Introduction

The international work environment has over the decades been faced with deregulation, technological and communication development; increase in the unemployment rate and intense competition hence the need for employers to improve on labour flexibility. These unprecedented factors which are results of globalisation, barrier-free trade and ease of migration of people from one geographical location to another require much attention. The international human resources managers, academicians, researchers and labour governing bodies have raised their interests over time on the consequences these factors have the workforce. They have discussed the various ways to have a more responsive workforce, improve productivity, achieve competitive advantage, enhance work-life balance and increase employee satisfaction.

This essay will focus on temporal flexibility with relation to part-time work practices. It will to review existing literature, draw from practitioners and academic publications on temporal flexibility. An analysis of the implications of temporal flexibility affects women in terms of pay inequality, work life and overall performance will be given. Finally, l will finish with a discussion on the implications temporal flexibility has on International Human Resources Management.

What is Flexibility?

Sanchez (1995) as cited by Bhattacharya et al (2005) defined it as the ability of a firm to respond to various demands from its dynamic and competitive environment. Delsen (1991) as cited by Harris, 2004 referred to it as ‘Atypical’ which is further described as ‘deviating from full-time, open-ended work employment, including part-time work, seasonal work, labour on call, self employment and informal work’.

Briefly, Atkinson (1984) as cited by Harris 2004 defined flexibility as ‘Peripheral workforce’ also developed a model called ‘The Flexible Firm’. This model was developed to argue that organizations sought to increase the level of labour flexibility. He argued that the two groups of employees, Core and Peripheral served the organization on two parallel levels of flexibility. The organization applies functional flexibility for the peripheral whilst it applies numerical flexibility for the latter. An argument behind this is the fact that numerical flexibility considers and responds to fluctuations in the levels of production and then regulates its workforce to match the demand. On the other hand, functional flexibility considers the same set of workers performing different tasks in the same organisation. In-sourcing and outsourcing involve transferring part of the operations of a firm to another firm. These are external to the firm as the workforce used is not in any way within the control of the firm.

Defining Part-time Flexibility

Part-time work is simply any form of work dissimilar from the defined category of full-time work. (Thurman & Trah 1990) The definition of part-time varies according to countries; in the United States of America, it is defined as less than 35 hours a week. Canada and the United Kingdom define part-time as 30 hours worked per week (Kahne 1992 as cited by Kalleberg 2000). In France, part-time is defined as 35 hours of working hours. By contrast, the part-time employment in Japan is connected to status in the firm and not to hours worked; Surveys done in Japan shows that 20-30% of those classified by their employers as “part-time” work as many hours as “full-time” workers (Houseman & Osawa 1998 as cited by Kalleberg 2000). The OECD however, defined part-time in terms of work performed under 30 hours per week.

Current Trends in Temporal Flexibility

The current trends in temporal flexibility in some OECD countries show how the demand of temporal flexibility increased over the decades. Between 1998 and 2007, the rate of part-time employment rate for OECD countries increased by 3.5%. In Germany, Austria and Netherlands, part-time employment rates grew considerably by more than 5%. By 2007, over 25% of workers were working part-time in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The standard rate of part-time employment for the OECD was 15% in 2007 and was 3 points higher in the EU27 countries.

With respect to gender, at least one in four women work part-time and they also hold nearly three out of four part-time jobs. In Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Ireland, women prefer to work part-time but this is not the case in Europe, Turkey, Mexico and the United States. The only country in which the percentage of men exceeds 10% is the Netherlands.

From the indices above, we observe that there is female domination in this category of part-time work. Using Japan as a case study, whilst about 41% of female workers chose non-regular employment to support the household, about 32% like the fact that they can work at convenient hours and 25% prefer it to full-time as it offers shorter hours of work and they would earn extra money on their own.

The Essence of Labour flexibility

We need to ask, what is the essence of flexibility? Historically, organisations adopted flexibility in response not only the needs of the environment but also to fit the internal needs of the employer. In meeting the goal of increasing profitability, employers reduced costs incurred on materials, machinery and especially the cost of labour. (Bowles et al, 2005) Hart,1984 as cited bt Tarling 1987) argued that labour costs are fixed and are one of the highest expenses incurred by organisations thus labour input to the production process should be disaggregated into stock (workers) and its utilization rate (i.e. the hours worked per worker) monitored properly and minimized moderately. Hence, only hours put to productive use are paid for. This disaggregation was a shift in the focus of work structure ‘from permanent collection of jobs to individualised, flexible employment defined by human capital portfolios’. Workers were able to work in different places according to the various employers’ demand.

The essence of labour flexibility is to adapt to changes in market demand for products and services and to adapt to the fluctuation of production to labour use. (Jenkins 2004) The need to be in tune with the environment and respond effectively to these constantly growing changes have led to the increased adaptation of labour flexibility.

Implications of temporal flexibility on International Human Resources Management

Having discussed the concept of temporal flexibility, we need to consider the implications on International Human Resources Management.

The nature of the dynamic market where most organisations operate makes utilization of part-time workers economically viable. The cost effectiveness is the foremost reason for hiring part-time workers. Employers can reduce the number of workers in periods of low demand and increasing the number during peak periods. This is especially true for retail and service industries where demand is enormous in particular seasons.

We need to ask, does this truly happen in the real sense? It can happen to an extent if these workers are recruited directly. For employees that may not be recruited directly by the HR department in a company, the burden of managing these workers is transferred to the agency office who recruits these staff. There are serious implications here for the HR manager. First is the issue of the quality of staff employed. Unless the HR manager ensures that these agencies are adhering to the requirements of the company, there is bound to be an influx of under qualified staff. These agencies might recruit people that do not have the necessary skills required for the job; this will adversely affect the level of service delivered to ultimately to the customers.

Secondly, another implication is that there might be serious consequences when there is massive turnover in a company. Besides the work levels being interrupted, there might be loss of skilled and qualified part-time workers whom might leave the agency they registered with or they might get a better offer in another company. The International Human Resources Management need to ensure that the ‘good hands’ are retained in the company. Ways to do this might include offering better salaries to these workers and ensuring that the work schedules are convenient for them. This will boost their morale and increase their job satisfaction.

Focusing on the employees now, empirical evidence in various researches have shown that part-time work tends to create a balanced situation in the sense that women both in career and earner positions can benefit from working time flexibility by achieving a work-life balance. Aside the fact that they can earn relatively decent income, they experience a low family to work interference. Essentially during pregnancy, children upkeep, women make agreements with their employers on the work schedule, thus giving room to job-sharing amongst women who fall under this category. In addition to this, the temporal employees are relieved of full-time work pressures and spend less time in an unrewarding work environment.

However in reality how applicable is this? Do women really get these benefits from part-time work? Barker’s findings as cited in Higgins,2000) shows that this may not apply for all women as those in career-oriented temporal jobs still experience high-role overload and high family to work interference. The reason may not be farfetched as their jobs demand more from them than mere earners.

Looking at the interaction and social climate of the work environment, how does temporal flexibility come to play? The integration of temporal workers into the organisation and their affiliation with full-time workers is usually extremely poor. This results to a low level of trust and perceived stigmatization. Lautsch as cited in Mitlacher 2008 criticized the extent to which these temporal workers blend within the company along with their full-time workers. Since this problem is inherent, it leads to a lack of appreciation and recognition from the company, leading to staff turnover and a general low level of morale. In an environment where there is low social cohesion there would gradually lead to a hostile environment which would hinder knowledge sharing as full-time employees may have credibility issues with the knowledge being shared.

The implication for human resources managers is that they should not only provide means of income for these earners, they should ensure that there is a difference in their quality of life. They should make the work rewarding and desirable for both earners and career women. In the research according to Higgins et al (2000) it was argued that organisations should pay attention to the individual differences between career and earner employees in terms of heavy work demands.

Whilst sensitizing them of the career penalties associated with part-time hours, HR managers should ensure that these part-timers have a level of participation in the organisation. They should make them feel valued by involving them in tactical assignments that full-time workers are also engaged in. Also team bonding events can be organised where interaction amongst part-time and full-time workers can be fostered.

Income inequality is also serious implications for part-time workers, particularly women. A major concern for part-time employment is the Pay penalty faced by part-time workers. In the UK, the Labour Force Survey states that the gap between these two categories of employers is 26%. This is also said that women who desire to move form full-time to part-time work are often forced to change their employer or make a downward occupational move. This issue may have effects on the productivity of workers and huge labour turnover might occur. For these workers, the Part-time Workers Regulations in 2000 and Pay Penalty Act were implemented to ensure part-timers are treated equally like their full-timers. (Manning A and Petrongolo 2006) But we need to ask, how far has these regulations worked out?

We also need to analyse the employability rate and career opportunities of female part-time workers. For these women to increase their employability rate and career progression, they should be willing to work full-time or overtime just like their male counterparts. While men might be able to increase their prospects at work but most women are unable to do this. For them to achieve this, they would have to subject themselves to what they initially moved away from and take up the rigorous nature of work. Now the question we need to ask is are women genuinely benefitting from temporal flexibility?

It has been argued that a core HR strategy to create a win-win situation for the highly skilled and firm-specific experienced women, the retention strategies should be adopted which would allow these women to negotiate their working time preferences following their maternity leave. Also promotional paths should be clearly communicated to them. This will go a long way in reducing the perceived stigmatisation these set of workers sense. It will effectively minimise costs incurred through labour turnover, transactional costs in recruiting and re-training new employees.

Another crucial area of concern for employees is that the cost of training and skills enhancement is transferred from the employer to the part-time workers. An example is a student applying to work as social support company who is asked to get trained at his own costs before he can even apply to get a job. In other cases where such a condition does not exist, part-time workers are usually subjected to only informal and on-the-job training as some employers would not bear costs of training. The resultant effect of this type of scenario may not be visible in the short term as employees who are self-trained would opt for not only better paying companies but also companies that would train them more. For the employer, the loss of skilful hands would be inevitable as they do not have them in ‘golden handcuffs’.

Findings from Tomlinson’s research (2006) on part-time workers in one of the five hospitality industries which research was carried out on, SERVICO, a private catering outfit offered the most restrictive part-time work. They were allocated the peak productivity times to work which are usually exceptionally busy and strenuous. Sadly, part-time workers were not given supervisory roles and are even downgraded when they switch from part-time to full-time. In this case, training was on the job. In this company, there was internal career path for full-time workers thus they grew rapidly and this was somewhat perceived as an incentive to work long hours. This is in contrast to the Part-time Worker’s Directive (Department of Trade and Industry, 2002, 2003a, 2003b) that employers should not treat part-time workers less preferentially in terms of promotion and training.

In response to the above, it would be beneficial for employers to train all staff and retain the skilful hands. International HR Management should offer extensive training programmes for both full-time and part-time workers linked to firm-specific, role development and supervisory training. With this strategy, all are given equal opportunities to develop their competencies and therefore are prepared to take up leadership roles in the organisation.

Conclusion

The purpose of this essay has been to provide an outline of temporal flexibility with a literature review and some empirical evidence which shows a substantial growth of temporal flexibility particularly amongst women.

Existing evidence also suggests that the ambition of most employers is labour cost domination. Industries where temporal flexibility has a huge presence are the retail and restaurant industries. (JILPT, 2004b as cited by Keizer 2009)

Temporal flexibility will continue to be an issue for consideration even as globalisation continues to affect every aspect of our lives. The implications will constantly change thus necessary for HR managers to be up-to-date and adhere to new regulations. To achieve greater success in managing their human resources, these implications need to be analysed and appropriate solutions be proffered.

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