June 3 2011: Expert meeting on organisation of working time and implications for working conditions

Main aspects covered

Six experts present their research in relation to the following questions:

• Flexible working time impact on health and work-life balance
• Flexible working time impact on other aspects of quality of work
• Links between working time flexibility, productivity and working conditions

They also gave advice and presented ideas on the following questions:

• Which research methods could prove useful to research this topic?
• Direction of future research at EU level on the relationship between working time and working conditions

Presentations

• Flexible working hours and their impact on work-life balance and working conditions [.pdf, 55kb]
  Jean- Yves Boulin, IRIS-Université Paris Dauphine, France
• A brief review of the effects of working time flexibility on OSH, work-life balance, and productivity
  John Messenger, International Labour Organisation, Switzerland
• Flexible working hours - impact on health and work-life-balance [.pdf, 1053kb]
  Friedhelm Nachreiner, GAWO, Germany
• Working time and self-rostering in the Netherlands [.pdf, 1087kb]
  Anneke Goudswaard, TNO
• Flexibility as a job condition - conception, impact and research methods [.pdf, 217kb]
  Ralph Kattenbach, University of Hamburg, Germany
  Flexible working times have not been considered sufficiently in models on the effects of job conditions. In various models job autonomy is generally related to work organization and task fulfillment within the boundaries of work schedules, whereas the variation of the boundaries themselves is not included. Based on an empirical study that incorporates two dimensions of working-time in the job demands-resources model, suggestions are made to investigate the multi-dimensional aspects of flexible working times. These are demanding (e.g. unpredictability, time-bureaucracy) and supporting time-factors like planning facilities, short-term autonomy and long-term opportunities. Kattenbach, R., Demerouti, E., Nachreiner, F. (2010): Flexible Working Times: Effects on Employees' Exhaustion, Work-Nonwork Conflict and Job Performance. Career Development International´, 15, S. 279-295.
• Working time, work-life balance and quality of work [.pdf, 635kb]
  Tindara Addabbo, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

For more information, please contact Christine Aumayr or Oscar Vargas, Eurofound