Bakgrund och Syfte: Tidigare forskning visar att delegering ökar känslan av empowerment hos medarbetarna. Mer forskning önskas kring hur delegering av schemaläggningen påverkar empowerment hos medarbetarna. Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för hur delegering av flexibla arbetstider till medarbetarna påverkar medarbetarnas upplevda empowerment. Metod: Studiens grund är av ett hermeneutiskt och socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Forskningsansatsen som använts är en abduktiv forskningsansats. Studiens insamlingsteknik är av en kvalitativ metod. Den empiriska informationen har samlats in med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Den teoretiska referensramen har tidigare forskning som grund. Den empiriska informationen som framkommit under intervjuerna har kategoriserats och sammanställts i ett kapitel. Analysen av studien är framställd utifrån den empiriska samt teoretiska informationen som presenterats i studien. Slutsats: Studien tyder på att delegering av flexibla arbetstider påverkar medarbetarnas upplevda empowerment, i form av kompetens och självbestämmande. Flexibla arbetstider har även en större påverkan på medarbetarna än själva delegeringen i sig. Studiens bidrag: Studien visar på att delegering av flexibla arbetstider påverkar upplevd empowerment. Ur ett praktiskt perspektiv ges rådet till ledarna att med fördel delegera flexibla arbetstider till medarbetarna för att öka upplevd empowerment i form av ökat självbestämmande och kompetens. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till vidare forskning finns ett behov av att undersöka kopplingen mellan flexibla arbetstider och empowerment på ett mer grundligt sätt. Vi föreslår att detta syfte studeras med medarbetare som varit anställa en kort tid och att syftet studeras med andra geografiska utgångspunkter. / Background and Aim: Previous research shows that delegation increases the sense of empowerment among employees. More research is requested about how delegation of scheduling affects empowerment among employees. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding how the delegation of working hours to employees’ affecting employees' psychological empowerment. Method: The basis of the study is of a hermeneutical and a social constructivist perspective. The research approach that has been used is a deductible research approach. The study's collection technique is of a qualitative method. The empirical information has been collected using semi-structured interviews. The theoretical frame of reference has earlier research as a basis. The empirical information found during the interviews has been categorized and compiled in a chapter. The analysis of the study is based on the empirical and theoretical information presented in the study. Conclusion: The study suggests that delegation of flexible working hours affects employees' psychological empowerment, in terms of competence and self-determination. Flexible working hours also have a greater impact on employees than the delegation itself. Contribution: The study shows that delegation of flexible working hours influences psychological empowerment. From a practical perspective, the advice is given to leaders to delegate flexible working hours to employees to increase psychological empowerment in the form of increased self-determination and competence. Suggestions for further research: For further research, there is a need to examine the link between flexible working hours and empowerment in a more thorough way. We propose that this purpose be studied with employees who have been hiring a short time and that the purpose is studied with other geographical starting points.

近年來我國勞動基準法歷經多次修法，然而台灣的長工時現象卻持續引發許多社會問題，勞工的過勞事件仍舊層出不窮，因此有必要檢討現行的勞動基準法工時制度是否對勞工的保障仍有不周。 在經濟全球化的浪潮下，勞動基準法逐步導入各種彈性化的工作時間制度。而在先進各國中日本在地緣關係與社經文化上與我國較為接近，對於我國勞動法制有深刻的影響，且其勞動法規中設有許多彈性的工作時間制度並作有大量的研究檢討報告，應可作為我國之借鏡。因此本文欲探究日本與我國各種工時制度與長時間勞動間的關聯，分析其原由，檢視我國現有規範及行政措施的成效，並提出改善建議，作為未來工時制度設計上的參考。 就結論而言，本文認為我國勞動基準法應導入移動工時制度，同時第84條之1的適用範圍與法律效果應予調整。最後，尚應根據過勞的認定基準，設定工作時間的絕對上限，以防堵極端情形發生，保障勞工所應有的權益。 / Labor Standards Act has revised several times in recent years. However, the phenomenon of long working hours in Taiwan is causing lots of social issues, and tragedies of Karoshi never end. Hence, it is necessary to review the legal regulations of working hours. As the influence of Economic globalization, special working time systems such as variable working hours system, de facto working hours system are introduced into Labor Standards Act. Across developed countries, Japan has similar geopolitical position and culture to Taiwan. Furthermore, Japan is not only influencing Taiwan on Labor Law, but also has made a lot of researches on special working time systems. Therefore, the author examined the legal regulations of working hours and effects between Labor Standards Laws of Taiwan and Japan for the purpose of improving the rights of labors. In conclusion, it is necessary to introdece flexible working hours system into Labor Standards Laws of Taiwan and adjust the range and effect of article 84-1. In addition, absolute limit of working hours based on the guideline of Karoshi should be set to avoid extreme cases of long working hours.

I denna studie har syftet varit att undersöka om oregelbundna arbetstider påverkar fritidsintressen och familjelivet. Med följande frågeställningarna vilka hinder som påverkar fritidsintresset ock familjelivet vid oregelbunden arbetstid samt vilka möjligheter till att hitta balansen mellan arbetet, fritidsintresset och familjelivet trots oregelbunden arbetstid? Studien är kvalitativt uppbyggd med åtta stycken intervjuer. Det resultat som framkom var att vissa av informanterna upplevde även att det inte fanns någon större påverkan på familjelivet och fritidsintressen, medans de andra informanter upplevde en påverkan med en oregelbunden arbetstid på fritidsintresset och familjelivet. / In this study, the purpose has been to investigate how irregular working hours affect leisure and family life. With the following questions what the obstacles affects leisure and family life during irregular working hours and what are the opportunities for finding the balance between work, leisure and family life despite irregular working hours? The study is qualitatively structured with eight interviews. The result showed that some of the informants also felt that there was no major impact on family life and leisure interests, while the other informants experienced an impact on irregular working hours on leisure and family life.

The working hours, as a very important life part of most of the economically active people, are a significant indicator of the job market's flexibility. The first part of this thesis deals with the economic analysis of an individual person's time, forming of the labour supply and demand, and State's interference with job market. Afterwards follows the outline of the historical development of working hours, with the origins and progression of a regulation of this area. The third part is focusing on the legal form of working hours in the Czech Republic, including regulation of breaks, working hours' set out, privilege leave and special arrangements for a certain groups of employees. The next part analyses unusual working modes that are helping to create a more flexible job market and more job opportunities, such as part-time work or labour time account. The thesis includes a part where is being compared regulation of the working hours with the world, from the point of view of certain international institutions such as the World Bank. A special emphasis is placed on the confrontation with countries of the European Union. The last part deals with the analysis of the contemporary adjustment of working hours in the European Union, which greatly influences the competitiveness of the job market in the EU.

In the first chapter of the diploma thesis I am concerned with the women employment and I define the term of special women working conditions. The second chapter describes the evolution of special women working conditions as well as the evolution of working hours and child labour. The next part of the diploma thesis summarizes international, european as well as czech sources of law that are connected with special women working conditions. The last chapter is devoted to the current legal regulations of special women working conditions that is compared to the previous legal regulations and there are the results of the checklist research in Chrudim region.

Problemformulering: Att ha kontroll över sin arbetstid har visat sig ha både positiva och negativa effekter för återhämtning. Återhämtning har central betydelse för att minska arbetsrelaterad stress som uppskattas vara ett av de största arbetsmiljöproblemen i Europa. Det saknas dock forskning kring hälsa och verksamhetsanpassade arbetstider och även kring delaktighetens påverkan på uppfattningar om ledarskap. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka uppfattningar om förändringar i ledarskap, samt för- och nackdelar med arbetsprocessen, hos chefer, resursplanerare och medarbetare i en större svensk offentlig myndighet efter en genomförd arbetsplatsinriktad intervention för att öka delaktigheten vid planering av arbetstider. Metod: Tre chefer och tre resursplanerare valdes ut genom ett målstyrt urval och sex medarbetare valdes ut genom ett obundet slumpmässigt urval. En kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer och en fenomenografisk analysmetod användes. Huvudresultat: Resultatet består av följande huvudkategorier; likartat ledarskap, utvecklat ledarskap, större förståelse på arbetsplatsen, mer dialog på arbetsplatsen, bättre balans mellan arbetsliv och fritid, högre faktisk och upplevd möjlighet att kunna påverka och mer arbete för resursplanerarna. Slutsats: Resultatet tyder på att det ur ett arbetshälsovetenskapligt perspektiv kan vara positivt med medarbetarinflytande över schemaläggning och arbetsplatser med schemalagt arbete kan därför med fördel låta medarbetare ha inflytande över sin schemaplanering. / Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate how managers, resource planners and employees, in a bigger swedish public authority, perceive changes in leadership, and advantages and disadvantages with the work process, after a workplace-oriented intervention to increase participation in planning of working hours. Mehods: Three managers and three resource planners were selected through a targeted selection and six employees were selected through a random sampling. A qualitative method with semi structured interviews were used to collect data, and a phenomenographical method was used to analyze the interviews. Main results: The analyzed data resulted in the following descriptive categories; unchanged leadership, strengthened leadership, greater understanding at the work place, more dialogue between different work roles, better work-life balance, higher actual and perceived opportunity to influence and more work for the resource planners. Conclusion: Employee participation in schedule planning can be positive from an occupational health science perspective. Workplaces with scheduled work can therefore advantageously let employees participate in schedule planning.

Masters of Commerce / In the twenty first century, the traditional roles in a nuclear family have changed. In the majority of modern families, both partners have careers and full-time jobs. Burnett, Gatrell, Cooper and Sparrow (2010) explain that the approach to working life is changing, both men and women want to find a balance between work, family and caring responsibilities. Guest (2002) also elaborates that work-life balance has always been a concern for those interested in the quality of working life and the relation to broader quality of life. Due to the challenges which employees are currently facing, flexible work arrangements have become an increasingly popular business practice around the globe as a means to reduce work-life conflict. Many organisations offer flexible work arrangements with the goal of facilitating positive outcomes for both organisations and employees (Joiner & Bakalis, 2006). However, other organisations are still resistant to introducing flexible work arrangements as they fear it might impact negatively on productivity (Johnson, 2004; Martinez-Sanchez, Perez-Perez, Jose Vela-Jimenez & de-Luis Carnicer, 2008). While literature on flexible working hours has increased in recent times, no study has been found on the relationships between flexible working hours, employee engagement and organisational commitment in the retail sector in South Africa. Therefore this study focused on the relationship between flexible working hours, employee engagement and organisational commitment. The study followed a quantitative approach and the questionnaires were completed by 161 respondents. The two statistical approaches used to draw conclusions for this study are descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found significant relationships between flexible working hours, employee engagement and organisational commitment. The study also found a significant relationship between different age groups and flexible working hours as well as male and female and their use of flexible working hours. In conclusion, if retailers want to remain competitive in the retail industry where international competition is rife, they will have to ensure that they have the best talent. In order to acquire top talent, they will need to implement policies that will attract and retain them. Based on the findings and results, flexible working hours could substantially assist by increasing their employee engagement and organisational commitment and thereby attracting and retaining the top talent in the South African retail industry.

Flexible working hours is a work regulation which both creates opportunity for an increased flexibility but on the other hand demands the same from the employee. An increase in availability for the employees has contributed to a more blurred line between work and free time. This study has examined how flexible working hours affects the employees stress levels, workload and work life balance. Previous research has shown that stress, workload and work- life balance continuously interact and correlate with each other. Results both show that flexible working hours has positive and negative effects on all the subject matters. Using a qualitative method six interviews has been completed and from the collected data it can be concluded that all the interviewed work more than their contracted hours. Furthermore, it can also be shown that the constant availability complicates work-life balance. Finally, the data also presents a form of acceptance and normalizations around the demands and what is expected from an employee with flexible working hours. / Förtroendearbetstid är en arbetstidsreglering som både möjliggör en ökad flexibilitet men samtidigt kräver detsamma från den anställda. En ökad tillgänglighet för de anställda har bidragit till att gränsen mellan arbete och fritid inte är lika tydlig. I den här studien undersöks det hur förtroendearbetstid påverkar den anställdas stress, arbetsbelastning och gränsdragningen mellan arbete och fritid. Tidigare forskning visar att stress, arbetsbelastning och gränsdragning är sammankopplade till varandra och att det sker en ständig växelverkan. Det finns resultat som både visar på positiva och negativa effekter på samtliga forskningsområden till följd av förtroendearbetstiden. Med hjälp av kvalitativ metod genomfördes sex intervjuer och utifrån det insamlade materialet dras slutsatsen att samtliga respondenter arbetar mer än avtalad tid. Vidare visar resultatet att den ständiga tillgängligheten försvårar gränsdragningen mellan arbete och fritid. Resultatet leder även fram till att det finns en acceptans och normalisering kring vad som krävs och förväntas från den anställda med förtroendearbetstid.

The purpose of the research study was to describe the general South African public’s perception of the image of nurses. The general public’s perception of nurses in South Africa and globally is seen as one of the main reasons for the current shortage of nurses, as the profession is generally portrayed extremely negatively in the open press. The picture painted reveals long working hours, poor pay and negligence resulting from poor performance and support as the essence of the nursing profession. The public is bombarded with images of nurses’ strikes and poor patient outcomes. Positive feedback is rare and seldom contributes to changing public perceptions of nurses. Studies on the public perceptions of nurses have been carried out in various countries, but published studies on the South African situation could not be found. This study aimed to determine and describe the general South African public’s perception of nurses and the results will be used to make recommendations that could improve the image of nurses and encourage more respect for the profession as a whole. A quantitative non-experimental and descriptive design was used to gain more information about the South African public’s perception of the image of nurses. A questionnaire was used to gather the data, which consist of biographical data and responses to 19 statements regarding nurses and the profession. The objectives of the study were formulated from the research question as follows: 1) to determine the general public’s perception of nurses; and 2) to formulate recommendations, based on the research results, for enhancing nurses’ public image. The population of the research comprised the 1 000 respondents to whom the questionnaires were distributed. Of these, 776 questionnaires were returned. The questionnaires were distributed in five provinces of South Africa, namely Gauteng, the Western Cape, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Accordingly, the objectives of the research were achieved, as the general South African public’s perception of the image of nurses was determined and described. In addition, recommendations for improving the current image of nurses were made. The findings of this study were predominantly positive and shed some light on the reasons for the current declining numbers of new registrations at the South African Nursing Council. The respondents, however, indicated that only 43.6% want their children to become nurses and that nursing is still viewed as a predominantly female profession. The public viewed nurses as extremely hardworking (80.03%), caring and understanding (78.2%) and supported the statement that “nurses treat their work as a profession in its own right, not secondary to a doctor’s” (73,8%). In view of the findings, the recommendations included the importance of improving the image of nurses among school children and improving recruitment strategies. It is also recommended that nurses in the profession should be made aware of the important role they play in changing their image and in re-branding the profession as a knowledge-based career for all genders and age groups. Consequently, this should be emphasised in training programmes and should be the focus of future South African campaigns. / Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Nursing Science / unrestricted

Over 90 percent of police officers in Nigeria are confronted with psychological illness and injuries as a result of occupational stress, which is compounded by a lack of attention to police officer welfare by government, insufficient annual leave, and poor salaries that contribute to poor performance. Using Karasek's demands on decision and control model as the foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the impact of occupational stress on police officers in a metropolitan police agency in Nigeria. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 senior police officers who had at least 20 years experience in law enforcement in Nigeria. These data were inductively coded and subjected to thematic analysis that resulted in 8 themes. These themes included insufficient police personnel, limited environmental resources, family-work conflict, unclear work roles, inadequate counselling and training procedures, conflict from job demands, extended working hours, and inadequate salary level as factors contributing to occupational stress. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to Nigerian police executives to improve awareness of how to effectively manage factors responsible for occupational stress among police officers to promote a balanced work-life experience, good health, and more professionalism in their duties of protecting life and property.