Response to Pain at the Pump Discussants: When Do Employers Innovate?

Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek, Michigan State University, School of Labor & Industrial Relations

Thanks for all your great comments on my pain at the pump blog.

Here’s my two cents in response to some of the comments.

One writer pointed out that the pros of flexible work schedules could be touted even without the gas crisis. I agree, wholeheartedly, but want to remind this writer about the management literature on workplace innovation. There are basically three reasons organizations change in response to external environmental pressures.

One type of employer typically implements organizational change due to coercive pressures that force change- a company that finally gets off the fence and implements a 4 day work week in a reactive response to the gas crisis without much strategizing. An example of this comes from the blogger who noted that her small company with 12 employees implemented a pilot program that gave every other Friday off in response to the gas crisis. Soon however, the employer was sending signals that it felt it was being taken advantage of and the program may end. I think one lesson of this kind of tempermental organizational response is that if an employer feels forced to change and then responds quickly without some serious thought about how flexibility will benefit the business objectives coupled with some heavy commitment to organizational learning and experimentation, the pilot will likely fail. Also needed may be some joint training of management and employees in work groups to support culture change to foster new norms and values need to fit with the new flexibility program. So flexible work hours at this firm that tried a pilot impulsively and now wants to quit, now needs more trial and error. Management and employees need more time and supports to facilitate learning on how to implement flexibility effectively and in a way that still supports the achievement of company objectives. Flexibility isn’t bad in and of itself, but maybe management and employees need to do more joint collaboration to figure out how to implement new ways of working as a win-win solution.

Another group of employers implements a new flexibility program in order to copy the market- what academics call mimetic pressures (like miming!) These are the companies that respond to HR fads and flavor of the month. This way of making change is similar to what one of my Yale professors at my doctoral program once labeled the HERWEGA effect, the Here We Go Again Effect. An example of this comes from the blogger who bemoaned the fact that although her company wins Best Places to Work Awards for having a lot of programs on paper, the culture really didn’t support use of any flexibility for “good employees” who were career- minded.

A third reason companies change is due to normative pressures based on educational socialization and commitment to workplace progressiveness. These are the best kind of reasons for change. At these companies, management implements change because they want to respond to environmental pressures in a thoughtful way that fits with their values as they updated and adapt them to meet new environmental changes. Management wants to experiment and “do the right thing” to meet a dual agenda- serve the customers at the same time as employees are also benefiting. As one blogger wrote, “I ran a company that sold and supported computerized accounting software. We experimented with a variety of work formats: flex-time; 4-day work weeks etc. but the very best for our management, staff and customers was the 9-hour work day. The way we structured it we ran half-staff every Friday and ran 9-hour work days. This concept provided great productivity; not much decline in that one additional hour added to an 8-hour day. He also noted the tremendous advantage was the ability to take every-other weekend and turn it into a 3-day weekend with both high employee and customer satisfaction and an increase in volume 17 times!!" The lesson of this story is a) experimentation is needed to figure out a flexibility strategy- not all types of flexibility may work for your business; and b) any flexible or alternative work arrangement must be win- win proposition in order to be sustainable. It must benefit the customer AND employees at the same time.

So in closing, think about why your company might be interested in flexibility experimentation. Is it because they feel they are forced to change (coercive pressures) ? Or are they copying other leading firms (mimetic pressures)? Or do they just want “To Do the Right Thing “ for all stakeholders (normative pressures)? Let’s hope the latter.

One blogger wanted to know more about my research. To find out more go to http://ellenkossek.lir.msu.edu/. I am also the co- author (with Brenda Lautsch) of a new book: CEO of ME: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age (2008) (Wharton School Publishing), that helps individuals learn how to develop work-life strategies to self-manage work-life flexibility as part of career flexibility. I’ll write more about this in my next blog.

Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek
School of Labor & Industrial Relations
Michigan State University
http://ellenkossek.lir.msu.edu/

 

Save Employees’ Gas Money & Boost Efficiency by Supporting Flexible Workplace

post time 30. July 2008 member admin

The last time I wrote here, it was about the decision by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to limit flextime for state employees, in an attempt (misguided, I believe) to improve worker efficiency. Today, many of his peers are moving in the opposite direction, to boost another kind of efficiency. With U.S. gas prices at record levels, a number of states are encouraging workers to go to four-day workweeks, with at least one state is requiring it, and others are moving faster than they ever had before to explore telework. Just to name a few, Oklahoma and Kentucky have state-sponsored or -supported telework and flextime programs specifically designed to help workers save on fuel costs. Michigan, Arkansas and California are considering implementing the same. And Utah has actually mandated four-day workweeks for 17,000 state employees, about 80% of the state workforce. Hawaii is considering doing the same. 

For years now, many private sector consulting and high tech firms, such as IBM, Deloitte, and Accenture have moved to a “mobile workforce”, where a large portion of core employees work primarily from home or at the customer as a way to save on office space and related costs. Now with gas rising over $4 a gallon, the added benefits of adopting a flexible workplace are truly a no brainer value proposition. Employers with a flexible workplace will not only be able to not only reduce employees’ commuting cost, they also will save on overhead energy costs. One school district in Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta, has started a 4 day work week in the summer months, when mainly just administrative staff works. This saves on employers’ energy costs, air conditioning and water. Another company Everburn Manufacuring in Lexington, Kentucky has altered the production schedule from a 5 day a week 8 hours a days to a 4 days a week schedule working 10 hours a day. Employees will not only save on gas by driving to work a day a week and also on child care expenses.

Regarding telework specifically, my years of research studies has shown flexible workplace employers get higher productivity when as employees actually work longer hours, by substituting commuting time for work time. Such hard data should counter management fears about employees who can’t be seen not working. Teleworkers also have significantly higher job satisfaction and are much less likely to want to turnover than nonteleworkers. Some companies such as the Atlanta-based marketing firm Write2Market, have gone as far as asking employees to work exclusively from home. Instead of employees having to ask permission to telecommute, the employees now have to ask permission to come into the office or drive to client meetings, which saves her about $500 a month reimbursement costs.

And with many employees not being able to sell their houses now in the bleak market, employers closer to their home have a competitive advantage and can recruit away the best workers, unless current employers add incentives to stay. For example, Bon Secours Health Systems in Richmond, Virginia is offering retention bonuses for high performing employees with a long commute.

But perhaps the biggest advantage may be synergies with the overall economy. Helping employees pay less for gas, and work longer by saving on commuting time, actually gives the U.S. economy now in economic doldrums a real and psychological productivity boost, without spending an additional stimulus dollar. In addition, employees may feel less stressed, and more work life balanced by being able to substitute drive time for time with family or time to exercise and recharge. They also will be more engaged in work when they are on the job.

 

Such fundamental changes in the design of work-life structures, may also change essential social values about how we define “What does it mean to go to work? “What is the work day or work week?” as well as “Where and how do we chose to live and work?” in positive ways.

The trick is to make sure the flexible workplace is implemented with the objective of benefiting employees and the company at the same time. Also, managers and employees must take the time to develop and learn new cultures to support new ways of working. And employees need to feel they have some choice over or involvement in the process of implementing a flexible workplace to ensure buy in and their ability to retain some control over their work schedules. With rising pain at the pump and the need to increase workforce efficiency and save our planet at the same time, when the flexible workplace is implemented with these few caveats in mind, “What’s not to like?”

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Rewire Your Life Day- Unplugged Day March 10, 2008

post time 10. March 2008 member admin

Professor declares Rewire Your Life day today

By Halston Herrera • Free Press Staff Writer • March 10, 2008

After declaring today Rewire Your Life Day, Michigan State University professor Ellen Kossek planned to have lunch with a colleague and do some creative thinking on managing the rest of her year.

Rewire Your Life Day is meant to encourage people to turn off their cell phones, Blackberries or laptops for at least an hour. Kossek planned the day to fall on the 132nd anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call.

Kossek is a professor and researcher in the Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior program at MSU’s Graduate School of Labor & Industrial Relations.

She said people’s initial response to Rewire Your Life Day has been anxiety over being “disconnected” and possibly missing some important message. She added that the overall feedback to the idea has been positive.

“It is not that this technology is bad. We certainly would not want to go back in time, but we need to realize the importance of controlling the way we use it,” said Kossek.
“There is little separation between life and work these days; it’s hurting our concept of social relationships. I’m encouraging people to create blocks of creativity independent of the technology they use every day.”

Kossek said the imbalance can certainly go both ways, but that work is more likely than home to invade important relationships.

Kossek, who specializes in fields such as work/life integration, said she is concerned about the loss of face-to-face interaction.

“We are building communication through messages, but not taking responsibility for the creation of cognitive complexity that is also very essential to building trusting relationships,” she said.

Concentrating on the workplace, Kossek says there is a lack of flexibility.

“Especially in this Michigan economy, I think people are afraid to come across as anything but working hard,” she said.

Kossek elaborated on numerous studies surrounding what she called “process losses.”

She explained that employees think they are being more productive by being more available through cell phones and e-mail, but in the end are actually producing losses by essentially forgetting what they’re doing because of engaging in too many things at once.

“People need a break, and the benefits of one, even for an hour, have been proven,” she said.

“It is important to be fully there at work, and then fully there at home.”

Kossek plans on making the tech-free day an annual observance.

“I certainly don’t want anyone to lose business, or get fired, over not answering a call. The point is just to take an hour to themselves,” she said.

Kossek is also taking suggestions for possibly renaming the day.

“At one point ‘unplug day’ was considered, but I’m very open to any ideas. It is my goal to get more groups involved for the future,” she said.

“I understand the popularity, convenience and benefits of modern technology. I just want to make sure that people don’t forget what it’s like to enjoy the real trust that comes with face-to-face connecting.”

Kossek will be giving a free, public talk Thursday at the MSU Union at 7:30 p.m. More information about her research and publications can be found at http://ellenkossek.lir.msu.edu/index.php.

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CEO of Me

post time 28. February 2008 member admin

You are the CEO of your life: you, and nobody else. You can establish the new rules that will help you achieve true balance between work and the rest of your life. And if you don’t do it, nobody else will. Now is the time to take control, and this is the book that will get you there. CEO of Me is like no other “work-life balance” book you’ve ever seen: there are no clichés here, and no one-size-fits all solutions. Instead, Drs. Ellen Kossek and Brenda Lautsch help you identify which of six worklife “patterns” you fit into and how to move towards a pattern that’s more productive and comfortable for you, one step at a time. As leaders of North America’s largest research projects on work/life balance, Kossek and Lautsch are singularly well-qualified to write this book. Drawing on their unparalleled research insights, they show how to identify the personal triggers that cause you the greatest stress…make the small changes that make the biggest difference…make technology work for you, not against you…redraw the lines between work and family as your life changes…master powerful strategies for managing yourself, your colleagues, and your supervisors…leverage emerging work options that are available to our generation for the first time. The authors’ radical new approach will transform the way you view both your work and your life and help you make the practical changes that lead to true fulfillment.

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