Stephen Sweet (Associate Professor of Sociology) has a new article to be published in the journal Community, Work & Family.
The article “Explaining Organizational Variation in Flexible Work Arrangements: Why the Pattern and Scale of Availability Matter” examines flexible work arrangements among 545 American employers. Findings show that while most employers offer flexible work arrangements to some of their workforce, few offer these to the majority of their workers. Those employers that offer flexible work options tend to rely most heavily on flexibility in the scheduling and place of work. Seldom do organizations make options of reducing work and or pausing work available to majority portions of their labor forces. This study reveals that flexible work arrangements remain out of reach for most workers, but that some conditions may foster greater availability. It calls attention to limitations of past studies and illuminates an important reason why researchers have failed to identify predictors of flexible work options being present or absent from workplaces.
Coauthors are Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes (Boston College), Elyssa Besen (Center for Disability Research at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety) and Lonnie Golden (Penn State Abington).
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/2013101116230185