Changing Work Relationships in Industralized Economies 9027232989, 1556197446, 9789027232984, 9789027283443

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CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN INDUSTRIALIZED ECONOMIES

Advances in Organization Studies Advances in Organization Studies includes cutting-edge work in comparative management and intercultural comparison, studies of organizational culture, communication, and aes­ thetics, as well as in the area of interorganizational collaboration — strategic alliances, joint ventures, networks and collaborations of all kinds, where comparative, intercultural, and communicative issues have an especial salience. Purely theoretical as well as empirically based studies are included.

General Editors Stewart Clegg School of Management University of Technology Sydney Quay Street, Haymarket P.O.Box 123 Broadway, NSW 2007 Australia [email protected] Alfred Kieser University of Mannheim D 68 131 Mannheim Germany [email protected]

Volume I I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu (ed.) Changing Work Relationships in Industrialized Economies

Changing Work Relationships in Industrialized Economies

Edited by

I şIK URLA ZEYTINOGLU McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Changing work relationships in industrialized economies / edited by I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu. p. cm. -- (Advances in organization studies, ISSN 1566-1075 ; . 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Hours of labor, Flexible. 2. Part-time employment. 3. Work environment. 4. Employees-Effect of technological innovations on. I. Zeytinoglu, I§ik U. II. Series. HD5109.C478 1999 33i.25'72--DC2i 99-046718 ISBN 90 272 3298 9 (Eur.) / 1 55619 744 6 (US) (Pb: alk. paper) CIP © 1999 - John Benjamins Publishing Company No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA

Contents Preface

vii

Introduction and Overview I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu

ix

1

Changing Work Relationships: Enacting Gender, Race / Ethnicity and Economic Class I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

1

PART I. CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 2

3

4

5

Flexible Work Arrangements: An Overview of Developments in the United States Stanley Nollen

21

Flexible Work Arrangements: An Overview of Developments in Canada I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu

41

Part-Time Employment and the Worker Daniel G. Gallagher

59

Telework and Teleworkers Andrew Templer, Marjorie Armstrong-Stassen, Kay Devine, and Norm Solomon

77

PART II.

6

CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Changing Work Relations in the European Union Lei Delsen v

99

vi 7

8

Contents European Employment Policies' Potential Impact on Female Workers Danièle Meulders and Robert Plasman

115

Regulating the Distanced Work Force: Self-Employment in the United Kingdom Jan Druker

129

PART III.

9

Changing Work Relationships in Australia Michael Quinlan and Claire Mayhew

PART IV. 10

11

12

13

CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN AUSTRALIA

147

VIEWS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS

A Union Perspective on Emerging Trends in the Workplace Louisette Hinton, Josefina Moruz, and Cheryl Mumford

171

Between Strategic Choice and Adaptation: The Role of UNICE in the European Social Dialogue Carsten StrQby Jensen (translated by Seán Martin)

183

Atypical Forms of Work in the European Union: Experiences at the Establishment Level Harald Bielenski and Eberhard Köhler

210

International Policymaking: The ILO Standards on Changing Work Relationships I§ik Urla Zeytinoğlu

219

Appendix: European Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work

239

Biographical Sketches of the Contributors

245

Index

249

Preface For more than a decade, the contributors of this book have been meeting at various sessions of the International Industrial Relations Association's world congresses, at its European regional meetings, and at the Canadian and the U.S. Industrial Relations Association meetings to share, learn, and enhance our knowledge on developments in changing work relationships in each other's countries. This book is a result of those informal meetings at conferences. The publication of this book could not have been possible without the cooperation of many individuals. Contributing authors fulfilled the challenging task of writing detailed and comprehensive, but at the same time concise chapters on their topic. Chapters are primarily based on each author's research program, but they also include a review of the recent literature on their topic. Contributing authors worked diligently in producing a comprehensive book in its coverage of changing work relationships, in its examination of demographic factors for workers in such work arrangements, and in its examination of the topic within the context of economic restructuring. The book brings together researchers from a variety of backgrounds and regions. Our goal was to produce a scholarly book intended for academic audiences, practitioners interested in research, and policymakers of governmental and intergovernmental organizations. I thank the contributing authors for their cooperation and dedication to the project. I would also like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting my research program on flexible employment strategies and nonstandard work. Without their support this book could not have come to fruition. Lastly, I would like to thank the series editor, S. R. Clegg, and the editorial committee of the de Gruyter Series in Organization, and the editorial staff of Aldine de Gruyter, who gave us the opportunity to develop and produce this book. I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu

Introduction and Overview I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu

In the last decade, there have been major changes in work relationships in the restructuring environments of industrialized economies. The restructuring of national economies can be attributed to the phenomenal growth of the service sector, the increase in and spread of the use of telecommunications technologies, and the expanding internationalization of capital. In response, enterprises have reorganized and begun to employ labor contracts that are currently conceived in the literature as "nonstandard," "atypical/' "contingent," "alternative," or "flexible" work. Data from industrialized economies indicate that in the last decade most of the newly created jobs were in the nonstandard work category, in the form of part-time, temporary/casual, telework, or self-employment without employees. Discussions on the future of work, in academia, between policymakers, and in the popular media inevitably focused on these changing work relationships and their impact on workers, work environments, and society in general. This book examines such developments in changing work relationships. PURPOSE, GOAL, AND COVERAGE OF THE BOOK The purpose of this book is to examine major forms of flexible work arrangements, discuss their policy implications, and provide recommendations for better work relationships. The book covers the interrelationships of flexible work arrangements with demographic variables and economic restructuring as experienced in industrialized countries/ regions of the world. It also provides an analysis of the impact of flexible work arrangements on the individual worker, and gives the views of unions, employers, and intergovernmental organizations on the topic. The primary goal of the book is to bring together the knowledge and experiences of various countries/regions of the world on flexible work arrangements. As much as data permit, we discuss the impact of these work forms on women, youth, racial / ethnic minority workers, and those of low economic class. These issues are examined by researchers from ix

x

Introduction and Overview

various regions of the world, who all, within a theoretical/conceptual framework of their expertise, provide a comprehensive analysis of the current state of developments in their region and discuss policy implica­ tions of their findings. In their analyses the contributors use a variety of theories/conceptual approaches such as the dual labor market theory, the core-periphery conceptualization, behavioral theories, the neoclassical la­ bor market theory, and the strategic choice and adaptation theory. Policy implications discussed in the chapters include creating a legal environ­ ment for nonstandard work relationships, representation of workers in unions or other employee organizations, developing public policies to provide a just and fair foundation for building new work relationships for all stakeholders involved, the interrelationships between home and work in flexible work forms, and setting international or supranational regional policies to regulate changing work relationships. The chapters in the book focus on part-time work, temporary work, fixedterm contracts, subcontracting, telework (telecommuting), self-employment without employees, and franchising. These are the types of work where most new jobs are being created in the restructuring economies of indus­ trialized countries. These flexible work forms are examined here within the scope of gender, age, racial/ethnic/migrant minority status, educa­ tion, and economic class variables as appropriate for each country's/ region's experiences. In terms of geographical scope, the book covers the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Australia—the regions/ countries that have experienced, in the last decade or so, a tremendous growth in flexible/atypical/nonstandard work arrangements. The underlying thesis of the book is that restructuring in industrialized economies, with its resultant nonstandard employment forms, affects all workers but particularly women and youth. Moreover, while it has been appropriate and crucial to recognize that restructuring is occurring along gender and age lines, it is equally relevant to be attentive to other demo­ graphic variables, such as race /ethnicity /immigrant status, education level, and economic class factors as underlying forces in the construction and arrangements of nonstandard work. The literature shows both posi­ tive and negative effects of flexible/atypical/nonstandard work forms on workers, though there is no conclusive result whether one or the other effect is stronger. Discussions in this book pay attention to this debate and shed light on it.

THE FLEXIBILITY CONCEPT In this book, we use the termsflexible,nonstandard, atypical and alternative work forms interchangeably. The term flexibility is used frequently in

Introduction and Overview

xi

all business circles, though it has a plethora of meanings and contexts (Atkinson 1987; Blyton and Morris 1991; Piore 1986). There are several reasons for this inconsistency in meaning: first, the range of subjects that it covers is substantial; second, the term means vastly different things to different constituencies, such as employers, unions, employees, govern­ ments, and intergovernmental organizations; and third, its use is often ideological, reflecting our views and perceptions of the 'Value" of flex­ ibility (Atkinson 1987). At the macro level, the term "labor market flexibility" takes a variety of meanings, evolving in the context of changing economic conditions. In the early 1960s, at a time of low unemployment and tight labor markets, labor market flexibility was sought by strengthening employment ser­ vices, training workers for new occupations, and encouraging geographic mobility for workers. The recessionary environment of the mid-1970s, high inflation, and unemployment rates gave rise to a new concept of labor market flexibility. Rather than laying off workers, employers negoti­ ated shorter work weeks with unions, and workers received unemploy­ ment benefits for the hours not worked. In some countries employers received subsidies to keep employees on the payroll (Brodsky 1994). In the 1980s, discussions focused on inefficient and inflexible labor markets. Governments of industrialized countries introduced flexible employment policies as measures to decrease unemployment and increase employ­ ment growth. Within this context, fixed-term contracts, part-time work, and temporary work increased in almost all the industrialized countries (Brodsky 1994). In the 1990s, policymakers continued to deregu­ late the labor markets, promoting free market policies and flexibility in employment. At the micro (workplace) level, flexibility refers to policies imple­ mented in the internal labor market of the firm. Experience shows that companies use different forms of interrelated and sometimes overlapping flexibility strategies. These strategies are predominantly demand-driven and initiated by employers (Beechy and Perkins 1987; International Labor Organization 1989; Jenson, Hagen, and Reddy 1988; Nollen, Eddy, and Martin 1978; Lewin and Mitchell 1992; Zeytinoglu 1991, 1992). Supplydriven cases, where employers adapt to changing employee desires are few, are not randomly distributed across sectors and occupations, and seem to be less common in the highly unionized sectors (Lewin and Mitchell 1992). Supply-driven flexible employment arrangements exist predominantly in professional occupations where workers as individuals or through their unions have the ability to negotiate (voluntary) parttime, job-sharing, flexiwork, and similar other arrangements (Tilly 1996; Zeytinoglu 1993). A common approach to workplace flexibility, and the focus of this

xii

Introduction and Overview

book, is "numerical flexibility/" which refers to employer strategies of flexibility in scheduling work, and flexibility in employment decisions of hiring, firing, or unilaterally decreasing workers' hours of work (Zeytinoglu 1992). Numerical flexibility provides employers with the ability to adjust the number of workers or the hours worked according to changes in the level of product or service demanded by consumers. The academic litera­ ture uses a variety of terminologies for strategies that provide numerical flexibility: Nonstandard, flexible, alternative, peripheral, atypical, mar­ ginal, contingent, and secondary are the most common terms, but defini­ tions vary. Any employment other than permanent full-time work with an indefinite contract falls under the numerical flexibility category (Zeytinoglu 1994). Numerical flexibility has generated wide interest, in both academic and practitioner circles, with both hope and concern. While there are positive opinions that part-time, temporary, contract work, and other similar work arrangements are the "future of employment" where work­ ers choose their work arrangements, there are concerns that such work arrangements give workers neither job security nor stable income. Some of the chapters in this book point out the dilemma in flexible work arrangements. THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK The book starts with a comparative analysis and synthesis of the recent literature on changing work relationships and the gender, race/ethnicity, and economic class variables. Zeytinoglu and Muteshi, in Chapter 1, analyze those variables in a framework of duality. They conceive of this duality as enacted hierarchically at the level of gender, class, and race/ethnicity. Their review of part-time work, temporary work, homebased telework, and self-employment without employees shows that in industrialized economies, flexible employment arrangements are primar­ ily employer-driven, and the burden of structural changes in work envi­ ronments is largely borne by women of low economic class, and/or from racial/ethnic minority workers. Finally, they discuss the challenges in labor policy and legislation for these work arrangements. The remainder of the book is organized into four sections. Parts I—III focus on developments in changing work relationships in the United States and Canada, the European Union, and Australia. Part IV gives the views of the representative stakeholders: a union, an employer organiza­ tion, a regional organization, and an international tripartite organization's views. In Part I, Chapter 2 by Nollen and Chapter 3 by Zeytinoglu give an

Introduction and Overview

xiii

overview of the developments in flexible work arrangements in the United States and Canada, respectively. These chapters are followed by an analysis of part-time employment (in Chapter 4) and telework (in Chapter 5) in North America. Nollen's discussion of flexible work arrangements in the United States shows that they are a mix of old schedules and staffing plans as in parttime and flexible work, and new forms of working arrangements as in telecommuting. Developments in the United States show that there are differences in the use of flexible work arrangements by men and women, by younger and older age groups, and by different races. The U.S. data present an explosive growth in temporary employment in the last decade but a stable growth rate in part-time work and self-employment. Nollen gives the globalization of markets and increasing cost pressures on com­ panies as factors affecting the staffing decisions of managers. He also shows the supply side of the labor market and the changing needs of workers as further key factors driving changes in work relationships. Nollen's chapter raises issues of equity for workers, and considers the role of current public policies and prospects for new regulation of these work relationships. In Chapter 3, Zeytinoglu examines similar flexible work arrangements in Canada and presents the polarization in employment in terms of work hours, wages, benefits, and job security. Part-time work, temporary/ contract work, and self-employment without employees are all on the increase and are closely associated with employers' need for flexibility and cost control. Using two characteristic dimensions of all employment relationships—the customary work schedule and the continuity of the work relationship—Zeytinoglu develops a typology to examine flexible work arrangements. The chapter shows the differences in flexible work arrangements based on gender, age, occupation, education, and unioniza­ tion variables, and concludes with a discussion of the economic restruc­ turing in the 1980s and the recovery in 1990s with resultant employer flexibility strategies, and their toll on female workers and youth. In Chapter 4, Gallagher examines the growth and implications of parttime work arrangements among industrialized countries with an empha­ sis on the U.S. and Canadian experiences. The chapter examines the mo­ tivation for part-time employment contracts from both employer and worker perspectives. Particular emphasis is directed toward examining the extent to which part-time employment may contribute to the marginalization of employment and have a disproportionate economic impact on the basis of a worker's age or gender. The chapter also reviews rele­ vant research literature pertaining to the attitudes that part-time workers hold toward their jobs, comparisons between part-time and full-time workers, as well as differences among part-time workers. Gallagher also

xiv

Introduction and Overview

examines the relationship between labor unions and workers on parttime employment contracts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the public policy issues that effect the growth and impact of part-time employment at the level of the individual worker. In Chapter 5, the focus is on telework and teleworkers. The authors, Templer, Armstrong-Stassen, Devine, and Solomon, examine telework as both a new form of changing work relationships, and as a reemergence of a type of homework. The emphasis is on North American developments, on individual workers, and on changed employee-management relation­ ships that result from telework. While still in the early stages of develop­ ment, teleworking is growing very fast in the United States and in Canada. The chapter shows that telework programs are introduced for a combination of reasons and that employee satisfaction with telework is mixed. The authors note that from the union perspective, telework is one of the most controversial of the alternative work arrangements because of the history of exploitation of cottage industry workers in the past. Unions have considerable difficulty in recognizing the validity of employers' teleworking initiatives and in organizing and influencing the work condi­ tions of these widely decentralized workers. The final part of the chapter examines the challenges posed by telework and proposes recommenda­ tions for dealing with them. Part II focuses on the European Union. Delsen, in Chapter 6, examines the changing work relations in the European Union, and Meulders and Plasman, in Chapter 7, discuss the potential impact of these develop­ ments and overall employment policies on the female work force. In Chapter 8, Druker examines self-employment in the United Kingdom, where traditionally the experience with nonstandard work forms preda­ tes developments in the Continental Europe. As Delsen shows, European policymakers consider the flexibilization of labor an important instrument to create new jobs and to reduce unem­ ployment. Over the past two decades part-time and temporary work have grown in importance, and in recent years the growth rate of the latter has been substantially higher than that of the former. There are, however, considerable differences between the European countries in the use of flexible employment strategies, reflecting institutional and cultural differ­ ences. In Europe, social security systems and labor law have been de­ signed with the full-time worker, i.e., the male breadwinner, in mind, resulting in discrimination and exclusion of workers on temporary and part-time contracts. The author argues that left to itself, the market is likely to produce and reinforce inequalities, resulting in segmented labor markets. Particularly vulnerable are the unskilled, older workers, dis­ abled persons, and minorities, especially in depressed regions. The inter­ nationalization of the economies, advances in information and communi-

Introduction and Overview

xv

cation technology, an aging labor force, and the completion of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) imply that intercountry differences in the patterns of employment and unemployment increas­ ingly depend on the capacity of national economies to innovate and apply new technology. Given these structural changes, the flexibilization and deregulation trends are resulting in a growing number of flexible jobs and insecurity. Delsen proposes a new full employment concept, based on the complementarity of equality and efficiency. This new concept of full em­ ployment includes a legal right to a basic amount of employment, i.e., at least part-time employment, and the right to a (partial) basic income. It promotes the redistribution of employment, and is an incentive to train­ ing as well as an answer to the unemployment and poverty traps. Meulders and Plasman focus on female workers and question the eco­ nomic predictions of the European employment policies intended to gen­ erate flexibility in the labor market and promote deregulation, part-time jobs, and fixed-term contracts. Authors show that, examined as a whole, European employment policies will have a discriminatory impact on fe­ male workers. They argue that to prevent inequalities not only between the genders but also among the female labor force, active equal oppor­ tunities policies, enhanced participation of women in general training programs, redirection of women's educational goals and job preferences, adoption of basic rights, and guarantees for all workers at the national and European regional levels will be necessary preconditions. Continuing with developments in Europe and this time focusing on the United Kingdom, Druker, in Chapter 8, looks at the position of the self-employed. She is not primarily concerned with the entrepreneurial self-employed, who are genuinely in business on their own account. Druker's focus is on the self-employed without employees, particularly those whose positions are defined by a subordinate relationship with large-scale capital and are more likely to be engaged in survival selfemployment. The author shows that the relationship between some selfemployed workers and their "employer" reflects employer interest in the continuity of skill and the predictability of worker performance while reducing overhead costs. Although the number of self-employed women has increased significantly, there is little evidence of a breakdown of gendered occupational segregation in the self-employed work force. Druker concludes that for employers the choice between externalization and internalization is not absolute, nor is it fixed. Rather, it evolves from the tensions inherent in historical change. Part III focuses on changing work relationships in Australia. Quinlan and Mayhew, in Chapter 9, show that since the early 1980s there has been a profound shift toward more contingent forms of employment in Austra­ lia. Self-employment, connected in part to the increasing use of outsourc-

xvi

Introduction and Overview

ing or subcontracting by larger firms, the numbers of casual or temporary workers, and the numbers of part-time workers all grew. Statistics in relation to both homework and telework are sketchy in Australia, al­ though it appears that the latter has expanded significantly over the last decade, but predictions of a rapid growth in telework appear to have been overstated. The growth of contingent forms of employment is hav­ ing significant but often overlooked effects on employment regulation, union density, tax revenue, the social security system, and a number of other areas. The chapter discusses some of these impacts, especially in relation to the regulation of employment—impacts that are being rein­ forced by a significant unraveling of Australia's highly centralized indus­ trial relations system. Quinlan and Mayhew argue that in combination these changes have led to a diminishing of working conditions among what are traditionally the most vulnerable components of the work force (notably women, the very young and the very old, and immigrant work­ ers). The last part of the chapter then focuses on the implications of a growing contingent work force for occupational health and safety (OHS). The authors show that there is a good reason to believe that the growth of contingent forms of employment will have significant adverse implica­ tions for OHS. Part IV presents the views of various stakeholders on changing work relationships. This section starts with a representative view of unions focusing on North America. It continues with an analysis of employers' strategic choice and adaptation perspective using the example of the European employers' association. Next, it presents the research and pub­ lic policy initiatives of two intergovernmental organizations, one at the European level and the other at the global level. For the union perspective on emerging trends in the workplace, Hinton, Moruz, and Mumford draw on the experiences of unionized workers in part-time and other nonstandard jobs. They discuss diversity among the membership in terms of education and income level and argue that the economic class may have some impact on work arrangements. Tradi­ tionally the vast majority of their members have worked in jobs where minimal formal education was required; however, many employers are now attempting to jettison older (usually male) workers in favor of re­ cruiting a younger, better educated, and "more flexible" work force. The authors show that women, immigrants, single parents, and others who are disadvantaged in the labor market through limited financial re­ sources, lack of marketable skills, and language or literacy barriers are the flexible work force. These workers are vulnerable to exploitation by em­ ployers, including forced unpaid overtime, harassment, and unsafe work­ ing conditions. The authors conclude with a discussion of the structural problems in organizing workers in such work forms and recommend

Introduction and Overview

xvii

public policy and legislative changes to facilitate organizing and collec­ tive bargaining for these workers. In Chapter 11, Strθby Jensen focuses on selected aspects of the course of action pursued by organizations, and on the opportunities available to organizations for influencing their external environment. Applying the strategic choice perspective to the actions of the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the chapter discusses its role as more of a social partner and a labor market organization repre­ senting the interests of European employers rather than a lobby group. The European Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work negotiated by UNICE and the other European actors—the European Trade Union Confederation and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation—is provided as an example of the changing role of UNICE and its transformation into European employers' representative. In Chapter 12, the focus is again on flexible or atypical work forms in Europe, but this time the purpose is to examine experience at the estab­ lishment level. In their analysis, Bielenski and Köhler primarily draw upon data gathered by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, giving an intergovernmental, tripartite, and regional organization's view on changing work relationships. The chapter argues that the promotion of nonstandard work forms is an im­ portant element of all national policies in combatting unemployment. Discussing the norm-setting function of the standard work form, authors suggest that the precariousness of some atypical work.forms could be removed if legal regulations were changed. As documented by the Eu­ ropean Foundation data, the authors present both the advantages and disadvantages of atypical work forms, and in telework they show that the perceived advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The authors conclude that the changes in the labor market induced by new patterns of employ­ ment open up new opportunities for employees and employers but have an inherent risk of increased insecurity. Different actors are motivated by different interests in the promotion of new forms of work, but the parties can find a common ground among these different interests. All recent policy initiatives at the EU level encourage flexible options of employ­ ment, with a desire to establish, at the same time, a minimum standard of social protection in nonstandard work arrangements. Finally, in Chapter 13, Zeytinoglu focuses on the International Labor Organization's (ILO's) international policymaking activities on changing work relationships. The chapter examines the ILO's role in promoting social justice in the restructuring global economy. Women's employment in nonstandard employment forms is analyzed within the global restruc­ turing of the labor markets. The chapter examines the ILO's recently adopted part-time work, homework, and private employment agencies

xviii

Introduction and Overview

standards and the proposed standard on contract labor. The author con­ cludes with a discussion of the future role of the ILO in promoting social and economic progress in the restructuring economies and flexible labor markets. EMERGING GENERALIZATIONS In examining the contributions to the book as a whole, several general­ izations emerge. The major theme emerging from the book is that work relationships are changing in the industrialized economies in more or less the same fashion. Part-time, temporary/contract work, telework (tele­ commuting), and self-employment without employees are all common employment types emerging in the countries studied here. The chapters show that in the industrialized economies of the world, work relation­ ships are changing in such a way that the full-time, continuous, 9-to-5, Monday to Friday work week is no longer the norm. Flexible work ar­ rangements are much more part of the mainstream now than even a decade ago. In fact, part-time work seems to have reached some stability in most industrialized countries, while other forms of work are still on the rise. Another generalization emerging from the book is that part-time, tem­ porary, contract work and home-based work are not new, but have al­ ways existed in industrialized economies. What is "new" is their increase in numbers in the newly created jobs. The only type of work that can be considered new is telework, which emerged as a result of advances in computer and telecommunications technology. Still, telework is seen by the authors as a form of home-based work. In the experience of nonstandard work arrangements, however, there is a difference between North America, the United Kingdom, and Austra­ lia, on the one hand, and the Continental European countries on the other hand. The latter have experienced flexible work arrangements more re­ cently than the former group, where labor markets have been tradi­ tionally less controlled. Supporting flexible work arrangements, the European Union sees them as recommended macrolevel policies for na­ tional governments to reduce unemployment rates and provide employ­ ers incentives to create jobs. To this end, in Europe, national governments are recommended to take initiatives to ease legislative requirements on employment relationships. In contrast, in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia, flexible work arrangements are seen primarily as workplace-level initiatives of employers. There is minimal formal gov­ ernment intervention or guidance. And, in most cases, the laissez-faire policy of the governments provides employers ample opportunity to

Introduction and Overview

xix

implement policies that they perceive the best for their workplaces' prosperity. Some common factors are also emerging from the book. In all the countries studied here, structural change in the economy is seen as an important factor influencing the creation of the flexible work arrange­ ments. In terms of demographic characteristics of workers in such em­ ployment forms, gender and age are universally emerging factors— women and youth dominate flexible work arrangements, particularly part-time and temporary work. In self-employment without employees, however, men are as common as women. In countries that historically have been populated by immigrants, e.g., the United States, Canada, and Australia, the race/ethnicity/immigrant minority status emerges as an additional defining characteristic of workers in flexible work arrange­ ments. The racialized minorities are more often employed in temporary or contract jobs. Although data are not available, the observations are that in European countries, where labor markets only opened to immigrants and refugees a few decades ago, such individuals—who are also racial or ethnic minorities—are more commonly employed in flexible work arrangements. In terms of working conditions, in comparison to their full-time contin­ uous employment counterparts, employment in nonstandard / flexible work arrangements provides inferior working conditions, lower wages and benefits, lower social (job) security protection, and lower accumu­ lated old-age benefits. Overall, this polarization of the work force is seen in all the countries and regions studied here. The traditional polarization of earnings and social benefits between men and women now has an additional component: polarization within genders, and primarily within the female work force. In countries where data are available, such polar­ ization is also seen between the white work force and the racialized minorities, and within each group further polarizations exist based on gender, age, level of education, and economic class. Though we did not have data, we suspect the existence of such polarization based on ability and further segmentation in the disabled community based on gender, age, level of education, and economic class. It is well-known that unionization increases workers' earnings and provides job security. Where data are available, we see that workers in flexible work arrangements have lower unionization rates than their fulltime, continuously employed counterparts. Unions, on the one hand, are attempting to negotiate for and improve working conditions for workers in flexible work arrangements, and on the other hand, are trying to pro­ tect their traditional membership base. Finally, the contributors to this book show that international, regional, and national public policy measures are attempting to provide a delicate

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Introduction and Overview

balance in protecting workers in flexible work arrangements, and provid­ ing employers the flexibility to be competitive and create jobs. In this book, the contributing authors have brought to bear their knowledge and experience, particularly of the last two decades, to examine developments in changing work relationships. We hope that our accumulated knowl­ edge and ideas will provide insights to our readers in their initiatives in supporting or resisting nonstandard /flexible /atypical work forms.

REFERENCES Atkinson, J. (1987). "Flexibility or Fragmentation? The United Kingdom Labour Market in the Eighties." Labour and Society 12(1):87-105. Beechy, V. and T. Perkins (1987). A Matter of Hours: Women, Part-Time Work and the Labour Market. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Blyton, P. and J. Morris (eds.) (1991). A Flexible Future? Prospects for Employment and Organization. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Brodsky, M. (1994). "Labor Market Flexibility: A Changing International Perspec­ tive." Monthly Labor Review 117(ll):53-60. International Labor Organization (1989). "Part-Time Work." Conditions of Work Digest 8(1). Jenson, }., E. Hagen, and C. Reddy (eds.) (1988). Feminization of the Labor Force: Paradoxes and Promises. New York: Oxford University Press. Lewin, D. and D. J. B. Mitchell (1992). "Alternative Approaches to Workplace Flexibility in the U.S.A." Work Flexibility Review 3(July):l-20. Nollen, S. D., B. B. Eddy, and V. H. Martin (1978). Permanent Part-Time Employment: The Manager's Perspective. New York: Praeger. Piore, M. J. (1986). "Perspectives on Labor Market Flexibility." Industrial Relations 25(2):146-66. Tilly, C. (1996). Half a Job: Bad and Good Part-Time Jobs in a Changing Labor Market. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1991). "A Sectoral Study of Part-Time Workers Covered by Collective Agreements: Why Do Employers Hire Them?" Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 46(2):401-18. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1992). "Reasons for Hiring Part-Time Workers in Unionized Organizations." Industrial Relations 31(3):489-99. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1993). "Negotiation Issues for Part-Time Workers: The Impact of Occupation." Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 48(2):305-20. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994). "Part-Time and Other Non-Standard Forms of Employ­ ment: Why Are They Considered Appropriate for Women?" Pp. 435-48 in The Future of Industrial Relations: Global Change and Challenge, edited by J. Niland, C. Verevis, and R. Lansbury. Beverly Hills: Sage.

1 Changing Work Relationships Enacting Gender, Race/Ethnicity and Economic Class1 I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu a n d Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

I.

INTRODUCTION

Work relations are changing and nonstandard employment arrangements of part-time work, temporary/casual work, telework, and selfemployment without employees are becoming predominant in industrialized economies of the world. Nonstandard employment forms have existed throughout the history of work. What has changed since the 1980s is the increase in the proportion and the persistency of nonstandard work. This is also the time period when industrialized economies are restructuring and consolidating into large economic blocks: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries, European Union (EU) Member States, and Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation countries. The profound changes in work relationships are greatly facilitated by the intensified competition in national and international markets, the increased global mobility of capital, the demand for just-in-time production and work delivery processes, and the rising use of new computerized technologies (Human Resource Development Canada 1994; Delsen 1990; Ministry of Labour 1997; Osberg, Wien, and Grude 1995; Tilly 1996; Zeytinoglu 1994a). There has been mounting empirical evidence that nonstandard employment has come to represent a particularly female option (Amott and Matthaei 1991; Drew 1992; Roldan 1996; Rubery, Smith, and Fagan 1996) where flexible labor is being contracted in a "gender differentiated way" (Elson 1996). Though some individuals prefer these work forms, the sheer number of involuntary nonstandard workers is a social concern (Ministry of Labour 1997; Stratton 1996; Zeytinoglu 1996b). Analysis of restructuring in industrialized economies shows that the burden of structural adjustments in workplaces is largely borne by working-class, less educated, 1

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Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

and immigrant women (Brodie 1994; Dagg 1997). In this review chapter, our purpose is to comparatively analyze and synthesize recent academic literature that examines changing work relationships currently conceived in the literature as nonstandard, atypical, contingent, or flexible work. We begin our analysis of the literature with an exploration and critique of the profound and differential effects that restructuring has had on all work­ ers, and we follow with a discussion of the gender, race/ethnicity, and class dimensions of changing work arrangements. We present our analy­ sis in a conceptual framework of duality, within which nonstandard work forms can be located. As conceived here, duality is understood as work­ ing hierarchically, through gender-differentiated labor markets. Racial/ ethnic and class identities are also inserted into gender-differentiated labor markets. We use academic sources from the disciplines of manage­ ment, economics, industrial relations, sociology, and women's studies. In this chapter, we show that in industrialized economies, nonstandard work arrangements are primarily employer-driven, and the burden of structural changes in work environments is largely borne by women of low economic class, and/or from racial/ethnic minority groups. We con­ clude the chapter with a discussion of the need to find ways to respond and shape public policy and legislation for changing work relationships. II. DUALITY IN CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS Research has demonstrated an increased strategic move toward non­ standard work arrangements in all organizations through some form of dualistic employment structures (Blyton and Morris 1991; Osterman 1992; Elson 1996; Lundy and Warme 1992; Smith 1993; Tilly 1996; Zeytinoglu 1992). The dualistic and segmented nature of labor markets in indus­ trialized economies is indeed being strengthened [Duffy and Pupo 1992; Forrest 1993, 1996; International Labor Organization (ILO) 1994a], for dualism enables firms to concentrate on primary activities while incor­ porating cheaper secondary labor to keep production/service costs down (Human Resource Development Canada 1994; ILO 1994b; Zeytinoglu 1994b). Dualism has placed workers in unequal relationships with one anoth­ er, and has upheld practices of exclusion, structuring disadvantage in favor of the dominant groups. For instance, as Amott (1993:52) notes, "for decades, the majority of women of all racial/ethnic groups, along with most of men of colour, were found in the secondary sector," and their mobility from secondary to primary sector was limited (Duffy and Pupo 1992; Forrest 1993). This dichotomous ordering of economic life has thus privileged and protected the primary labor market.

Changing Work Relationships

3

Similarly, a two-tiered system of working conditions has been an es­ sential way in which workers are organized within the internal labor markets. At the level of the firm, labor is structured into core/periphery or u p p e r / l o w e r tiers (Acker 1992; Amott 1993; Gallagher and Tansky 1996; Geary 1992; ILO 1994a; Osterman 1992; Zeytinoglu and Norris 1996). Peripheral groups are most often allocated to dead-end, insecure, and low-status jobs with low wages, and often in divisive workplaces. Research shows that workers who tend to have limited bargaining power and restricted worker rights have been relegated to insecure, poorly paid jobs, with no career mobility (Briar 1992; Drummond 1992; Levitan and Conway 1992; Smith 1993). Yet these very conditions of their hiring per­ mit the flexibility and duality of such restructuring labor markets.

III.

THE INTERSECTION OF GENDER, RACE / ETHNICITY, AND CLASS WITH NONSTANDARD WORK

In contemporary restructuring organizations, where firms are actively pursuing dualistic labor structures and flexible work processes, a seg­ mented labor force that is also stratified by gender, class, and r a c e / ethnicity is most certainly being produced and reproduced in the work­ place (Acker 1990; Amott 1993; Dagg 1997; Das Gupta 1996; Glenn 1992; Hossfeld 1990; Neal 1994). Gendered inequalities have always been ap­ parent in work relationships, in production processes, and in the compen­ sation structures of men and women. Gender structures the jobs that are deemed appropriate for women and men, and becomes both cause and effect of women's differential disadvantage in labor markets. As Hossfeld comments: Under contemporary U.S. capitalism, ideological legitimation of wom­ en's societal roles and of their related secondary position in the division of labor is already strong outside the workplace. Managers thus do not need to devote extreme efforts to developing new sexist ideologies within the work­ place in order to legitimate the gender division of labor. (Hossfeld 1990:159) Also according to Beechy: Both women and men . . . enter the labour market and sell their labour power as gendered beings, and both are set to work within labour processes in which men's and women's occupations are clearly demarcated. (Beechy 1983:31) Employers in both private and public sector organizations are keenly aware of these gendered characteristics and use them to actively accom-

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Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

plish core-periphery divisions within workplaces. By exploiting the con­ nections between employment, discourses of family, gendered divisions of labor, and social attitudes and expectations about who does what type of work, employers are able to utilize women's life stages to draw women into the dualism of the flexible secondary labor market (Duffy and Pupo 1992; Hanson and Pratt 1995; Hansen, Madsen, and Strøby Jensen 1997). Furthermore, union support for traditional ideologies about women's work, breadwinners, and male-headed families (Briskin and McDermott 1993) also sustains the structural divisions in the workplace. Broadly speaking, however, there remains an underrepresentation of the complexity of the articulation of gender, race/ethnicity and class under changing work relationships in scholarly work on restructuring and changing work relationships. While labor force participation is occupationally segregated by gender, with women constructed unequally to men in the labor market, the nonstandard work forms have differential impact on women of different backgrounds (Glenn 1992; Hanson and Pratt 1995). The reality is that the burden of the structural adjustments is largely borne by working-class, less-educated, racial/ethnic minority a n d / o r immigrant women (Arat-Koc and Giles 1994; Brodie 1994, Dagg 1997; Das Gupta 1996; ILO 1994b; Zeytinoglu 1996b). For example, in the United States, while Black women with college education participate more readily in the labor market than similarly educated White women, the largest source of employment for most African-American women continues to be in the relatively low-paying, lower-status, largely non­ standard service sector occupations of nurses' aides, sales clerks, secre­ taries, cashiers, cooks, and cleaning staff (Glenn 1992; Levitan and Conway 1992; Neal 1994; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics 1993). Glenn (1992) has pointed out the interactive nature of race/ethnicity and gender in the field of nursing in the United States. She shows that in health care work, it is Black women who dominate the lower-paying, lowskilled field of nurses' aides, while White women occupy the relatively privileged positions of registered nurses. What is especially exploitative for racialized women, she says, is that the division between skilled and unskilled jobs is exactly where the racial division typically falls. Similarly in Canada, research in health care shows that White women are in betterpaying, full-time visiting nurse positions, while lower-paid, temporary home support jobs are filled predominantly by racial/ethnic minority a n d / o r immigrant women (Zeytinoğlu et al. 1997). Statistics show that in Canada, visible (non-White, non-Caucasian) mi­ nority women with university degrees are more likely than their nonvisible minority counterparts to be employed in clerical, sales, service, or manual jobs (Chard 1995). If Aboriginal women, a racial minority, are

Changing Work Relationships employed, they fill part-time, low-paying jobs in clerical, service, and sales (Moore 1995). As these examples show, women's jobs, perceived as low status and secondary, get "resegregated" along racialized-gender lines (Amott 1993; Glenn 1992), even as new opportunities are being opened up for individual women (Levitan and Conway 1992; Tilly 1996). A. Part-Time Work, Temporary Work, and Identifying Variables Part-time work has been attractive to those seeking to balance work and family (Duffy and Pupo 1992; Maxwell 1991; Pfan-Effinger 1993; Tilly 1996; Thurman and Trah 1990; Zeytinoglu 1994b; Hansen et al. 1997). At the same time, most women have been aware of the marginalization inherent in their part-time labor participation. Indeed, employers not only attempt to draw women who are wives and mothers into the labor force through part-time jobs (Beechy and Perkins 1987; Jenson 1996), they also create such jobs to cover the unsocial hours of evening and weekend work (Rubery et al. 1996; Zeytinoglu 1994b), to be flexible, and to counter union pressure to create full-time jobs (Hansen et al. 1997). Studies on the situation of women's part-time employment in the EU illuminate the significance of national policies and the cultural context in employer strategies for women's entry into and position in part-time work. In a number of recent studies on the retail banking sector, which employs many women, O'Reilly (1994) found that part-time work was constructed differently in France and Britain. In France, where an exten­ sive network of child care facilities exists, women saw part-time work as an option only for women with several children, recovering from illness, or gradually withdrawing from paid employment. In contrast, in Britain where child care is considered a private responsibility of mothers, wom­ en with a domestic workload chose to work part-time. Still, Thornley, Contrepois, and Jefferys (1997) show that employers in the banking sec­ tor in both countries created full-time, permanent jobs with better pay and benefits for the mainly male minority work force in banking, mean­ while creating part-time, temporary, contract jobs to a growing number of other, mainly female work force. As reported in Hansen et al. (1997), Tijdens (1997) argued that not only in banking but for all part-time work­ ers in Netherlands—the country with the highest percentage of women working part-time—there was a positive congruence between full-time and part-time working conditions. This was due to the strong mother­ hood culture, employers' changing needs, union pressures to decrease unemployment, and cultural acceptance of creating not a marginalized part-time or temporary work force but equitable working conditions for all.

5

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Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

Focusing on historical ideologies of women and motherhood, which are further supported by state policies, Pfan-Effinger's (1993) comparative study of Finnish and German women found substantial differences in employment patterns. In Germany, state ideologies and constructions of women as mothers encouraged maternal part-time employment. In fact, the length of the school day and the nature of child care provisions in (atthe-time West) Germany reflect this expected behavior from mothers. PfanEffinger says that for Finnish women, on the other hand, there is a cultural consensus about gender relations that defines child rearing / caring roles as not the sole and private responsibility of mothers. Thus, Finnish women enter the labor market on a permanent full-time basis, because women are perceived as autonomous individuals, with equal rights, whose own em­ ployment is the source of their individual social insurance. In another example, in Sweden the restructuring environment of the early 1990s, particularly in the public sector, resulted in the creation of part-time, temporary, contract jobs. Since historically women dominated employment in the public sector, they shouldered the impact of restruc­ turing by accepting part-time and other nonstandard jobs (Zeytinoglu 1994c). Research shows that sectors that employ primarily female work­ ers are also the ones with high numbers of part-time workers in northern EU member countries (Chapters 6, 7, and 12 in this book; Rubery et al. 1996), the United States (Chapters 2 and 4 in this book), Canada (Chapter 3 in this book), Australia and New Zealand (Hammond and Harbridge 1997; Chapter 9 in this book), and Japan (Japan Institute of Labour 1997). Research tends to overlook the fact that the choice of working part-time, or hiring domestic help and continuing to work full-time is essentially a middle- and upper-class phenomenon. It ignores the implications for individuals who are from a lower economic class and often lead a simul­ taneously racialized and gendered existence that must meet familial re­ sponsibilities in a context of economic disadvantage and discriminatory practices. There is need for a more complex recognition of how women's jobs are being constructed as part-time jobs, as a consequence of not only gender but also class and race/ethnicity, and the way workplaces are structured in industrialized economies. Unless such complexities are ad­ dressed, the above analyses about women and changing work relation­ ships will remain partial. Drew (1992), referring to France, noted a significant factor that ac­ counted for the few part-time workers in that country: the use of migrant or "nonnational" labor as a source of flexibility in temporary, contractedout jobs. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and oth­ er northern European countries depend, like France, on migrant labor from southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and former colonies to work in nonstandard, temporary, casual, and contract work.

Changing Work Relationships

7

The reality of women grounded in difference has shown that ra­ cial / ethnic minority and low-economic-class women have had consistent economic participation over their lifetimes in full-time work, have been expected to work outside the home, and have been more systemically positioned as wage earners in full-time domestic work, factory work, and homework (Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1992; Amott and Matthaei 1991; Das Gupta 1996; Hossfeld 1990; Levitan and Conway 1992; Wooden and VandenHeuvel 1997). They were, however, invariably in the low-paying marginalized sectors of the economy where temporary and casual em­ ployment were the norm rather than the exception. It is clear that an investigation of gender processes in part-time work is not adequate on its own as an explanation of all women's actual working lives in indus­ trialized economies. For although gender undoubtedly exerts strong pres­ sure on all women, intensifying their subordination in the workplace, its articulations with racial and class loci produce very specific effects for different and individual women. Rogers (1995), referring to the U.S. labor market, shows that temporary clerical workers, w h o are mostly women and racial minorities, are a new form of underemployed and underpaid workers in insecure jobs with little potential for advancement. They are generally working involun­ tarily in this labor market. For, as Rogers writes, "Groups that are already marginalized in this society are over-represented in the temporary work­ force. And temporary work as it is now organized serves to reproduce and reinforce marginality" (ibid.:164). B.

Home-Based Work and Identifying Variables

Recent studies (ILO 1995; Gbezo 1995; Chapters 5 and 12 in this book; Rees 1992; Zeytinoglu 1994a, 1996b) also call attention to the new forms of work organization that are home-based, providing insights into the re­ markable expansion and diversity in flexible labor contracts in changing work environments. Home-based work has existed since the early days of industrialization. However, with the advance of computer-based technol­ ogy and the restructuring of work environments, home-based work is reemerging in the form of telework and self-employment without em­ ployees. Mitter cautions us about the exploitative conditions faced by household bound workers including teleworkers: One feels apprehensive to hear the praise of this new pattern of work as being particularly suitable for women, who are house-bound by the need to care for their young children and disabled or elderly dependents. The flex­ ibility of the system so easily provides an excuse for reducing the facilities for childcare, nurseries and geriatric hospitals. This mode of work inevita-

8

Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi bly increases the amount of unpaid work that an average woman does within the domestic unit. (1991:136)

As a product of new technologies, telework will play an increasingly important role in the workplace. The question is, Will the old distinctions of core/periphery, male / female, White/non-White differences be rees­ tablished? Expanding on these concerns, Acker (1992) asks whether the new technologies will bring good jobs to all workers. She presents re­ search findings that when new technologies were introduced into the workplace, men remained in control of the new machines, and the bound­ aries between male and female, skilled and unskilled workers were redrawn. Since telework is in fact occurring on a gendered terrain, it demonstrates the bifurcations and hierarchies to be found in other forms of paid labor. There are those, usually men, who are enabled to retain their professional image at home through their gender and malegendered occupations, through their separation from household work, and the range and type of telework tasks they perform. As Zeytinoglu (1996a) shows, in telework a large number of women continue to do the types of jobs they have traditionally been doing all along, for example, clerical and customer services work, while men in telework are located in higher status professional or managerial jobs. Research shows a direct relationship between the increase in selfemployment and employer decisions to contract out work. For example in Canada and the United Kingdom, under economic restructuring, wom­ en's self-employment without employees increased substantially (Akyeampong and Usalcas 1997; Chapter 8 in this book; Stanworth and Stanworth 1995). Similarly, in Australia relative to their representation in the labor force, women are overrepresented in the self-employed catego­ ry, identifying themselves as wage/salary earners (VandenHeuvel and Wooden 1995), thus presumably with a single or a few employers.

IV. LABOR POLICY AND LEGISLATION We are beginning to observe an increasing recognition in national laws, regulations, and collective agreements to provide for the specific concerns that face changing work relationships (ILO 1994b, 1995). The extent of this protection varies for different countries, as countries adopt different approaches to regulating changing work relationships. For ex­ ample, while Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have no legislation prohibiting discrimination against part-time workers (Gornick and Jacobs 1996), these countries do have policies in

Changing Work Relationships

9

place that mandate minimum rates of pay, overtime pay, and other bene­ fits. Where problems have emerged, in the case of Canada, for example, it is with regard to the application of these laws for part-time, temporary, tele workers, and self-employed without employees. The reality for these workers has been that they rarely meet the continuous working hours or the length of employment minimums needed to access benefits and rights in the workplace. For example, since contributions to the government's pension plan are income-determined, part-time and other nonstandard workers will, in the long term, receive lower benefits at retirement (Wil­ son 1996; Zeytinoglu 1996b; Dagg 1997). In the case of self-employed without employees, they are considered as falling outside the coverage of employment standards laws designed for employees, though these selfemployed might be essentially dependent contractors. In the U.S. context, Mason (1992:35-36) outlines how "legislation can also hinder, ... especially where women might be concerned." She reveals how equal rights strategies under Title VII legislation, which helped extend to women the right to enter male-dominated occupations, have not been a solution for all women. The law did nothing in terms of reforming inequal­ ities in wage structures for part-time workers in the United States since discrepancies in the wages of part-time and full-time workers were not considered discrimination on the basis of sex under the legislation. Given the prevailing sexist wisdom about women and women's labor, Briar (1992) has argued that since the 1940s, state policies in the United Kingdom have actively encouraged the recruitment of women into parttime work—particularly into jobs that had the least desirable working conditions—as a means to achieving flexibility and addressing labor shortages. European regulations on hours of work, night work, overtime pay, and mandated rest and vacation periods have traditionally placed controls on how flexibility and, with it, changing work arrangements can be implemented in firms. There is now a conscious effort by EU members to relax the legislative controls on employment decisions in favor of flex­ ibility and competitiveness in workplaces. Delsen (1998) shows that mea­ sures taken by governments in Europe and Japan have contributed to the growth of part-time work. It was only recently that the EU's social part­ ners, that is, unions and employers, adopted a European Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work (see Appendix) to regulate working con­ ditions in this type of work. This part-time work agreement, however, is far from being comprehensive. Its coverage is limited to part-time work­ ers only, focuses on nondiscrimination, but does not make reference to social security matters, and has an opt-out clause that can legitimize differential treatment between full-time and part-time workers (Women of Europe 1998).

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Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

For home-based work and its regulation, the key problem lies in its conceptualization. Conceptualizations are political and act as transfer points of meanings and practices, installing particular sets of advantage or disadvantage for certain workers. For many teleworkers and selfemployed without employees, the legal form of employment might have changed but as long as the employer controls the nature, pace, and timing of work, the legal discussion of whether these individuals are employees or are self-employed is blurred. In practical terms, labeling these workers as self-employed eliminates the employers' legal responsibilities toward them. Thus, they are outside the coverage of not only employment stan­ dards laws but also occupational health and safety laws; they are left to their own resources for coverage and support in illness, unemployment, and old-age protection (Dagg 1997; Sims 1997; Zeytinoglu 1996a). This was made evident in a Canadian study of telework (Zeytinoglu 1994a), where teleworkers at a Canadian firm were employed as indepen­ dent contractors 2 and classified as home-based rather then homeworkers. 3 In being so defined, these teleworkers were placed, precariously, outside the employment standards laws. They were, therefore, outside the protec­ tion of the individual employment law that required employers to pay benefits to their employees. In a recent case, the Supreme Court of Cana­ da expressed the need for a coherent legislative framework to cover changing work relationships (Brault 1997). The imprecision about the status of teleworkers is not unique; in fact, an ILO report found such vagueness to be pervasive in the whole field of homework in most coun­ tries (ILO 1995). Given that in restructuring labor markets, flexible work arrangements have become a permanent feature of the economic landscape, and work­ places have become increasingly mobile and international in their reach and consequences, we have begun to recognize that local, national, and international economic challenges now consolidate and intersect with broad and far-reaching consequences for all workers, enterprises, and governments. The need to find ways to respond to and shape labor policy and legislation remains an important imperative. Accepted legal norms and concepts have to be revised to allow for new legislative models and protection of workers. For example, legal frameworks in industrialized economies should provide for worker representation on an occupation or type-of-service-provided basis to allow the changing work forms to be properly represented and enjoy the benefits of unionization (Brault 1997; Dagg 1997; Sims 1997; Zeytinoglu 1996a, 1996b). The history of craft unionism in industrialized economies suggests that it should be feasible and socially acceptable to allow the legal rights of representation to workers in temporary, casual or contract work, or self-

Changing Work Relationships

11

employment without employees, based on occupation and skill level. The example of present-day strong union representation of artists and con­ struction workers in North America, who are essentially temporary selfemployed contract workers, and in Canada, the example of medical doc­ tors as self-employed professionals with strong union-type representa­ tion and negotiated agreements with the government as the employer, show that it is possible for workers with minimal or no attachment to a specific workplace or employer to be organized and have their interests represented collectively. If it can be done for White, male-dominated professions, it can be done for gendered and racialized nonstandard workers.

V.

CONCLUSIONS

In this review, we have explored some of the changes in work relation­ ships that are occurring in restructuring industrialized economies. Most of the literature reviewed reinforces the assumption that changing work relationships of part-time, temporary, telework, and self-employed with­ out employees are a new form of increased marginalization of the worker, especially women and racial/ethnic minorities of lower economic class. Changing work relationships have thus been described as providing primarily insecure, low-wage jobs, with minimum access to customary employment benefits. It has been consistently pointed out in the literature that these work arrangements are made yet more precarious by the ab­ sence of adequate or enforceable legal protections and rights for the worker. While gender is an obvious characteristic in changing work rela­ tionships, the literature on diversity in the locations women occupy as workers in industrialized economies is just emerging. Thus, while it has been appropriate and crucial to recognize that restructuring is occurring on a gendered terrain (Bakker 1994), it is equally relevant to be attentive to how race/ethnicity and class have been underlying forces in the con­ struction and arrangements of changing work relationships, and how that work is differentially experienced by both men and women in indus­ trialized economies. Thus, the supposition that it is mostly women who are in these jobs ignores the problematic divisions among women. The fact that these changing work arrangements are of immense social and economic policy concern is beginning to be well articulated, espe­ cially by women. The focus should therefore be on redirecting policy to provide the foundation for building on changing work relationships. Poli­ cy could also be conceived that helps create enabling workplaces that allow workers to thrive. Although there is some indication that flexible

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Işik Urla Zeytinoglu and Jacinta Khasiala Muteshi

work arrangements are not inherently bad, that indeed there are oppor­ tunities for good jobs that are structured as part-time, temporary, selfemployed jobs and reflect the needs of workers, especially women, what seems far more common is that women accept such work because of inadequacy or absence of alternatives, either in terms of employment or child care and elder care facilities. Certainly, this is one of the crucial areas of concern for women, but as the literature reviewed made clear, this is an area that remains problematic for women in industrialized economies, given that paid reproductive labor is occurring on a racialized-gendered terrain. Besides the importance of recognizing how the practices of flexible work create new exploitative hierarchies, there is equally a crucial need to examine how the restructuring of workplaces is grounds for alliances and the building of movements that bring to the forefront the concerns of working conditions for all workers. Meanings of work and worker must of necessity be moved away from the dominant norm of the fulltime male worker. Integral to this approach is the reconceptualization of current definitions of work and the development of progressive work alternatives that redress the inequities in opportunity, rights, legal pro­ tection, and the treatment of the flexible worker under current restruc­ turing in industrialized economies. The "real work is perceived as fulltime paid work" (Zeytinoglu 1994b:443), a notion that has inscribed du­ ality along hierarchal and gendered lines. The idea of real work has therefore contributed to a whole body of work practices and work expec­ tations that function to construct some nonnormative types of paid work, such as flexible work hours and flexible workers, as secondary and thus marginalized as nonstandard. Elson (1996:41) insists that this is a "male norm." Consequently, the work of women that is frequently manifested in nonstandard / flexible work arrangements remains devalued as we in ef­ fect continue to theorize and comprehend changing work relations from within the dominant views of full-time work. Thus part-time, temporary, home-based work, as distinct from continuous, full-time, workplacebased work, ends up being valued as peripheral work. This has been the case "even when nonstandard workers perform exactly the same tasks as full-time workers during their hours of employment" (Zeytinoglu 1994b:444). The centrality of women's labor in the restructured workplace and the racialized-gender stratifying effects of paid work demand that our con­ ceptions and definitions of work, and changing work relationships in particular, be critically reexamined, if current changes in organizations and in the labor market are to be understood and the persistence of complex hierarchies and gender divisions challenged.

Changing Work Relationships

13

NOTES 1. This research is funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and a contract from the Women's Bureau, Human Resources Development of Canada. 2. Under the provincial laws of Ontario, as independent contractors teleworkers are considered nonemployees. The criteria used to make such a distinction are a series of legal tests. For example: Does the individual have a chance to profit or risk a loss from the venture? Does the individual supply her/his own tools of the trade? Is the individual free to do the job as she/he sees fit? If the answers to these questions are yes, then the individual is not covered by employment laws. 3. Industrial home workers employed at home and often paid on a per piece basis are covered by employment standards legislation.

REFERENCES Acker, J. (1990). "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations." Gender and Society 2(2):139-58. Acker, J. (1992). "The Future of Women and Work: Ending the Twentieth Centu­ ry." Sociological Perspectives 35(l):53-68. Akyeampong, E. and J. Usalcas (1997). "Key Labour and Income Facts." Perspectives on Labour and Income. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Amott, T. (1993). Caught in the Crisis: Women and the U.S. Economy Today. New York: Monthly Review. Amott, T. and J. Matthaei (1991). Race Gender, and Work: A Multicultural Economic History of Women in the United States. Boston: South End. Anthias, F. and N. Yuval-Davis (1992). Racialized Boundaries. London: Routledge. Arat-Koc, S. and W. Giles (1994). "Introduction." Pp. 1-12 in Maid in the Market, edited by S. Arat-Koc and W. Giles. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood. Bakker, I. (1994). "Introduction." Pp. 1-29 in The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy, edited by I. Bakker. London: Zed. Beechy, V. (1983). "What's So Special about Women's Employment? A Review of Some Recent Studies of Women's Paid Work." Feminist Review 15:23-44. Beechy, V. and T. Perkins (1987). A Matter of Hours: Women, Part-Time Work and the Labour Market. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Blyton, P. and J. Morris (eds.) (1991). A Flexible Future? Prospects for Employment and Organization. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Brault, S. (1997). Chapter 4, pp. 51-74 in Collective Reflection on the Changing Workplace, Report of the Advisory Committee on the Changing Workplace. Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services. Briar, C. (1992). "Part-Time Work and the State in Britain." Pp. 75-86 in Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, edited by B. C. Warme, K. Lundy, and L. Lundy. New York: Praeger. Briskin, L. and P. McDermott (1993). "The Feminist Challenge to Unions." Pp. 3 19 in Women Challenging Unions, edited by L. Briskin and P. McDermott. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

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Brodie, J. (1994). "Shifting the Boundaries: Gender and the Politics of Restructur­ ing/' Pp. 46-60 in The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy, edited by I. Bakker. London: Zed. Chard, J. (1995). "Women in a Visible Minority." Pp. 133-38 in Women in Canada. Ottawa: Ministry of Industry. Dagg, A. (1997). "Worker Representation and Protection in the 'New Economy/" Pp. 75-118 in Collective Reflection on the Changing Workplace, Report of the Advisory Committee on the Changing Workplace. Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services Canada. Das Gupta, T. (1996). Racism and Paid Work. Toronto: Garamound. Delsen, L. (1990). "European Trade Unions and the Flexible Workforce." Industrial Relations Journal 21(4):260-73. Delsen, L. (1998, in press). "When Do Men Work Part-Time?" Pp. 57-76 in PartTime Prospects: An International Comparison of Part-Time Work in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim, edited by J. O'Reilly and C. Fagan. London: Routledge. Drew, E. (1992). "The Part-Time Option? Women and Part-Time Work in the European Community." Women's Studies International Forum 15(5/6):60714. Drummond, R. (1992). "Governments and Part-Time Work in Canada." Pp. 61-74 Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, edited by B. D. Warme, K. L. P. Lundy, and L. Lundy. New York: Praeger. Duffy, A. and N. Pupo (1992). Part-Time Paradox: Connecting Gender, Work, and Family. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Elson D. (1996). "Appraising Recent Developments in the World Market for Nim­ ble Fingers." Pp. 35-55 in Confronting the State, Capital and Patriarchy, edited by A. Chhachhi and R. Pittin. New York: St. Martin's. Forrest, A. (1993). "Women and Industrial Relations Theory: No Room in the Discourse." Industrial Relations 48(3):409-38. Forrest, A. (1996). "Heterosexuality as a Workplace Norm: Implications for Wom­ en." Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, 28 May-1 June, St. Catharines, Ontario. Gallagher, D. G. and J. W. Tansky (1996). "A Theoretical Perspective on Contin­ gent Employment." Paper presented to the 33rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, 28 May-1 June, St. Catharines, Ontario. Gbezo, B. E. (1995). "Working Differently: The Telework Revolution." World of Work 14:4-7. Geary, J. F. (1992). "Employment Flexibility and Human Resource Management: The Case of Three American Electronic Plants." Work, Employment and Society 6(2):251-70. Glenn, E. N. (1992). "From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor." Signs 18(l):l-39. Gornick, J. C. and J. A. Jacobs (1996). "A Cross-National Analysis of the Wages of Part-Time Workers: Evidence from the US, the UK, Canada and Australia." Work, Employment and Society 10(l):l-29.

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Hammond, S. and R. Harbridge (1997). 'The Impact of Decentralized Bargaining on Women: Lessons for Europe from the Antipodes." Pp. 45-164 in Bargaining in Diversity: Colour, Gender and Ethnicity, edited by B. Fitzpatrick. Dublin: Oak Tree. Hansen, L. L., J. S. Madsen, and C. Strøby Jensen (1997)."TheComplex Reality of Convergence and Diversification in European Industrial Relations Systems: A Review of the 1996 IREC Conference/' European Journal of Industrial Relations 3(3):357-76. Hanson, S. and G. Pratt (1995). Gender, Work and Space. London, New York: Routledge. Hossfeld, K. J. (1990). 'Their Logic against Them: Contradictions in Sex, Race, and Class in Silicon Valley/' Pp. 149-78 in Women Workers and Global Restructuring, edited by K. Ward. Cornell, NY: ILR. Human Resource Development Canada (1994). Report of the Advisory Group on Working Time and the Distribution of Work. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services. Huws, U., B. K. Werner, and S. Robinson (1990). Telework: Towards and Elusive Office. London: John Wiley. International Labor Organization (1994a). "Note on the Proceedings." Committee on Salaried Employees and Professional Workers, Tenth Session, Geneva. International Labor Organization (1994b). "Part-Time Work." Report IV (2b), In­ ternational Labor Conference 81st Session, Geneva. International Labor Organization (1995). "Home Work." Report V (1), Internation­ al Labor Conference 82nd Session, Geneva. Japan Institute of Labour (1997). Japanese Working Life Profile, 1996-97. Tokyo: Author. Jenson, J. (1996). "Part-Time Employment and Women: A Range of Strategies." Pp. 92-108 in Rethinking Restructuring: Gender and Change in Canada, edited by I. Bakker. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Levitan, S. A. and E. Conway (1992). "Part-Timers: Living on Half Rations." Pp. 45-60 in Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, edited by B. D. Warme, K. L. P. Lundy, and L. Lundy. New York: Praeger. Lundy, K. L. P. and B. D. Warme (1992). "Gender and Career Trajectory: The Case of Part-Time Faculty." Pp. 257-66 in Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, edited by B. D. Warme, K. L. P. Lundy, and L. Lundy. New York: Praeger. Mason, M. A. (1992.). "Standing Still in the Workplace: Women in Social Work and Other Female Dominated Occupations." Affilia 7(3):23-43. Maxwell, N. (1991). "Children: Their Effect on the Labor Supply." Pp. 59-69 in Women's Studies Encyclopedia, edited by H. Tierney. New York: Peter Bedrick. Ministry of Labour (1997). "Changing Realities, Enduring Needs." Pp. 5-24 in Collective Reflection on the Changing Workplace, Report of the Advisory Committee on the Changing Workplace. Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services Canada. Mitter, S. (1991). Common Fate Common Bond: Women in the Global Economy. Lon­ don: Pluto.

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Moore, E. (1995). "Aboriginal Women in Canada." Pp. 147-54 in Women in Canada. Ottawa: Minister of Industry. Neal, R. (1994). "Public Homes: Subcontracting and the Experience of Cleaning." Pp. 65-79 in Maid in the Market, edited by S. Arat-Koc and W. Giles. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood. O'Reilly, J. (1994). "What Flexibility do Women Offer? Comparing the Use of and Attitudes to Part-Time Work in Britain and France: Retail Banking." Gender, Work and Organization 1(3):138-50. Osberg, L., F. Wien, and J. Grude (1995). Vanishing Jobs: Canada's Changing Work­ places. Toronto: James Lorimer. Osterman, P. (1992). "Internal Labor Markets in a Changing Environment: Models and Evidence." Pp. 273-308 in Research Frontiers in Industrial Relations and Human Resources, edited by D. Lewin, O. Mitchell, and P. Sherer. Madison, WI: IRRA Series. Pfan-Effinger, B. (1993). "Modernization, Culture and Part-Time Work: The Exam­ ple of Finland and West Germany." Work, Employment and Society 7(3):383-410. Rees, T. (1992). Women and the Labour Market. London, New York: Routledge. Rogers, J. K. (1995). "Just a Temp." Work and Occupations 22(2):137-66. Roldan, M. (1996). "Women Organising in the Process of Deindustrialization." Pp. 56-92 in Confronting the State, Capital and Patriarchy, edited by A. Chhachhi and R. Pittin. New York: St. Martin's. Rubery, J., M. Smith, and C. Fagan (1996). Trends and Prospects for Women's Employ­ ment in the European Union in the 1990s, V/2002/96-EN Brussels: European Commission, Equal Opportunities and Family Policy Unit. Sims, A. (1997). Chapter 8, pp. 163-92 in Collective Reflection on the Changing Workplace, Report of the Advisory Committee on the Changing Workplace. Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services Canada. Smith, V. (1993). "Flexibility in Work and Employment." Research in the Sociology of Organizations 11:195-216. Stanworth, C. and J. Stanworth (1995). "The Self-Employed without Employees— Autonomous or Atypical?" Industrial Relations Journal 26(3):221-29. Stratton, L. (1996). "Are 'Involuntary' Part-Time Workers Indeed Involuntary?" Industrial and Labor Relations Review 49(3):522-36. Thornley, C , S. Contrepois, and S. Jefferys (1997). "Trade Unions, Restructuring and Individualization in French and British Banks." European Journal of Indus­ trial Relations 3(1):83-105. Thurman, J. E. and G. Trah (1990). "Part-Time Work in International Perspective." International Labour Review 129:23-40. Tijdens, K. G. (1997). "Job Allocation: Personnel Policies and Women's Working Hours in the Banking Sector." Time Allocation and Gender, edited by K. G. Tijdens, A. van Doorne-Huiskes, and T. M. Willemsen. Tilburg: Tilburg Uni­ versity Press. Tilly, C. (1996). Half a Job: Bad and Good Part-Time Jobs in a Changing Labor Market. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labour Statistics (1993). Working Women in the USA, Bulletin 2385. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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VandenHeuvel, A. and M. Wooden (1995). ''Self-Employed Contractors in Austra­ lia: How Many and Who Are They?" Journal of Industrial Relations 37:263-80. Wilson, S. J. (1996). Women, Families, and Work. Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson. Women of Europe Newsletter (1998). "Women and Part-Time Work," 76:2. [Monthly periodical of the European Commission, Brussels.] Wooden, M. and A. VandenHeuvel (1997). "NESB Immigrant Women and PartTime Employment." International Journal of Employment Studies 5(l):45-66. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1992). "Unionized Part-Time Professionals and Opportunities for Filling Full-Time Vacancies and Training." Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 47(l):59-78. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994a). "Employment Conditions in Telework: An Experience in Ontario." Pp. 281-93 in Proceedings of the 30th Canadian Industrial Relations Association Conference, edited by E. Deom and A. E. Smith. Quebec: Canadian Industrial Relations Association. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994b). "Part-Time and Other Non-Standard Forms of Employ­ ment: Why Are they Considered Appropriate for Women?" Pp. 435-48 in The Future of Industrial Relations: Global Change and Challenge, edited by J. Niland, R. Lansbury, and C. Verevis. London: Sage. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994c). "Workshop /Discussion on Part-Time Work in Scandina­ vian Countries." Paper presented at the Fourth IIRA European Regional In­ dustrial Relations Congress, Helsinki. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1996a). "Key Workplace Issues in Telework. An Empirical Study." Pp. 187-96 in Proceedings of the 31st Canadian Industrial Relations Conference, edited by A. Giles, A. E. Smith, and G. Trudeau. Quebec: Canadian Industrial Relations Association. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1996b). Presentation to the (Federal) Advisory Committee on the Changing Workplace, 11 September, Ottawa. Zeytinoglu, I. U., M. Denton, M. Hajdukowski-Ahmed, and M. O'Connor (1997). "The Impact of Work on Women's Health: A Review of Recent Literature and Future Research Directions." Canadian Journal of Women's Health Care 8(2):1827. Zeytinoglu, I. U. and J. Norris (1996). "Global Diversity in Employment Relation­ ships: A Typology of Flexible Employment." Working Paper No. 414. MGD School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

I CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

2 Flexible Work Arrangements An Overview of Developments in the United States Stanley Nollen

I.

INTRODUCTION

The security and comfort of a world of work based on rigidities—traditions, customs, and norms—may have wider appeal than a world of work driven by economic factors and flexibilities, given that in some cases the drive toward a more contingent economy has hurt the careers and earning opportunities of workers. But the evidence indicates that the U.S. labor market will continue to move toward increased flexibility and new ways of doing business. (Belous 1998:23) Flexible work arrangements is a hopelessly broad and encompassing term. At the least, it means something that is not rigid, and something that is different from the traditional or usual way of doing things. Although flexibility is usually an inherently good thing, in the case of work arrangements, Belous (1998) claims it is not all good, though apparently inevitable. In the United States, even at the end of the twentieth century, most work arrangements are still usual and standard. For example, more than 80 percent of all workers are full-time, nearly three-quarters have fixed schedules, around 90 percent work at an employer's work site, and over 90 percent are employees of a company (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c). Flexible work arrangements such as part-time work, flexible schedules, telework, and self-employment are still quite small in terms of the number of people who use them. Yet the vast majority of employers—including almost all large companies—use some sort of flexible work arrangement, even if for only a few people. Flexibility is ubiquitous or it is scarce, depending on which point of view you choose. 21

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Stanley Nollen

To survey developments in flexible work arrangements in the United States, we need to be clear about the work arrangements to which we refer. We need some taxonomical anchors, which we can get from a series of questions and answers about work: • How many hours do we work? Full-time schedules? Or do we have numerical flexibility from part-time schedules or its variants: jobsharing, work-sharing, voluntary reduced work time, phased retire­ ment, and on-call employment? • When do we work? Fixed schedules, usually 8 or 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.? Or do we have temporal flexibility horn flexitime, compressed work weeks, shift work schedules? Or temporary employment from staffing compa­ nies or by on-call, direct-hire employment? • Where do we work? At an employer's work site? Or do we have flexiplace from telecommuting or teleworking from home or a satel­ lite location? • For whom do we work? A company for whom we are an employee? Or do we have self-employment, including independent contracting? • What do we do at work? A prescribed set of tasks? Or do we have functional flexibility embracing a range of skills and responsibilities? • How much choice do we have about our work arrangements? Not much because we follow instructions from our employers? Or do we have considerable autonomy? The list of possibilities is too vast to take up in this chapter. After pointing out some general trends and issues, we focus on temporary employment (when we work), teleworking (where we work), and part-time employ­ ment (how many hours we work). We begin by asking two big questions: What is new? What are the issues? II. WHAT IS NEW? WHAT ARE THE ISSUES? A.

Growth—for Some

The first piece of news about flexible work arrangements in the United States is that some of them are growing dramatically, but others are not growing at all. We see explosive growth in temporary employment from staffing companies—it has doubled in the last six years and nearly tripled in the last twelve years (from a small base) to its 1997 level of about 2 percent of all employment.1 We have very rapid growth in the use of flexible work schedules in the last six years—up 83 percent since 1991 to nearly 28 percent of all full-time employees at work. And we have very

Flexible Work Arrangements

23

rapid growth in telecommuting, which is up 76 percent in the last six years to reach a level of at least 3 percent of all paid employees in 1997. But the frequency of usage of part-time employment, a scheduling option that has been around for many years, has not changed at all (not counting the cyclical ups and downs of involuntary part-time employment). Nor has the frequency of usage of self-employment, once a growth prospect, changed at all in the last twelve years. (See Figures 2.1 and 2.2; these years were chosen because of data availability.) B.

New and Important Roles

The second piece of news about alternative work arrangements is that they are taking on new and important roles. What was once termed the "peripheral worker/' referring mainly to part-time employees (Morse 1969), is no longer peripheral to a company's management of its business. Part-time employees, temporary workers, and independent contractors are now essential and critical to business strategy. Some of these workers are contingent workers, who give companies the flexibility to match work force to work load. They provide one method to reduce labor costs. The

Figure 2.1. Relative growth of flexible work arrangements. Note: Data for telecommuting in 1985 are roughly estimated by the author, and if in error will cause the 1985-1991 slope of the telecommuting index line to be incorrect; however, the 1991-1997 slope is correct. Source: Data from Figures 2.2 and 2.3, Table 2.5, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998a).

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Stanley Nollen

Figure 2.2. Relative growth offlexiblework arrangements in 1997. Note: Low and high estimates for telecommuting and temporary work refer to alternative definitions for these arrangements. Source: Tables 2.5 and 2.8, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998a).

rise of global competition turns greater flexibility and lower costs into management imperatives. Flexible work arrangements are not options, they are requirements. The importance of work arrangements was under­ scored by the 1997 strike against United Parcel Service (UPS). This strike, widely believed to be an unusual victory for labor over management, was fought partly over UPS's use of large numbers of part-time employees. Some of the workers in alternative work arrangements are performing very different tasks and functions now compared to the past. For exam­ ple, temporary executives and wholly leased office or plant functions, though not large in numbers, are radical departures in thinking from the past. We are seeing the outsourcing of the human resource management function and of labor itself, along with the outsourcing of component manufacture. C. Not All Good or Bad The third piece of news about alternative work arrangements is that they are flawed practices. They are mixed in their effects. They are not as good as the glossy personnel magazines claim. They are not as bad as Flesh Peddlers and Warm Bodies (Parker 1994) claims. They raise troubling

Flexible Work Arrangements

25

issues, some of which concern the distribution of benefits and costs be­ tween companies and workers. The main issue about alternative work arrangements for workers is one of equity. This issue applies especially to temporary and part-time employees. They earn smaller wages, get fewer benefits, and have poorer jobs than regular full-time employees (Hippie and Stewart 1996). They are more likely to be women and Black. They have less education and experi­ ence. Even if all of the factors that we think determine wages are taken into account, these workers still earn less (see text and tables below). There is something about temporary and part-time status that pulls down wages. Temporary and part-time workers have fewer choices and fewer resources than regular full-time employees. Their position in the labor market is weaker. Only one-third to one-quarter of all agency temporaries freely choose this status (Feldman, Doerpinghaus, and Turnley 1995; Na­ tional Association of Temporary and Staffing Services 1998; Polivka 1996). Against this unhappy report, we recognize the opportunities that tempo­ rary and part-time employment gives to some people who use these arrangements to get into the labor force, to get some training and experience, and to start or restart a career. H o w else could people combine paid work with other important needs, including child rearing, that they must meet? Is an earnings and benefits discount the price of flexibility for workers? For employers, the issue is cost-effectiveness. It is still a hidden issue. There is no doubt that companies save costs by using flexible work ar­ rangements to match work force to work load. But there is plenty of doubt whether workers in flexible arrangements—especially contingent workers such as temporaries and part-timers—are cheaper per hour of labor employed. The sketchy evidence is they are not. Lower wages and benefits can be offset easily by lower productivity and higher training costs. The ease of management that contingent workers who are not your firm's employees allegedly bring is an illusion (Nollen and Axel 1996). These microeconomic assessments of costs can be overshadowed by the macroissue of the psychological contract between firms and workers. The rapid diffusion of product and marketing technologies makes a com­ pany's h u m a n resources more important than ever as a less-imitable source of competitive advantage. Yet companies risk losing this potential advantage when they outsource labor and (over) use flexible staffing in core activities (Pfeffer 1994).

III.

TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT

The old stereotype of temporaries as people who come from agencies to fill in for absent employees is less than half the picture these days. Others are also temporary workers. Temporary workers are people who

26

Stanley Nollen

work at the same job for a short period of time—a few days to a few months. Most of these workers also have relatively short spans of uninter­ rupted employment. While they are likely to work full days when they work, they are not likely to work full-time year-round. Another criterion for distinguishing among types of temporary work­ ers is to ask: Who is their employer? Many temporaries are employed by agencies or staffing companies (also called temporary help supply ser­ vices). However, many other temporaries are employees of the company whose work they do. These temporaries are direct-hires, on-call workers, or short-term hires. We define three types of temporary workers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 1997; Houseman 1997): • Agency temporaries: Employees of a temporary help agency or staffing company that pays them but who work at a client's place of business. These people are not on their client's payroll. They usually change from one client's place of work to another's frequently, but some may be employees of the staffing company for quite a long time. • On-call workers, direct-hire temporaries, or short-term hires: Em­ ployees of the company they work for, and they work in that com­ pany when and where needed. Some of this work is irregular or cyclical (seasonal). On-call workers or direct hires might have long service with the same company. • Independent contract workers or leased employees: Self-employed people who do specific tasks for a client company but are not em­ ployees of that company. These people are consultants or freelance workers, but not business operators such as shop owners. They usually work a short time for one client, but they may work yearround for a succession of clients. Leased workers, who also perform specific functions for a client company, are employees of a staffing or human resource leasing company that supplies them. They usu­ ally are supplied in groups, and they are likely to be at the client company for an indefinite period of time. The latter characteristic means that they might not be properly termed temporary workers. Table 2.1 summarizes characteristics of each type of employment. How many temporary workers are there? Somewhere between 6 and 13 percent of all employment, depending on who you count (see Table 2.2). The higher figure includes short-term hires, on-call workers, inde­ pendent contract people, and leased employees, as well as agency tempo­ raries. The lower figure excludes independent contract and leased workers. Temporaries from staffing companies are still quite a small

Flexible Work Arrangements Table 2.1.

27

Temporary Employment: Types and Characteristics

Type of Temporary Employment Agency temporaries On-call workers or direct hires Short-term hires Independent contract workers Leased employees

Length of Service on Current Job

Length of Service in Employment

Short Short

Employer

Full-Time YearRound

Staffing company Work-site company

No No

Short Short

Short Short or long Short Long

Work-site company Self-employed

No Yes

Long

Long

Leasing company

Yes

Note: Terms in italics are necessary conditions for the definition; other terms describe usual characteristics that need not always hold.

number of people—1 or 2 percent of all employment. Independent con­ tractors are the largest single component by far. Growth in agency temporary staffing has been dramatic most of the last twenty-five years, and especially from 1991 to 1997 (Figure 2.3). Tem­ porary employment is stimulated by a strongly growing economy, which was true in most of the 1980s and again since 1992. Only in recessionary periods when producers need to shed labor has agency temporary em­ ployment failed to increase.

Table 2.2.

Use of Temporary Employment Arrangements in 1997

Employment Type Total employment Total temporary and related workers Agency temporaries (according to data source) BLS survey of households BLS survey of employers (1995) NATSS survey of temporary staffing serUpJohn survey of firms (1996) Short-term hires (according to data source) Upjohn survey of firms (1996) BLS survey of households On-call workers, BLS survey of households Independent contractors, BLS survey of households Workers provided by contract firms (leased employees), BLS survey of households

Number (000) 126,742

1,300 2,535

Percentage of All Employmen 100 10 to 14 1.0 1.8 2.0 1.5

1,996 8,456

2.3 3.1 1.6 6.7

809

0.6

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1997), Cohany (1996), Houseman (1997), NATSS (1998).

28

Stanley Nollen

Figure 2.3. Growth in temporary employment from staffing companies. Source: National Association of Temporary and Staffing Services (1998).

A.

Occupations

The jobs that temporary workers do are quite different on average from the jobs that other workers do, and the jobs of temporaries them­ selves depend on their employment status. Temporaries from agencies are concentrated in administrative jobs and in machine operator and laborer jobs. They tend not to be managers, professionals, or salespersons. Temporary workers who are on-call employees of the company where they work are not likely to be managers either, but in contrast to agency temporaries, they are underrepresented in administrative jobs while overrepresented in professional jobs. Independent contractors are scarce in administrative jobs as well as among operators and laborers, and tech­ nicians, but are overrepresented in sales and managerial jobs (see Table 2.3). The tendency for agency temporaries to be clerks and laborers has not abated in the last decade, but there has been an especially rapid increase in the employment of agency temporaries in technician jobs. B. Demographics Temporary workers are on average different types of people from other workers. Agency temporaries are more likely to be female, Black, and young. They have less education and they are less likely to be en­ rolled in school. However, independent contractors are just the opposite.

Flexible Work Arrangements

29

Table 2.3. Occupations and Demographics of Temporary Workers in 1997 (Per­ centage of Each Occupation or Demographic Group Accounted for by Tem­ porary and Related Workers) Occupation

Agency Temporaries

On-Call Employees

Independent Contractors

1.0 0.5 0.4 1.8 0.1 2.4 2.1

1.6 0.3 2.1 2.0 0.9 0.9 2.1

6.7 9.7 7.7 1.6 10.0 1.8 3.2

All occupations Executives and managers Professionals Technical Sales occupations Administrative Operators and laborers Demographics Gender Men Women Race White Black Age 16-24 25-54 55 + Education (ages 25-64) College graduate Some college High school graduate High school dropout Enrolled in school (ages 16-24)

Traditional Employees

Agency Temporaries

On-call Employees

Independent Contractors

53 47

45 55

49 51

67 33

85 11

75 21

89 8

91 5

15 74 12

23 68 10

22 62 16

3 76 21

30 28 33 10

22 36 31 11

26 32 29 13

34 27 30 9

43

16

50

31

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1997).

They are more likely to be male, White, and old compared to other workers, and they are somewhat more educated. On-call employees, on the other hand, more closely resemble other workers (see Table 2.3). C.

Wages and Benefits

Agency temporaries earn much less income than other employees. Their weekly earnings are less and their hourly earnings are less—both by 35 percent (see Table 2.4). Their earnings in the administrative and operative occupations are less than other employees in these occupations, but the few temporaries who are professionals earn more than their permanent coun­ terparts. Even in similar positions in the same company, agency tempor-

30

Stanley Nollen

aries earn less than other employees. Agency temporaries who were wom­ en earned 16 percent less and men who were agency temporaries earned 19 percent less, after controlling for age, education, occupation, industry, union membership, and geographic location (Houseman 1997). Wage rates depend to some extent on education and experience, both of which are ingredients in worker productivity, and temporary workers have less of each. Attempts to account for these sorts of individual differences still leave a 5 percent earnings gap that must be attributed to temporary status itself (Segal and Sullivan 1997). Independent contractors, who are well repre­ sented in managerial and professional occupations, have higher weekly earnings than other workers in these two occupations. Benefits are seldom received by agency temporaries. Only 7 percent get health insurance provided by their staffing company, whereas 58 percent of other employees get employer-provided health insurance. Among the more common and cheaper benefits, paid vacation is received by only 10 percent of agency temporaries, whereas about 80 percent of other employees get paid vacation (see Table 2.4).

Table 2.4.

Earnings and Benefits for Temporary Workers

Characteristic Median usual weekly earnings for full-time workers in 1995 Hourly earnings in 1994 All occupations Professionals Administrative, clerical Operators, laborers

Traditional Employees

Agency Temporaries

EARNINGS $329 $510 Full-Time Employees

Agency Temporaries

$11.94 $17.63 $10.89 $ 9.28

$ 7.74 $24.11 $ 7.96 $ 5.86

BENEFITS Agency Traditional Employees Temporaries Employer-provided health insurance in 1995 (percent) Included in employerprovided pension plan in 1995 (percent) Paid vacation in 1994 (percent receiving)

On-Call Employees

Independent Contractors

$432

$523

On-Call Employees

Independent Contractors

58

7

20

n.a.

47

4

19

n.a.

~80

10

Source: For 1995 data, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1997); for 1994 data, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1995), as reported in Nollen 1996.

Flexible Work Arrangements IV.

31 TELECOMMUTING

Telecommuting, or teleworking as it is called in Europe, is regular work done at home or at a satellite location. The key is the location of work. Telecommuting is not an alternative work scheduling or staffing arrangement. It is regular full-time or part-time work done at least partly outside a main office. The term telecommuter implies "workers who spend a portion or all of their workweek at home using electronic means, such as telephones, computer modems, and fax machines, to stay in touch with their offices,' which is the definition of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Deming 1994:17). A picture that comes to mind is of a professional employee who downloads files from the head office, edits them or computes statistics about them, and transmits them back to the office at the end of the day using a computer and modem. We can relax the "electronic means" requirement and define telecom­ muters simply as "employees who do office work at home during normal business hours," which is a consultant's definition (Pratt 1993). The per­ son who comes to mind is the salesperson who has an office at home, visits clients several days a week, and uses the company's office on Mon­ days or Fridays. A third candidate for inclusion in a broader view of telecommuting is the self-employed person who is a home-based busi­ ness owner and manager, for example, someone who has his or her own public relations firm and who works mostly out of a home office. One thing telecommuters are not is people who "take work home" as their own choice. Elementary school teachers who take their students' papers home for reading are not telecommuters, nor are executives who carry briefcases back and forth from office to home. A.

Numbers

How many telecommuters are there? As few as 1 percent of all workers in the United States or as many as 10 percent—it all depends on who you call a telecommuter. Using the first fairly restrictive definition that in­ cludes the use of electronic equipment, as few as 1.3 percent of all persons at work in the United States in 1997 were telecommuters. If we drop the electronics requirement, the numbers increase fourfold. And if we include self-employed people who work at home, then nearly 10 percent of all persons at work were telecommuters in 1997 (see Table 2.5). By most measures, telecommuting grew very rapidly in the 1990s. The number of employees who were paid to work at home grew from 1.7 percent of all persons at work in 1991 to 3.0 percent in 1997, and the number of paid employees plus self-employed people who worked at home grew from 7.8 to 9.6 percent. There was little growth in home-based self-employment (see Table 2.6). Surveys by a commercial research firm

32

Stanley Nollen

Table 2.5. Frequency of Telecommuting and Work at Home Percentage of All Persons at Work

How Many Telecommuters? Employees who are paid to work at home computer and modem Employees who are paid to work at home telephone for work Employees who are paid to work at home electronic equipment) Paid employees and self employed people home on primary job Paid employees and self employed people home on any job

and who use a

1.3

and who use a

2.2

(regardless of

3.0

who work at

8.4

who work at

9.6

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998a), Deming (1994).

show growth in telecommuting from 3.6 percent in 1990 to 9.2 percent in 1997 of all persons at work (Find/SVP 1997). Only a few telecommuters spend all their time at home away from a company office—5 percent of paid employees and 17 percent of selfemployed telecommuters did so in 1991. The average hours worked per week by telecommuters at home was 15 in 1997, and that amounted to just over a third of the total work week for these people (see Table 2.6). B.

Occupations

Most telecommuters are white-collar workers, not production workers (see Table 2.6). Telecommuters are overrepresented among managers, professionals, and sales workers and underrepresented among operators and laborers. C. Demographics As Table 2.6 shows, telecommuters are men and women equally fre­ quently. They cannot be characterized as women with children who work at home. Race does make a difference. Whites are two to three times more likely to be telecommuters than blacks or Hispanics, although this differ­ ence may be caused by occupational differences.

V.

PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

Knowing who is and who is not a part-time worker is clear-cut: If you work less than 35 hours a week in the United States you are a part-time

Flexible Work Arrangements

33

Table 2.6. Telecommuting and Work at Home in 1997 and 1991 Number and Percentage Who Worked at Home on Primary Job Paid Employees Category

No. (000)%

Self-Employed iNo.

(000)

Total at work in 1997 3,651 3.0 6,465 1,879 1.7 5,553 in 1991 By gender and race in 1997 Men 1,681 2.6 3,786 Women 1,963 3.5 2,692 White 3,340 3.3 6,070 Black 185 1.4 181 1.3 Hispanic 145 231 By occupation in 1997 Percentage Who Worked at Home on Primary Job Occupation Total, all occupa­ tions Executives and managers Professionals Sales occupations Service occupations Operators and laborers

Paid Employees

Self-Employed Total

%

Total at Work at Home (Including 2nd) job) No. (000)%

5.4 5.1

11,532 8,472

9.6 7.8

5.8 4.8 5.9 1.4 2.0

6,290 5,243 10,667 425 435

9.7 9.4 10.5 3.2 3.7

Hours per Week

%of Total Hours

3.0

5.4

8.4

14.9

37

5.0

10.1

15.1

14.6

33

5.3 4.3 1.5 0.4

7.1 9.0 3.9 1.5

12.4 13.3 5.4 1.9

'14.3 16.6 :24.4 n.a.

35 39 63 n.a.

Notes: Paid employees refers to wage and salary workers who were paid expressly by their employer to work at home; figures do not include employees who choose to work at home part of the time but who were not officially asked to do so by their employer (these are termed "unpaid" home workers). The total number of people who worked at home includes the author's estimate of the number of people who were paid to work at home and who were self-employed at home on second jobs, based on data on all job-related work at home including unpaid work at home. Percentage refers to the reference group in the same row; e.g., 9.4% of all women at work worked at home. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998a, 1992), Deming (1994).

worker, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By this measure, close to 25 million people were part-time workers in 1997, accounting for about 19 percent of all employment. Some part-time workers spend 40 full-time hours at work some weeks but do not work other weeks; they are part-time, part-year workers. We count as part-timers people whose usual schedule or average hours worked is less than 35 per week. Parttime employees work about 22 hours per week on the average.

34

Stanley Nollen

Two dimensions differentiate part-time workers into quite opposite groups. First, some part-timers are regular core employees of companies who ostensibly are not different from full-time employees except that they work fewer hours. Other part-timers are casual, contingent, hourly paid, irregular workers. Their role in the firm and the jobs they do, as well as their own personal motives for labor force participation, are quite different. We do not know exactly how many part-timers fall into each category. We do know that more than half of all part-timers have a regular daytime work schedule and only 17 percent have an irregular employer-determined work schedule (Nollen and Axel 1996). Second, many part-time workers choose this work schedule, but others do not—they are involuntary part-time workers because they cannot find full-time work, or they are temporarily cut back to part-time hours be­ cause of slack work. These involuntary part-timers (part-time for econom­ ic reasons in official statistics language) amounted to less than onequarter of all part-time employees in 1997 (Table 2.7 and Figure 2.4). Part-time employment is not a new idea. The trend in its use has been mostly flat since the middle 1970s. Involuntary part-time employment goes up during recession periods (for example, 1974-1975, 1981-1982, and 1991), and falls back down during growth periods. A.

Occupations

The jobs that part-time employees do are different from the jobs of fulltime employees. In particular, part-timers tend to be concentrated in ser­ vice and sales jobs, and they tend not to fill managerial jobs (see Table 2.7). This uneven distribution is caused by the prevalence of fluctuating and irregular work loads in service and sales work, which part-time employment helps companies to meet. B. Demographics Part-time employees are much more likely than full-time employees to be women, and they are much more likely to be either young or old. They are also less well educated, but this applies mostly to involuntary parttimers, not voluntary part-timers. C.

Wages and Benefits

Part-time employees are paid less than full-time employees—at least a third less comparing within the same broad occupation group (see Table 2.8). Even 20 percent of employers say that they pay smaller hourly wage rates to part-time than to full-time employees who are in similar jobs. The fact of being part-time reduces hourly wage rates by 10 percent for wom­ en and 11 percent for men when other wage determinants such as age,

Flexible Work Arrangements Table 2.7.

35

Part-Time E m p l o y m e n t Characteristics

Characteristic

Percentage of Employment That is Part-Time in 1997

All employment

19.0 (voluntary, 15.6; involuntary, 3.4)

Occupation in 1992

Ratio to total employment of wage and salary workers

All occupations Managers Professionals Technicians Sales workers Administrative support Service workers Operatives and laborers Gender Men Women Race White Black Age 16-24 25-59 55+

17.0 6.6 15.3 13.0 25.4 19.5 35.1 12.8 11 26 18 15 41 12 27 Percentage of employment category with education level in 1992

Education College graduate Some college High school graduate High school dropout

All employees

Part-Time Voluntary

Part-Time Involuntary

27 21 39 12

25 24 40 12

13 16 43 28

Note: These figures refer to part-time workers (who usually work less than 35 hours per week). Some full-time workers actually worked less than 35 hours in the survey week Sources: For gender, race, and age, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998b); for occupation, Nardone (1995); for education, Nardone (1995).

education, occupation, industry, union membership, and geographic lo­ cation are accounted for (Houseman 1997). It is possible that the usually smaller quantity and quality of experience possessed by part-time em­ ployees is responsible for this difference, or this gap could be the result of the weaker labor market position of part-time employees. Part-time employees also are much less likely to be eligible for or to actually receive fringe benefits. This is true whether the benefit is paid vacation that is accrued on the basis of hours worked and is easy to

Stanley Nollen

36

Figure 2.4. Trends in part-time employment. Note: Changes in interviewing procedures and definitions after 1993 reduce in­ voluntary part-time numbers about 20% or one percentage point and increase voluntary part-time numbers about one percentage point. This exaggerates trends that nevertheless occurred in 1994. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, January issues, various years. prorate, or paid health insurance that is expensive and incurred per worker regardless of hours worked. VI.

THE WAY AHEAD

Flexible work arrangements in the United States are a mix of old sched­ ules and staffing plans, such as part-time and temporary employment, and new forms of working, such as telecommuting and flexitime. Some of the old flexible work arrangements are finding new uses, especially tem­ porary work via on-call direct hire arrangements and independent con­ tracting. In general, flexible work arrangements are much more in the mainstream of employment options now than they were even a decade ago. They are an essential part of business management. They are here to stay. Flexible work arrangements in the United States are a mix of growth, such as all forms of temporary work, telecommuting, and flexible sched­ ules, and stability, such as part-time employment. The growth in tempor-

Flexible Work Arrangements

37

Table 2.8. Wages and Benefits of Part-Time Employees Characteristic

Full-Time Employees Part-Time Employees WAGES

Median hourly earnings of workers who were hourly-paid in 1992 Median hourly earnings by occu­ pation in 1993 Managers and professionals Technicians Service workers Operatives and laborers Paid vacation received in 1989 Employer-paid health insurance received in 1989 Eligible to receive employer-paid health insurance in 1995

$ 8.67

$5.40

$15.05 $ 9.34 $ 6.53 $ 8.13

$8.84 $5.44 $4.60 $5.04

BENEFITS 70-90% 72%

15-30% 15%

84%

32%

Notes: Median hourly earnings by occupation were estimated by Belous (1998) assuming full-timers work 35 hours a week and part-timers work 20 hours a week; the author has adjusted these figures according to actual hours worked per week for full-timers (44.8 in 1997). Sources: For hourly earnings of hourly-paid workers, Nardone (1995); for hourly earnings by occupation, Belous (1998); for benefits, Nollen and Axel (1996), Nardone (1995), and Houseman (1997).

ary and other contingent forms of flexible work arrangements parallels the breaking of the psychological contract between company and worker that is occurring in the United States. The increasing centrality and high profile of flexible work arrange­ ments raises economic and social issues about cost effectiveness for em­ ployers and equity for workers. It is the latter arena in which future public policy pressures might come. Forms of flexible work arrangements that are contingent, such as temporary and some part-time employment, give opportunities to workers but extract a price in terms of lower wages and benefits. In the United States there is almost no regulation of the work arrangements of the sort commonly found in Europe, and labor union coverage is very small. Some case law is developing on the relation­ ship between company and worker, however. Continued growth in some forms of flexible work arrangements surely has limits. While there appears to be plenty of room for the expansion of innovations such as flexible work schedules, the spread of temporary and contingent part-time work and telecommuting is limited by the very con­ cept of a firm.

38

Stanley Nollen NOTE

1. We do not have data about growth in other types of temporary employ­ ment such as on-call hires, but we imagine it is also rapid.

REFERENCES Belous, R. S. (1998). The Rise of the Contingent Work Force. Washington, DC: Nation­ al Policy Association. Cohany, S. R. (1996). "Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements." Monthly Labor Review 119(10):31-45. Deming, W. G. (1994). "Work At Home: Data from the CPS." Monthly Labor Review 117(2):14-20. Feldman, D. C , H. I. Doerpinghaus, and W. H. Turnley (1995). "Employee Reac­ tions to Temporary Jobs." Journal of Managerial Issues 7:127-41. Find /SVP (1997). "U.S. Telecommuting Trend Surpasses 11 Million." Press Re­ lease (http:/ /etrg.findsvp.com:80/pris/pr97/telecomm.htm). Hippie, S. and J. Stewart (1996). "Earnings and Benefits of Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements." Monthly Labor Review 119(10):46-54. Houseman, S. N. (1997). Temporary, Part-Time, and Contract Employment in the United States. Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute. Morse, D. (1969). The Peripheral Worker. New York: Columbia University Press. Nardone, T. (1995). "Part-Time Employment: Reasons, Demographics, and Trends." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):275-92. National Association of Temporary and Staffing Services (1998). "Temporary Help Reaches Record." Alexandria, VA: Author. Nollen, S. D. (1996). "Negative Aspects of Temporary Employment." Journal of Labor Research 17(4):567-82. Nollen, S. D. and H. Axel (1996). Managing Contingent Workers. New York: AMACOM. Parker, R. E. (1994). Flesh Peddlers and Warm Bodies: The Temporary Help Industry and Its Workers. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive Advantage through People. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Polivka, A. E. (1996). "Into Contingent and Alternative Employment: By Choice?" Monthly Labor Review 119(10)55-74. Pratt, J. H. (1993). Myths and Realities of Working at Home. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service. Segal, L. M. and D. G. Sullivan (1997). "The Growth of Temporary Services Work." Journal of Economic Perspectives ll(2):117-36. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1992). "Employed Persons Who Work at Home." News Release, October 8. Washington, DC: Author. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1997). "Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements." February 1997, News Release, December 2. Washington, DC: Author.

Flexible Work Arrangements

39

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998a). "Work at Home in 1997." News Release, March 11. Washington, DC: Author. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998b). Employment and Earnings. Washington, DC: Author, January. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998c). "Workers on Flexible and Shift Schedules in 1997." News Release, March 26. Washington, DC: Author.

3 Flexible Work Arrangements An Overview of Developments in Canada I§ik Urla Zeytinoglu

I.

INTRODUCTION

In the last two decades substantial changes have been taking place in work relationships in the Canadian labor market and flexible work arrangements are emerging. Employment has become increasingly polarized in terms of work hours, wages, benefits, and job security. Flexible work arrangements are separating the work force based on gender and age lines. A comprehensive Canadian data set is not available yet, but polarization based on race and immigrant status are also considered as a possibility. Data on labor force statistics show that, particularly since 1982, the incidence of part-time, on-call, shift, contract, and temporary work arrangements has grown sharply (Statistics Canada 1998a, 1998b). Self-employment without employees has also increased substantially since the early 1990s (Leckie 1998). The "typical" full-time, permanent, nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday job with one employer is now the work arrangement for only a third of the Canadian work force (Lipsett and Reesor 1998). The purpose of this chapter is to examine the trends in flexible work arrangements in Canada and to contribute to our understanding and analysis of changing work relationships. 1 Section II presents an overview of developments in flexible work arrangements focusing on part-time work, temporary / contract work, home-based work and self-employed without employees. Comparisons are made with the "typical work" of full-time, permanent, workplace-based employment. Section III examines the role of nonstandard work arrangements as a part of employer flexibility strategies. Section IV discusses the evolving theoretical approaches to changing forms of work. While there are a variety of theoretical approaches, there is still not a comprehensive theory that can provide 41

42

Işik Urla Zeytinoglu

explanations for these new forms of work (Gallagher and Tansky 1996; Zeytinoglu and Norris 1996). In this section, a typology is developed for analyzing changing work relationships. Empirical evidence for the typol­ ogy is provided by using the General Social Survey, Cycle 9 (GSS C9) data of Statistics Canada and Health Canada (1995). Variations in each work relationship according to gender, age, education, occupation, sec­ tor, and unionization variables are examined. The chapter concludes with a discussion and implications of findings for research and policy development.

II.

TRENDS IN FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS

Since the early 1960s, industrialized countries have been using various "flexibility strategies" to cope with the labor market (macrolevel) and the workplace (microlevel) challenges. In this chapter, the focus is on "numerical flexibility," a widely popular workplace flexibility strategy. Numerical flexibility refers to employer strategies of (1) flexibility in scheduling work during peak periods a n d / o r providing continuity of work, and (2) flexibility in employment decisions such as hiring, firing, or unilaterally decreasing workers' hours of work (Zeytinoglu 1992a). The literature uses a variety of terminologies for work arrangements that provide numerical flexibility. Nonstandard, flexible, atypical, peripheral, marginal, contingent, and secondary are the most common terms. Over­ all, the understanding is that any flexible work arrangement other than permanent full-time with an indefinite contract falls under the numerical flexibility category. If we were to observe the history of work relationships, we would see that flexible work arrangements of part-time, temporary, and contract work have always existed. Home-based work and self-employment with­ out employees, in fact, predate the standard, "typical" work arrangement. Thus, flexible work arrangements are not new. What is new and challeng­ ing is the increase, particularly since the early 1980s, in the proportion of these flexible (nonstandard) work arrangements in newly created jobs. Labor force data show that since 1976, 44 percent of total employment growth has been due to growth in nonstandard jobs [Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) 1996]. As presented in Table 3.1, only 32.9 percent of Canadian workers were in "typical" jobs in 1995 (Lipsett and Reesor 1998). For each row of the table, the rightmost entry in the first column is a different kind of nonstandard employment. The percentage of total employment this represents is the last figure in the second col­ umn. This percentage is subtracted from each successive row. For exam­ ple, in 1995, 9.7 percent of the work force were "self-employed without

An Overview of Developments in Canada Table 3.1.

43

Canadian Workers and Work Arrangements, 1995

Type of Work

% of Total Employment

Employee, employer, self-employed without employees Permanent work, temporary work Full-time work, part-time work Workplace-based, home-based Normal work hours, long work hours Single job holder, multiple job holders Works a Monday-to-Friday job, works on other days Regular day time job, shift work "Typical" work Note: Full-time is defined as 30 hours or more; some or all of their paid work at home; normal includes rotating, evening, night and split shifts, HRDC calculations based on the 1995 Survey of Source: Lipsett and Reesor (1998).

83.7, 6.6, 9.7 74, 9.7 62.3, 11.6 56.4, 5.9 51.2, 5.1 50.4, 0.9 37.1, 13.3 32.9, 4.1 32.9

home-based includes all those who work weekly hours are 30-48 hours; and shift irregular schedules, and on-call or casual. Work Arrangements, Statistics Canada.

employees,'' 6.6 percent were employers, and 83.7 percent were employ­ ees. The next row presents only the employees and separates them into permanent (74 percent) and temporary workers (9.7 percent). Following this process, the last row establishes the percentage of all employees in the "typical" work category. Organizations both in private and public sectors and in service and goods-producing sectors are using a variety of flexible work arrange­ ments. Service sector organizations tend to use part-time, temporary, contract workers or home-based workers, while goods-producing sec­ tors use full-time workers on an overtime or shift basis or contract out work to achieve flexibility. Employment in these sectors is further di­ vided along gender lines with the majority of women employed in the service sector and the majority of men employed in the goodsproducing sectors. The service sector in Canada has been the engine of job growth for more than four decades. The share of total employment held in the ser­ vice sector grew from 40 percent in 1946 to 73 percent in 1996 (Bernier 1996; Statistics Canada 1998a). Between 1991 and 1996, the years the census was taken (Statistics Canada 1998a), job growth was strongest in the service sector (+3.3 percent), while declining in the goods-producing sector (—5.8 percent). The fastest job growth occurred in business services (17 percent), which also had the highest increase in part-time employ­ ment (49 percent). More than a quarter (26 percent) of all workers in the business services sector were self-employed, an increase of 5 percent in five years.

44

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu A.

Part-Time Work

The discussion of changing work relationships and flexible work ar­ rangements is sometimes confusing, since there is not a generally ac­ cepted definition of what they consist of. Part-time work is defined in this study as work of less than full-time hours. It can be on a regular (perma­ nent, continuous, retention) or casual (occasional) basis. Regular part-time work has a relatively fixed schedule and number of hours. Casual part-time work refers to temporary help whenever needed by the organization. Jobsharing is an employment form where two permanent part-time employ­ ees share one full-time job. Statistics Canada data refers to part-time work as work mostly less that 30 hours a week, and full-time work as mostly 30 hours or more a week. Full-year, full-time work (FYFT) refers to persons who worked 49 to 52 weeks, on a full-time basis on the census year. Fullyear, part-time (FYPT) work refers to persons who worked 49 to 52 weeks, on a part-time basis in the census year. The 1996 Canada Census (Statistics Canada 1998a) showed a large increase in trends in individuals working on a part-time basis, accom­ panied by a decline among those working on a full-time basis. In 1995, the last complete work year before the census was taken, 86 percent of work­ ers were in FYFT jobs, compared with 90 percent in 1980. The number of people who worked FYPT, however, increased nearly 20 percent in 1995, to almost double the number of FYPT workers in 1980. Throughout the years, the number of both men and women working FYFT declined, and part-time work for both genders increased. Women, however, were more likely to work FYPT. In 1995,12 percent of female workers worked FYPT, compared with 4 percent of male workers. Overall, a slight majority (51 percent) of the working population in 1995 worked FYFT in 1995—in standard jobs—while the rest worked in nonstandard jobs: with 8 percent in FYPT jobs, and 41 percent in some form of temporary, contract, or short duration jobs (of less than 49 weeks during the year, either on full-time or part-time basis). In 1976, the part-time employment rate was 12.5 percent and by 1997 it had increased to 19 percent (Statistics Canada 1998b). Part-time work is widespread among adult women (25+ ages), and the percentage has been steady but high since 1976 (Bernier 1996). Women occupy 70 percent of part-time work positions (Statistics Canada 1998b) and 68 percent of in­ voluntary part-time work positions (HRDC 1996) compared to their 45 percent share in total employment. In addition to women, youth (15-24 years of age) has been a large group in the part-time work force. In 1976, 21.1 percent of youth worked part-time (Bernier 1996), increasing to 35 percent in 1997 (Statistics Canada 1998b). One of the concerns about part-time and other nonstandard work ar-

An Overview of Developments in Canada

45

rangements is that they do not provide an equitable work environment for workers in comparison to their full-time counterparts. As Table 3.2 shows, part-time workers earn on the average much less than their fulltime counterparts and fewer have access to benefits, including company pension plans and extended health coverage. Studies show that the in­ equities exist even for those unionized or covered by collective agree­ ments (Zeytinoglu 1991, 1992a, 1993). B.

Temporary Work/Contract Work

Temporary work refers to hiring workers to fill specific organizational needs on an on-call basis for full- or part-time hours. Work can be per­ formed in the workplace by the organization's pool of temporary workers or by workers of an outside employment agency. Contract work refers to discrete tasks performed in a specified period of time. The work can be conducted on a part- or full-time basis. Project work and subcontracted (outsourcing) work fall within this category (e.g., installation of a new computer system, janitorial services). Workers in such jobs can be em­ ployed through a contractor firm or contracted individually depending on the need. The work may be performed at the premises of the employer-in-need, of the subcontractor, or elsewhere, most often on a continuing basis for the duration of the tasks. Temporary /contract work has also been on the increase since the late 1980s, with a growing number of individuals working under // contract ,'' (Meurer, Rothfischer, and Whitington 1996) and often paid a "fee for services/'' This essentially means there is no employer-employee relation

Table 3.2. Average Wages and Job-Related Employee Benefits by Work Arrangements Wages/Benefits a

Average hourly wage Percentage of employees en­ titled to benefits b Additional pension plan Additional health plan Dental plan Paid sick leave a

Full-Time

Part-Time

Permanent

Temporary

$15.95

$10.54

$15.28

$12.33

58.4 68.1 63.4 65.7

18.7 17.8 15.9 17.8

55.5 64.4 60.0 62.2

19.9 19.3 16.5 19.3

Hourly wages are truncated at an upper limit of $40. Therefore, the calculated averages are underestimation of wages. b Other than legally required. Note: HRDC calculations based on the 1995 Survey of Work Arrangements, Statistics Canada. Source: Lipsett and Reesor (1998).

46

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu

ship, but only the buying and selling of services. Thus, contract workers are responsible for their own benefits coverage. As Table 3.1 shows, about 10 percent of the work force in 1995 was employed in temporary jobs (Lipsett and Reesor 1998). As shown in Table 3.2, temporary workers earned on average much less than their permanent counterparts, and few were eligible for various benefits. There are no data identifying the inhouse temporary work force. Between 1984 and 1994, the number of workers employed by temporary agencies increased by one-third, though overall it represents a small proportion of total employment (0.28 percent in 1994) (HRDC 1996). As mentioned before, temporary / contract work is not new; it was common until the 1940s, when mass production technologies, postWorld War II economic development, steady economic growth, and successful unionization drives decreased the number and importance of temporary and contract work. Starting in the mid-1940s, the full-time permanent job was established as the norm. The mid-1970s inflationary economic environment, followed by successive recessions in the last two decades and the massive restructuring first for the blue-collar work force in the private sector in the early 1980s, followed by the restructuring of white-collar, professional, and managerial jobs in the private, public, and the broader public sectors in the last decade contributed to the increase in temporary and contract jobs. Since many workers in these jobs also fall into the self-employed without employees category, they will be exam­ ined in detail in the following section. C. Home-Based Work The restructuring of work environments, employers' need for flex­ ibility and cost control, and developments in information and telecom­ munications technology revitalized home-based work in the 1990s (Zeytinoglu and Norris 1996). The early 1990s experienced the so-called jobless recovery. The white-collar, professional / managerial employees who lost their jobs in large numbers in this time period led to the reemergence of home-based work in the form of self-employed without em­ ployees. In addition, technological advances were a catalyst in the creation of telework jobs. Telework, the innovative and emerging form of home-based work, is covered in Chapter 5 in this book and thus will not be examined here. As the 1996 Canada Census (Statistics Canada 1998a) showed, exclud­ ing those who worked on a farm, 6 percent of the employed labor force worked at home. More than half (58 percent) of employed people work­ ing at home were self-employed. This proportion was more than six times the proportion of self-employed who worked outside the home (9 per-

An Overview of Developments in Canada

47

cent). As shown in Table 3.3, more women than men were employed at home. More women than men working at home were in the 25-54 age group. For both genders, workers at home tended to be older than those working outside the home. Among female home-based workers, about 44 percent were paid workers, whereas for men about a third were paid workers. There were more self-employed men working at home than women, but more unpaid female family workers at home than men. As Table 3.3 shows, part-time work at home was more common than it was outside the home for both genders, but still women were twice as likely as men to work on a part-time basis at home. For home-based workers, sales and service occupations were the most common, although there were substantial differences between females' and males' occupations. Overall, an analysis of the data (Nadwodny 1996) showed that the experience of Table 3.3.

Home-Based Work: Demographic Characteristics and Occupations Females (N == 443,350)

Males (N = 375,275)

Class of worker Paid worker Self-employed Unpaid family worker

44 52 4

34 65 1

Age groups 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

6 22 32 23 12 5

7 16 26 25 17 9

Work activity Full-time work Part-time work Did not work in 1995

50 44 6

73 23 4

Home-Based Workers (N = 818,625)

Top three broad occupational categories for females 36 Sales and service Business, finance and administrative 33 Arts, culture, recreation and sport 9 Top three broad occupational categories for males Sales and service Trades, transport/equipment operators Management

21 17 17

Source: Statistics Canada [1998a (1996 Census Canada, 20% sample data, Catalogue No. 93F0027XDB9600)].

48

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu

home-based work in 1996 resembled the experience of the 1991 census, an increase in numbers being the only difference. Among home-based workers the self-employed can be separated into self-employed without employees and self-employed who have their own paid help and thus are employers. Self-employed without employees (SEWE) can be defined as those who work by and for themselves. The self-employed employer group is not covered in this study. 1. Self-Employed without Employees. SEWE work arrangements have shown a rapid increase, particularly since 1990. From 1976 to 1990, the number of SEWE grew on average 3.4 percent per year; however, be­ tween 1990 and 1996, it grew by 5.3 percent, strongly surpassing the paid employment growth rate of 0.2 percent on average per year (Gauthier and Roy 1997; Leckie 1998). The increase in the number of SEWE in Canada between 1990 and 1996 period does not necessarily mean that suddenly many workers became entrepreneurs and opened up their own busi­ nesses, but that workers are adjusting to workplace restructuring by cre­ ating jobs for themselves. This is really disguised unemployment. As Gauthier and Roy's (1997) study showed, the growth of SEWE is correlated with economic cycles. In weak economic times, paid employ­ ment declines while SEWE increases. Analyzing paid employment and SEWE for the 1990-1996 period, the authors found that the increase in SEWE consists of individuals who were previously working as paid em­ ployees. This suggests that SEWE, with other flexible part-time and tem­ porary work arrangements, has become an attractive flexibility strategy for employers, not only providing them lower labor costs but also making it easier to make dismissal decisions. SEWEs are hired as fixed-term or project-based contract workers, where the employer has no obligation to provide continued employment beyond the contract's term. Recent data (Statistics Canada 1998b) show that there has been fulland part-time job creation since early 1997, and that adult men are in­ creasingly being employed in full-time jobs. For adult women and youth, on the other hand, growth in employment has been mostly in part-time jobs. Since the SEWE group is more likely to be adult males (Leckie 1998), the increase in full-time jobs can result in a decline in SEWE. Statistics show that, since reaching its peak in August 1997, self-employment has been declining (Statistics Canada 1998b), confirming suggestions that the proportion of self-employed, particularly SEWE, will fall as the Canadian economy improves (Gauthier and Roy 1997). Employment in SEWE cannot be considered "good" jobs. The prelimi­ nary data (Leckie 1998) on such jobs suggest that SEWEs earn less and have lower benefits than their paid counterparts. Moreover they work longer hours than workers in paid employment. The irregular income

An Overview of Developments in Canada

49

flow and the lack of job security and continuity are other unpleasant aspects of the job that many self-employed do not like.

III.

NONSTANDARD WORK ARRANGEMENTS AND EMPLOYER FLEXIBILITY STRATEGIES

The experience since 1980s shows that flexible employment arrange­ ments are demand-driven and usually initiated by employers (Zeytinoglu 1994). A pilot survey of workplaces (Statistics Canada and HRDC 1998) conducted in 1996 examined business strategies and change in organiza­ tions. Its preliminary results show that reengineering (redesigning the business process to reduce costs and improve performance) and downsiz­ ing (reducing the number of employees on the payroll to reduce ex­ penses) were the primary flexibility strategy of employers. In about 13 percent of organizations, employers relied on part-time and temporary workers or used existing workers with increased overtime hours to achieve flexibility.

IV.

THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND A TYPOLOGY

Although new forms of employment are increasing in number and are showing a variety of applications, theoretical explanations for these new developments are in their infancy. There is no uniform pattern or well-accepted, appropriate theory to explain changing work relation­ ships and the place of flexible work arrangements within them. At the macro level, flexible work arrangements are discussed under the dual (or segmented) labor market theory, and at the workplace (micro) level, i.e., in internal labor markets (Doeringer and Piore 1971; Piore 1986), often using Atkinson's (1987) core-periphery conceptualization. With the increase in the relative share of part-time, temporary/contract workers and SEWE in the labor market, studies are increasingly using the coreperiphery conceptualization and applying it to the internal labor market of the firm (ILM) (see, for example, Beechy and Perkins 1987; Cappelli, Bassi, Katz, Knoke, Osterman, and Usem 1997; Green, Krahn, and Sung 1993; Jenson, Hagen, and Reddy 1988; Kühl 1990; Romero 1993; Zeytinoglu 1992a, 1992b, 1994). Research is suggesting the existence of subsystems in the ILMs (Camuffo and Costa 1993; Doeringer et al. 1991; Osterman 1988; Sherer and Lee 1992) and heterogeneity in the periphery (Gallagher and Tansky 1996; Hunter, McGregor, MacInnes, and Sproull 1993; Nollen, Eddy, and Mar­ tin 1978; Kahne 1985; Tilly 1996; Zeytinoglu 1994).

50

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu A.

A Typology of Work Arrangements

A typology developed by Zeytinoglu and Norris (1996) can be used to analyze the work forms that exist in Canadian workplaces. In our typol­ ogy, presented in Table 3.4, all work relationships can be divided based on the dimensions of (1) the continuity of the work relationship, and (2) the customary work schedule. Continuity of relationship refers to whether there is a continuing work relationship in which workers are in more or less permanent (continuous, indefinite-term) contracts, or whether they are em­ ployed in temporary or term (specific task/project based, limited length

Table 3.4. A Typology of Work Arrangements Customary Work Schedule

Continuity of the Work Relationship Permanent Continuing work relation­ ship Employees on company payroll

Full-Time Workers who work the employer's standard sched­ uled work week

Permanent Pull-Time Employees who regularly work full-time hours in a continuing work rela­ tionship

Part-Time Workers who typ­ ically work less than the standard scheduled work week

Permanent Part-Time Employees in a continuing relationship who work less than full-time hours They have a relatively fixed schedule or num­ ber of hours

Temporary/Term Hired for limited length of time, for a defined task or project Work relationship ends at the end of task/term May be on company pay­ roll or on an agency / contractor pay­ roll Temporary ¡Term Pull-Time Individuals employed for a fixed-term period, for the full standard work week Includes temporary (casu­ al) workers, independent contractors and self-employed with­ out employees Temporary/Term Part-Time Individuals employed when needed by the company, and do not have regular schedules When employed, they work less than full-time hours Includes temporary (casu­ al) workers, independent contractors and self-employed with­ out employees

An Overview of Developments in Canada

51

of time, definite-term) contracts. The distinction is often drawn by worker and employer expectations, the individual employment contract or collective agreement, and human resources practices. This dichotomy separates those workers who are "in the system," that is, in the organization's permanent work group, from those for whom ad hoc, often temporary work and payment procedures are followed. Customary work schedule refers to the organization's standard work week. This dimension distinguishes workers by whether they work a defined standard full-time num­ ber of hours or less. Those who work the full customary (standard) work week are termed full-time workers. Those who work less than the full customary work week are part-time workers. The typology is structured in such a way that any employee can be placed into one of the four categories of permanent full-time, permanent part-time, temporary/term full-time, temporary/term part-time. The perma­ nent full-time category includes all workers who constitute the core of the ILM. This category benefits the most from the ILM in terms of pay, promotion, training, and job security. If the workplace is unionized, the chances that this group is unionized are high. The permanent part-time category shows characteristics closely resembling the permanent fulltime, though they are in the outer edges of the core. In this work relationship employers benefit from workers' experiences, while workers enjoy steady work and pay, often including some benefits. They are considered for promotions and have access to training after permanent full-time employees, but prior to other nonstandard categories (Zeytinoglu 1991, 1992a, 1992b). Thus, they are relatively protected in their jobs. Although some of these permanent part-time workers might prefer full-time work, others—especially in higher paid positions—desire time for nonwork activities (Duxbury, Higgins, and Lee 1993; Zeytinoglu 1992a, 1993). These positions are widely used in the service sector, especially in health care (part-time nurses or nurses' aides), in education (permanent parttime elementary and secondary school teachers), in retail (part-time salespeople), and in the hospitality sector (room cleaners work in mornings, servers cover meal times) (Zeytinoglu 1991). Temporary/term full-time and temporary / term part-time workers are distinguished by their limited-term contracts. When employed, they may work full-time or part-time hours. In the lower-paid echelons are parttime casual laborers; at the higher end are professionals employed on a full-time contract basis. The professionals may be hired as independent contractors on a project basis working full-time for the duration of the project or they may be engaged periodically or intermittently whenever there is a need for their specialization. This category accounts for "outsourced services" using many of the SEWEs, and also includes "in-house" temporary/project staff. These categories show typical characteristics of

52

Işik Urla Zeytinoglu

the periphery of the ILM, where work is irregular, and without benefits or job security. Employer commitment to the workers is for a limited term or task based; they receive no company-provided training (Zeytinoglu 1991). Workers in these categories provide employers numerical flexibility, and depending on the qualifications of the worker there might be functional flexibility as well. Examples of this category include casual and agency nurses, occasional (supply) teachers, and food and beverage serving staff. It is important to recognize that temporary / term work arrangements include university faculty as well (Ahmed, Denton, O'Connor, and Zeytinoglu forthcoming; Lundy and Warme 1992; Rosenblum and Rosenblum 1994). B.

Methodology

To apply the typology developed here, I use General Social Survey, Cycle 9 (GSS, C9) data (Statistics Canada and Health Canada 1995). Variables used in the study are class of worker on the current job, number of hours worked per week (in main job), current job permanent or not, gender, age, highest educational degree, the sector in which employed, and occupation. Using the class of worker on the current job variable, employees are selected, constituting a sample of 5,323 persons. Using the current job permanent or not variable, data are separated into permanent versus tem­ porary/term worker groups. 2 The number of hours worked per week vari­ able is used to separate the respondents into full- and part-time groups. Age is coded as youth (15-29 years 3 ) and adults (30 + ), education as uni­ versity graduates (U), high school/college diploma (HS), and less than high school education (LHS). Occupation is grouped as management, professionals, and others (technicians, foremen / forewomen, clerical/sales/ service workers, manual workers and laborers). One of the limitations of the study is that it uses only those respon­ dents who were employees at the time. It does not include SEWE since they are excluded from one of the crucial variables for our study, at the raw data collection stage. It is possible that there are some SEWEs in the temporary / t e r m group. The other limitation is that data are collected on individuals and do not give an accurate picture in workplaces from the point of view of the job creators, the employers. C.

Findings

Our data show the variety of employment forms in Canadian work­ places. As indicated in Table 3.5 the majority of the respondents work in permanent jobs, and about 10 percent are in temporary / term employ­ ment. Similarly, a large proportion are in full-time jobs and about 14 percent in part-time jobs. Although a large percentage of workers are in

An Overview of Developments in Canada Table 3.5.

53

Flexible Work Arrangements According to the Typology (%)

N = 5,323 (Row a and Column Total = 100%)b Full-Time 79 Part-Time 14

Permanent 89

Temporary/Term 10

Permanent Full-Time 72 Permanent Part-Time 12

Temporary/Term Full-Time 6 Temporary/Term Part-Time 2

a

Missing data in row = 1% Missing data in column = 7% Source: Statistics Canada and Health Canada (1995). Author's calculations, based on General Social Survey, Cycle 9 data. b

permanent full-time work arrangements, 20 percent of the workers are in some form of flexible work arrangement. When we examine data accord­ ing to gender, as shown in Table 3.6, males are more often in permanent full-time and temporary / term full-time work arrangements, whereas females are in permanent part-time and temporary / term part-time work arrangements. Examining the data by age shows that youth are employed more in temporary / term (full- and part-time) and permanent part-time

Table 3.6. Demographic and Occupational Characteristics of Workers According to the Typology (%)

Characteristics Gender Women Men Age Youth (15-29) Adult (30+) Education University degree High school or above Less than high school Occupation Managerial Professional Other occupations Unionization / Coverage

Permanent Full-Time

Permanent Part-Time

Temporary/ Term Full-Time

Temporary/ Term Part-Time

46 54

78 22

43 57

59 41

23 77

45 55

38 62

55 45

21 60 19

10 61 29

22 57 53

19 50 31

18 19 62 32

4 16 80 3

10 21 69 3

6 27 67 0

Source: Statistics Canada and Health Canada (1995). Author's calculations, based on General Social Survey, Cycle 9 data.

54

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu

work arrangements. In terms of education, there are highly educated as well as less educated workers in all types of work arrangements. Those with less than high school education are more common in flexible work arrangements. An analysis by occupation shows that among permanent full-time workers 18 percent are in managerial, 19 percent in professional, and 62 percent in other occupations. Managerial positions are more in full-time work arrangements, and more of them are the permanent full-time type. While a good number of professionals hold permanent full-time jobs, they are fewer than those in managerial occupations. They are also employed in flexible work arrangements. Within other occupations (nonprofessional, nonmanagerial), there are more workers in permanent parttime and temporary full- and part-time work arrangements. Analysis of the data according to sectors shows that the majority (65 percent) of the employment is in service sector. Within the service sector, examining data by gender shows that males are more often employed in permanent full-time positions (81 percent of male workers) as compared to females (69 percent of females). On the other hand, females are more often employed in permanent part-time jobs (22 percent) than their male counterparts (10 percent). In temporary/term full- and part-time jobs, there are comparable percentages of females and males. Finally, we examined union membership / collective agreement coverage of workers. As shown in Table 3.6, about 38 percent were either union members or were covered by collective agreements. Among these workers, unionization/ collective agreement coverage was the highest for those in perma­ nent full-time jobs, followed by temporary / term full-time and permanent part-time job holders. None of the workers in temporary/term part-time jobs were unionized or covered by collective agreements.

V.

DISCUSSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Research has shown that women and youth dominate the part-time, temporary work force; education is important in the possibility of finding and keeping permanent, full-time jobs. It is also a well-known fact that the phenomenon of part-time a n d / o r temporary employment is more common among nonmanagerial, nonprofessional employee groups. The service sector has the largest share of the part-time and temporary work force; and finally, unionization is low among these groups of workers. Our typology applied to the GSS C9 data supported for these well-known generalizations, but it went beyond those by giving a comprehensive picture of the variety that exists in employment forms and the characteristics of each.

An Overview of Developments in Canada

55

The typology developed here allowed us to standardize categories of work arrangements and to evaluate the extent and use of flexible work arrangements in the Canadian labor market. The overall analysis of results presented above shows that in the restructuring economies of the 1980s and 1990s, adult males fare well. They get to work more often in permanent full-time jobs or, if not, in temporary/term but full-time jobs; and women, in their youth and adult life, occupy peripheral jobs. As I have discussed before (Zeytinoglu 1994), flexible work arrangements place women in a secondary position not only in workplaces but, as an extension of that, in their personal lives. The less they earn, the more they become dependent for their survival on others—their spouse, family, or the government; the less job security they have, the more they are prone to poverty when working and in old age, the more they experience mental and physical health problems (Zeytinoğlu, Denton, HajdukowskiAhmed, and O'Connor 1997). As data showed here, youth also get an unfair share of flexible work arrangements. The males within the youth group, however, get into desired full-time, preferably permanent jobs once they reach the adult age. Data also show that as one moves down the occupational hierarchy, being employed in flexible work arrangements increases. Education contributes to the permanency of the job, increasing the chances that it will be fulltime. This should not, however, obscure the fact that university graduates—those supposedly with the highest skills—exist in all types of flexible work arrangements. Research is well established that unionized jobs or those covered by collective agreement are better paying, relatively secure jobs. The data in our study demonstrate a hierarchy within employment forms according to unionization/collective agreement coverage. The more peripheral the job, the less the union/ collective agreement protection. These findings have implications for policymakers. The economic re­ structuring of the 1980s and 1990s is consistently taking its toll on female workers and younger (both male and female) workers. Since the late 1990s, the economic climate has been improving in Canada, but on the shoulders of the flexible work force of women and youth. Males have a greater chance to escape the unfavorable work conditions of flexible work once they reach adulthood. For females, the struggle is lifelong; many are stuck in flexible work arrangements—whether it is permanent part-time, or temporary full- or part-time jobs. Once unheard of, it is becoming more common for university graduates to work in part-time and / or temporary jobs, in jobs well below their skill level and unrelated to their field of education. While having these jobs might be better than not having a job at all, stiil such jobs are leaving permanent traces in Canadian employ­ ment environment.

56

Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu

W e s h o u l d b e asking ourselves w h a t type of e m p l o y m e n t w e envision for the future, particularly for w o m e n a n d y o u t h . M a n y w o r k e r s w o u l d prefer to w o r k in jobs that p r o v i d e security a n d p a y well. T h u s , they w o u l d like to be e m p l o y e d in p e r m a n e n t full-time jobs. The restructuring economic e n v i r o n m e n t of the 1980s a n d 1990s a n d the economic recovery of the late 1990s are creating a society of those w h o " h a v e , " i.e., those in p e r m a n e n t full-time e m p l o y m e n t , a n d those w h o " h a v e not," i.e., those in flexible w o r k a r r a n g e m e n t s . The goal for the future of the w o r k force s h o u l d b e to strive for an equitable labor m a r k e t a n d w o r k p l a c e s w h e r e all can contribute to the best of their ability a n d earn a fair income.

NOTES 1. This research is supported by a grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2. Self-employed are not included here since they were excluded from the raw data collection of this variable. 3. The upper limit for "youth" is 29 years of age, since experience shows that with higher educational experiences, it takes longer for youth to settle on a job.

REFERENCES Ahmed, M., M. Denton, J. 0'Connor, and I. U. Zeytinoglu (forthcoming). "Gender Patterns in Faculty Participation: Practice and Experience at a Mid-Sized University." Canadian Journal of Higher Education. Atkinson, J. (1987). "Flexibility or Fragmentation? The United Kingdom Labour Market in the Eighties." Labour and Society 12(1):87-105. Beechy, V. and T. Perkins (1987). A Matter of Hours: Women, Part-Time Work and the Labour Market. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bernier, R. (1996). "The Labour Force Survey: 50 Years Old!" Statistics Canada, Labour Force Annual Averages, 1995, Cat. No. 71-220-XPB, February, pp. A 3 3 A50. Camuffo, A. and G. Costa (1993). "Strategic Human Resource Management-Italian Style." Sloan Management Review (Winter):59-67. Cappelli, P., L. Bassi, H. Katz, D. Knoke, P. Osterman, and M. Usem (1997). Change at Work. New York: Oxford University Press. Doeringer, P. B., K. Christensen, P. M. Flynn, D. T. Hall, H. Katz, J. H. Keefe, C. J. Ruhm, A. M. Surn, and M. Usem (1991). Turbulence in the American Workplace. New York: Oxford University Press. Doeringer, P. B. and M. Piore (1971). Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

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Duxbury, L., C. Higgins, and C. Lee (1993). Balancing Work and Family: A Study of Canadian Private Sector Employees. London, ON: Case. Gallagher, D. G. and J. W. Tansky (1996). "A Theoretical Perspective on Contingent Employment." Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, 28 May-1 June, St. Catharines, Ontario. Gauthier, J. and R. Roy (1997). "Diverging Trends in Self-Employment in Cana­ da/' Research Paper R-97-13E, Human Resources Development Canada, Ap­ plied Research Branch, Strategic Policy, Ottawa. Green, F., H. Krahn, and J. Sung (1993). "Non-Standard Work in Canada and the United Kingdom." International Journal of Manpower 14(5):70-86. Human Resources Development Canada (1996). "The Future of Work: Trends in the Changing Nature of Employment." Mimeo, HRDC, Applied Research Branch, Strategic Policy, Ottawa. Hunter, L., A. McGregor, J. MacInnes, and A. Sproull (1993). "The 'Flexible Firm': Strategy and Segmentation." British Journal of Industrial Relations 31(3):383405. Jenson, J., E. Hagen, and C. Reddy (eds.) (1988). Feminization of the Labor Force: Paradoxes and Promises. New York: Oxford University Press. Kahne, H. (1985). Reconceiving Part-Time Work. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanfeld. Kühi, J. (1990). "New Deal and New Forms of Employment." Labour and Society 15(2):237-55. Leckie, N. (and Ekos Research Associates Inc.) (1998). "Own-Account SelfEmployment in Canada." Human Resources Development Canada, Evaluation and Data Development, Strategic Policy. Ottawa. Lipsett, B. and M. Reesor (1998). "Flexible Work Arrangements." Pp. 29-44 in The Changing Nature of Work, Employment and Workplace Relations, Selected papers from the 34th Annual CIRA Conference, edited by P.-A. Lapointe, A. E. Smith, and D. Veilleux. Quebec: ACRI/CIRA. Lundy, K. L. P. and B. D. Warme (1992). "Gender and Career Trajectory: The Case of Part-Time Faculty." Pp. 257-66 in Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, edited by B. D. Warme, K. L. P. Lundy, and L. Lundy. New York: Praeger. Meurer, S., A. Rothfischer, and A. Whitington (1996). "Contingent Workers and Their Adjustment Needs." Mimeo. A Project of the Ministry of Education and Training, Adjustment Advisory Program, October. Nadwodny, R. (1996). "Canadians Working at Home." Canadian Social Trends (Spring):16-20. Nollen, S. D., B. B. Eddy, and V. H. Martin (1978). Permanent Part-Time Employment: The Manager's Perspective. New York: Praeger. Osterman, P. (1988). Employment Futures: Reorganization, Dislocation and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press. Piore, M. J. (1986). "Perspectives On Labor Market Flexibility." Industrial Relations 25(2):146-66. Romero, A. (1993). "Multinational Enterprises in the Service Sector: Conceptual

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and Policy Issues." Pp. 239-66 in Multinationals and Employment: The Global Economy of the 1990s, edited by P. Bailey, A. Parisotto, and G. Renshaw. Geneva: ILO. Rosenblum, G. and B. R. Rosenblum (1994). "Academic Labour Markets: Perspectives from Ontario." Canadian Journal of Higher Education 24(1):48-71. Sherer, P. D. and K. Lee (1992). "Cores, Peripheries, and More Or Less: An Examination of Mixes of Labor Relationships in Firms." Pp. 317-24 in Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, edited by J. F. Burton, Jr. Madison, WI: IRRA Series. Statistics Canada (1998a). "1996 Census: Labour Force Activity, Occupation and Industry, Place of Work, Mode of Transportation to Work, Unpaid Work." The Daily, March 17. Statistics Canada (1998b). Labour Force Survey. Annual. CANSIM, Matrix 3472 and Catalogue No. 71-001-PPB. Statistics Canada and Health Canada (1995). General Social Survey, Cycle 9. Microdata. Statistics Canada and HRDC (1998). The Evolving Workplace: Findings from the Pilot Workplace and Employee Survey. Ottawa: Minister of Industry. Tilly, C. (1996). Half a Job: Bad and Good Part-Time Jobs in a Changing Labor Market. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1991). "A Sectoral Study of Part-Time Workers Covered by Collective Agreements: Why Do Employers Hire Them?" Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 46(2):401-18. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1992a). "Reasons for Hiring Part-Time Workers in Unionized Organizations." Industrial Relations 31(3):489-99. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1992b). "Unionized Part-Time Professionals and Opportunities for Filling Full-Time Vacancies and Training." Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 47(l):59-78. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1993). "Negotiation Issues for Part-Time Workers: The Impact of Occupation." Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 48(2):305-20. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994). "Part-Time and Other Non-Standard Forms of Employ­ ment: Why Are They Considered Appropriate for Women?" Pp. 435-48 in The Future of Industrial Relations: Global Ghange and Ghallenge, edited by J. Niland, R. Lansbury, and C. Verevis. Beverly Hills: Sage. Zeytinoglu, I. U., M. Denton, M. Hajdukowski-Ahmed, and M. O'Connor (1997). "The Impact of Work On Women's Health: A Review of Recent Literature and Future Research Directions." Canadian Journal of Women''s Health Care 8(2):18-27. Zeytinoglu, I. U. and J. Norris (1996). "Global Diversity in Employment Relation­ ships: A Typology of Flexible Employment." Working Paper Series, No. 414, MGD School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

4 Part-Time Employment and the Worker Daniel G. Gallagher

I.

INTRODUCTION

As extensively discussed in both research and the popular media, as well as other chapters of this volume, most industrialized nations of the world have reported experiencing substantial growth in "alternative" forms of employment contracts. The examination and discussion of alternative or "atypical" employment arrangements implies the existence of a principal or "typical" form of employment to which comparisons are derived. Within postagrarian or Fordist economies, typical employment has been thought of in terms of an arrangement in which the implicit contract assumes that an individual works a customary work week (i.e., full-time hours) and that, assuming individual and organizational performance, the employment relationship will be ongoing or permanent (Gallagher and Tansky 1996; Zeytinoglu and Norris 1995). In reality, the entire development of industrial relations (IR) theory, as well as "behavioral" and "organizational" theories of employment (e.g., motivation, turnover, and training), are implicitly based on the notion of employment in the context of a full-time and ongoing relationship. Not only may such an assumption underlie IR theory, but the basic foundation of labor law, in most industrialized nations, is also based upon the primacy of the customary full-time employer-employee relationship. The observed growth of alternative work arrangements in the form of "temporary," "independent contractor," employee "leasing," or "subcontracting" not only presents issues concerning the growing "marginalization" or "peripheralization" of employment, but also raises some very basic questions concerning the structure of the employment relationship. In particular, the clear lines of demarcation between employer and employee are becoming more nebulous as individuals are dispatched to work sites as employees of a temporary agency or leasing firm. Furthermore, the notion of the traditional employer-employee rela59

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Daniel G. Gallagher

tionship has decreasing relevance in environments where employment staffing involves the use of "self-employed" or independent contractor arrangements. Within the broader context of the growth of alternative or atypical employment arrangements, both theoretical and practical questions arise concerning the understanding of part-time employment contracts. First, by definition, part-time employment represents an alternative to full-time employment; however, part-time employment is not necessarily atypical. For example, in many countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States, part-time jobs constitute anywhere from 18 to 25 percent of all nonagricultural employment. Moreover, in many industrialized nations the growth rate of part-time employment opportunities now exceeds the rate of full-time job creation (Brodsky 1994; Houseman 1995; Snider 1995). Second, it is surprising to note that there is not a single or unitary definition of the term "part-time employment." In contrast, part-time employment can be both narrowly and broadly defined. The Internation­ al Labor Organization (ILO) has defined part-time work as "regular wage employment with hours of work substantially shorter than normal in the establishment concerned ,/ (ILO 1989:3). The ILO definition of part-time work, albeit brief, is interesting since it incorporates, within the definition of part-time employment, the notion of (1) "regular" as being representative of "continuing" or "ongoing" employment contracts; (2) paid em­ ployment; and (3) being noticeably different from full-time employment in terms of the number of hours worked. In reality, part-time employment arrangements encompass a variety of scheduling arrangements including situations where individuals work regularly specified hours that are evenly distributed over the course of a week. This type of employment relationship is characteristic of "key-time" workers in the banking industry (Hartley 1995), and is also representative of many "job-sharing" arrangements (Crockett and Sparrow 1997; Leighton 1991; Pierce, Newstrom, Dunham, and Barber 1989). Other part-time working arrangements may involve regular or predictable hours, but involve more compact or "part-week" schedules, where individuals work full 8- or 10-hour work days, but only two or three days a week, usually weekends. In contrast to the ILO definition, part-time jobs may come extremely close to full-time jobs in terms of the number of hours worked and stiil be contractually or legally classified as part-time. For example, within the United States, an individual who regularly works 32 hours a week would be classified as part-time, while another individual performing the same job on a schedule of 35 or more hours per week would be classified as a full-time employee. Perhaps more definitionally problematic is the extent to which temporary or "on-call" workers, who work less predictable schedules and

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often fail to have continuous weeks of full-time employment, should be categorized as part-time employees. In many respects, it appears that temporary and on-call employment arrangements are more representative of "contingent" rather than part-time work arrangements. Third, it may also be inaccurate to generally view part-time employ­ ment arrangements as a "peripheral" or "margina!" form of employment. Within many organizations part-time employment often constitutes a significant share of an organization's employment "core." In particular, the existence of a cadre of workers employed on regular part-time work schedules may be central to an organization's staffing function. Hence, the issue of marginality may be less a concern over the importance of part-time workers, but rather more a function of how they are treated by the organization. How part-time workers are managed, and the extent of their integration into an organization's employment core, may be particularly visible where organizations employ both full- and part-time em­ ployees on regular work schedules. Although differences may exist concerning the definition or scope of part-time employment, the reality is that part-time employment either has or is becoming a significant share of the employment landscape in most countries. Within this context, the general purpose of this chapter is to identify and discuss some of the potential consequences of part-time employment. Attention will first be directed to a brief discussion of the motivations for employers to offer and for workers to accept part-time work arrangements. Subsequently, focus will shift toward examining the effects of performing work on a part-time basis from the perspective of the worker. The discussion of part-time work will not only involve a brief discussion of "economic" impacts, but also consider the employee's reaction in terms of such factors as work-related satisfaction and commitment. Incorporated within this discussion will be consideration of the extent to which the outcomes of part-time work have differential impacts, depending upon the demographic characteristics and motivations of workers who constitute the part-time work force. Finally, attention will shift to a brief discussion of the extent to which the use and consequences of part-time employment can be influenced by unionization and public policy.

II.

MOTIVATION FOR PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

Within Canada and the United States there has been a long-standing discussion of the causes, as well as the consequences, of the growth of part-time employment opportunities. A central part of the discussions has been the extent to which the creation of part-time jobs is driven by sup-

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ply- or demand-related factors (Houseman 1995). The arguments that part-time employment is primarily influenced by supply side factors can be best described in the context of the three broad demographic groupings that constitute the part-time work force (1) youth (age 16-24); (2) women (age 25-54); and (3) older employees (age 60 and over). For many workers in the youth cohort, part-time work often represents both the first opportunity to enter into the labor market and also a means to balance the trade-off between work, school, income, and leisure. Particularly for young people who are students, part-time work often repre­ sents the only work schedule option that is realistically available to them. Furthermore, the extent to which young workers seek to remain in the part-time work force may be directly proportionate to the percentage of a nation's youth that pursues postsecondary education. At the other end of the age continuum, older workers may utilize part-time jobs as a "bridge" between full-time employment and full-time retirement (Quinn and Kozy 1996). In addition, for older workers, part-time employment can be a means to stay active after retirement or to supplement pension income. The extent of older workers' involvement in part-time jobs might also reflect such diverse factors as a person's health and national income taxation laws. The third and largest cluster of part-time workers in many countries is comprised of workers between the ages of 24 and 55 years. Within most countries, this group of part-time workers disproportionately consists of women (ILO 1989; Houseman 1995). In this age range, the motivations for holding part-time employment may be diverse. However, among women working part-time, there often exists the need to balance career and in­ come interests with caregiver responsibilities associated with children, elder-care, and households. Such non-work-related constraints frequently place prime working-age women in the position of having to limit the number of hours in which they may participate in the labor market. The supply side argument for the growth of part-time jobs has heavily relied upon the dual situation of increased labor force participation rates among women and their limited ability to fully participate in the market. In contrast to the notion that part-time employment is driven by the needs of labor force participants, increasing support appears to exist for the position that the growth of part-time jobs reflects the changing hiring preferences of employers (e.g., Appelbaum 1992; Houseman 1995; Tilly 1992; Zeytinoglu and Norris 1995). At an aggregate level, it could be asserted that the growth in part-time employment reflects a structural shift in many industrialized nations away from manufacturing to service sector jobs. Employment has been expanding disproportionately in industries such as financial services, retail trade, and consumer service industries, where part-time employment has been a usual and customary

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part of staffing. However, despite the evidence of a structural shift from manufacturing to service-related economies, the question stiil remains, Why is part-time employment such a substantial component of the service industry? In large part, employer interest or "demand" for part-time workers reflects two central considerations of "flexibility" and "cost" (Zeytinoğlu 1992). Flexibility considerations reflect the fact that service-related industries are frequently characterized by uneven customer demand levels throughout the workday or workweek. For such reasons, part-time work represents the means by which employers are able to meet peak scheduling demands. Inherent within this approach is the fact that utilizing workers only during peak demand hours has the effect of reducing labor costs by minimizing or eliminating labor surplus during nonpeak work hours. Perhaps even more plausible is the assertion that part-time employ­ ment is a means by which many employers seek to reduce labor costs, through the avoidance or minimization of indirect labor costs, in the form of discretionary, contractually, or legally required benefits. Most notably, in many industrialized countries, part-time jobs are fully or partially exempted from governmental requirements pertaining to such issues as pensions (superannuation); health care coverage; family leave provisions; and work force reduction notification and compensation (Houseman 1995). To some degree, evidence concerning the relative influence of workersupply- or employer-demand-related arguments can be found in the extent to which part-time workers view their part-time work schedules as a voluntary or involuntary choice. In particular, within the United States, approximately 30 percent of all part-time workers are "involuntarily" employed on part-time schedules (Nardone 1995; Snider 1995). There is also evidence to suggest that the level of "involuntary" part-time employ­ ment is more extensive among men than women in the prime working age population. In fact, within the United States 63 percent of men and 27 percent of women age 25-54 and working part-time schedules are doing so involuntarily (Nardone 1995). However, involuntary part-time em­ ployment among men tends to be reflective of reduetion in work hours for economic reasons, while involuntary part-time employment among women and racial minorities tends to be associated with the inability to find full-time employment suitable to their education and experience. It is also interesting to note that although the growth of part-time jobs has been positive, related to increased unemployment rates, there is emerging evidence to indicate that even in periods of economic expansion, the rate of growth of involuntary has exceeded the growth rate of voluntary part-time employment (Snider 1995). Particularly challenging

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to supply side arguments is a finding by Larson and Ong (1994) that indicated that the shrinking supply of young, school-age workers has been associated with increased levels of involuntary part-time employ­ ment, as employers substitute older (age 24 and over) for school-age workers. Also, in many countries, the level of involuntary part-time job holding may be hidden by the method in which employment data are collected. For example, individuals working two or more part-time jobs with a total of 35 hours of combined employment may actually be counted as a full-time employee. In fact, within the United States, women comprise about 65 percent of all workers who combine several part-time jobs into a full-time schedule. In many respects, the fact that part-time jobs are increasing involuntarily and concentrated in certain industries (Liff 1991) contributes to the belief that creation of part-time employment jobs is increasingly employer driven.

IIL

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PART-TIME WORK

The value that employers, and for that matter society, place on parttime employment is reflected in wages and benefits afforded for part-time workers as part of their employment relationship. As is the situation with most assessments of part-time employment, the treatment or status of part-time work is most commonly evaluated relative to the status of fulltime employment. Recent research in the United States continues to confirm the conclusion that under most conditions, the earnings of part-time workers are significantly below those of full-time workers (Kosters 1995; Montgomery and Cosgrove 1995). However, the ratio of part- to full-time average hourly earnings illustrates differentials that are a function of a worker's age, education, and gender (Kosters 1995). In terms of hourly earnings, the wages of part-time workers are most similar to full-time workers for workers 16-19 years of age. In contrast, the wage differential between part- and full-time workers appears to significantly increase with age. Such a finding is not completely unexpected since it most probably reflects the fact that full-time workers are both more likely to have greater organizational tenure than part-time workers, and to have a greater intraand interorganizational salary advancement. From a demographic perspective, the hourly wage differential be­ tween part- and full-time workers is most pronounced for males 25-64 years of age. Furthermore, the relative wage disadvantage, for part-time males relative to their full-time counterparts, exists across all levels of educational attainment. Conversely, the wage differential between part-

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and full-time jobs tends be less for women than men. In addition, the wage differential is less for college- (university-) educated women compared to women with a high school education. However, the educational advantage for college-educated women may in fact disappear when reduced or prorated fringe benefits are factored into the equation (Montgomery and Cosgrove 1995). There is also further evidence to suggest that the educational advantage (or more appropriately, less disadvantage) may decrease over time, hence decreasing the differential in earnings between college-educated women on part- and full-time work schedules. However, overall interpretation of these findings must take into consideration that the contrasts are between part- and full-time workers "within" gender. As a result, the lower differential between part- and full-time women relative to men is likely to reflect the fact that the full-time salary earnings of men are significantly higher than those of full-time women. Ironically, less wage inequity may exist between men and women at the level of part-time rather than full-time employment. Although significant differences can be found between the wage earnings of full- and part-time workers, before controlling for gender and education, the economic disadvantages of part-time employment are most likely to be evident in terms of indirect or benefit compensation. Contrasts between part- and full-time workers indicate some interesting differences between the two groups with regard to their access to health insurance and retirement pensions. Most notably, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), approximately 85 percent of fulltime, noncontingent workers and 73 percent of part-time workers are enrolled in health care insurance programs (Hipple and Stewart 1996; Snider 1995). However, among part-time workers, only about one-third have access to health care insurance programs through their employers. This differential between "coverage" and "access" reflects the fact that most part-time workers in the United States who have health insurance are provided protection under a family health care plan that is available to another family member who is employed in a full-time position with an employer-sponsored health care plan. Such coverage is particularly applicable to teenage workers and spouses on part-time schedules who are covered under family insurance plans by the employer of another family member. Among those workers most at risk are part-timers who are not under the protection of a family policy and are unlikely to have access to health care insurance at their place of part-time employment. In the situation where part-time employees have access to employer-based health care insurance, the option is frequently not exercised for reason of prohibitive cost. Access to employer-based health care insurance plans is particularly limited in the case of part-time workers who are also on contingent or temporary employment contracts. For both full- and part-

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time workers, the availability of health care insurance is positively related to organizational size (Snider 1995). Although the issue of access to health care insurance is most salient in countries that do not have a substantial system of nationalized health care, it does point to the fact that part-time workers are heavily dependent upon access to insurance coverage provided by the employers of other household members employed on a full-time basis. Women may be at particular risk of losing health care coverage in nations that rely upon employer-based medical plans, given the disproportionate percentage of part-time workers over age 25 who are female and are provided health insurance coverage under spousal accounts. In particular, the end of the marital arrangement through death or divorce, or loss of the spouse's fulltime employment, can conceivably eliminate health insurance coverage for the majority of part-time workers. Most vulnerable would be parttime workers with dependent children. Employer-based retirement (superannuation) plans represent a second major benefit to which the majority of part-time workers lack access. Within the United States it is estimated that approximately 65 percent of all full-time workers have the opportunity to participate in an employerbased retirement plan as a supplement to the government-operated social security system. However, only about a fourth of all part-time workers have access to an employer-based retirement plan and only 16 percent of all noncontingent part-time workers actually participate in such plans (Hipple and Stewart 1996). Albeit part-time workers are frequently pro­ vided access on a prorated basis to a limited range of benefits such as vacations and paid holidays. The limited access of part-time workers to employer-provided health care and retirement plans tends to be consistent with the suggestion that many employers view part-time employ­ ment as a means of containing labor costs. Although the above discussion suggests that part-time workers have lower wage levels and access to benefits than full-time workers, this should not necessarily lead to the conclusion that all part-time work is inherently bad. In fact it has been argued by Kahne (1985) and Tilly (1992) that although a large portion of part-time jobs can be characterized as low-wage and -benefits "secondary" jobs, a segment of part-time jobs can be viewed as more advantageous or "retention" jobs. Part-time retention jobs are most likely to be found in occupational areas where employers have difficulty in attracting and retaining sufficiently qualified full-time workers. As a staffing strategy, employers may restructure full-time jobs in order to allow workers with valued skills (e.g., nursing, accounting) to shift from full- to part-time hours with the offering of related benefits on a pro-rated basis. Job-sharing arrangements represent one such form of retention-quality jobs. Although such types of retention-level part-time

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jobs may be preferable to lower-quality secondary jobs, there is concern that such jobs may provide incumbents with reduced access to necessary on-the-job training and long-term promotional opportunities (Zeytinoglu 1992; Liff 1991). However, the evaluation of part-time employment should also extend beyond wage and benefit aspects and include recognition of some of the behavioral aspects of part-time work from the perspective of the individual worker.

IV.

BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF PART-TIME WORK

During the past fifteen years there has been a dramatic increase in industrial a n d / o r organizational psychology, which has sought to add to the collective understanding of the implications of the growth of parttime employment. Ironically, most of the behavioral research has directed little attention to the work-related performance of part-time workers. In contrast, much of the research has focused on the "attitudes" that parttime workers have toward their jobs and the organizations in which they are employed (Barling and Gallagher 1996). As noted by Barling and Gallagher, there exists an abundance of aggregate data on the relationship between employment status (i.e., full-versus part-time positions), which points to the general conclusion that turnover rates for part-time workers greatly exceed those of full-time workers (Tilly 1992). However, differences in turnover or organizational tenure between part- and full-time workers appear to vary as a function of worker age, industry, and job quality. Among the limited number of studies that have examined turnover from the perspective of the individual worker, there is some evidence to actually suggest that part-time workers have lower turnover than their full-time counterparts in organi­ zations or industries that involve extensive client-worker interaction and stress (e.g., Leighton 1991; Wotruba 1990). Paradoxically, in some indus­ tries and jobs that involve high levels of job-related stress, part-time workers may be more capable of dealing with stress than their full-time counterparts for the simple reason that, by virtue of their "partial inclusion" in the organizations social system, part-time workers are more tolerant of organizational demands. Although appealing, this perspective can also be countered by the argument that partial inclusion in an organization may be moderated by both the "potency of involvement" and "priority of commitment" (Katz and Kahn 1978). Workers who are only partially involved in their jobs on an hourly basis may nevertheless be heavily involved in their jobs on a psychological basis while working in

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the organization. For such reason, job-related stresses could be as detrimental to the retention of part-time workers as to their full-time counterparts. In addition, as suggested by a number of authors (e.g., Jackofsky and Peters 1987; Pierce et ai. 1989; Leighton 1991), turnover may also be less a function of employment status (part- versus full-time) and more a function of organizational level. This is important to note since these two variables are likely to be confounded, as part-time jobs tend to be at the lower levels of most organizations. For part-time workers, benefit levels and promotional opportunities, relative to their full-time counterparts, may dramatically reduce the "opportunity" costs associated with staying with a particular organization. The increasing availability of part-time work opportunities, with equally unattractive extrinsic benefits, makes turnover less burdensome or disruptive for workers employed in secondary forms of part-time employment. In contrast, it would also be reasonable to assume that workers employed in retention-quality part-time jobs have higher opportunity costs and reduced mobility. What may be particularly ironic, concerning the growth of part-time work opportunities, is the opinion of employers that part-time workers are less reliable and committed than their full-time counterparts (Tilly 1992). In many cases, it is conceivable that in high-turnover industries (e.g., retail trade), employers simply accept low commitment in exchange for low wages and benefits. However, on closer examination, the research on organizational commitment reveals that differences in commitment levels between full- and part-time workers normally disappear after controlling for the demographic characteristics of the work force (Barling and Gallagher 1996). Alternatively stated, in terms of commitment and other job-related attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction or job involvement), the real issue may not be employment status, but demographic differences be­ tween workers performing jobs on full- and part-time work schedules. Most notably, according to Feldman (1990), workers with certain demo­ graphic profiles may gravitate systematically toward particular types of employment relationships. In addition, different demographic groups might evaluate facets of part-time work differently given their motivation for working (ibid.). For example, promotional opportunities associated with the job may be of less concern for students primarily interested in short-term income potential. In contrast, task variety, challenge, and identity may be of greater importance to labor force reentrants interested in developing new skills and future career opportunities. Although contrasts between the behaviors and attitudes of part- and full-time workers may be intuitively interesting, it may be even more productive to examine the extent to which behavioral and attitudinal differences exist among part-time workers. One issue that may be especially important is the extent to which a worker is voluntarily or involun-

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tarily employed on a part-time work schedule. Within the field of industrial psychology the issue of "volition" is particularly relevant because it suggests that people will be more satisfied and committed to situations that they choose of their own free will. Hence, it is not surprising to find that workers who are involuntarily employed on part-time work schedules have been found to have lower levels of job satisfaction and commitment than workers who deliberately choose to work part-time jobs (Barling and Gallagher 1966; Tansky and Gallagher 1995). Closely related to the issue of volition is the extent to which workers on part-time schedules work the hours that are "congruent" with their work "preferences." Illustrative of this point is a study of health care workers by Armstrong-Stassen, Horsburgh, and Cameron (1994) that found that job-related satisfaction was significantly higher among both full- and part-time workers whose work schedules were consistent with their actual preferences. Most notably, part-time workers who wanted part-time schedules were more satisfied with their jobs than part-timers who preferred full-time schedules. Along similar lines, it could be suggested that satisfaction with part-time work might not only be a function of the number of hours worked, but also the extent to which the time of day scheduling allowed conflicts with nonwork responsibilities. Hcck and DeMeis (1990) found that—from a work and family perspective—when schedule incongruence is high, mothers of young children are signifi­ cantly more dissatisfied with their jobs and personally depressed, and their depression affects their interactions with their children. Further studies of part-time work indicate a general absence of a relationship between the number of hours that a part-time worker is scheduled to work and the worker's satisfaction or commitment. In contrast, there is evidence to suggest that work-related satisfaction tends to be greater among part-timers on limited schedules (i.e., less than 20 hours) compared with part-timers on more extensive work schedules (Wakefield, Curry, Mueller, and Price 1987). This observation may also be re­ lated to the question of to whom part-time workers compare themselves. From a relative equity perspective, a part-time worker may be satisfied with his/her job, when compared to other available part-time jobs in the market. Conversely, if the part-time worker compares h e r / h i s wages and benefits to those earned by full-time workers in the same organization, the employment exchange may be viewed in less equitable terms.

V.

UNIONISM AND THE PART-TIMER

Historically, unionism has been one of the major alternative forms of collective action that workers have utilized as a means of improving wages and working conditions. However, within most industrialized na-

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tions, substantial statistical evidence indicates that workers on part-time schedules have significantly lower rates of unionization than their fulltime counterparts. For example, 38 percent of the full-time Canadian work force is unionized, but only about 26 percent of the part-time work­ ers are unionized (Jackson 1998). In the United States, with its overall lower rates of unionism, the comparable unionization rates are 18 percent for full-time and 8 percent for part-time workers (Barling and Gallagher 1996). The lower rates of unionization among part-time workers raises questions of the extent to which such an outcome is a function of the "opportunity" or "propensity" of part-time workers to join unions. Traditionally, unions have approached the growth of part-time jobs with considerable skepticism and an initial reluctance to recruit part-time workers (duRivage 1992; Leighton 1991). In fact, many unionists had perceived the growth of part-time employment as a threat to full-time job growth, a tactic for union avoidance, and a means by which the employ­ ment standards of full-time workers would be lowered (e.g., Carre, du­ Rivage, and Tilly 1994). As a result, unions expressed more opposition toward part-time employment than an interest in organizing part-time workers. However, some unions in the service industries and retail trade (e.g., United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Service Employees International Union) have long recognized the importance or necessity of actively organizing part-time workers (duRivage 1992), while in other industries the recruitment of part-time workers was more a passive process of "absorption" as new bargaining unit jobs became increasing assigned to part-time schedules. Opportunities for part-time workers to join unions and gain union representation at the workplace level have also been hindered by the economics of organizing part-time workers. In particular, a substantial share of the part-time work force is employed by small employers or is geographically dispersed among locations (e.g., stores, restaurants) that are owned by larger employers. In addition, the task of organizing parttime workers may become more difficult due to the closer proximity of workers to management, which may also increase the opportunity for managerial intimidation. Furthermore, part-time workers may be a logistically difficult target for many union organizers. Access to part-time workers during an organizing campaign is limited by the reduced hours that many part-time workers spend on the job and the higher turnover rates found among part-time workers in lower-wage and -benefit jobs. But even with the successful organization of small employers or the smaller sites of larger employers, unions are faced with the economic difficulties associated with the economies of scale in serving bargaining units and in representing the interests of their membership in small bar­ gaining units.

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It is also interesting to note that some unions also continue to avoid part-time workers because they feel that part-time workers would not make committed union members (Kahne 1985). Unions leaders often assume that part-time workers would express lower levels of commitment to the union, and would be less likely to participate in militant actions than full-time workers (Duffy and Pupo 1992). Ironically, survey research results indicate that, after controlling for demographic variables, parttime status has no negative effect on measures of union commitment (Gallagher, Tansky, and Wetzel 1997). Conversely, there is also the question of the propensity or willingness of part-time workers to join unions if given the opportunity. In large part, the propensity of part-time workers to voluntarily join or support union representation may reflect the particular motivations for which part-time work is being undertaken. For example, most teenage workers may have limited interest in unionism for the reason that they view their attachment to the job as short-term (until graduation from school). Furthermore, the reality may be that teenagers also have very little understanding of the role of unions within the workplace. Among older part-time workers (i.e., over age 55), the propensity to join a union may largely reflect the length of time they intend to remain in the labor force. Also very important for older workers is the history of past experiences they may have had with unionism. It would not be unusual to expect that workers going from a full- to part-time work arrangement, with the same or a different employer, would evaluate the decision to retain or seek union representation based upon their evaluation of the perceived costs and benefits of past union representation. In many respects, it would appear that the propensity to unionize would be greater among part-time workers who view part-time work as a long-term employment prospect. In particular, individuals who are basically attached to the labor force on a part-time basis for economic reasons, but employed in low-benefit secondary jobs, may be more inclined than other groups to seek union representation. However, this may be offset by the fact that the availability of secondary jobs may increase the propensity of a part-time worker to simply "exit" rather than organize. It is also useful to note that long-term attachment to part-time employment is disproportionately greater among women and minorities. Bronfenbrenner (1988) has noted that part-time workers are no less difficult to orga­ nize than full-timers for the reason that women and minorities are both over-represented in part-time jobs, and they are currently more inclined toward unionization than males and nonminorities. Furthermore, although the benefits of unionization for part-time workers may be less than their full-time counterparts, there is substantial evidence to suggest that unionized part-time workers have significantly greater wages and

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benefits than nonunion part-timers. For these reasons, union instrumentality is an important point that can be advantageously used by union organizers. However, less certain is the extent to which part-time workers are responsive to the same factors that are emphasized by unions in organizing full-time workers. Alternatively stated, it is not clear as to whether or not part- and full-time workers require different union orga­ nizing strategies. Not only may different strategies be required for orga­ nizing full- and part-time workers, but among part-time workers major differences in union propensity may also exist between regular and contingent part-timers.

VI.

PUBLIC POLICY CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSION

From the perspective of many workers, part-time jobs represent a viable alternative to full-time employment as a means to enter and remain within the labor force and effectively balance non-work-related demands of family and school, or health-related constraints. However, there exist differences both in the reasons why people are employed on part-time contracts and the quality of part-time jobs. Most problematic are those situations where part-time employment is undertaken as an involuntary alternative to full-time employment, or where the earnings from parttime work must be supplemented from other sources of income. The development of a public policy agenda for the reduction of involuntary part-time employment and the improved economic status of part-time workers could represent a major paradox. At one extreme, it can be argued that improvement in the quality of part-time jobs, as well as the availability of full-time alternatives, can be best realized by government policies designed to create economic expansion. Through overall business growth, increased opportunities will be created at both the full- and part-time levels. In the past decade, the U.S. experience has proven that even sustained economic growth produced growing levels of involuntary part-time employment and a substantial growth in secondary or lower-quality part-time jobs. Although it appears reasonable to suggest that retention-quality part-time jobs are more likely to expand during periods of economic growth, it also appears that such jobs are primarily opportunities that benefit skilled workers in highdemand occupations. In contrast, lower-skilled workers seeking part-time work remain segregated in low-wage and -benefit occupations. Ironically, the extent to which the "market" fosters the growth of part-time jobs or the degree to which low-cost part-time jobs are a means of sustaining economic growth is not entirely clear. On the other end of the continuum, a case can be made for more active

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government intervention in the establishment of "minimum" employment standards that apply to part-time work. Included within such legislated solutions could be the removal of part-time employment "exclusions" from broader protective labor legislation, which applies to most full-time jobs. The removal of such exclusions would provide part-time workers similar access to both job-related rights and government welfare protection programs. A further government initiative for the improvement of the quality of part-time employment could rest in legislation that would provide part-time workers access to employer benefits on a prorated basis. Alternatively, more stringent standards could be developed, by which employers must make part-time workers eligible for benefit protection, on the basis of hours of work and length of continuous service. From a public policy perspective, it may even be reasonable to suggest that labor markets be allowed to operate more freely, by revising national collective bargaining laws, to allow unions access to part-time workers to the same degree that access to full-time workers was made available when much of Fordist era legislation was first adopted. Despite some of the problems associated with part-time employment, it may be realistic to expect that governmental intervention, which affects part-time employment contracts, may be strongly opposed by employer organizations and quite possibly by governments. In the same sense that legislative initiatives to improve minimum wages raise employer threats of decreased employment opportunities and job growth, it is highly probable that a mandatory expansion of minimum benefits protection to parttime workers would be met with even greater employer opposition (Gallaway 1995). Even less certain is the extent to which employers would actually substitute part-time labor for full-time employment if the costs of part-time labor were substantially increased. Paradoxically, this is an outcome that could conceivably be beneficial to involuntary part-time workers, but potentially detrimental to workers seeking part-time em­ ployment. The anticipated opposition of employers, especially small em­ ployers, to government intervention into the free market may be ironic given the extent to which small employers actually rely upon government social welfare programs and family benefit protection from larger em­ ployers to "subsidize" the employment of low-wage part-time workers. Finally, the search for public policy initiatives, for the improvement of part-time working conditions, may in fact run counter to the interests of elected government officials in many countries. Most notably, for many governments, the rate or image of job creation is a frequent measure of economic health. Hence, economic policies that may potentially slow the rate of part-time job creation may partially undermine the level of visible job growth. Along a similar line, within more economically depressed economies, the availability or creation of part-time employment oppor-

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tunities exists as a m e a n s of deflating r e p o r t e d levels of u n e m p l o y m e n t t h r o u g h u n d e r e m p l o y m e n t . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , the collective interests of b o t h e m p l o y e r s a n d elected g o v e r n m e n t s m a y in fact m a k e m e a n i n g f u l public policy initiatives for p a r t - t i m e w o r k e r s difficult to achieve.

REFERENCES Appelbaum, E. (1992). "Structural Change and the Growth of Part-Time and Temporary Employment." Pp. 1-14 in New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce, edited by V. duRivage. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Armstrong-Stassen, M., M. E. Horsburgh, and S. J. Cameron (1994). 'The Reactions of Full-Time and Part-Time Nurses to Restructuring in the Canadian Health Care System." Pp. 96-100, Dallas, TX in Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, edited by D. P. Moore. Dallas, TX: Academy of Management. Barling, J., and D. G. Gallagher (1996). "Part-Time Employment." Pp. 11:243-77 in International Review of lndustrial and Organizational Psychology, edited by C. L. Cooper, and I. T. Robertson. Brodsky, M. (1994). "Labor Market Flexibility: A Changing International Perspective." Monthly Labor Review 117(ll):53-60. Bronfenbrenner, K. (1988). "Organizing the Contingent Work Force." Report to the AFL-CIO Organizing Department. Ithaca, NY: New York State School of Labor and Industrial Relations. Carre, F. J., V. duRivage, and C. Tilly (1994). "Representing Part-Time and Contin­ gent Workforce: Challenges to Unions and Public Policy." Pp. 314-23 in Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law, edited by S. Friedman, R. W. Hurd, R. A. Oswald, and R. L. Seeber. Ithaca, New York: ILR Press. Crockett, R., and P. Sparrow (1997). "Atypical Work Patterns and Career Motivation: The Career Attitudes of Part-Time and Full-Time Employees in Two Local Government Departments." Discussion Paper, Sheffield University Management School, Sheffield, England. Duffy, A. and N. Pupo (1992). Part-Time Paradox: Connecting Gender, Work, and Family. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. duRivage, V. (1992). "New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce." Pp. 1-14 in New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce, edited by V. duRivage. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Feldman, D. C. (1990). "Reconceptualizing the Nature and Consequences of PartTime Work." Academy of Management Review 15:103-12. Gallagher, D. G. and J. W. Tansky (1996). "A Theoretical Perspective on Contin­ gent Employment." Paper presented to the 33rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, 28 May-1 June, St. Catherines, Ontario. Gallagher, D. G., J. Tansky, and K. Wetzel (1997). "Peripheral Employment Contracts: The Relationship Between Part-Time Employment and Union Commitment." Pp. 327-46 in The Future of Trade Unionism: International Perspectives on

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Emerging Union Structures, edited by M. Sverke, and A. Sjöberg. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Gallaway, L. (1995). "Public Policy and Part-Time Employment." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):305-14. Hartley, J. (1995). "Challenge and Change in Employment Relations." Pp. 3-30 in Changing Employment Relations: Behavioral and Social Perspectives, edited by L. Tetrick and J. Barling. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Hipple, S., and J. Stewart (1996). "Earnings and Benefits of Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements." Monthly Labor Review 119(10):46-47. Hock, E., and D. DeMeis (1990). "Depression in Mothers of Infants: The Role of Maternal Employment." Developmental Psychology 26:285-91. Houseman, S. N. (1995). "Part-Time Employment in Europe and Japan." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):249-62. International Labor Organization (1989). Conditions of Work Digest: Part-Time Work 8(1). Geneva: ILO. Jackofsky, E. F., and L. H. Peters (1987). "Part-Time vs. Full-Time Employment Status Differences: A Replication and Extension." Journal of Occupational Behavior 8:1-9. Jackson, A. (1998). "Unions, Collective Bargaining and Labour Market Outcomes for Canadian Working Women: Past Gains and Future Challenges." Paper presented to the Women and Work Conference, sponsored by the John Deutsch Institute and the Canadian Workplace Research Network, April 5-7, Kingston, Ontario. Kahne, H. (1985). Reconceiving Part-Time Work. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanfeld. Katz, D., and R. L. Kahn (1978). The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: John Wiley. Kosters, M. H. (1995). "Part-Time Pay." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):263-74. Larson, T. and P. M. Ong (1994). "Imbalance in Part-Time Employment." Journal of Economic Issues 28:187-96. Leighton, P. (1991). "The Legal Vulnerability of Part-Timers: Is Job Sharing the Solution?" Pp. 279-96 in Vulnerable Workers: Psychological and Legal Issues, edited by M. J. Davidson and J. Earnshaw. Chichester, UK: John Wiley. Liff, S. (1991). "Part-Time Workers: Current Contradictions and Future Opportunities." Pp. 279-96 in Vulnerable Workers: Psychological and Legal Issues, edit­ ed by M. J. Davidson and J. Earnshaw. Chichester, UK: John Wiley. Montgomery, M. and J. Cosgrove (1995). "Are Part-Time Women Paid Less? A Model of Firm Specific Effects." Economic Inquiry 33:119-33. Nardone, T. (1995). "Part-Time Employment: Reasons, Demographics, and Trends." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):275-92. Pierce, J. L., J. W. Newstrom, R. B. Dunham, and A. E. Barber (1989). Alternative Work Schedules. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Quinn, J. F., and M. Kozy (1996). "The Rol e of Bridge Jobs in the Retirement Transition: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity." Gerontologist 36:363-72. Snider, S. (1995). "Characteristics of the Part-Time Work Force and Part-Time Employee Participation in Health and Pension Benefits." Journal of Labor Research 16(3):239-48. Tansky, J. W., and D. G. Gallagher (1995). "Worker Attitudes toward Employer

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and Union: The Impact of Voluntary/Involuntary Part-Time Employment Status." Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, 6-8 January, Washington, D.C. Tilly, C. (1992). "Short Hours, Short Shrift: The Causes and Consequences of PartTime Employment." Pp. 1-14 in New Policies for the Part-Time and Contingent Workforce, edited by V. duRivage. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Wakefield, D. S., J. P. Curry, C. W. Mueller, and J. L. Price (1987). "Differences in the Importance of Work Outcomes between Full-Time and Part-Time Hospi­ tal Employees." Journal of Occupational Behavior 8:25-35. Wotruba, T. R. (1990). "Full-Time vs. Part-Time Salespeople: A Comparison of Job Satisfaction, Performance, and Turnover in Direct Selling." International Journal of Research in Marketing 7(2):97-108. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1992). "Reasons for Hiring Part-Time Workers in Unionized Organizations." Industrial Relations Journal 31(3):489-99. Zeytinoglu, I. U. and J. Norris (1995). "Global Diversity in Employment Relation­ ships: A Typology of Flexible Employment." Paper presented to the Interna­ tional Industrial Relations Association 10th World Congress, 1-4 June, Washington, D.C.

5 Telework and Teleworkers A n d r e w Templer, Marjorie Armstrong-Stassen, Kay Devine, a n d N o r m Solomon

I.

INTRODUCTION

A revolution is spreading through the world of work as a result of dramatic changes in information technology and communications. Perhaps the most telling characterization of this revolution is in the title of an article by Cairncross (1997) 'The Death of Distance/ 7 She argues that, through this century, the railways, air travel, and now information technology have conspired to lessen the gaps between individuals and create a smaller and smaller world in which it is no longer necessary for employees to be in close geographic proximity to work together. In this chapter we examine telework, which literally means "working at a distance/' and consider how technology increasingly offers the means to make the "distance" in telework less and less irrelevant. Telework is sometimes referred to as telecommuting and we will be using both terms interchangeably. Telecommuting is not a new idea, and work such as catalog sales and customer information services has been accomplished via telecommuting for some time in the past. What is new is the advent of relatively inexpensive and sophisticated computer-based systems that have made it possible to set up flexible telecommuting arrangements for a far wider range of jobs and type of employees than was previously the case. In this age of increasing energy costs, long commutes to work, expensive central city locations, the requirement to give physically challenged individuals a fair chance at employment, and the increasing popularization of "results" oriented management, telecommuting seems to hold real promise for the progressive manager. In addition, it also suggests the basis for new models of human resource management, which offer the potential for supervisors to facilitate human resource development pro77

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grams for employees spread among several worksites rather than being limited to the traditional common office or factory building. Despite the potential of telework, it is not without controversy. Telework continues to be an area about which employers and workers have strong feelings—either seeing it as a panacea for all the business and work woes of the present, or as an insidious means of continuing the worker manipulation of the past. While offering employees flexibility, telework does not necessarily increase the power of employees over their own work, nor does it guarantee them trouble-free supervision. Indeed, the manager who does a poor job of face-to-face supervision is likely to have even more difficulties as a telemanager. Telework requires addition­ al, not fewer skills than regular work, and places more, not less respon­ sibility on the telemanager and teleworker. In addition, the employee who is an unsatisfactory worker in the central office is likely to continue to perform poorly as a teleworker.

II.

THE GROWTH OF TELEWORK

Telework arrangements are flourishing. In terms of its prevalence in the United States, Fitzer (1997) found that two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 companies have telework programs, with half of those programs having been introduced in the past two years. She stated that, between 1990 and 1995, the number of teleworkers increased from 2.4 million to 7.6 million in the United States, and she further estimated that as many as 25 million (20 percent of the U.S. work force) will telework by the year 2000. Even these impressive numbers may be an underestimate. Figures quoted by Bredin (1996) put the U.S. numbers of teleworkers at 30 million by the end of the century. According to DiMartino and Wirth (1990), teleworking in Canada is still in its infancy. Solomon and Templer (1993) noted that a core of Canadian firms is active in teleworking but overall interest in teleworking in Canada remains at a lower level than in other developed nations. Other writers are more optimistic about the future of Canadian teleworking. Gray, Hodson, and Gordon (1993:1) state, "Teleworking is still one of the most promising new business frontiers." In a recent survey of over 400 firms across Canada, KPMG Canada (1997) found that about 30 percent of the organizations had teleworkers, and that teleworkers accounted for an average of 6 percent of the total work force among these organizations. Teleworking occurred in almost all areas of the organizations and across many job levels from senior management to clerical and administrative employees. The majority (62 percent) of the employers reported that tele­ working had increased since 1993 and more than 50 percent of the re-

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spondents predicted an increase over the next three years especially for professional, technical, and middle management employees. III. As the remotely can vary. locations: hoteling. A.

TYPES OF TELEWORK

definition above suggests, the essence of telework is working from an employer; however, the location of the teleworker Bredin (1996) distinguishes between four different telework the home office, telecommuting centers, mobile offices, and

The Home Office

This is the most widely used location for telework and offers the bene­ fits of flexibility, convenience and comfort to the employee, as well as the freedom from commuting and the chance to stay in contact with family. The employer also benefits from the lack of commuting, but more partic­ ularly from the chance to save on a range of office costs. These very benefits have a downside for the employee, however, who must cover the additional costs of a home office as well as the potential interruptions of family and other distractions. In addition, such issues as workplace health and safety are more difficult to monitor in a home environment. Many of the problems of the home office are particularly felt by female teleworkers, who still largely carry the burden of family responsibilities. We develop the gender issues of telework later in the chapter. B.

Telecommuting Centers

These are sites where employees work, usually part-time, outside a central corporate office. These centers are either used by employees from one company or shared by employees from several different employers. In the United States, the federal government and companies like GTE and AT&T use telecommuting centers that differ from branch offices in that workers are grouped based on where they live, not what function they perform or what company they work for. On the downside, according to Bredin (1996) multiemployer telecommuting centers have had difficulty finding tenants to fill their centers, and those not enjoying some type of government subsidy have closed because of a lack of interest. C. Mobile Offices A teleworker's office may be a car, or sometimes even a briefcase, used by those individuals whose job requires them to spend a lot of time on the road. The availability of e-mail, fax, and messaging systems via cellular

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systems has made the mobile office a reality for many customer-linked professions. Once again, there are pros and cons of this technology. Some mobile workers say they are glad they do not have to return to the office because it saves time and energy. Others are not so satisfied with the new mobility. They enjoyed trips to the office as a break from the sometimes lonely life of the consultant or salesperson. D.

Hoteling

Though technically not an office, hoteling is a catch-all term for work arrangements in which corporate employees use desks on an as-needed basis. The term was coined by Ernst and Young for its program in which auditors and consultants call ahead to a hoteling coordinator when they need office space. By the time they arrive in the office, support staff have stocked an office with supplies, hooked up computers, and brought in files and personal effects (family pictures, etc.) from the hoteler's storage space. The coordinator has a database on each hoteler and adds any requests the hoteler has to the list of things to be moved into the office (Bredin 1996). IV.

REASONS FOR INTRODUCING TELEWORK

In considering why telework programs are initiated it is important to distinguish between official and actual reasons, and whether the initiative came from the employer or employee. When asked for an official explana­ tion for introducing telework, employers will often point to the benefits of telework in terms of employee flexibility, satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness. In practice, however, organizations are often motivated only by the cost savings in terms of office space, supplies, and parking. Some of our own research, referred to later, suggests that telework may sometimes be introduced as an alternative to employee layoffs in organi­ zations that have already embarked upon downsizing initiatives. From an employee perspective, telework offers greater flexibility and the opportunity to balance work and family responsibilities, and may be the best alternative available when faced with organizational downsizing. As mentioned above, however, many of the benefits of telework can also be liabilities for some individuals. Employees who are not easily able to manage time or deal with challenges and distractions, or have difficulty balancing work and family relationships will probably end up deriving little benefit from their teleworking experience. What are the potential cost savings of telework for an organization? An analysis (Bredin 1996) of the State of California's telework program (done by Commuter Transportation Services, Inc., a Los Angeles-based private,

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nonprofit research institute) suggests the following breakdown of cost savings: •

Productivity savings: 8.81 percent of the average teleworker's annu­ al salary. • Avoided costs: as much as 5 percent on office space; 0.5 percent average salary savings due to decreased use of sick leave; and 50 percent average salary savings on turnover, i.e., recruitment, train­ ing, and other costs associated with replacing staff.

V.

RESEARCH INTO TELEWORKING

There are a few limitations of telework research. One of the problems with telework research is that it is typically based on self-report surveys and thus, not surprisingly, the results depend on whether the perspective taken is that of management or employees. Management-oriented re­ search is typically prescriptive and appears to be much more positive than employee-oriented material. There is little objective empirical work available to balance these differing opinions. What empirical work exists consists typically of case studies conducted in one organization with a small number of teleworkers. There are some noteworthy exceptions such as the Empirical Telework Survey of fourteen organizations reported by Huws, Korte, and Robinson (1990). An extensive overview of organiza­ tions that have implemented teleworking is provided by the International Labor Office (1990), which presents fifty-seven case studies on telework­ ing in the United States, the United Kingdom, and several European countries. In her overview, Devine (1997) points to a number of methodological problems in telework research. A major difficulty is that the key variable in telework is individual perceptions of work reality, which are noto­ riously difficult to measure and by their very nature subjective. The same telework situation may be viewed by one employee as stressful and con­ trolling, and by another as offering new opportunities and fulfillment. Small sample sizes and the extensive use of interview data make it diffi­ cult to assess the validity of measures used, particularly as there is often no theoretical model to guide telework research. What is needed is longitudinal and multiorganizational studies that are guided by some form of theoretical framework. Devine (1997) makes a significant start in this direction in her study of work role transition and its applicability to telework. This involved a longitudinal case study of employees in a major organization in the telecommunications industry, using repeated measures on a standardized instrument and repeated

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standardized interviews. Critical to effective adjustment to telework was how individual teleworkers perceived the match between their ability to change the job and to change themselves.

VI. A.

THE OUTCOMES OF TELEWORK

Differing Perspectives

Given the different perspectives of telework of management and em­ ployees, it follows that there are also some differing findings on telework outcomes. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the more positive outcomes have been reported by large companies in their official telework program news releases. For example, a report from Nortel gives an upbeat account of the large percentage of employees at their North Carolina Research Triangle Plant who have adopted telecommuting and how the company held a breakfast for its telecommuting employees to celebrate Telecommute America Week (Ranii 1997). Some of the largest North American surveys of telework have been undertaken by the major telecommunications companies. For example, AT&T commissioned a random-digit-dialed telephone survey of almost 12,000 U.S. households as well as screening interviews with 500 teleworkers and in-depth interviews with 400 teleworkers (AT&T 1997). The survey found that 60 percent of respondents reported that teleworking has affected their career positively; one-third report no impact either way; and only 3 percent reported a negative impact. Overall, employees who telework were happier individuals, reporting better relationships with family, improved personal morale and fewer sick days. Only 20 percent of respondents felt isolated as a result of working at home, and consid­ ered this to be the result of less communication from their co-workers and supervisor. Only 14 percent of those who felt isolated said they missed office gossip. Other research presents more mixed findings on the outcomes of tele­ work. Teleworking has encountered resistance from employers, trade unions, and even the opposition of some employees. For example, in her study of teleworkers at a telephone company, Devine (1997) found that nonteleworkers seemed quite pleased when it appeared that the telework program might be canceled because they felt that the teleworkers had been given an unfair advantage over them. The union was also pleased as it had initially opposed the idea of telework, filing grievances against the program whenever possible. Much of the literature focuses upon the advantages and disadvantages of telework and how organizations, man­ agers, employees, and to a lesser extent trade unions can meet the chal-

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lenges associated with telework (see, for example, Chapman, Sheehy, Heywood, Dooley, and Collins 1995; Christensen 1992; DiMartino and Wirth 1990; Gordon 1988; Haddon and Lewis 1994; Kugelmass 1995; Olson 1988). B.

Productivity Gains

The empirical literature indicates that telework is associated with a significant increase in productivity (Caudron 1992; Frolick, Wilkes, and Urwiler 1993; Hartman, Stoner, and Arora 1992; Nilles 1990) and a signifi­ cant decrease in employee absenteeism and turnover (Frolick et al. 1993). However, Kugelmass (1995) noted that many of the reported gains in productivity are anecdotal or based upon the subjective assessments of managers and teleworkers. Hartman et al. (1991) found that satisfaction with the performance evaluation system's capacity for evaluating work done at home was significantly related to both productivity and satisfac­ tion with teleworking. Baily (1989) found that teleworkers experienced greater control over their work compared to their office-based counter­ parts. In a more recent study, Devine, Taylor, and Haryett (1997) pro­ vided quantitative data on teleworker productivity that indicated an increase in actual output. C.

Satisfaction and Morale

Emotional support from one's supervisor while working at home has been shown to be significantly positively related to employees' satisfac­ tion with teleworking (Hartman et al. 1991). Teleworkers have been found to have relatively low commitment to their organization (Olson and Primps 1984) and to feel that their career advancement has been hurt by teleworking (Hartman, Stoner, and Arora 1992; Olson and Primps 1984). A number of psychological concerns have also been attributed to teleworking including isolation, workaholism, and burnout. Another con­ cern relates to health, as teleworkers in one study (Devine et al. 1997) reported that working at home led to more smoking and an increasing lack of exercise. Several writers (Chapman et al. 1995; Norman, Collins, Conner, Martin, and Rance 1995) feel that teleworking so far has failed to fulfill the expectations many held for it and that it is unlikely to be the "second industrial revolution" that some predicted it would be. D.

Moderating Variables

Whether teleworking has a positive or negative effect may very well be determined by one's occupational level, gender, and family situation. Olson and Primps (1984) found that for male professionals teleworking

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had several positives including fewer distractions and improved work environment, reduced stress, and increased time available for leisure ac­ tivities. For female clerical teleworkers with childcare responsibilities, teleworking placed a great deal of pressure on the employee, increased stress, and allowed little time for leisure.

VII.

CANADIAN FINDINGS

Teleworkers have reported increased productivity (Arnold 1994; Devine et al. 1997; Hamilton 1987; Keevil 1996; Zeytinoglu 1994), decreased stress (Arnold 1994), and improvement in the customer service they pro­ vide (Devine et al. 1997; Zeytinoglu 1994). They have also been found to have reduced turnover (Zeytinoglu 1994) and decreased absenteeism (Devine et al. 1997; Hamilton 1987). On the other hand, researchers found that teleworkers became less committed to the organization (Devine et al. 1997) and were less likely to be team players (Arnold 1994). Teleworkers have reported feeling isolated (Devine et al. 1997) and some have experi­ enced burnout (Hamilton 1987). A. Implementing Telework Researchers have identified problems related to the implementation of teleworking. A key issue is the attitudes of both managers and employees toward teleworking (Solomon and Templer 1993). Duxbury, Higgins, and Irving (1987) found that although employees had a more positive attitude toward teleworking than managers, neither group found teleworking to be particularly appealing. There is also a lack of formal policies and procedures. A notable exception is the formal teleworking policy devel­ oped by the Treasury Board (1992) for the Public Service. Solomon and Templer (1993) found that only 6 of the 23 companies that had already implemented teleworking had specific human resources policies de­ signed for teleworking. Armstrong-Stassen, Solomon, and Templer (1996) found that the lack of any policy regarding selection procedures and eligibility criteria resulted in managers using teleworking as a "reward" mechanism. This practice created resentment toward the manager and tension among the teleworkers and their co-workers. In contrast, Devine (1998) found that some managers actually used teleworking to remove troublesome employees or supervisors whom they did not want in the office. Other issues concern the change in management style that is re­ quired to supervise work-at-home employees (Duxbury et al. 1987) and the difficulties in evaluating the performance of teleworkers (ArmstrongStassen et al. 1996; Duxbury et al. 1987).

Telezvork and Teleworkers B.

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Assessing Telework Effectiveness

Traditional management has always felt most comfortable with man­ aging by activity or "eyeballing." This method obviously does not work in telecommuting and new methods of assessing employee effectiveness and program effectiveness have to be adopted for telework. Self-managed performance techniques such as management by objectives or manage­ ment by results can go part of the way toward teleworker evaluation, but a number of other variables need to be considered as part of a telework assessment system. C.

A Comprehensive Model

What is needed is a comprehensive model of telework effectiveness. The model we propose is presented in Figure 5.1. The development of such a comprehensive assessment system would need to draw upon research in three different areas: the nature of organization effectiveness, what managers actually do, and what workers want from their super­ visors and their work situation. The changing work situation and context predicated by telework in no way alters the fundamental needs of em­ ployees, though it may alter the basic nature of the relationship between managers and workers. In terms of the model, it is argued that effectiveness has to be consid­ ered from both the level of the telework program and the level of the telemanager. At the level of the telework program, variables to be consid­ ered include the business environment, the organization climate for change, support and expertise in information technology, and the employee-relations climate. At the level of the telemanager, variables to be considered include the nature of the telemanager's job, supervisory and human resources support, individual manager characteristics, and relationships with subordinates. D.

Implications of Telecommuting for Organizations

The decision to introduce telecommuting is a complex one with signifi­ cant implications for organizations and the relationships within them. It involves more than a manager giving a subordinate a laptop computer with the dismissive directive: "Okay, you said you could work better at home. Now here is your chance to make a believer out of me!" Ideally, the decision to enter into a "work at home" or "work at a satellite office" scenario should be discussed by the supervisor and the employee before­ hand. These discussions should focus on both the advantages and disad­ vantages of telecommuting. These advantages and disadvantages involve issues that impact on a number of different workplace stakeholders, in-

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

Job Characteristics

Business Environment

/

HR/Supervisory Support

TELEMANAGER

\

Model of telework effectiveness.

Individual Characteristics

figure 5.1.

PROGRAM

Support & Expertise

TELEWORK EFFECTIVENESS

Organizational Culture/Climate

ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL

Subordinate Relationship

Employee Relations Climate

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Andrew Templer et al.

cluding, but not limited to managers, all employees, trade unions, and specifically women employees. 1. Gender Issues. A high proportion of teleworkers are likely to be women, partly because women still take on the majority of home and family responsibilities, and because, despite years of employment equity initiatives, women still largely fill clerical and service jobs particularly amenable to teleworking (Mitchell 1998). All this might suggest that women would benefit from teleworking, but this is not necessarily the case. Women are often out of the power networks in regular office-based employment, and so will be particularly vulnerable to the "out of sight, out of mind" downside of teleworking. In addition, some women may find that working from home actually makes it harder for them to balance their work and family responsibilities, since family members may be all the more tempted to interrupt the work of the mother or wife in the household. Enabling women to make the most of the teleworking experi­ ence requires the implementation of specifically "women-friendly" hu­ man resource policies that ensure that women remain an integral part of office power networks and have the necessary resources to free them from the interruptions of family responsibilities while teleworking. 2. New Organizational Structures. There are a number of major changes in traditional organization structures and developmental rela­ tionships required by telecommuting. The broader issues posed and type of change required will be differently perceived by management and employees. From a management perspective, telecommuting may require new ways of hiring, training, evaluating, supervising, and new human resource policies. It is probably true that most managers still think of their job as the face-to-face coaching and supervision of those around them, and view training as something that occurs in a common location, be it classroom or workplace. In contrast, telecommuting employees, away from this common location, will likely see telecommuting as requiring new measures of success, new ways of learning, new ways of under­ standing organization politics and influencing others, and new ways of belonging to the organization. The traditional concept of employees joining and developing within a central setting in the company of colleagues will need to be replaced by models focusing on telecommuting individuals who may only work at the central office one or two days a week. Clearly this raises many con­ cerns on the part of both organizations and employees. Organizations that place a high value on an overriding integrative culture into which all "successful" employees are expected to assimilate may be concerned that this will not occur for employees not physically present. Similarly, tele-

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commuting employees in such organizations may justifiably fear being passed over for choice developmental assignments if they are not visible. 3. The Union Dilemma. Teleworking introduces particular diffi­ culties for unions. Traditionally unions represent employees in face-toface settings relying on the solidarity that is typically developed within a community of tightly knit workers. Unions are having enough difficulty organizing nonteleworking employees in the service and high-tech sec­ tors, a situation doubly difficult if these employees begin to telecommute. The union dilemma is whether to support telework or not. On the one hand, unions are naturally in favor of the increased freedom and flex­ ibility that teleworking offers workers, but on the other hand are con­ cerned at the difficulty of staying in touch with teleworking individuals and ensuring uniform working conditions for their members. In particu­ lar, unions are wary of the power differential between teleworkers and their managers at the office whose at-a-distance supervision may be diffi­ cult to curtail or include in traditional collective agreements. Effective managers need to maintain good industrial relations by tak­ ing account of the teleworking concerns of their unions. This entails en­ suring that adequate employee safeguards are in place and that unions continue to feel that they enjoy the freedom to organize all employees— teleworking or not. Soured labor relations can easily scupper the best of teleworking programs. E. Case Illustrations The best way to illustrate these implications in practice is to refer to the telework programs in two different organizations we have studied. 1. Public Sector. We examined the introduction of a telework pro­ gram in the property division of a major public utility in Ontario now experiencing extensive downsizing. Of particular interest were the impli­ cations of teleworking for job security as reflected in the following three questions: Is telework introduced as a specific response to downsizing? Does telework promote or threaten job security in a downsizing situa­ tion? What factors account for the perceived effectiveness of a telework program? The study was based on interview data collected from twentytwo members of the division, which had initiated a telework program prior to downsizing. The telework program did expand during the down­ sizing efforts. In this division, we found that the relative success of telework could not be solely attributed to the organization's need to downsize. Instead the division was unusual in having several factors that facilitated tele-

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work initiatives; namely, the preexisting geographic spread of customers and clients throughout the province, a divisional mission to demonstrate cost-savings in property utilization, the presence of telework champions in key administrative positions, and the willingness of employees to help develop the telework initiatives. While teleworking was not first introduced as a direct response to the job threats posed by downsizing, employees were aware that it might affect job security. The precise impact of telework on job security was not obvious in the early stages of the program, a program that has operated to date with a minimum of rules and regulations. Although the division and, indeed, the entire organization are heavily unionized, the collective agreements had little to say about teleworking, and there had been no teleworking-related grievances. Both management and employees saw little need for trade union involvement, since telework evolved as the result of voluntary agreements between individual managers and workers. We concluded that telework was not seen as a direct threat to job security, but that employees would perceive a far more obvious impact on job security if the telework program were to expand, because it would no longer be possible to maintain the informal atmosphere of the initial program. As downsizing continued in this public utility, telework would increasingly be viewed by management as a way of decreasing costs. As this occurred the unions would expect jointly developed policies covering such topics as how teleworkers are selected and evaluated, and the rights and privileges of teleworkers as compared with those of conventional workers. In such a setting, management would have to clarify the exact impact of telework on job security. 2. Private Sector. The second case involved the implementation of a pilot telework program for a group of directory assistance (DA) telephone operators at a large telephone company in western Canada. This is a highly structured job typically carried out in a large open-plan office at central headquarters. One of the company's managers decided to imple­ ment DA teleworking both to give the company experience in telecom­ muting technology and to increase employee morale and productivity through the opportunity to balance home and work demands. Three groups of respondents were surveyed: a control group of 18 DA operators who remained at the central office throughout the project; an initial sample of 11 operators who worked at home from the start of the project (Wave 2); a subsequent sample of 13 operators who joined the telework program a year later (Wave 2) and worked from four remote satellite centers around the city. The study revealed that the Wave 1 teleworker responses for job satis­ faction, organizational commitment, and perceptions of productivity all

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increased over time, while feelings of stress and feeling down decreased during the first year of the project. In contrast, the control group had less of a change between time periods. For Wave 2 teleworkers, job satisfaction and organizational commitment decreased, while perceptions of produc­ tivity, stress, and feeling down increased. Part of the explanation for these results were rumors in the final year that the telework project would be canceled, thus forcing all of the DA operators back to the central office. Interview data revealed that the teleworkers did not want to return to the central office arrangement, and some even stated they would quit before going downtown again. Another factor was that supervisors allowed individuals who were poor performers at the office to try teleworking. It seems that an employee who is not a particularly good worker in the central office is unlikely to exhibit higher performance at home. Instead such individuals discovered ways of frittering away the additional free time created by teleworking, rather than using it for additional productiv­ ity. Interestingly, the control group exhibited a wider range and more of an increase in their job satisfaction and organizational commitment re­ sults. Further analysis suggested that this could be explained by the fact that some of the central office workers did not feel the teleworkers should be allowed to work from home, and were pleased to see the telework program canceled.

VIII. PRECONDITIONS FOR AN EFFECTIVE TELEWORK PROGRAM We suggest that the following preconditions to effective telework need to be in place before a telework program is implemented: • Senior management support, though necessary, is not sufficient. It is at the operational level that support is the most critical. • Top-down support in the form of active telework "champions" is vital. Key individuals who believe in telework and put in the effort to make it succeed are the key to success. Particularly in the public utility we studied, it was the role of telework champions that brought about the introduction of a teleworking program and went some way toward ensuring its initial success. • Teleworkers and their supervisors must be volunteers. If either par­ ty feels forced to telework or to supervise teleworkers, performance tends to suffer. • Screening is important. Not all employees can telework effectively, either because of the requirements of their jobs or because of per­ sonal and other work or social considerations. Bredin (1996) sug-

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gests that successful teleworkers are able to manage time, deal with challenges and distractions, manage distant business support rela­ tionships, and balance business and family responsibilities. Em­ ployees who exhibit poor performance at the central office are likely also to have poor performance outside the office. • Training is the key. Higher performance results when both the teleworkers and their supervisors have received telework-specific train­ ing. Telework training is an investment in human capital. Major capital investments are not necessarily required. • Most of the telework examined in the two Canadian studies was possible using a company-provided computer at home and some minimal expenditures to acquire modems and communication soft­ ware. What is required is investment in telework training and em­ ployee development. • In the final analysis, a cost-benefit analysis needs to be carried out before implementing any significant teleworking. This involves balancing the costs in terms of equipment, software, training, and possible adaptation to change, with such benefits as increased pro­ ductivity and commitment, and savings on the costs of office space, parking, absenteeism, or illness. IX. SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING TELEWORK EFFECTIVENESS To conclude this chapter, we propose the following recommendations: • Sell telework as a strategic response to change. Stress that tele­ work is a positive and strategic response to new corporate realities. There is a danger of telework being seen as a reactive response to competitive pressures and hence awarded little serious credibility. Properly introduced, telework more than pays its way in terms of not only economic cost savings, but also in the potential of the greater flexibility and commitment on the part of teleworkers. • Gain broad support for telework. Conduct telework pilot projects to win broad support for the concept. This will include the specific selection of telework champions in identified departments and en­ suring that sufficient telework data are collected to enable these projects to be evaluated. • Set up a formal telework structure. Determine a desired level of formalization of telework initiatives. As noted above, this is not an easy matter to resolve but will be necessary as telework becomes a permanent feature in organizations.

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•

•

•

•

Develop specific telework guidelines. Develop uniform telework guidelines taking into account the desired level of formality as per above. These guidelines should consider the following elements: telework options in the choice of department, type of work, and telework media; appropriate consultation of employees in the de­ velopment of telework selection criteria; top management support and resources available; employee involvement in the telework pro­ gram; emphasis on management by objectives rather than particular work processes employed; a methodology for assessing costs and benefits that enables separation of telework contributions; a plan to address the particular needs of teleworking women to assist them in both staying in touch at the office and in balancing family respon­ sibilities at home; establishing teleworker selection criteria technolo­ gy needs; telework " h o m e " location of space; equipment; health and safety; child care provisions and liability insurance requirements; information security requirements; attending to such union issues as health and safety coverage; consistency of treatment; fair produc­ tivity expectations and the provision of communication media; ad­ ministrative issues of expense reimbursements, hours of work, and reporting relationships. Stress that it is management who initiates telework. Clarify that it is a management prerogative to initiate telework following consul­ tation with employees and their union, if one is present. While participation and trust are central to the success of telework it re­ mains the decision of the individual manager when to initiate and to terminate a telework project. Establish telework training. Establish training programs to enable managers and teleworkers to think in terms of results rather than work processes. It is desirable to have gradations of training avail­ able. Some individuals will need everything available to learn prop­ er teleworking techniques. Others will only need brushing up or reinforcement of their existing work or management patterns. Develop telework effectiveness measures. Establish effectiveness measures of the telework program. These need to include both eco­ nomic cost/benefit analyses, quantitative measures of employee performance and work outputs, and more qualitative indices of employee flexibility and organization effectiveness. Establish two-way communication and maintenance proce­ dures. Ensure the ongoing evaluation and maintenance of tele­ work. It is essential that both teleworkers and their managers keep in mind that while telework is a management work option, it is also a two-sided voluntary arrangement. This perspective will reinforce the continuing adjustments to each situation that need to occur so

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that telework remains a positive option. Priorities constantly change and it is important to ensure that teleworkers' efforts are spent on the highest priority tasks for the corporation.

REFERENCES Armstrong-Stassen, M., N. Solomon, and A. Templer (1996). 'Telework and Job Security: A Case Study." Paper presented at "Non-Standard Forms of Em­ ployment and Implications for Industrial Relations," Symposium Conducted at the 3rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Associa­ tion, I. U. Zeytinoğlu (Chair), 28 May-1 June, St. Catharines, Ontario. Arnold, L. (1994). "Geographical, Organisational and Social Implications of Teleworking—Emphasis on the Social Perspectives." Paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociological and Anthropological As­ sociation, June, Calgary, Alberta. AT&T (1997). 1997 AT&T Survey ofTeleworkerAttitudes and Work Styles. News release from AT&T, 20 October online at http://www.att.com/press/1097/971020. Baily, L. (1989). "Toward the Perfect Workplace?" Communications of the ACM 32:460-71. Bredin, A. (1996). The Virtual Office Survival Handbook: What Telecommuters and Entrepreneurs Need to Succeed in Today's Nontraditional Workplace. London and New York: John Wiley. Cairncross, F. (1997). "The Death of Distance." Economist 87. Caudron, S. (1992). "Working at Home Pays Off." Personnel Journal 71:40-49. Chapman, A. J., N. P. Sheehy, S. Heywood, B. Dooley, and S. C. Collins (1995). "The Organizational Implications of Teleworking." Pp. 229-48 in International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, edited by C. L. Cooper, and I. T. Robertson. New York: John Wiley. Christensen, K. (1992). "Managing Invisible Employees: How to Meet the Tele­ commuting Challenge." Employment Relations Today 19:133-43. Devine, K. S. (1997). "Telework . . . The Employee Adjustment Process." Paper presented to the 34th Annual Conference of the Canadian Industrial Rela­ tions Association, Montreal. Devine, K. S. (1998). "An Agency Theory Perspective of Telework." Working Paper, Faculty of Business, University of Alberta. Devine, K. S., L. Taylor, and K. Haryett (1997). "The Impact of Teleworking on Canadian Employment." Pp. 238-87 in Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: The Trans­ formation of Work in the 21st Century, edited by A. Duffy, D. Glenday, and N. Pupo. Toronto: Harcourt Brace. DiMartino, V., and L. Wirth (1990). "Telework: A New Way of Working and Living." International Labour Review 129:529-54. Duxbury, L., C. A. Higgins, and R. H. Irving (1987). "Attitudes of Managers and Employees to Telecommuting." INFOR 25:273-85. Fitzer, M. M. (1997). "Managing from Afar: Performance and Rewards in a Tele­ commuting Environment." Compensation and Benefits Review 29:65-73.

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Frolick, M. N., R. B. Wilkes, and R. Urwiler (1993). "Telecommuting as a Work­ place Alternative: An Identification of Significant Factors in American Firms' Determination of Work-at-Home Policies." Journal of Strategic Information Systems 2:206-22. Gordon, G. E. (1988). 'The Dilemma of Telework: Technology vs. Tradition." Pp. 101-36 in Telework: Present Situation and Future Development of a New Form of Work Organization, edited by W. B. Korte, S. Robinson, and W. J. Steinle. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. Gray, M., N. Hodson, and G. Gordon (1993). Teleworking Explained. New York: John Wiley. Haddon, L, and A. Lewis (1994). "The Experience of Teleworking: An Annotated Review," International Journal of Human Resource Management 5:193-223. Hamilton, C. A. (1987). "Telecommuting." Personnel Journal 66:91-101. Hartman, R. I., C. R. Stoner, and R. Arora (1991). "An Investigation of Selected Variables Affecting Telecommuting Productivity and Satisfaction." Journal of Business and Psychology 6:207-25. Hartman, R. L, C. R. Stoner, and R. Arora (1992). "Developing Successful Organi­ zational Telecommuting Arrangements: Worker Perceptions and Managerial Prescriptions." SAM Advanced Management Journal 57(3):35-42. Huws, U., W. B. Korte, and S. Robinson (1990). Telework: Towards the Elusive Office. New York: John Wiley. International Labour Office (1990). Telework. Geneva: Author. Keevil, D. (1996). The Flexible Workplace Study: Asking the Experts About Flexible Policies and Workplace Performance. Halifax: Halifax YWCA in cooperation with the Status of Women Canada. KPMG Canada (1997). 1997 Telecommuting Survey. On-line: /www.kpmg.ca/hr/ tel—cmut.htm. Kugelmass, J. (1995). Telecommuting: A Manager's Guide to Flexible Work Arrangements. New York: Lexington. Mitchell, A. (1998). "He's a Trucker, She Types—1990s Just Like the 50s." Toronto Globe and Mail, 18 March, p. 1 and 6. Nilles, J. M. (1990). The State of California Telecommuting Pilot Project Final Report. Los Angeles: JALA Associates. Norman, P., S. Collins, M. Conner, R. Martin, and J. Rance (1995). "Attributions, Cognitions and Coping Styles: Teleworkers' Reactions to Work-Related Prob­ lems." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 25:117-28. Olson, M. H. (1988). "Organizational Barriers to Telework." Pp. 77-100 in Telework: Present Situation and Future Development of a New Form of Work Organization, edited by W. B. Korte, S. Robinson, and W. J. Steinle. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Olson, M. H., and S. B. Primps (1984). "Working at Home with Computers: Work and Nonwork Issues." Journal of Social Issues 40:97-112. Ranii, D. (1997). "Satisfied Companies, Employees Expand Telecommuting World." Raleigh News and Observer, 25 October, p. 1. Solomon, N. A. and A. J. Templer (1993). "Development of Non-Traditional Work Sites: The Challenge of Telecommuting." Journal of Management Development 12(5):21-32.

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Treasury Board Secretariat Personnel Policy Branch. (1992). Telework Pilot Program in the Public Service. Ottawa, ON: Author. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (1994). "Employment Conditions in Telework: An Experiment in Ontario." Pp. 281-93 in Proceedings of the 30th Canadian Industrial Relations Association Conference, edited by E. Deom and A. E. Smith. Quebec: Canadian Industrial Relations Association.

II CHANGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

6 Changing Work Relations in the European Union Lei Delsen

I.

INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade a policy of labor market deregulation and decentralization has been applied in the Member States of the European Union (EU). European policymakers consider the decentralization and flexibilization of the labor market important instruments to create new jobs and to reduce unemployment. An option that was chosen in the 1980s notably in Continental Europe was the partial removal of employment protection, designed to make it more attractive for employers to hire workers on lower pay or in certain forms of employment, such as part-time or fixed-term contracts (Delsen and Huijgen 1994; Delsen 1995; Treu 1992). This policy option is still considered valid at present (see for instance EC 1993). Despite this policy, the labor market in the EU is characterized by a high and persistent level of long-term unemployment. This chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical basis of this policy of flexibilization of labor. The focus of the chapter is on parttime and temporary employment in the Continental European countries. The chapter is organized as follows. Section II discusses the theoretical basis of labor market deregulation. In the next two sections, data on the development of atypical employment in the EU member states are presented. Section III deals with part-time employment and Section IV with temporary employment. The effectiveness of the policies applied—the contribution to job creation and unemployment reduction—is established in Section V. The chapter concludes in Section VI with a summary and discusses the policy implications of changing work relationships. A plea is made for a new concept of full employment. 99

100

Lei Delsen IL NEOCLASSICAL LABOR MARKET THEORY

In economic science, the neoclassical "perfect" market is often used as a benchmark to describe actual labor market relations. A market is con­ sidered to be more flexible, and is considered more efficient, when it shows more resemblance to the ideal type of free unregulated market. Neoclassical analysis focuses on production costs. According to the stan­ dard version of neoclassical theory, in the long run, the market mecha­ nism will result in an equilibrium between demand and supply on all markets. The fact that in the short term no equilibrium is established is related to restrictions on the functioning of the market mechanism. Ac­ cording to this neoclassical view, "rigidity" in the price of labor, the quantity and quality of human resources, and conditions of employment are the hindrance to the clearing of labor markets. In standard neoclassi­ cal economics, institutions are mostly seen as market distortions and impediments to adaptability. It results in a plea for a more flexible mar­ ket. In line with neoclassical thinking, policy recommendations to reduce the high and persistent unemployment rates in Europe (Eurosclerosis) include decentralized wage bargaining, weakening union power, dis­ mantling minimum wages, removing employment protection and other labor market regulations, widening wage differentials, and cutting nonwage labor costs, taxes, and social security contributions. Policymakers who contend that institutions and conventions frustrate the free market mechanism in general are referring to general equilibrium theory, in which full price and wage flexibility by definition generates the best solution. However, price and wage rigidities are not necessarily a symptom of the insufficient operation of the market mechanism. The market is never "perfect," not because of the existence of institutions and conventions, which reduce uncertainty, but as a result of insecurity con­ nected to exchange itself. Hence, wage and price rigidities (contracts) reduce these uncertainties and improve the market's operation in the sense that all market parties obtain a better result from the exchange. Moreover, in reality full flexibility is misleading and may result in prohib­ itively high transaction costs. Apart from a reduction in transaction costs, recent labor market theories like search, transaction, contract, and effi­ ciency wage theories give economic reasons why wages are inelastic and explain the existence of involuntary unemployment. According to these theories, offering wages above the market clearing level may be advan­ tageous for the employer. For instance, it offers the opportunity to select good external candidates, to reduce turnover costs. Higher wages more­ over often result in more effort and commitment from the employees. The perfect market presupposed by neoclassical labor market theory means that labor is homogeneous: the productivity of each worker is

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equal. Hence discrimination in the labor market is nonexistent and unem­ ployment is only a rationing problem depending on the level of the mar­ ket wage: unemployment is randomly distributed over the suppliers of labor, and unemployment is essentially a disequilibrium phenomenon. However, in reality labor markets are not perfect, if only because labor is heterogeneous. Moreover, the heterogeneity of labor is increasing under the influence of deregulation and flexibilization policies. Hence the prob­ abilities of becoming and remaining unemployed are unequally distrib­ uted. Apart from the rationing problem there is also a distributional problem (Delsen and de Jong 1998). Given the heterogeneity of the labor force, higher growth is a necessary but insufficient condition for bringing unemployment down. Left to itself the market tends to produce and reinforce inequalities: between those in and out of work, between strong and disadvantaged groups in the labor market, between regions and countries. Particularly vulnerable are the unskilled, older workers, disabled persons, and minor­ ities, especially in depressed regions. Nonintervention is likely to result in slower adjustment at higher social costs. This may explain why competitionrestraining institutions and anticompetitive practices are introduced to a greater extent in the labor market than in other markets. This may result in above-market clearing wages. However, collusion among workers may save on transaction costs by given a // voice // to the work force; it may also foster more harmonious relations between workers and management in the pursuit of common goals and strengthen social consensus in the soci­ ety at large (OECD 1994). Hence, labor market regulation is a necessary aspect of the efficient use of labor.

III.

DEVELOPMENTS IN PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

In Table 6.1 the development in the proportion of part-time employ­ ment in total employment since 1973 for fifteen EU member countries is presented. The operational definitions of a part-time worker differ across countries (Delsen 1995; van Bastelaer, Lemaïtre, and Marianna 1997). That is why data on part-time employment may not always give a coherent picture of country-to-country differences, and hence comparisons of lev­ els or proportions between countries require some caution. However, trends within countries and comparisons of trends between them are probably meaningful. In 1995, 16.0 percent of all employed in the Eu­ ropean Union held a part-time job: 5.2 percent of all working men and 31.3 percent of all working women (EC 1996). In 1996 the proportion of part-time employment in total employment varied from less than 10 per­ cent in the southern European countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and

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Table 6.1. Part-Time Employment as a Proportion of Total Employment in the European Union, 1973-1996

Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands* Austria Portugal Spain Sweden 0 United Kingdom

2973

1979

1983

1996

Change 1973-1996 (%)

2.8 17.0 3.9 5.9 10.1 — 4.0 6.4 4.5 4.4 6.4 — — 18.0 16.0

6.0 22.7 6.7 8.2 11.4 — 5.1 5.3 5.8 16.6 7.6 7.8 — 23.7 16.4

8.0 23.3 7.7 9.6 12.6 6.5 6.7 4.6 6.8 21.0 8.4 — — 24.8 18.9

14.0 21.5 8.0 16.0 16.3 4.8 11.6 6.6 7.6 36.5 14.9 8.7 8.0 23.6 22.1

11.2 4.5 4.1 10.1 6.2 — 7.6 0.2 3.1 32.1 8.5 — — 5.6 6.1

—, Data not available. a Break in series. after 1985. b Break in series; after 1986 and after 1992. Source: OECD (1993, 1996, 1997).

Spain to more than 20 percent in Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and to over 36 percent in the Netherlands. Over the past two decades, the proportion of part-time employment has increased in most EU countries. This has notably been the case in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Austria. Also in Finland the share of part-time employment more than doubled. A number of these countries started with relatively low proportions. Modest increases were recorded in Den­ mark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. A number of these countries already had considerable propor­ tions of part-time employment. For the growth of part-time employment, the supply side of the labor market, that is, the request to work part-time by (female) employees, is the most important factor. The variation in parttime rates suggests moreover that it is affected by the differences in the legal, socioeconomic, and cultural setting (Delsen 1998). In all EU countries the proportion of part-time employment in total male employment is much lower than the proportion of part-time em­ ployment in total female employment. The proportions of male and female part-time employment have increased in almost all European countries over the past two decades. The increases in the low male rates were considerable (double or triple) in most European countries, but

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were modest in Italy and Luxembourg. The increase of male part-time employment in the Netherlands was especially high. In 1995, 5 percent of men in the European Union as a whole worked part-time, compared with 4 percent in 1991. If part-time work were to continue to expand at this rate, then in 10 years time an average of around 10 percent of all em­ ployed men would be working part-time (EC 1996). The relatively high proportions of female part-time employment have shown only modest increases in most of the countries over the past twenty years. Exceptions are Belgium, France, and Ireland (double or triple) and the Netherlands (fourfold). Since the 1980s, Denmark and Sweden have shown a decline in total and women's part-time employment. The latter can be explained by the more frequent change of women from part- to full-time employment. In another example, in Finland the female part-time rate has decreased for the same reason, i.e., in the Nordic countries part-time jobs seem to be bridges rather than traps (Delsen 1998). Not only in the 1970s and 1980s, but also in the first half of the 1990s parttime employment contributed significantly to employment growth in the European Union. For a number of countries, including Belgium, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, part-time employment was the more dominant source of overall job growth. Considerable numbers of these new part-time jobs were part-time jobs for only a few hours per week. For instance, in the Netherlands half of the recent strong growth of part-time employment was in these few-hoursa-week (