Effect of Flexible Working Hours on Motivation

INTRODUCTION

As this is the research methods assignment so I did research on my selected topic which is “Do flexible work timings increase the morale and motivation levels of employees?” and come to know with different findings that what are the advantages and disadvantages of flexible working hours, and what other peoples opinion regarding that etc.

So this research project put out to inspect the spirits and motivation levels of employees. On the basis of pilot sample evidence, it is seen that most employees would want to work in flexible timings and feel highly motivated when given the opportunity to do so.

As flexible working hours is an advantage for many workers, which can help an organization to keep and retain its good and effective employees. Flextime can also enable workers to become more creative by organizing their work days around personal needs.

No doubt that many firms are allowing its employees flextime and also keeping record for this, but some of the organization have core working hours for example, from 09:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with an hour off for lunch. These core hours vary widely from company to company and industry to industry. Flextime employees are given the opportunity to schedule their additional working hours from 05:00 a.m. to 09:00 p.m. for example with at least eight total working hours a day or hours given by company.

It can also be beneficial for parents who are working and want to spend a time each day with their children.

“Many employees foundd that their productivity can increase by setting flexible hours, which may enable them to work for calm time in early morning or evening. Some telephone salespersons, such as, may find that they have more success working late into the evening, rather than being forced to work during normal daytime hours. Some software engineers, research staff, or other people may feel that working late into the night is best for them as late night they can do better because that time they can do their work without any interruption”.

One of the key to successful flextime scheduling is to determine in advance all employees weekly or monthly schedules. Clearly, a company can’t function if everyone is gone at the same time every day. Managers need to work out best possible flexible time schedules with employees, adjusting individual needs with overall company requirements.

In today’s rigid labor market, many types of businesses can offer flexible scheduling as a benefit to applicants.

Research Objective

This research study is trying to determine the benefits derived due to the preface of flexible working hours amongst the employees.

To determine whether implementing flexible work timings will be impact on the self-esteem of employees & motivation levels of employees.

Significance:

This research seek to find the result of flexible working hours provided to employees so to enable them to keep a balance in their personal as well as professional lifes.this research paper also develops the hypothesis on the different challenges which are faced by organizatons to be competitive in business.

These Flexible work practice provides managers and employees with the opportunity to mutually plan adapted working arrangements to suit their joint needs.

Here are some benefits of flexible work practices which are stated below (for institute);

Saving of skilled employees who can otherwise leave the organization. Reduced training and recruitment costs due to lower employment turnover. Increased employee job satisfaction, commitment and resultant productivity. Improved employee morale and reduced stress

Here are some benefits of flexible work practices which are stated below (for employee);

Opportunity to combine family and personal responsibilities with career goals and personal development. Increased job satisfaction and motivation as a result of a better balance of work and family commitments. Reduction in stress as a result of more suitable working arrangements.

Reasons why the need for new ways of working business drivers to change:

“Employers are under continual pressure to:

• Increase competitiveness
• Improve the quality and widen the scope of services to customers
• Boost productivity
• Manage the workforce more efficiently
• Reducing costs
• Increase the organization’s capacity to innovate

Improve morale and motivation of the workforce, aiding recruitment and retention of employees”

LITERATURE REVIEW

It has been observed that by and large most employees would like to work in flexible timings since this gives them room for more activities. Also females are more likely to work in flexible timings than men. Flexible work timings can greatly help in boosting employee morale and motivation levels.

“Flexible Working” we can say it’s a broad term, its Changes in the natural history of employment essentially moves to better variety and elasticity in work pattern,changes in technology enable work to be passed out in different ways.

“Flexible Contracts, Flexible Hours, Flexible Location, Flexible Tasks”.

There are the development in information and communications technologies which are in the process of enabling the new methods of working. These may incorporate or support the first category.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

However, recently it has been noticed that companies are increasingly facing challenges in terms of employee attrition and also dissatisfaction of employees due to the increasingly competitive market.

To address this issue, companies have introduced flexible working hours for employees. Flexible timings ensure that employees continue to maintain their productive hours, as expected from them at their own comfort.

Employees are expected to put in a certain number of productive hours per week and hence they have the comfort of logging in these hours at their own discretion.

So our problem definition is:

“Do flexible work timings increase the morale and motivation levels of employees?”

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Inventory of Variables

The variables in this research study are Motivation level / Morale of employees and Flexible timings. In our case, Flexible timing is the independent variable and Motivation level and the Morale of employees are the dependent variables. The relation between the two is the effect of flexible timings on the motivation level / morale of the employees. There is no moderating variable in this case which in any affects the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable.

Independent Dependent Variable

Variable

Motivation Level of Employees

Flexible Work

Timings

Morale of

Employees

Direction of Relation

Flexible Work Timing Have Positive Effect on Motivational Level of Employees

Flexible Work Timing Have Positive Effect on Morale Of employees

Explanation of established relationship among

Flexible Work Timing Effect the Behavior of An employee. If an Employee is doing hard job then these flexible work Time Motivate Him that After doing Rest he can continue his work. So that’s why its positive Effect.

Flexible Time Also effect on the Morals of an Employee. Because it give opportunity to do something else In flexible work timing.

Inventory of Propositions in a sequential order

Flexible Work Timing Positively Effect on Motivational Level of Employees

Flexible Work Timing Have Positive Effect on Morale Of employees

HYPOTHESES

In the “traditional test of significance, two kinds of hypothesis are used the null hypothesis and the other one which is alternate hypothesis. Null hypothesis (Ho) is used for testing. It is the statement that no difference exists between the parameter and the statistic being compared. Second is Alternative hypothesis (H1) is alternative hypothesis is alternative hypothesis which holds that there has been a change”.

Testing of hypothesis can be explained as a six steps process

“Establishing a null hypothesis”

“Choosing the statistical test on the basis of assumption about the population distribution and measurement level select the desired level of significance Parametric and non parametric tests are applicable under various conditions like parametric operates with the interval and ratio data and are preferred when their assumptions can be met. Non parametric tests do not require stringent assumptions about the population distribution and are less useful with less nominal and ordinal values”.

Before we start our research, based on our problem statement, we have come with the following hypotheses:

1. Null Hypothesis:

H0= Flexible timings do not have any effect on employee morale.

Alternate Hypothesis:

H1=Flexible timings have effect improve employee morale.

2. Null Hypothesis:

H0= Flexible timings do not have any effect on employee motivation.

Alternate Hypothesis:

H1=Flexible timings improve employee motivation.

RESEARCH DESIGN

“A research design is used to guide a research study toward its objectives. The process of designing a research study involves many interrelated decisions. The most significant decision is the choice of research approach, because it determines how the information will be obtained”.

The measurement of processes of learning and the evaluation of the outcomes of the teaching-learning process have always posed major problems in research design. This is especially true where the desired outcomes are broadly defined as changes in interpersonal behavior: a complex of knowledge, values, perceptions, and behavioral skills. One purpose of this paper is to provide investigators with a review of the methodological problems involved in planning and conducting such studies.

Unlike much research in the behavioral sciences which is primarily intelligible and of interest only to other researchers, research on human relations training is frequently written for and read by administrators and practitioners who may base action decisions on the findings. Their need is for guidelines which will aid them in evaluating the soundness of research reports and their applicability to practical decisions on the planning and conduct of training. This paper is equally addressed, then, to the creators and consumers of research on human relations training.

Classification of Research

The different research designs can be categorized into research design in case of:

1. Exploratory Research Studies.
2. Descriptive And Diagnostic Research Studies
3. Experimental research Studies

My Research based on Descriptive and Diagnostic Research Studies Because Descriptive research studies are concerned with describing the characteristics of certain individuals or a group. E.g. studies concerning whether certain variables are associated.

Diagnostic research studies determine the frequency of with which something occurs or its association with something else. E.g. studies concerned with specific predictions, with narration of facts and characteristics concerning individual, group or situation.

The descriptive as well as diagnostic research studies share common requirements. In both the studies, the researcher must be able to define clearly, what he wants to measure and must find adequate methods of measuring it. The aim is to obtain complete and accurate information, hence, the procedure to be used must be carefully planned. It should make enough provision for protection against bias and must maximize reliability. The design must be rigid and not flexible.

Data collection techniques:

The data of our research is collected in a survey is just like by filling up a questionnaire from 30 selected respondents, also the research is going to be conducted in natural environment where work proceeds normally.

This research is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative research methods since we are going to use current statistics from previous researches and we have also conducted a survey of Employees on how their behave before and after Training and Development. There are 10 questions in each questionnaire.

Population

The population of this research are randomly chosen Employee of different age who are working in an organization. Random sampling technique is used to make sure we don’t cherry pick our respondents. And the Targeted population is the employee of Tech pack Company.

Sampling

Form the sample of 30 respondents is drawn from which the selected population (before and after training) by using random sampling techniques. And check there working Ability by Production and quality.

Tools of Data Collection

These following tools Were used for Data Collection.

• Pilot sample.
• Field Research

Collection of data its processing and analysis

My method of collection of data will be with the help of a questionnaire, a sample of which is attached at the end for reference. We will cover those companies, which work with fixed timings. Using the data collected in the form of questionnaires, analysis will be performed and we can arrive at a conclusion whether flexible timings actually improve employee morale and motivation.

Here we see that we are not able to calculate the values for σ and X-µ , as σ represents the standard deviation of the population and µ represents the population mean. Both these values are not available to us.

Hence we will be carrying out a survey on a pilot sample. For this pilot a sample size of 30 respondents is chosen. We see that for all the critical questions the Liker’s scale has been used for gathering data. On this scale option ‘a’ would give us value 1, option ‘b’ would give us value 2 and so on till option ‘f’ which would give us value 6. Once the pilot data is gathered, we will use Microsoft Excel sheet to calculate the sample size.

After the information has been composed from a representative sample of the population, the next step is to analyze the research hypothesis. Firstly the data i.e. the questionnaires would be checked for completeness and the wherever data is incomplete attempts will be made to get it filled up / or get it discarded.

Then the data will be coded using the following formats:-

Wherever the response to the question would indicate Yes /No we will use 1 for Yes and 2 for No

In case of questions using the Likert scale, we will use the following coding convention

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

This coding will be useful in analyzing the data using tools like Microsoft Excel.

Frequency distributions of the supposed variables of interest will be obtained. illustration displays like histograms, bar charts would be constructed. Below is a sample of the frequency distribution, which would be obtained with pilot data using Excel.

FINDINGS

Tentatively this research study seeks to examine the effects of flexible work timings on the employee’s morale and motivation levels.

Based on similar studies done in the past we are likely to conclude that:-

Many employees would want the option of flexible work timings.

This is because of the changing work environment. Today many people are working more than 60 hours a week instead of the regular 48 hours. This leads to increased stress levels.

Working patterns have changed drastically too as workers in service industries such as banks, insurance companies and supermarkets increasingly have to be available to offer 24-hour services to the consumer. Similarly public sector workers are increasingly expected to provide services beyond the traditional 9am to 5pm day. Also more and more employees are becoming aware of flexible working arrangements.

It is expected that females would be more likely than men to request for flexible work timings.

This is because increasing numbers of women with young children are in work. In two-thirds of families both parents now work outside the home, up from under a half in the 1980s. Women with children under 6 are more likely to request for flexible timings.

Meeting childcare needs would be expected to be the most common reason given by employees for requesting to work flexibly, particularly women.

Since today many couples with small children are working in organizations, this leaves them with little time to take care of their little ones. If there is no one at home to take care of the children, then either one of them has to take leave to take care of the young one, or the kid is left in a daycare centre. By opting for flexible work timings, this situation can be managed easily with one of the partners staying back.

Most of the employees would agree that an employee would be greatly motivated if given the chance to work in flexible timings.

Flexible work timings enable an employee to balance his work life and personal life. It is because of this that he tends to have lesser stress levels and feels good about his organization’s caring approach. Hence the degree of motivation in greatly enhanced.

When asked most of the employees would agree that an employee tends to be more productive to the organization if he / she are working in flexible timings. In flexible timings the employee can work at his own comfort level and at his discretion, which allows him greater control over his life. This greatly help to increase the productivity of the employee in his organization.

It is expected that the majority of the employees would agree that an employee tends to be more committed to the organization if he/she is working in flexible timings.

Due to the greater flexibility provided in flexible work timings, the employee feels a greater sense of commitment to his organization. This is because h feels that the organization is doing a lot to help him, so in turn he / she should also give the same back to his organizations.

Many of the employees would agree that an employee’s morale is higher when he/she are working in flexible timings.

The morale of an employee is directly related to his motivation level. If the employee feels greatly motivated, his / her morale will be greatly boosted and this helps the organization to a great deal.

Much of the employees would agree that flexible timings help to a great extent in retention of employees.

Because employees would have the option of flexible timings, they tend to have a great attachment level to the organization. They would not readily leave the organization.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This study is about to cover a bright picture of flexible working for the employees. There are some pros and cons of flexible working hours, but any how the advantages are more than disadvantages. As full time flexibility leads to complexity in the organization which will lead to destruction and loss of the company, it can be mangeable for employees but May there is no control of work between them.

As a consequence it leaves many of the employees within the organization feeling unhappy about their work, life and balance in both of them. It depends on the employer how they design jobs and recruit for retaining something. And these findings do not implement on IT sector as IT sector is facing a number of such things as challenges such as:

• Unauthentic evidence
• Need to move for a narrow commitment
• Need to tackle different things like attitudes and behaviours
• Align promotion and reward on the basis of full time basis or part time basis

This research study easily suggests that IT sector no doubt IT sector had taken first steps on creating a role of flexible working but they still need to be ensure their future competitiveness and success. “All which is required is vision and leadership to capitalize on the sector’s unique opportunities”.

RECOMMENDATIONS

According to my point of view there are different recommendations for flexible hours, some of them are stated below:

Design appropriate flexible working options

It means that designing such a flexible working which is convenient for employees as well as for employer, it up to the individual agreement and proper planning. Time and scheduled everything should be pre-planned.

Organizations should clearly mentione tha what is suitable and not suitable for flexible working hours for individual roles.

Support managers to carry out flexible work options for employees

One of the biggest obstacle to modify may be the attitude and perception of middle managers and line mangers. Organization often undervalues the degree to which these groups may feel destabilized and threatened by the need to change working practices. In particular, successful managers, who have built a strong high-performing teams on the basis of usual full-time, face to face collaboration in the office, are likely to regard new forms of flexible work, particularly remote working, as both undermining the foundations of their team’s success.

So these mangers should provide their concerns for working differently and trained them as they begin to focus on managing employees by their output and results.

Providing difficult careers with promotion opportunities for those wishing to work flexibly

“The shade of ‘career death’ is probably one of the major single barrier to the wider adoption of flexible working practices. Employees working flexibly need to be granted full citizenship rights at work, in terms of access to training, promotion and progression opportunities. This shift in attitude and practice is the stick that holds work life balance cultures together. Without such stick, flexible working practices have a much more limited impact on the recruitment and maintenance of key ability”.