WIGS Group 46 Assignment 2 (final) PDF

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Work in Global Society BUSM 4559 Group Assignment 2 Flexibility Group 46 Tutor: Edmund Lau

Ong Kai Wen Clement Lee Wei Kang

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Executive Summary............................................................................................................. 3 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 3 Rise of flexibility.................................................................................................................. 3 The Study Method................................................................................................................ 4 Data Collection................................................................................................................... 4 Interviewees background.................................................................................................... 5 Findings................................................................................................................................ 6 Flexibility affecting productivity at work...............................................................................6 Work life balance................................................................................................................ 7 Job security......................................................................................................................... 7 Discussions.......................................................................................................................... 8 Flexibility affecting productivity at work...............................................................................8 Work life balance................................................................................................................ 9 Job security....................................................................................................................... 10 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 11 Recommendation for FWA................................................................................................ 11 References.......................................................................................................................... 13 Appendices......................................................................................................................... 16

Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to analyse and conduct a study on how flexibility affects the working life in Singapore. We will be sourcing for informative facts and statistics through real and reliable informants using face to face interviews. In the first part of the report focuses on our methodology of data collection. In our findings we will base 2

it on the answers provided by our interviewees. We will analyse and discuss key findings from our respondents on how flexibility affects their work life and work preferences. From there we will conclude the impacts of flexibility in the working life and derive recommendations to counter the limitations. We will be using the abbreviation FWA for flexible work arrangement in this report.

Introduction In this report, we will be identifying how flexibility plays a part in the changing work through the study method, findings and discussion. We will analyse the data from our interviewees and draw inferences on how flexibility affects productivity, work-life balance and job insecurity.

Rise of flexibility The rise of flexible work has been attributed to the increasing need for companies to manage efficiently their labour supply to meet competitive pressure faced by businesses. Flexibility has been a key tool in helping attract and retain employees to companies. A recent report notes that most millennials would like the opportunity to work from home and/or have flexitime (Finn and Donovan 2013; Deloitte 2018) Increasing number of women are participating in the workforce with many holding senior positions. It has been widely known that they juggle between responsibilities as a mother and work. Compared to the past where work was only accomplished in the parameters of a designated work area. With technology, work from home, video call meeting and teleworking has been a common occurrence. In developed countries, people might partake in non-standard work to aid smooth transition from school to work citing lack of job experience, job market fluctuation and extra side income as their reasons. (Appendix 7) The different forms of flexible work arrangement exist as: part time

work, flexiWork/staggered hours, compressed work week, job share and homework. (Appendix 6)

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The Study Method Majority of the knowledge that we learn is transmitted to us verbally. Interviews are conversations for gathering information, they are an applicable strategy when there is a requirement to collect in-depth data on people's thoughts, experiences, feelings and opinions (Easwaramoorthy, 2006).We have to understand that personal experiences are valuable resources for research, part of scholarly research involves findings from primary source material (Interviews as Primary Sources for Research, 2011).

Therefore, for the primary data, we have collected information from people who are engaging in FWA to help us better understand the first-hand issues of how flexibility affects their working lives. Apart from interview questions, resources from peer reviewed journals and research databases would be utilized as secondary data.

Data Collection In order to compile data productively, interactive and detailed interviews were conducted with a pool of people that were relevant to our research field. Our sample size consists of 4 who are mainly young adults of age ranges of 20- 25 years old.

The interviewees were selected specifically based on different occupations. The people we interviewed had to participate in flexible working arrangements. We have prepared a list of 14 questions regarding flexibility, the list of questions may be found in Appendix 1 below. A total of 4 participants were interviewed, the parties were involved in both standard and non-standard jobs with a certain extent of flexibilities in their jobs. The interviewees were interviewed during their free time, mostly after their school and work hours. Some of the interviews were conducted on weekdays while some were conducted during the weekends. Each interview lasted around 15 to 20 minutes.

Interviewees background 4

Name of Interviewee

Occupation

Alfred Lim

Full time student in RMIT Part time logistics warehouse packer in Amazon

Background

Alfred Lim, a 25-year-old full time student pursuing his degree in marketing in RMIT, part time logistics warehouse

Date and time of interview

Duration of interview

7th March 3pm

20 minutes

9th March 1.30pm

18 minutes

9th March 4.30pm

15 minutes

11th March 12pm

20 minutes

packer at Amazon. He was also previously a full time customer service executive at Marine Online. He finds time in pursuing his studies and working adequate amount of hours a week achieving a work life balance and optimizing his productivity for both social and work life.

Sarah Koh

Jonathan Low

Full time student in Republic Polytechnic

Sarah Koh, a 22-year-old full time student in Republic

Part time Call centre Agent in UOB

accommodating for both school and work.

Full time student in RMIT

Jonathan Low, a 24-year-old full time student pursuing his

Polytechnic and a part time call centre agent in UOB. She goes to school 5 days a week and works after school hours,

degree in information business in RMIT, part time retail associate at Uniqlo. His school days are 3-4 days a week

Part time retail and has the choice to work after school hours or on nonassociate at school days. Uniqlo Nicol Ang

Full time business Analyst at ExxonMobil

Nicol Ang, a 24-year-old full-time business analyst at ExxonMobil with a very flexible job schedule. She does not have a fixed working schedule as her working hours are based on her performance at work, with this kind of flexibility at her work, she finds the motivation to accomplish her tasks efficiently and quickly in order to get more time for her recreation.

All 4 participants for the interview were Singaporeans and hold flexible jobs. 3 of them are currently still pursuing their studies while 1 of them is working full time. 3

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out of 4 of them are doing part time in order to balance their working, social life and schoolwork thus achieving a work life balance.

Findings Flexibility affecting productivity at work Work flexibility has contributed to positive work productivity in recent years. At google employees can set their own hours and at Microsoft employees can choose when to start their day. (Fehr, Yam and Barnes,2014) Companies reform their working schedules to model after Microsoft and Google's footsteps to achieve better work productivity. Four out of four of the interviewees agree on how flexible work arrangement contributes to positive work productivity by allowing them to work at their most productive periods of the day. Employers use a wide variety of shift schedules to meet their organizational needs. (Workflex, 2012) Work teams has also shown to improve productivity in FWA. (Appendix 5 q9) The downside to flexibility is employee might make use of the company’s flexible work arrangement for their own personal agendas. This is the causation of negative work productivity and to eradicate that companies made use of work performance tracking tools to monitor work progress.

Work life balance Work life balance has become a key criterion in job seekers in recent years; whether companies provided family friendly policies. From our survey, four out of four respondents answered that FWA helped them to manage their out of work commitments such as family, studies, co-curricular activities and social life. All 4 interviewees signalling the importance of FWA in their lives. Three out of our four respondents are currently engaging in full time studies and placed their studies as priority. Flexible shifts for part time work allows them to earn an allowance at the same time achieve better grades in school due to lessen commitment required. Singapore's highest form of flexible work is undertaking part time jobs at 38.5 percent across all the industry. (Appendix 6) One out of our four 6

respondents’ feedback that taking care of her children is her reason for signing up for FWA. Ms Nicol mentioned that she can work from home which helps her tend to her child while working simultaneously. (Appendix 5, q10) However, the limitations of FWA remain at labour intensive jobs where physical presence and labour is required at the job, work from home or lessen hours is not applicable.

Job security The collated data from the interviews have shown the difference of job security between full time and part time employees. Three out of the four, who are parttimers, are worried about their job security. On the other hand, the full-timer is not worried about losing her job as her company purposefully placed policies of flexible work arrangement. Out of the three part-timers, Mr Alfred and Mr Jonathan are worried they might get terminated if company commitment of certain hours/day are not met for example weekend shift. Consequently, they face consequences of being blacklisted and subjected to review from the store manager which leads to job insecurity. (Appendix 2&4, q13)

As for the last part-timer, Ms Sarah, she is concerned that if the economy or the organization is not doing well, she would be terminated. As a part timer she feel the company will cut out non standard workers instead of standard workers. (Appendix 3, q13)

Ms Nicol, the only full-time employee, is not troubled about job security. It proves to show that she has a sense of employment security given by her organization. (Appendix 5 q 13)

Discussions Flexibility affecting productivity at work 7

Through schemes of flexible work arrangement, employees feel motivated to work harder for their company. According to the 1999 Telework America Research Survey, benefits of flexible work arrangement reduces absenteeism, improves both mentally and physically health which translates into higher productivity (Joanne H.Pratt, 1999) . Flexible work arrangements help boost employee morale which creates a conducive working environment which is beneficial to employees and employers alike.

Recent study has shown that 78% of employees said that flexible work arrangements has made them more productive and 77% consider flexible work arrangements a major consideration when evaluating for future jobs while 36% of employees said that they are likely to leave their current employer due to the lack of flexible work arrangements (Jesse.N , 2018). These statistics have proven that most employees agree with flexible work arrangements and concurs that flexible work arrangements lead to positive work productivity.

Forming work teams will help increase productivity in FWA. When teams report more positive spill over, co-workers may experience higher collective efficacy that promotes healthy behaviour. (Moen, Fan and Kelly, 2013) Team members can spur each other on and help facilitate monitoring of work progress. However, challenges will arise when flexible work arrangements take place. Some work requires physical presence such as face to face meetings on discussions of new developments on the work projects. Work time might spill over to family time or not adequately managing your time will result in negative work productivity. (Appendix 5 q9)

Work life balance How Flexible Work affects work life balance in Singapore There is a sharp increase in Singapore firms adopting flexible work with at least 2 or more firms having flexible work arrangements of 22.7% up from 12.4%. As seen from the chart (Appendix 8), the most common form of flexible work is ad hoc work arrangement (81.3%) also known as unplanned time off. While the most common form of formal flexible work arrangement undertaken is part time work of 38.5%. 8

(Appendix 8) In addition, incentives are given to companies who practice flexible

work arrangements of about 2000 dollar per employee capped at 70000 dollars for each company. (MOM, work life grant) The Singapore government is encouraging more companies to undertake more forms of FWA to cater to employee’s family demands. Better scheme for flexible work arrangements remains to be seen in the coming years in Singapore.

Over the years, Singapore firms have moved from conventional work of 9-5 work to more flexible work arrangements. It is reported in 2016, 77 percent of the firms provided means of working from home. (Straitstimes, 2016) A total of 29.3% across all public and private sectors offered flexiwork/ staggered hours in Singapore. (Appendix 6) With the ability to schedule the work himself/herself, an employee feels

that the employer cares about the wellbeing and non-working life of the employee. (Shagvaliyeva and Yazdanifard, 2014) The end result of our respondents being able to

fulfil their outside commitment is increased job satisfaction and overall personal wellness.

As Singapore is trying to increase its childbirth rates, flexible work arrangements for mothers accommodates that. Previous studies have shown that flexible working allows mothers to maintain their working hours after childbirth (Chung, H. and van der Lippe, T., 2018) and to remain in human-capital-intensive jobs in times of high family

demand (Fuller and Hirsh 2018). Flexitime or compressed work week enables mothers to care for their child while maintaining their work commitment through homeworking.

Job security Job security is when an organization provides assurance and employment security to employees that they are able to work as long as they want and not become unemployed (Mansour & Hassan 2019) . In Singapore, besides work life balance and salary, job security is now one of the most crucial priorities in job search (Netto 2019). 11.4% of 7000 people had chosen job security as one of their top priorities (Seow 2019).

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Flexibility and job security are crucial aspects of job satisfaction (Wilczynska, Batorski & Sellens 2015). Through the interviews, all four interviewees were satisfied

and comfortable with the flexible shifts given by the organization. Two out of three part-timers are concerned with their job security due to the failure to comply with requirements. Implications of this could be look out for other available jobs to fulfil their job satisfaction (Artz & Kaya 2015). In addition, job instability will cause employees to have the lack of motivation and work commitment (Sanyal, Hisam & BaOmar 2018).

As for the other part-timer, she is worried about her job security in times of crisis. Economy instability causes organizations to call upon retrenchment of employees (Despres et al. 1950). Poor economic conditions take a toll on employees and their

sense of job security.

On the other hand, the full timer is not worried about her job security in the organization because as a working mother she is entitled to some form of FWA. Employees with high job security, there is a positive relationship between benefit views and performance meanwhile employees with low job security, there is a negative relationship between threat views and performance (Kraimer, Wayne & Liden 2005).

Conclusion Flexibility has played a crucial role in workers life in terms of positive productivity, factors for consideration of jobs and accomplishing work life balance. Through our research, we can conclude that workers prefer jobs with FWA, as it helps fulfil commitments out of work like family and education. With all these benefits of flexibility, limitations are bound to occur. Flexibility grant individuals many advantages, the downside to it is increasing feelings of job insecurities and decreased work productivity when misused. Companies may dismiss employees at any time and for any without due warning. Thus, it is the employee’s duty to prevent or minimize this situation, to do so, the individual can enhance his skill sets (Pillard, 2020). With the rise in usage of

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technology in our everyday lives especially in work, enhancing one's technological skills would be a good counter to these limitations. These skills include science, technology engineering and mathematical skills as they deem one useful in terms of critical thinking and problem-solving (Foundation for Young Australians, 2017) . As demand for routine jobs are decreasing, it is a sign that companies are looking for jobs that require soft skills (OECD, 2013) Hence, one should work on upgrading one's self to counteract these limitations of flexible work.

Recommendation for FWA Since FWA affects work productivity both positively and negatively, companies or employers should award better flexible work arrangements for high achieving employees. High productivity levels will be associated with good performing workers as such more trust can be given to accomplish their work task flexibly while newer employee would have to prove their ability to work from home.

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References 1. Artz, B & Kaya, I 2015, The impact of job security and job satisfaction in economic contractions versus expansions, Semantic Scholar, viewed on 16 March 2020, .

2. Chung, H. and van der Lippe, T., 2018. Flex...