Why Organizations Should Implement Flexible Work Hours Essay Example for Free

Why Organizations Should Implement Flexible Work Hours Essay In today’s fast-paced competitive world, flexible work arrangements are a key component to ensure employee commitment. Flexible work arrangements ensure that employers have a flexible work force i.e. there is availability of sufficient labor to meet the workload at all times. Transforming practices in the work place so that it suits employee needs better, is extremely crucial in ensuring employee satisfaction and commitment. Flexible work hours, telecommuting, compressed work weeks etc. are examples of flexible work arrangements. We would be concentrating on implementing flexible work hours at our work place. Flexible work hours also known as flextime is a work schedule that allows employees a certain degree of freedom with regard to the time that they want to work in the organization. Under a flexible work arrangement there is a core period of the day during which employees are expected to be in the office (for example 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), while the rest of the working day is ‘flextime’. During ‘flextime’ employees can choose the time when they want to work with the primary objective of achieving a certain amount of total daily, weekly or monthly work hours expected by the employer. (Flextime) The most common flexible hours arrangement are flextime, compressed work weeks (which is basically something like having four 10-hour days or having 9 working days in a fortnight), part-time work and job sharing (a form of part time work having two people doing the same job but sharing the work, the hours and the salary) (Workplaces that Work) NTUC Income Insurance Cooperative Limited is one of the companies that have successfully implemented flexible work hours in their organization. 20 percent of their workforce is using this arrangement. Another example of a company successfully implementing flexible work hours is Abacus International Private Ltd. (Flexible Work Arrangements) Advantages and disadvantages of implementing flexible work hours Implementing flexible work hour schemes has a lot of benefits: -By choosing a suitable time slot employees can avoid commuting to work during rush hours thus enabling them to save and have a better control over time. -Employees benefit due to better work-life balance and this improves their morale and job satisfaction thereby improving their productivity. -Allows the employer to schedule work out of the conventional 9 to 5 period. -Employee turnover reduces -As the employees are allowed a certain degree of freedom it is less likely for them to leave the job. Such an arrangement allows the employers to keep their valued staff members who may have other commitments in life. -Continuity in work flow is not affected -Employers also may require smaller office spaces and lesser furniture and equipment because all employees are not present in the office at all time, thereby ensuring optimum utilization of resources. -Such a system reduces overload of work and allows people to work during the time when they feel they can accomplish the most (for example: a morning person can work during the day and a night person can work during the late evening). -Improves image of the employer and the organization and increases willingness to work. The employee turnover rate in NTUC Income has reduced by 6% over a period of 7 years from 1992 to 1999 after implementing flexible work hours. Abacus International reported reduction in employee turnover and higher job satisfaction after introducing flexible work hour schemes in 1998. The schemes did not affect deadlines and ensured better work-life balance. (Flexible Work Arrangements) There are few disadvantages of this system also: -The costs of having flexible working hours involve having the cost of administering the scheme. The cost of electricity will be higher when flexible working hours are implemented as the office premises. -It may not be suitable for those organizations where continuous cover for work is required. -It changes the way the management supervises employees. It is extremely important that the management supervises staff according to performance that is measurable. As they are not able to monitor employees when they are not at work, managers need to use different methods to judge their performance. -Team work and social interaction in the organization are affected. Telecommuting means working in different locations and this may affect teamwork. As it may affect the coordination of schedules among team mates. -There also may be resentment among those employees who are not chosen for telecommuting. Research model Now we will take a look at NTUC Income insurance implementing flexible work hours. NTUC Income insurance allows employees to choose their starting time and their finishing time. This enables them to choose a time slot so that they can meet their other commitments. Such arrangements help them to cater to their family needs and have better work life balance. NTUC Income has experienced improved employee motivation, lower employee turnover and they have also witnessed a reduction in sick leave, from approximately 4.7 days in 1998 to 4.2 days in 2001. The NTUC case illustrates the following: -Flexible work hours are offered to employees to enable them to manage work and family responsibilities effectively. -Flexible work hours work well when is trust and accountability from both the employers and the employees side. (Guidelines on Best Work Life Practices) NTUC Income conducted surveys to ask employees about their views on these arrangements. The result of these surveys showed that employees were happy with these schemes. And these schemes resulted in better employee morale and improved employee commitment. (Flexible Work Arrangements) Hypothesis for the research was that that implementing flexible working hours in the Key issues that need to be considered in the implementation One of the main issues that need to be considered is the supervision of such employees. Since the employees are allowed to choose the time that they want to work for, there need to be proper practices in place to monitor that the employees are working the required amount of hours. Another issue that needs to be considered is the communication between different employees. As the employees will be working at different times they will therefore meet less frequently thus communication between them is affected. A major issue that needs to be considered is achieving fairness for all staff and employees. Providing these benefits to only a few employees might cause resentment among the others resulting in problems in the organization. Another thing that needs to be looked into is having clear and effective HR policies to help keep track of the number of hours each employee has worked and to ensure that there is work happening in the organization at all times. For example there may be days when no one would be there in the office because people may have worked at some big event in the office the previous day. Also keeping track of the hours that employees have worked enables employers to judge the hourly rate for each employee and also helps to see if some jobs are too big for the employee and some are too small. It also helps to understand and reduce employee stress. Other issues that need to be considered are that is there enough labor at all times in the organization. The time, effort and resources required to implement these schemes also need to be considered. Another issue is maintaining a high level of contact between the employees and the management ensuring that there is proper communication and that the management is updated with what’s happening. Conclusion Flexible work hours have many benefits which outweigh its disadvantages. It improves employee morale and provides numerous benefits to employers also. Many companies have successfully implemented these schemes and have derived benefits from these schemes. In order to implement these schemes effectively the following steps need to be performed. -The scheme should first be implemented for a period of three to four months and then the impact must be assessed. -It should be made voluntary and should be implemented in the whole organization. -Setting up a team or a task force having representatives from all the parties that have a stake in this scheme i.e. people from human resource, management and employees would be helpful this would allow the company to assess individual needs so that difficulties can be anticipated. -After assessing the needs the next step is positioning it in the minds of the employees and to communicate the implementation of these schemes to the employees. -Convincing the employees about the benefits of these schemes addressing all relevant issues is the next step. -Evaluation of the scheme needs to be done and then necessary changes need to be made. -The staff needs to be informed of these changes and continued evaluation of the programme should be done. If these steps are performed then flexible work hours can easily be implemented in the organization. Bibliography Breaugh, J. A., Frye, N. K. (2008). Work–Family Conflict: The Importance of Family-Friendly Employment Practices and Family-Supportive supervisors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 345-353. Collins, M. (n.d.). Problems of Flexible Working Research and Theory in the New Economy. Retrieved from Cheshire Henbury: http://www.cheshirehenbury.com/ebew/virtulahtml/collins.html Flexible Work Arrangements. (n.d.). Retrieved from Ministry of Manpower: http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/flexible-work-arrangements-mom-mcds.pdf Flextime. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_working_hours Guidelines on Best Work Life Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved from Ministry of Manpower: http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Guidelines/2672_GuidelinesonBestWLPractices.pdf Kossek, E., Michel, J. (n.d.). Flexible Work Schedules. In APA Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Washington: American Psychological Association. sample memos. (n.d.). Retrieved from .docstoc: http://www.google.com.sg/imgres?imgurl=http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/1969158.pngimgrefurl=http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1969158/sample-memosh=1650w=1275sz=135tbnid=wSI-6HhCUCLWqM:tbnh=102tbnw=79prev=/search%3Fq%3Dexamples%2Bof%2Bmemos%26tbm%3 Study Notes: People Manageme nt. (n.d.). Retrieved from tutor2u: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/people/workforce_flexible_hours.asp Successful Flexible Work Arrangements An Employers Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from Ministry of Manpower Singapore: http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Successful-Flexible-Work-Arrangements.pdf Workplaces that Work. (n.d.). Retrieved from HR Council for the Non-profit Sector: http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/workplaces-flexible.cfm

Berlin and Pettit: Can their accounts of liberalism be sustained when c

Laws have the capacity to infringe civil liberties however they also provide a forum for its creation and development. For Berlin, his conception of liberty is based upon the idea of positive and negative freedoms. Liberty according to Berlin is viewed as freedom from interference; therefore laws which respect our freedoms are preferable as they allow for different paths of self-actualization. Pettit however considers liberty in terms of freedom from domination and considers the role laws and democracy can play in assuring individual freedoms. In addition to considering the respective approaches of Berlin and Pettit, their theories will also be considered in relation to terrorism. By considering their respective arguments in the context of terrorism, it becomes important to conceptualize laws not in terms of those which respect or interfere with our freedom, but rather how they are able to balance the competing interests of security and individual freedoms. Considering an Appropriate Framework There are a variety of traditions which examine the relationship between the rule of law and freedom, which include Berlin’s positive and negative liberty, Republican Liberalism and concept of freedom as a Triadic relationship . Historically, liberalism has been viewed as an attempt to limit state power to preserve individual freedoms however this remains an oversimplification of liberal thought. Whilst liberal rights can be understood as the freedom to pursue individual interests, they are best considered the product of a strong liberal state and the rule of law. Therefore, when considering laws which respect or interfere with our freedoms, it may be problematic to consider them in terms of simple binaries as different laws affect... ...ewsletter of PEGS, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 9, 16-17. Pettit, P. 1993, "The Ideal of a Republic", The Newsletter of PEGS, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. pp. 9, 16-17. Putterman, T. 2006, "Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty: A Reassessment and Revision", Polity, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 416-446. Riley, J. 2001, "Interpreting Berlin's Liberalism", The American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 2, pp. pp. 283-295. Sigler, J.A. 1966, "The Political Philosophy of C. Wright Mills", Science & Society, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. pp. 32-49. Stillman, R. 2003, "Too Much Negative Liberty? Too Little Positive Liberty? (Or Why Berlin's Idea All Depends on Its Cultural Context)", Administrative Theory & Praxis, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. pp. 581-583. Zedner, L. 2005, "Securing Liberty in the Face of Terror: Reflections from Criminal Justice", Journal of Law and Society, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. pp. 507-533.

Discrimination with “A House on Mango Street” Essay

In the society of today, discrimination and other similar ideas are not suppressed so that they are free to roam our cities, states, countries, and finally the whole world. Still, different sides of the world have different types of discriminations. There are some about animals, race, etc. But the worst possible is discrimination against the opposite sex; cause then those people would be against about 50 percent of the world’s population of humans. So, those who oppose this would try to show the world that the idea of sexism is wrong, and Sandra Cisneros is one of then. She indirectly discusses it in a book, â€Å"House on Mango Street.† This book, â€Å"The House on Mango Street† by Sandra Cisneros, showed feminism and machismo in the Latino culture. For example, I quote, â€Å"I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go.†(p.55) In this quote, the man, who represents the machismo side, tries to take control of Esperanza, which is in the feminism side. This shows an example for power between each other and the thought that the sexes are unequal, unbalanced, and that the male side has more power. For, is the man in the story didn’t think that he could kiss Esperanza and get away with it because he has the right to do so, then he wouldn’t have done so. Just because the society that Esperanza lives in believe that women have no right in the governments or any other part of the society than to care for the family that she lives in and nothing else. So, taking the machismo’s side, first of all I think that it is wrong and that all people are on the same level of equality, its just that some prove themselves more valuable to others so that they have more power in the real world but no person has power over another person. Women’s rights is another important idea of discriminations. An example from this book would be, â€Å"Then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoor because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.†(p.79) In this part of the story, the one on the feminism side is being locked up and prevented from doing what she wants to do. In my point of view, plus my previous experiences, I know that no one likes to be locked up and not enjoy  the joy while is possible to do so. Also, it affects how the affected person would respond to others when they are free because they would have never even touched the real world. It would have both physical and mental effects. In addition to that, the women shouldn’t be locked up and more they are limited, the more they would be afraid of the world outside and surrounding them. But, even though most women who are locked up in their own house would be afraid of the world outside, in the very inside, there would be a place where they are longing to transform the musty air they breath to fresh. The dull and bitter papaya and coconut juice would then change into sugar and bubbly drinks. All these would be incomplete without some equality in this society and world. There are places for everyone in this world, but sometimes there are a few people who will never know where they fit. These people are ignored and need places to belong to. For example, Esperanza needs a home of her own because the house she is living in now brings her and her family shame. In the hierarchy of needs, love and caring is one of the parts in it and when the hierarchy is incomplete, there would be problems and disorders. These women who are fighting hard not only for freedom, but also their lives, and they are least likely to succeed when the opposite sex are constantly harassing them and don’t make them feel that they belong. Some strong willed ones would find a way to escape their treacherous would, but that does not work for every abused woman. As a result, the men would give the women so hard of a time to live their lives that they would even fear to even think about escaping their present life. They are why equality must be achieved throughout the world. All that is done and said, there is only one thing left to do. Words may change people’s thoughts and ideas, but words without action is just like living on a deserted island, no point in doing so. That is why we must bring words and actions together to fight discrimination back to where it came from. Words alone would only give a new idea and would not change the world. Action alone would result in only hurting people. Still, words alone, like Martin Luther King or Caesar Chavez, would succeed, but it would take more time and the â€Å"inactive† people would suffer before the world changes. All that is asked is that ideas of how discriminations should be public so that everyone would know how the majority of the population feels and some or even all would change their ideas about how to treat one another and finally achieve equality. It is all about how in which perspective the ideas are seen. It would take a long and grueling process, but the rewards are always better than what is lost.

What Is the Gamblers Fallacy

A fallacy in which an inference is drawn on the assumption that a series of chance events will determine the outcome of a subsequent event. Also called the Monte Carlo fallacy, the negative recency effect, or the fallacy of the maturity of chances. In an article in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (1994), Dek Terrell defines the gamblers fallacy as the belief that the probability of an event is decreased when the event has occurred recently. In practice, the results of a random event (such as the toss of a coin) have no effect on future random events.   Examples and Observations Jonathan Baron: If you are playing roulette and the last four spins of the wheel have led to the balls landing on black, you may think that the next ball is more likely than otherwise to land on red. This cannot be. The roulette wheel has no memory. The chance of black is just what it always is. The reason people may tend to think otherwise may be that they expect the sequence of events to be representative of random sequences, and the typical random sequence at roulette does not have five blacks in a row. Michael Lewis: Above the roulette tables, screens listed the results of the most recent twenty spins of the wheel. Gamblers would see that it had come up black the past eight spins, marvel at the improbability, and feel in their bones that the tiny silver ball was now more likely to land on red. That was the reason the casino bothered to list the wheel’s most recent spins: to help gamblers to delude themselves. To give people the false confidence they needed to lay their chips on a roulette table. The entire food chain of intermediaries in the subprime mortgage market was duping itself with the same trick, using the foreshortened, statistically meaningless past to predict the future. Mike Stadler: In baseball, we often hear that a player is due because it has been awhile since he has had a hit, or had a hit in a particular situation.The flip side of this is the notion of the hot hand, the idea that a string of successful outcomes is more likely than usual to be followed by a successful outcome... People who fall prey to the gamblers fallacy think that a streak should end, but people who believe in the hot hand think it should continue. T. Edward Damer: Consider the parents who already have three sons and are quite satisfied with the size of their family. However, they both would really like to have a daughter. They commit the gamblers fallacy when they infer that their chances of having a girl are better, because they have already had three boys. They are wrong. The sex of the fourth child is causally unrelated to any preceding chance events or series of such events. Their chances of having a daughter are no better than 1 in 2--that is, 50-50.