Thesis (doctoral)--Fernuniversität, Hagen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [154]-165).

The rise of on-demand platform work typified by Uber has intensified a decades-long trend away from standard work relationships and toward contingent work structures, characterized by the unbounding of work in space and time. Yet many workers have always toiled outside of a traditional workplace and “standard” schedule. My dissertation examines how contingent workers in four different industries navigate unstable work schedules across unsettled work geographies, drawing on 120 interviews with agricultural and oil and gas workers in Texas and on-demand delivery workers and university adjuncts in New York City. Across these “old” and “new” cases of contingent work performed across rural and urban landscapes, work processes restructure space and time in such a way that workers do not know when, for how long, or where they will have work. I call this temporal and spatial instability positional uncertainty – repurposing an oilfield term for the inability to pinpoint precisely where one is at any given moment in the drilling process. The experience of positional uncertainty forces workers to subordinate the rhythms and geographies of their own lives to the temporal and spatial imperatives of their respective labor processes, leading to time struggle (unpaid periods of waiting or “zombie time” and overwork) and challenges in space (related to the bifurcation or unbounding, respectively, of the spaces of work and home). Workers respond, first, by doing boundary work, and second, by telling both critical and anchoring stories in attempts to bring coherence and meaning to the day-to-day and the long-term. The dissertation highlights the integral role of time and space in structuring social life, the active maneuvers by which workers struggle to re-configure time and space to produce coherence and make a life for themselves, and the short- and long-term costs of the transfer of risk onto workers through positional uncertainty. The strategic comparison reveals parallel strategies across disparate cases in response to the warping of time and space and illuminates how positional uncertainty exacerbates deep-set structural inequalities.

Titel: “Jag hinner aldrig igenom min ‘to do’-lista” Undertitel: En dagboksstudie om hur heltidsanställda med flexibelt arbete använder sin tid Författare: Cecilia Bergqvist och Larglinda Sopaj Handledare: Jean-Charles Languilaire Nivå: Kandidatuppsats inom företagsekonomi, vårterminen 2019 (15 hp) Nyckelord: flextid, flexibelt arbete, övertid, work-life conflict, gränslöst arbete, time, time management Forskningsfråga: Hur använder heltidsanställda med flexibelt arbete sin tid? Syfte: Att beskriva hur heltidsanställda med flexibelt arbete använder sin tid. Metod: Studien bygger på ett praktiskt problem med begränsad tidigare forskning om ämnet. Därför tillämpades ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt för att svara på studiens syfte. Forskarnas vetenskapliga förhållningssätt är hermeneutiskt. Empiriska data samlades in genom kvalitativa och kvantitativa frågor och analyserades därefter på ett kvalitativt sätt som en tematisk analys. Empirisk insamling: Empiriska data samlades in genom en dagbok på 5-arbetsdagar, rapporterad av 15 deltagare. För att delta i dagbokstudien krävdes att individen uppfyllde två kriterier, att: 1) vara heltidsanställda och 2) ha flexibla arbetstider. Dagboken innehöll både kvalitativa och kvantitativa frågor. Resultat och slutsats: Eftersom resultatet visar på att 73,3% av deltagarna arbetade övertid, är det då rimligt att dra slutsatsen att flexibelt arbete kan leda till att individer arbetar övertid. På grund av att deltagarna arbetade övertid påverkades deltagarnas fritid ofta negativt. Många av deltagarna hade konflikter mellan arbetsrollen och privatrollen, vilket resulterade i att dessa roller var inkompatibla. Konflikterna visades ofta genom att deltagarna avbokade eller bortprioriterade fysiska aktiviteter på grund av övertid. Resultatet visade på att anställda hade god time management och använde sin tid effektivt, men obalans mellan inflöde och utflöde av arbetsuppgifter resulterade i att anställda ofta kände att de inte hann klart med sina arbetsuppgifter. Resultaten visade även ett svagt positivt samband mellan nöjdhet över dagens arbetsinsats och påverkat välmående. Deltagarna som hade barn som bodde hemma brukade ofta ha ett mer strukturerade arbetsrutiner, medan individer som inte var föräldrar eller barnen hade flyttat hemifrån, brukade ofta ha mindre strukturerade arbetsrutiner. / Title: “I never have enough time to finish my to-do list” Subtitle: A diary study showing how full-time employees with flexible working hours use their time. Authors: Cecilia Bergqvist and Larglinda Sopaj Advisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, Spring 2019 (15 credits) Keywords: flextime, flexible work, overtime, work-life conflict, boundaryless work, time, time management Question: How do full-time employees with flexible working hours use their time? Purpose: Describe how full-time employees with flexible working hours use their time. Method: The study is based on a practical problem with limited previous studies on the matter. Therefore, an inductive approach was implemented to answer the purpose of the study and the researchers’ scientific approach to data is hermeneutic. Empirical data was collected through qualitative and quantitative questions, and thereafter analyzed in a qualitative manner as a thematic analysis. Empirical framework: Empirical data was collected by a 5-workday diary reported by 15 participants. To participate in the diary study, an individual had to meet two criteria: (1) they must be full-time employee and (2) must have flexible working hours. The diary included both qualitative and quantitative-based questions. Results and conclusion: Since the results show that 73.3% of participants were working overtime, it is reasonable to conclude that flexible working hours can lead to individuals working overtime. Furthermore, due to the overtime, participants’ spare time was often affected negatively. Indeed, many participants had work-life conflicts, where the work-life and the private life were incompatible. This phenomenon is evident through reported cancelled or rebooked physical training due to extended working hours. Additionally, participants who had minor children usually had a more coherent and predictable working schedule. On the other hand, individuals who were not parents of minor children had less coherent and less predictable working schedule. The results from the study also showed that the participants had good time management and used their time effectively, but the consistent imbalance between ingoing work tasks and outgoing work tasks resulted in participants often felt like they never finished their task assignments. The results also showed a slight positive correlation between satisfaction over the work effort of the day and the impact on well-being

Changes in the workforce have led to in an increase in work-family conflict for many employed individuals. Fortunately, many organizations have recognized and responded to employees’ work-family issues through the implementation of family-friendly benefits, such as flexible work arrangements (FWA). While offering family-friendly benefits is an important step in easing work-family conflicts, the mere availability of such initiatives may not be enough, as research shows that availability of benefits and utilization are only moderately correlated. These statistics highlight the presence of intermediating factors in the relationship between availability and utilization of family-friendly benefits. With this in mind, some researchers have examined the role of organizational factors in inhibiting benefit use. Although these organizational variables are essential in understanding the relationship between availability and use of flexible benefits, they neglect an important factor – the role that the individual may play in deciding whether to take advantage of these policies. With the exception of general demographic information, only one known study (Butler et al., 2004) has investigated the influence of an individual difference psychological factor in predicting benefit use. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by testing the influence of individual differences on FWA utilization. The study focuses on individual differences in four need-based motivational factors, need for affiliation at work, need for structure in the workplace, need for segmentation of work from other life roles, and need for occupational achievement, on flextime and flexplace usage. Furthermore, because FWA policies involve altering physical presence at work, a situational variable that involves the same dynamics, value of "face-time" within an organization, was examined as a moderator in each these relationships. Participants were 238 faculty members at a large research university. Results showed that the need for segmentation and the need for structure were negatively related to flextime and flexplace use, and the need for achievement and need for affiliation were not significantly related to either FWA. Face-time orientation did not significantly moderate any of these relationships. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future directions, are discussed.

Person-Organization Fit (POF) bezeichnet die Kompatibilität von Personen und Organisationen, wobei häufig Werte als Beurteilungsgrundlage dienen. Forschungsergebnisse zeigen, dass ein hoher POF zwischen Arbeitgebern und -nehmern nicht nur positive Auswirkungen auf die Arbeitszufriedenheit hat, auch sind für Arbeitsuchende solche Organisationen attraktiv, mit denen sie eine hohe Passung unterstellen. Die Arbeit widmet sich im Spiegel der Theorie des POF theoretisch und empirisch dem Einfluss von flexiblen Arbeitsformen (zur Ermöglichung von Zeit- und Ortsunabhängigkeit bei der Arbeit) auf die Wahrnehmung der Arbeitgeberattraktivität. Es wird untersucht, inwiefern POF als Erklärungsmechanismus für Arbeitgeberattraktivität dienen kann, in Abhängigkeit der verschiedenen Ausprägungen flexibler Arbeitsformen – u.a. werden allgemein flexibilitätsbezogene Angebote sowie die spezifische flexible Arbeitsform Telearbeit betrachtet, ebenfalls werden Effekte der Nichtverfügbarkeit flexibler Arbeitsformen in den Blick genommen. Neben POF wird auch der Einfluss von AOS (Anticipated Organizational Support) für den Effekt auf Arbeitgeberattraktivität untersucht. Darüber hinaus analysiert diese Arbeit die Rolle der Persönlichkeitsdisposition Work Locus of Control im Zusammenhang mit dem Person-Organization Fit. Die Ergebnisse erweitern nicht nur den wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisstand, auch liefern sie Impulse für die Praxis des Employer Branding.

The present rate of fossil fuel burning, the main source of commercial energy, is adversely impacting global climate. Present social and economic practices need to be examined to question their level of energy use and related greenhouse gas emission. Energy used to operate buildings and to transport people is a significant portion of the total energy consumption and reductions in these uses will be crucial to addressing the global issues. This thesis examines the potential for energy use reduction in the performance of office work through the use of Alternative Work Arrangements ("AWAs"). The analysis considers the operating energy of an office building, operating energy of alternative work locations and the transportation energy spent by employees in commuting from home to work. A brief synopsis of the present atmospheric, energy use and workplace trend is presented. The synthesis of these trends is used as a framework to evaluate the impact of AWAs. The work arrangements in the Burnaby Fraser Tax Services Office ('BFTSO'), Surrey, BC are used as a case study to analyze the operating and commuting energy spent by the employees working by different arrangements. Telework is found to be the most energy efficient work arrangement implemented at the BFTSO. Under optimum operating conditions, net energy saving per teleworker can be 34.06 GJ per annum. Net savings in greenhouse gas emission per teleworker can be 1950 kg per annum. For hoteling work arrangement, net energy savings per hoteling employee under optimum conditions can be 32 GJ per annum. Related savings in greenhouse gas emissions can be 1532 kg per annum. The proportion of total operating and total commuting energy for the BFTSO is almost equal. However, the greenhouse gas emission from total commuting energy is three times that from operating energy due to differences in carbon intensity of the fuel mix. Under optimum conditions the implementation of AWAs at the BFTSO can result in 36 percent saving in total operating energy and 43 percent saving in total commuting energy. The magnitude of the savings is location dependent due to differences in climate, fuel mix and transportation patterns. Alternative Work Arrangements have mixed social impact. It can improve the ability of employees to balance their personal and professional life. It can also lead to isolation that can adversely impact morale and work output. The participation rate in AWAs within organizations is currently low, less than 2 percent. However, the implementation of AWA is widespread with most organizations using some form of AWA. To increase the participation rate in AWAs, a comprehensive approach needs to be adopted, considering the professional, personal, economic and social impact of AWAs. Government intervention through supporting regulations and incentives can be a strong catalyst for increasing participation rates in AWAs.

The present rate of fossil fuel burning, the main source of commercial energy, is adversely impacting global climate. Present social and economic practices need to be examined to question their level of energy use and related greenhouse gas emission. Energy used to operate buildings and to transport people is a significant portion of the total energy consumption and reductions in these uses will be crucial to addressing the global issues. This thesis examines the potential for energy use reduction in the performance of office work through the use of Alternative Work Arrangements ("AWAs"). The analysis considers the operating energy of an office building, operating energy of alternative work locations and the transportation energy spent by employees in commuting from home to work. A brief synopsis of the present atmospheric, energy use and workplace trend is presented. The synthesis of these trends is used as a framework to evaluate the impact of AWAs. The work arrangements in the Burnaby Fraser Tax Services Office ('BFTSO'), Surrey, BC are used as a case study to analyze the operating and commuting energy spent by the employees working by different arrangements. Telework is found to be the most energy efficient work arrangement implemented at the BFTSO. Under optimum operating conditions, net energy saving per teleworker can be 34.06 GJ per annum. Net savings in greenhouse gas emission per teleworker can be 1950 kg per annum. For hoteling work arrangement, net energy savings per hoteling employee under optimum conditions can be 32 GJ per annum. Related savings in greenhouse gas emissions can be 1532 kg per annum. The proportion of total operating and total commuting energy for the BFTSO is almost equal. However, the greenhouse gas emission from total commuting energy is three times that from operating energy due to differences in carbon intensity of the fuel mix. Under optimum conditions the implementation of AWAs at the BFTSO can result in 36 percent saving in total operating energy and 43 percent saving in total commuting energy. The magnitude of the savings is location dependent due to differences in climate, fuel mix and transportation patterns. Alternative Work Arrangements have mixed social impact. It can improve the ability of employees to balance their personal and professional life. It can also lead to isolation that can adversely impact morale and work output. The participation rate in AWAs within organizations is currently low, less than 2 percent. However, the implementation of AWA is widespread with most organizations using some form of AWA. To increase the participation rate in AWAs, a comprehensive approach needs to be adopted, considering the professional, personal, economic and social impact of AWAs. Government intervention through supporting regulations and incentives can be a strong catalyst for increasing participation rates in AWAs. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate