Flexible work-environment policies of technology firms in India: A Project Manager's perspective

Abstract

Technology firms in India have been notoriously known for their erratic and unpredictable working hours. As compensation to such a stressful and unpredictable working environment, employers are increasingly looking at providing increased working flexibility options to its employees. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommends the use of flexibility to attract employees, improve employee engagement and satisfaction, and boost retention. Flexible working environment implies flexibility both in terms of working timing as well as location. A variety of options such as choices in managing time, flexible time and flexible place (including telecommuting), reduced time and time off cater to this objective. A number of studies across the globe have analysed and proved the fact that flexibility at work place improves employee productivity and that the mere provisions of such policies help create perceived benefits for employees and hence are good for business at large. Towards this, companies have been creating variety of support systems and policy modifications to provide better flexibility options for its employees. But the extent to which such policies are used and are effective can be appreciated only after possible issues in its implementation are identified and studied. For instance, the effectiveness of such initiatives is highly dependent on line managers who are the authority when it comes to such requests from their subordinates. This study takes an account of the various factors that play a role when a technology company employee in India opts for flexible working from the perspective of his/her manager. The research model that we propose takes into account role of the employee, trust factor, project constraints, empathy considerations, and additional managing burden as independent factors that can influence the attitude of the manager and finally the intention of him/her recommending a flexible working option for the employee. Organizational attributes, organizational policies on flexible working options and technology/infrastructure are taken as control factors. The study aims to answer the relationship between these factors in two cases – high awareness about flexible working options among managers and low awareness about flexible working options among managers. The results show that with greater awareness about flexible work options, managers look to facilitate them despite the need of additional managing efforts only when the trust level with the employee is higher. Also, managers perceive additional managing efforts to be higher if the project constraints are also higher. When awareness levels about flexible work options is low among managers and project constraints are significant, there needs to be a higher level of trust with the employee for managers’ approving flexible work options.