In the world of work as it exists today, the old standards of fixed hours and location have been substantially weakened. Most employers, in fact, prefer to maintain a flexible system of work arrangements that gives them more control over rate of production, assignment of tasks, and economic circumstances. The global development of these new and extensive conditions of employment variously characterized as nonstandard, alternative, peripheral, contingent, or atypical has reached a point at which its significance for both employers and employees (as well as for society in general) can be fruitfully analyzed. Such analysis is the purpose of this book.
Twenty-six scholars present findings from a wide range of national experiences, including those of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although the bulk of the study is empirical, the conceptual approach with which the book opens pervades the entire analysis, so that important questions such as the following are raised frequently in differing contexts:
Do organizations send mixed signals about flextime to their professional employees? What if anything compensates for the virtual elimination of "slack time" in the skilled labour market? Are flexible staffing arrangements inherently discriminatory? Do local managers tend to implement organizational strategic visions of good working life in a way that merely creates new compromises for their subordinates? How do non-permanent workers balance anxiety and freedom? Have flexible work arrangements affected traditional patterns of gender discrimination? Does "nonstandard" often mean "substandard"?
Flexible Work Arrangements can be seen as a culmination of a trend among labour relations professionals that examines the effect of flexible work arrangements on individuals' career, family, health, and well-being, as well as effects on the workplace and the society. The direct result of research findings presented at the European Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association held at Oslo in June 2001, through its rigorous research and incisive comparative detail, it will be of great value to policymakers, employers, and unions, as well as to scholars in the field.
Preface
SECTION I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Chapter 1.
Conceptualizations of and International Experiences with Flexible Work
Arrangements
lşik Urla Zeytinogiu and Waheeda Lillevik SECTION
II. CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE PHENOMENON Chapter 2. Heterogeneity in the
Periphery: An Analysis of Non-Standard Employment Contracts
lşik Urla
Zeytinoglu and Caroline Weber Chapter 3. Puzzles of Unpaid Overtime
lain Campbell Chapter 4. The Microregulation of Atypical Jobs in
Italy: The Case of Collaborators
Sonia Bertolini SECTION III.
EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS - FROM WORKPLACE LEVEL TO
MACRO LEVEL Chapter 5. Functional Flexibility: Implementation and Outcomes
Clare Kelliher, Julie Gore and Michael Riley Chapter 6. Mimicking
Internal Labour Markets: Can Regulation Create Job Ladders for Flexible
Workers?
Martyn van Velzen Chapter 7. What Price Flexibility?
Perceptions of Flexible Work Patterns and Career Outcomes for Canadian
Accounting Professionals
Janet Romaine Chapter 8. Part-Time Work
and Annualized Hours: The Case of the NHS Workplace
Anne McBride
Chapter 9. Job Precariousness and Income Instability: The Strategies of
Non-Permanent Workers and the Role of Household as a Protection Against Risk
Giovanna Fullin Chapter 10. Flexible Working Time and Interest
Representation in German and British Banking
Richard Croucher and Ingo Singe
Chapter 11. Gendering Participation: The Impact of Part-Time
Employment on Employee Participation
Raymond Markey, Ann Hodgkinson, Jo
Kowalczyk and Simon Pomfret Chapter 12. Fixed-Term Employment and
Psychosocial Work Environment - Experiences in the Finnish Working Life
Antti Saloniemi, Pekka Virtanen and Anna-Maya Koivisto Chapter 13.
Part-Timers and Fixed-Term Workers - An Inquiry into National Strategies for
Implementing Two ED Directives
Annika Berg Chapter 14. Flexible
Working in Finland - Sign of New IR or Just the Opposite?
Salu
Liihteenmiiki Chapter 15. Which Workers are Non-Standard and
Contingent and Does it Pay?
Dale Belman and Lonnie Golden SECTION
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS Chapter 16. Summary, Implications
and Future Research Directions of Flexible Work Arrangements
Işik Urla
Zeytinoglu and Gordon B. Cooke, List of Contributors, Index
