1st Edition
Flexible Work Designing our Healthier Future Lives
Flexible Work: Designing Our Healthier Future Lives examines flexible working through the lens of social science, in particular using psychological perspective to address not only what forms of flexible working there are and how they are evolving but also their prospect in the future of work. Bringing together views from thought-leaders and underpinned by research evidence, this book addresses two of the most fundamental business challenges for large and medium organisations – mental health and productivity – calling for the bridging of science and policy to design flexible working for our future healthier lives.
Growing from these foundations, this book explains the latest landscape in flexible working, looking at employee psychological health and productivity, including showing up for work sick. Perspectives are provided from around the world on leadership, line management, ‘over attachment’ with technology, commuting, skill-based inequality and control over working time. Readers are offered insights into the relevance of flexible working for a diverse workforce – invisible disabilities, disabilities, older workers and blended families. Throughout, the book offers suggestions for shaping future policy, practice and research.
Each chapter concludes with recommendations, making this essential reading for students, academics, human resource practitioners, policy-influencers, policymakers and professionals interested in flexible work.
List of figures
List of tables
Contributors
PART I – Introduction
- Designing our Healthier Future Lives: Bridging Science and Policy for Flexible Work: The Pervasion of 'cog in the wheel' workplaces across time
- A Flexible Working Future – The Opportunities and Challenges
- Employees’ Psychological Health and The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements
- Workplace Flexibility Increases Productivity Throughout Presenteeism: A Conceptual Framework
- Flexible Working and Quality of Life: Compatible?
- Leadership in Flexible Work Systems
- Line Managers and Flexible Working
- The Balanced Communications Diet for Business: Principles for Working Smarter, Not Harder in A Connected World
- The Impact of The Commute on Our Mental Health and Physical Health Within the Context of Flexible and Non-Flexible Working
- Flexible Working and Skill-Biased Inequality: Causes and Consequences
- Control Over Working Time - A Twenty-First-Century Issue
- Supporting Employees with Invisible Disabilities via Flexible Work
- Workers with Disabilities: The Role of Flexible Employment Schemes
- Lone Parents and Blended Families: Advocating Flexible Working to Support Families in Transition
- Employee FWA Needs and Requests and Employer Provisions across Age Groups
- Flexible Working for Older Workers
Sarah H. Norgate & Cary L. Cooper
Peter Cheese
PART II – The Impact of Flexible Working on Health and Productivity
Carolyn Timms, Paula Brough & Xi Wen (Carys) Chan
Sara L. Lopes & Aristides I. Ferreira
Sarah Jackson & Jonathan Swan
PART III – What Makes Flexible Working Work?
Anika Cloutier & Julian Barling
Sharon Clarke
Nicola J. Millard
Anna Mary Cooper-Ryan, Charlotte Stonier & Abolanle Gbadamosi
Egidio Riva & Marcello Russo
Kate Bell
PART IV – Flexible Working for Particular Groups of Workers
Alexandra Duval, Duygu Gulseren & E. Kevin Kelloway
Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar
Anneke Schaefer, Caroline Gatrell & Laura Radcliffe
Bernice Kotey & Stuart Wark
Carol Atkinson
Index
Biography
Dr Sarah H. Norgate was formerly a Reader in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Salford, UK, and is a popular science author. Since completing her PhD at the University of Warwick, UK, she has widely published in both academic and practitioner journals and has enjoyed collaborating with diverse stakeholders on award-winning research. Sarah is also a fellow for life with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
Sir Cary L. Cooper is the 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at the ALLIANCE Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK, President of the CIPD and Co-Chair of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at Work.
'We all want happier, healthier and more productive working lives and two-way flexibility is a key part of the answer. A driving force in this book is the compelling argument around how we make flexible working work to give workers more control over where and how they work. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to build better, fairer and more humane workplaces.' - Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, Trades Union Congress (TUC), UK
'Disruptive changes in the nature of work and of working life have far-reaching implications for human and economic health and wellbeing across society. This book provides essential foundations for wise and well-informed discussions to guide the actions now necessary.' - Professor Dame Carol Black, Advisor on Health and Work to Public Health England and UK National Health Service Improvement