Flexibility: Whose Choice is it Anyway?
Flexibility: Whose Choice is it Anyway?
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灵活性：到底是谁的选择？
DOI：
10.7202/038873ar
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发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
0.4
通讯作者：
S. Mann
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
I. Zeytinoglu;Gordon B. Cooke;S. Mann
本文探讨了加拿大的灵活工作时间表是否是由雇主出于商业原因或帮助他们的工人实现工作与生活的平衡而创建的。我们专注于长工作周，弹性工作时间，压缩工作周，可变工作周长度和/或可变工作周时间表。在过去的三十年里，出现了两种关于灵活性的文献。一种文献流讨论的灵活性，需求驱动的，也就是说，雇主的战略举措，以提高企业的业务要求。另一种文献流讨论了供应驱动的灵活性，员工有能力影响关于其工作时间表性质的决定，员工，特别是女性，要求灵活的工作时间表，以实现工作与生活的平衡。因此，我们要问，灵活的工作时间表是出于商业原因还是为了帮助工人实现工作与生活的平衡？加拿大统计局2003年工作场所和雇员调查数据将雇员微观数据与工作场所联系起来（即，在分析中使用了微观数据。结果表明，该数据所涵盖的工人中有一半以上至少有五种特定类型的灵活工作时间表之一。大约5%的工人有一个长的工作周，36%的人有弹性工作时间，7%的人有压缩的工作周，13%的人有可变的工作周长度，16%的人有可变的工作周时间表。只有五分之二的加拿大人有标准的工作时间表。就业状况、加入工会的工作、职业和部门都是与弹性工作时间表相关联的因素。婚姻状况、受抚养子女和儿童保育使用的个人特征与弹性工作时间表没有显著相关，而女性比男性更不可能有弹性工作时间表。总体而言，结果表明，灵活的工作时间表是出于商业原因而不是个人利益。因此，如果公共政策制定者致力于促进工人的工作-家庭-生活平衡的利益，那么我们的研究结果表明，专门为工人设计的单独的政策举措将是必要的。
This paper examines whether flexible work schedules in Canada are created by employers for business reasons or to assist their workers achieve work-life balance. We focus on long workweek, flextime, compressed workweek, variable workweek length and/or variable workweek schedule. In the last three decades, two streams of literature have emerged on flexibility. One stream of literature discusses flexibility as demand-driven, that is, a strategic initiative of employers to enhance the business requirements of the firm. The other stream of literature discusses flexibility as supply-driven, where employees have the ability to influence the decisions about the nature of their work schedules and where employees, especially women, demand flexible work schedules for work-life balance. Thus, we ask are flexible work schedules created for business reasons or to assist workers achieve work-life balance? Statistics Canada’s 2003 Workplace and Employee Survey data linking employee microdata to workplace (i.e., employer) microdata are used in the analysis. Results show that more than half of the workers covered in this data have at least one of the five specified types of flexible work schedules. Approximately 5% of workers have a long workweek, 36% have flextime, 7% a compressed workweek, 13% a variable workweek length, and 16% a variable workweek schedule. Only two in five Canadians have a standard work schedule. Employment status, unionized work, occupation, and sector are factors consistently associated with flexible work schedules. Personal characteristics of marital status, dependent children, and childcare use are not significantly associated with flexible work schedules, while females are less likely to have a flexible work schedule than males. Overall, results suggest that flexible work schedules are created for business reasons rather than individual worker interests. Thus, if public policy makers are committed to facilitating workers’ work-family-life balance interests, then our results suggest that separate policy initiatives designed specifically for workers will be required.