming diffuse. Nevertheless, it is clear that the respondents value flexible workplace it feels that the opportunities weigh more than the challenges. The results also indicate that the employee's personal characteristics have a decisive factor in managing their workplace in two contexts. In accordance with Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of context bounded learning, the context does not mean only one, it can mean several contexts. / Denna studies syfte är att studera medarbetarens syn på arbetsplatsens flexibilitet i två kontexter, på arbetsplatsen och i hemmet. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats som baseras på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med medarbetare i fyra olika organisationer där samtliga arbetar i två olika kontexter. Vidare har medarbetarnas upplevelse av stöd, rutiner och strukturer studerats samt vilka för- och nackdelar detta innebär för medarbetarna i deras organisation vid arbete på två kontexter. Resultatet visar att samtliga respondenter visar uppskattning för flexibiliteten i deras arbetsliv. Den bidragande faktorn är en förenklad vardag där privata angelägenheter såsom hämtning av barn, träning, sociala livet blir en känsla av frihet. Dock har det flexibla arbetet utmaningar som att avgränsningen mellan arbete och privatliv blir diffus. Trots detta är det tydligt att respondenterna värderar flexibelt arbetssätt då det upplever att möjligheterna väger mer än utmaningarna. Resultatet visar även att medarbetarens personliga egenskaper har en avgörande faktor för att klara av en arbetsplats med två kontexter. I enlighet med Lave och Wengers (1991) teori om kontextbundet lärande behöverinte kontexten enbart vara en utan kan innebära flera kontexter.

Cognitive performance is a central part of a range of daily activities. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) interventions may improve cognitive performance by enhancing psychological flexibility. Previous research has found correlations between the constructs of psychological flexibility and cognitive flexibility (Whiting et al., 2017). However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to support the idea that enhancing psychological flexibility could enhance cognitive performance. The current study investigated whether a defusion exercise ‘The Observer’ could enhance cognitive performance in a nonclinical sample of adults (N=71). In addition, the study also sought to investigate whether a defusion exercise could have an effect on experienced levels of stress and also one’s evaluation of one’s own performance in comparison to others. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the Defusion condition and Control condition regarding cognitive performance. Both conditions performed slightly worse post-intervention. No significant difference was found regarding the evaluations of one's own performance in comparison to others. However, the results showed that the defusion exercise had a positive effect in reducing experienced levels of stress for the Defusion condition compared to the Control condition.