Flexible Working Schedule and Motivation

Abstract

The flexible working hours allows employees to focus on multiple roles in today’s competitive
working environments. This arrangement has been widely practiced in order to create balance
between work and lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between
the flexible working hours and employees’ motivation. The survey questionnaires were used for
data collection in this study. Meanwhile, both descriptive and inferential statistics were
employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that the implementation of flexible working
hours show a significant impact to the employees’ motivation in the XYZ Department. Thus, the
null hypothesis was rejected. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a high positive
correlation between flexible working hours and employees’ motivation. Through this study,
opinions, suggestions and comments were discussed to enhance the effectiveness of the working
system.

Keywords: flexible working hours, motivation, job satisfaction

INTRODUCTION

Streamlining of working hour schedule and balancing between personal life and work is an
essential issue in the European Union countries especially in the United Kingdom since 1990s
(Jones & Jones, 2011). This agenda has attracted the attention of various parties, especially
among motivational experts and politicians who agreed that this issue should be discussed
further in order to improve the balance between work and family. Indeed, the flexible working
arrangement practices leads to balance the job responsibility and children’s safety at home
especially for working mother (Michael, 2004). Furthermore, previous research proved that the
flexible working hours contributed to higher job satisfaction, motivation and employee
engagement (Mc Nall et al., 2010). Therefore, to increase the employee motivation towards the
vision and mission, each organization needs to emphasize on their staff welfare. Fynes et al.
(1998), identified among the advantages gained by the staff through the implementation of
flexible working hours are the ability to reduce absenteeism, reducing stress, improving staff

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moral and increasing staff motivation to work. As a result, the implementation of flexible
working hours schedule in Europe in both public and private sectors have contributed to balance
the work and family responsibility. By doing so, the staffs have more suitable time to cater
responsibilities towards the family including food, children safety and shopping without any
stress (De Roure, 1995). The flexible working hours consists of part time, overtime, long term
leaves, job sharing, flexitime and shift work (Chung & Tijdens, 2012; Jones & Jones, 2011).
They also stated that the working time referring to the degree of flexibility, gender equity,
negotiation structure and diversity of working time. However, all staff must be available at the
work place within a time frame, such as within 10.00 am until 3.30 pm. Therefore by
implementing this system, employees may choose the suitable time to clock-in and clock-out,
provided that the total working hours in a day or in a week remains complied (Zulkifli et al.,
2004). Subramaniam and Selvaratnam (2010) pointed out that almost half of women employees
in Malaysia faced difficulties of balancing work and their family life. To this regard, the
government and private sectors should take note of this issue accordingly. This is because there
is an increase in awareness of the quality work relationship for working mothers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The impact from changes in economy, technology, social and lifestyle in today’s environments
have boosted the awareness of flexible working arrangements in an organization. Evidence from
the previous study indicated that the competitive working environment and increasing workload
had caused family and personal life being neglected (Mary & Chris, 1998). Smith (1993) pointed
out that working women should have balance between tasks in the office and responsibility to the
family especially on safety, health and children needs. Therefore, Cook (1992) suggested that
through the implementation of flexible working hour’s schedule, the responsibilities over
children’s safety and education will be more secured. This is due to the fact that they are able to
engage for a better coordination between work and responsibilities to the family. This statement
is than further supported by Emmott and Hutchinson (1998). They found out that the
implementation of flexible working hours schedule could increase and balance women’s
responsibilities in work and family. It is a fact that children need love, food, safety and parents’

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attention to ensure that children lead to a normal life. This complies with Maslow’s theory of
motivation that emphasizes the aspects of safety, love, needs for food, esteem and self-
actualization that needs to be fulfilled by individual in order to increase the motivation at work.
In line with the continuous improvement initiative to uplift the service delivery system to the
public, flexible working hour’s schedule which is also known as Staggered Working Hours
(SWH) has been implemented in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur commencing 1st May
1998. In fact, the government has agreed for the SWH to be extended to all agencies in the
Federal Government throughout the country. The key objective of this policy is to increase the
service quality and extend service duration to the public. In order to ensure the effectiveness of
SWH, the characteristics of employees’ satisfaction and motivation at work should be addressed
accordingly. As such, employer should play an important role in determining employee
satisfaction, comfortability and welfare. Cushway (1994) argued that the implementation of
flexible working hours is an effective stage to increase productivity without increasing the work
force.

Trend in Flexible Working Hours:

Zanten (2007), the Head of Diversity and Inclusiveness Shell International pointed out that the
flexible working hours is the best and most suitable option to be implemented in the company.
Furthermore, he also mentioned that Shell is fortunate to be one of the world’s largest companies
that value environment and allows more space for women to achieve a balanced life as well as
plan for women to occupy 20 per cent of senior executive positions in the company (Berita
Harian, 2007). In the UK labour market for example, the flexible working hours is spreading
widely (Jennifer & Jean, 2009). Currently, the Malaysian Government’s has taken effort to
extend the unpaid leave for women employees in the public sector for taking care of children
from currently 90 days to the maximum of five years. It has been agreed in the Cabinet meeting
to give opportunity and extra time for women employees to raise their children without having to
quit their job. This recent decision enables female staff to focus on bringing up children in line
with the government’s desire to provide attention to elementary education (Utusan Malaysia,
2007).
Elements of Motivation:

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Kreitner and Kinicki (2001) defined the motivation as a psychological process that continuously
raises motivation, direction and voluntary actions towards achieving goals. Maslow argued that
in every individual lives there are five hierarchical essential needs: (1) physiological; (2) safety;
(3) social; (4) esteem; (5) and self-actualisation. Furthermore, he later divided the needs into
lower level and higher level of needs. The lower level of needs consists of physiological, safety
and social whilst higher level of needs includes esteem and self-actualisation. Managers should
understand these psychological processes if they want to be successful in leading the staff
towards achieving the organisational objectives. Herewith, the few elements of motivation:
1) Rewards: Everyone strives to achieve a good living. With rewards such as salary, bonus,
annual leaves, pension, etc.
2) Personal objective: Human is driven to work by personal reasons and needs such as to gain
basic human needs (self-preservation) which drives people to strive for their security reasons.
3) Recognition and sense of belonging: Normal human has the desire to feel needed, recognized
and accepted by the society.
4) Love: When a person loves himself, his family and his employer, this will then motivate him
in anything he does. He will utilize all the will power and strength to accomplish the task.
www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 9, No. 3; 2013 210
5) Working hours: Suitable working hours are needed by the employees to have a balance
between working hours and time to be spent with family and personal matters at home. The
employee will feel more motivated if time spent with children at home is extended.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

i) To identify the relationship between Flexible Working Hours and Employees

Satisfaction.
ii) To analyze the impact of Flexible Working Hours on Employees Satisfaction in IT
sector

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

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Flexibility defines that when and where work gets done and how careers are planned. As far as
advancement in the technologies is concern it demands that we altered the ways to how we
connect with people through different means, arrange teams and measure their work performance
when people work from home. Flexibility in work timing is cost-effective and efficient way
which also helps in savings on overheads cost and reduces the expenses, gain competitiveness
and also improve the business performance.

✓ To increase the creativity

✓ To increase employee’s retention
✓ To raise employee’s confidence and job satisfaction
✓ To improve productivity
✓ To reduce anxiety.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research design of study will be descriptive research. In the research the methodology used
is the mixture of both quantitative and qualitative research. The secondary information has been
used to gather the essential data that answer the objective of the study of the flexible working
hours.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

I took opinion from 38 people by questionnaire. Overall, the majority of the respondents’ age
ranged from 26 to 30 years old (39.5%) followed by 31 to 40 years old (29%). The remaining of
10.5 per cent ranged is between the age of 21 to 25 years old and another 21 per cent is 41 years
old and above. This sub section analysed all items in the questionnaire including relationship
between flexible working hour and staff motivation level. Mean score values for all items were
calculated and tabulated in Table.
Mean score distribution analysis on relationship between flexible working hour and staff
motivation level in department XYZ

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 Se. Item Description Mean
No. score
1 I feel comfortable with the implementation of SWH compared to the normal 3.97
working schedule.
2 Selection of suitable working shift (WS) allows me to spend more time with 3.82
my family
3 Selection of suitable working shift (WS) allows me to sort out my personal 3.97
matters at home without interrupting working hour
4 I have ample rest time to be with my family by selecting the suitable working 3.87
shift (WS).
5 Implementation of SWH is able to increase my service quality to the customer 3.84
6 I feel stressed at work when my responsibilities and my children’s welfare and 3.71
safety at home are neglected.
7 I feel SWH helps me from being late to office 3.87
8 I feel that service to customer will be affected if staffs are late to work. 3.92
9 I feel that tardiness issue can be reduced through the implementation of SWH 3.84
in all departments in the government sector.
10 I have high commitment to come to work through the implementation of 3.87
SWH.
11 In my opinion high commitment among staff is important in strengthening 3.92
the public sector system
12 My motivation level at work can be increased through SWH 3.87
13 Staff motivation level can be increased through the implementation of new 3.71
policy by the government such as SWH.
14 In my opinion more time spent with the family may increase my motivation 3.82
level at work.
15 I found that the implementation of SWH provides more time for the customer 3.82
to deal with the government.

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As indicated in the table above, the highest mean score was at 3.97. There were two items scored
similarly in the questions on ‘I feel comfortable with the implementation of SWH compared to
the normal working schedule’ and ‘Selection of suitable working shift (WS) allows me to sort
out my personal matters at home without interrupting working hour’. The lowest mean score was
at 3.71 which were also being scored by two questions those are ‘I feel stressed at work when my
responsibilities and my children’s welfare and safety at home are neglected’ and ‘Staff
motivation level can be increased through the implementation of new policy by the government
such as SWH’. Subsequently, the average mean score was derived at 3.85. In conclusion, the
respondents from the XYZ Department benefited from the implementation of SWH.

Discussion and Recommendations

The results from this research confirmed that the implementation of flexible working hour
schedule contributed to the staff motivation at XYZ Department. Hence, this study further
supports the previous researches conducted on the perspectives of female staff satisfaction
through flexible working hour, which proved could increase the motivation and satisfaction level
of a family (Emmott and Hutchinson, 1998). Nevertheless, the implementation of flexible
working hour schedule allows staff to perform duties in a comfortable, peaceful and less stress
condition that can elevate staff motivation level. This study than further supports the previous
research findings indicated that there is relationship between the implementation of flexible
working hour schedule and staff motivation level at XYZ Department. Simultaneously, SWH
enables the staff to balance between their obligations at work and family matters at home.
Following the conducted research, it is clearly indicated that the implementation of SWH may
give positive impact to married staffs. This is proven from Smith (1993) that working women
should have a balance between tasks in the office and her obligation towards the family
especially on safety issues, health and her children’s needs for food. In other research, Cook
(1992) concluded www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 9, No. 3; 2013 214 that
through the implementation of flexible working hour schedule the obligations towards children’s
safety and early education are more secured and both responsibilities at work and at home can be
streamlined. From another point of view, the implementation of SWH could also reduce the
absenteeism and improve staff moral and motivation level (Fynes at al., 1998). The mean score

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indicated in this study was more than 3 indicated that they agreed with the statement. This is due
to the fact that SWH implementation enables staff to choose the best time to clock-in and clock-
out. They will have more benefit with the implementation of this flexible time arrangement. For
example, for the family employees they are able to find a more suitable time for the needs of
safety, health and kid’s education. From the research outcome, the basic needs such as staff
needs for meal and ample break time strongly influence ones motivation to work. This study
indicated that there is a relationship between flexible working hours schedule and staff
motivation in XYZ Department. As such, it is recommended for XYZ Department to increase
staff motivation level through the implementation of SWH by the Federal Government. In the
meantime, the XYZ Department senior officers and heads of department should provide brief
information to the staff on SWH system in general to ensure they understand the system
thoroughly. This is for the reason that the results indicated showed there is still staff who do not
actually understand the implementation of SWH by the government. Apart from that, the Head of
XYZ Department should balance the number of staff for each Staggered Hour (SH) selections to
ensure smooth office operations especially the counter service for customers. From the
researcher’s opinion, XYZ Department staff should identify appropriate SH in order to allow
staff to have ample time with their family hence boost their passion and motivation to work.
According to Riedmann (2006), selection of suitable clock-in and clock-out time every day may
give them ample time to be with their family and able to meet the needs especially on safety,
health and children’s needs for meal. Apart from that, staff at XYZ Department should have high
internal attributes such as self-discipline, responsible, trustworthy and commitment towards their
work to ensure effective implementation of SWH. This is because the comments gathered from
many respondents stated that without practicing these values all implemented policies and
strategies by the Federal Government may not be successful. As such, the employees need to
play an important role and give full cooperation to the employer to implement the SWH system
successfully in the XYZ Department. Moreover the Federal Government should monitor closely
the SWH implementation to ensure the effectiveness of this policy. Apart from that, the
government need to form a special committee to study the effectiveness of SWH implementation
throughout the Federal Government agencies in the nation. Through this committee, all
complications and problems voiced out by the staff can be addressed drastically to ensure the
effectiveness of SWH system implementation. Besides that, the Government should consider

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improvements on the SWH system such as regular assessments on effectiveness of SWH
implementation. For instance every department of the Federal Government agencies must submit
staff performance report for every six month. This approach will assist the government to
provide room for improvement in order to maintain the effectiveness of SWH system
implementation throughout the nation. This study was conducted to achieve the set objectives.
Future researchers may consider to: 1) Extended the research. Future researchers are expected to
extend the study by increase number of samples. With that, the findings shall be more accurate.
Future researchers may use different method of sampling for data collection 2) Make research
comparison: This research may also be conducted by performing comparison between
relationship of Flexible working hour schedule and staff motivation level in XYZ Department
and similar parameters at the federal level. This is due to differences of motivation level for staff
at different branches. 3) Extend the studied scope: Subsequently, the researchers may extend the
scope of studies as it is not limited on certain departments only.

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, the concept of flexible working arrangements is becoming very common as well as
universal strategies to be implemented in government and private organization. The changes of
workplace and job today may result in enhancing the employees work satisfaction and
motivation. Consequently, it is important for the organization to provide more attention on this
policy. In addition, the organizations should also perceive the implementation of the flexible
working arrangement from a broader perspective. This is because the studies of alternating
working hours portray impact on work life conflict and health.

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