Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University, 2016. / Climate change imposes indisputable burdens on economic development by significantly causing damage to the environment. In the transportation sector, carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles are seen as top environmental pollutants around the world and in South Africa. Despite increasing environmental issues, many people, including business leaders, generally think of environmental issues as disconnected from their everyday business lives and behavioural patterns. The Republic of South Africa as a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) encourages any practices and processes that will control, reduce or prevent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The adoption of telecommuting for travel reduction can impact positively on environmental sustainability by reducing the amount of commuter driving and thus reducing carbon emissions. Telecommuting is an arrangement where an employee works from home or out of office using telecommunication links (internet, email and/or telephone) to reduce commuting to and from the office, enhance productivity in the organisation, and reduce office space requirements. However, despite the well documented benefits of telecommuting, the uptake of telecommuting in South Africa is slow. This study falls under the Green Information Technology research field. The aim of the study is to identify the reasons behind the slow adoption of telecommuting in South African organisations. The study followed embedded multiple-case studies. Qualitative data were collected from nine companies using semi-structured interviews with 19 participants comprising of Information Technology (IT) and Human Resource (HR) managers, telecommuters and non-telecommuters. The companies were selected to be as diverse as possible in the operating sector and both purposive and snowball strategies were used.

The pandemic has had significant effects on our society overall. This has meant organizations have been forced to rethink their structure and work arrangement. Our object of study is the imposed and fast changes to work arrangement, our case has been a municipal organization. Employees have been interviewed to give us insight into their experiences of working during these conditions and how they anticipate working in the future. Our results show that the organization has successfully adapted to these changes and become more of a distributed organization that relies heavily on Teams to perform its communication and collaboration tasks. The work arrangement has had positive effects on efficiency; however, this has affected their sociality and their groups have become smaller. The anticipated future seems to be more of a hybrid organization, which allows for both remote work and co-located work. These findings are relevant for organizations going through a similar transformation in order to get insight from our findings to help them in their process.

Telecommuting, or working away from the office, has during the covid-19 pandemic proved both challenging and advantageous. The new prerequisites and lessons learned has led companies to adopt Hybrid Virtual Models (HVM), a combination between in office work and telecommuting. The purpose of this study has been to analyze this new way of working in order to provide practitioners with important insight into the implications and possibilities with HVM. The theoretical contribution consists of broadening scarce theoretical coverage by highlighting important aspects for its implementation and usage. Empirical data has been gathered using an abductive method and indicates that voluntary HVM leads to increased organizational performance in terms of less sick days and increased employer attractiveness as a result of being highly desired. Concluded in the study is that a balance between office work and flexible telecommuting is the best way to organize to meet the demands of the future. / Pandemin flyttade mycket av verksamheten från kontoret till anställdas hem. I takt med att restriktionerna lättas ställs företagen inför frågan hur de ska organisera sig givet de nya förutsättningarna. Distansarbete har visat vara både utmanande och fördelaktigt. Detta har lett till att företagen infört virtuella hybridmodeller (HVM). En kombination av arbete på kontoret och på distans. Studiens syfte har varit att analysera detta nya sätt att arbeta för att ge branschverksamma viktiga insikter om konsekvenser och möjligheter med hybridorganisering. Det teoretiska bidraget breddar det tidigare knapphändiga teoretiska underlaget genom att belysa aspekter för hybridarbetets genomförande och användning. Empirisk data har samlats in genom en abduktiv metod och visar att HVM tenderar att öka prestation på grund av färre sjukdagar och image av att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Studien kommer fram till att en balans mellan kontorsarbete och distansarbete är det bästa sättet att organisera sig för att möta framtidens krav

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan upplevd möjlighet till flexibla arbetsarrangemang och arbetstillfredsställelse, samt att se om variansen i arbetstillfredsställelse bäst predicerades av temporal eller spatial flexibilitet. Data samlades in genom en digital enkät där arbetstillfredsställelse mättes genom mätverktyget Minnesota Satisfaction Questionaire (MSQ) och flexibla arbetsarrangemang mättes genom New Ways of Working Scale. Resultatet visade att temporal- och spatial flexibilitet var signifikant positivt korrelerade med arbetstillfredsställelse. Resultatet visade även att prediktorerna temporal- och spatial flexibilitet tillsammans kunde förklara en signifikant del av variansen i arbetstillfredsställelse men att det endast var spatial flexibilitet som ensam kunde förklara en signifikant del. Resultatet kan ses som en indikation på att det flexibla arbetsarrangemanget med dess innebörd om ökad autonomi och kontroll har en positiv inverkan på arbetstagares arbetstillfredsställelse och kan därför således användas i konkurrenssyfte av arbetsgivare för att bibehålla och attrahera ny personal. / The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between flexible work arrangement and job satisfaction, and to determine whether the variance in job satisfaction was better predicted by temporal or spatial flexibility. Data were collected through a digital survey, where job satisfaction was measured using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and flexible work was measured using the New Ways of Working Scale. The results showed that both temporal and spatial flexibility were significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Furthermore, the predictors of temporal and spatial flexibility together accounted for a significant part of the variance, but it was only spatial flexibility that could independently explain a significant part. These findings indicate that flexible work, with its implications of increased autonomy and control, has a positive impact on employees' job satisfaction. Therefore, it can be utilized by employers as a competitive advantage to retain and attract new personnel.

No description available.

Bakgrund: Covid-19 pandemin skapade en förändring i organisationers arbete, då allmänna råd var att arbetsgivare skulle möjliggöra ett distansarbete. Detta innebar en intensifiering i användandet av flexibla arbetsarrangemang. FWA var tidigare inget prioriterat arbetssätt i organisationer, men det blev snabbt en nödvändighet för att kunna fortsätta bedriva verksamheter. FWA möjliggörs med hjälp av digitala hjälpmedel, och under pandemin påskyndades även utvecklingen av tekniken. Den digitala tekniken gör att individer kan utföra sitt arbete på alternativa platser och under olika tider, detta förhållande regleras inte till samma utsträckning som när organisationer enbart arbetar på kontoret. Den ökade användningen av FWA har påverkat organisationer positivt men det har även inneburit nya utmaningar. Syfte: Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka och därmed öka förståelsen för hur anställda i organisationer upplevt och arbetat med flexibla arbetsarrangemang före, under och efter pandemin.  Metod: Studien grundas i en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer, genom intervjuerna har författarna erhållit empirin. Det har även samlats in sekundärdata från olika källor som vetenskapliga artiklar. Empiri och Slutsats: Respondenternas svar på intervjufrågorna presenteras i empirin där författarna lyfter olika citat och sammanfattar olika ståndpunkter som lyfts fram under intervjuerna. I slutsatsen framförs det hur avgörande den digitala tekniken är för ett arbete med FWA, samt vilka utmaningar och möjligheter som finns i ett arbete med FWA och hur det kan utspela sig i framtiden. / Background: The Covid-19 pandemic created a change in the work of organizations, as general advice was that employers should enable teleworking. This generated an intensification in the use of flexible work arrangements. FWA was previously not a priority approach in organizations, but it quickly became a necessity to be able to continue running businesses. FWA is made possible with the help of digital aids, and during the pandemic, the development of technology was also accelerated. Digital technology allows individuals to perform their work in alternative locations and at different times, this relationship is not regulated to the same extent as when organizations only work in the office. The increased use of FWA has had a positive effect on organizations, but it has also entailed new challenges. Purpose: The thesis aims to investigate and thereby increase the understanding of how employees in organizations experienced and worked with flexible work arrangements before, during and after the pandemic. Method: The study is based on a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews, through the interviews the authors have gained empiricism. This also collected secondary data from various sources such as scientific articles. Empirical and Conclusion: The respondents' answers to the interview questions are presented in the empirical work, where the authors highlight different quotes and summarize different points of view that are highlighted during the interviews. The conclusion highlights how crucial digital technology is for working with FWA, as well as what challenges and opportunities there are in working with FWA and how it can play out in the future.

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.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevelsen av work-life balance bland ombudsmän vid ett fackförbund beläget i Mellansverige. Studien utgick från en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 respondenter. Resultatet analyserades genom en induktiv tematisk analys som genererade tre huvudteman; Personliga förutsättningar, Flexibla arbetsarrangemang och arbetsbelastning samt Rollen som ombudsman. Resultatet påvisade att majoriteten av respondenterna upplevde att de hade en god work-life balance. De menade att arbetslivet och privatlivet inte påverkar varandra i stor utsträckning, men uppgav att de vid ett antal tillfällen framförallt tvingats prioritera åtaganden i arbetslivet. Samtliga respondenter påtalade att deras upplevelse av balans periodvis kan förändras beroende på arbetsbelastning och personliga förutsättningar som familjesituation och erfarenhet av yrket. De menade även att de flexibla arbetsarrangemang och den kultur som präglar ombudsmannarollen har en inverkan på deras upplevelse av balans. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the experience of work-life balance among ombudsmen within a trade union located in the midst of Sweden. The study was based on a qualitative method conducted through semi-structured interviews with 10 respondents. The results were analyzed by an inductive thematic analysis that generated three main themes; Personal circumstances, Flexible work arrangements and work load and The profession of ombudsmen. The result demonstrated that the majority of the respondents felt that they had a good experience of work-life balance. They argued that their working life and private life do not have a major impact on each other but stated that they on numerous occasions primarily had to prioritize commitments in their working life. The respondents expressed that their experience of work-life balance may periodically change due to workload and personal circumstances such as family situation and experience of the profession. They also argued that the flexible working arrangements along with the culture that characterize their profession have an impact on the experience of work-life balance.

Abstract Employees experience challenges managing home and work. The increase of women in the workforce, single-parents, childcare, elder care responsibilities, and men in nontraditional roles warrant changes in traditional working hours and flexibility in work schedules. Through the theoretical frameworks of work-family conflict, spillover, border, and boundary theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how flexible work arrangements (FWAs) assisted employees in meeting work and family obligations. Minimal research is available in the defense industry and the use of FWAs. A nonprobability, convenience sample was used to explore how management and nonmanagement participants from a Midwest defense contractor used FWAs. An online questionnaire consisting of 59 questions and 14 face-to-face (FTF) interviews were used to collect data. There were 27 participants that responded to all online questions. FTF interviews were audio recorded and member-checked. The research questions were focused on how employees used FWAs and whether work-family balance (WFB) was achieved. Both data collection media were transcribed and inductively coded tracking emerging themes and patterns. Dominant themes showed that FWA increased WFB, employees worked longer hours, employees were loyal to the organization, and telecommuting was the ideal FWA. The implications for social change are providing a realistic view to employers on the importance of balancing work and family. FWAs are also shown to contribute to employee satisfaction and attract and retain highly-skilled workers.