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The effect of flextime on absenteeism and turnover for male and female employees
Journal of Vocational Behavior 26, 206-217 (1985)
The Effect of Flextime on Absenteeism and Turnover for Male and Female Employees DAVID
A. RALSTON AND MICHAEL F. FLANAGAN
School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut Interrole conflict resulting from the demands of work and family roles has become increasingly common over the past decade due to significant societal changes. Females are seen as more susceptible to this interrole conflict because maintaining the home is still perceived as primarily a woman’s role. As such, females tend to have higher interrole conflict than males. Flextime may be instrumental in reducing work/family conflict because of the discretion it permits. In turn, the improved integration of conflicting roles is hypothesized to reduce absenteeism and turnover. Thus a longitudinal investigation of potential differences in absenteeism and turnover for females and males on-flextime and females and males not-on-flextime was conducted. Significant decreases in absenteeism but not turnover for females and males on-flextime were found. It was concluded that flextime, by reducing the need for absenteeism, has positive benefits for employees with interrole conflict problems (e.g., dual career families) and for the organization. 0 1985 Academic Press, Inc.
The absenteeism and turnover literature identify a number of factors which are seen as antecedents to absenteeism (Muchinsky, 1977; Porter & Steers, 1973) and turnover (Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, dz Meglino, 1979; Muchinsky, 1983). Among these factors are family size and responsibility (Beatty & Beatty, 1975; Robinson, 1972), role clarity (Lyons, 1971),job autonomy and level (Fried, Wertman, & Davis, 1972;Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Hrebiniak & Roteman, 1973), role orientation (Graen & Ginsburgh, 1977), and role stress (Bernardin, 1977; Hedges, 1973). Similarly, the conflict literature identifies these same factors as components of interrole conflict (Holahan & Gilbert, 1979b; Riger & Galligan, 1980; Terborg, 1977). As such, inter-role conflict may be seen as an antecedent to withdrawal behaviors. This view is reinforced by Porter and Steers (1973) and Steers and Rhodes (1978) who note that a frequent outcome of inter-role conflict is absenteeism and turnover. Therefore, it logically The authors express their appreciation to Cynthia A. Thompson for her helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper and to David J. Gustafson for his statistical advice. Requests for reprints should be sent to David. A. Ralston, Box U-41, School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268. 206 oool-8791185 $3.00 Copyright All rights
0 1985 by Academic Press, Inc. of reproduction in any form reserved.
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follows that reducing interrole conflict should lead to decreases in absenteeism and turnover. Flextime, because of the discretion that it permits employees in scheduling their specific hours of work, is seen as a means to reduce interrole conflict (Elbing, Gadon, & Gordon, 1975; Hicks & Klimoski, 1981). Thus, it is proposed that flextime may reduce absenteeism and turnover because of its favorable effect upon interrole conflict. The findings in two literature reviews of flextime studies by Golembiewski and Proehl (1978, 1980) support the contention that flextime favorably affects absenteeism and turnover. Table 1 presents a summary of 24 studies which integrates the work of Golembiewski and Proehl with more TABLE 1 Studies of the Relationships of Flextime with Absenteeism and Turnover Study Canada Trust (1974) Environmental Protection Agency (1977, 1978) Finkle (1979) Giammo (1977) Golembiewski, Hilles, & Kagno (1974)
Golembiewski & Hilles (1977)
Harvey & Luthans (1979) Hopp & Sommerstad (1977) Kim & Campagna (1981) Krausz & Freibach (1983) Lufthansa (1974) Martin (1974) Mueller & Cole (1977) Narayanan & Nath (1982) Office of Accounting, Department of Labor (1977)
Absenteeism
Turnover
-
Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced One-day absences increase but at half the rate for comparison group; long-term absences decrease by 35% in F-T units while comparison groups increase by 15% While total sick days increase by over 20%, single-day absences decrease by about 14%, comparing the year after F-T to the year before Reduced Sick leave declines in all but the summer months Reduced Reduced Reduced Decreases in 65% of the organizations rated Reduced Reduced Reduced
Reduced
No change Lower in one-quarter of program; higher in 2 summer months of program
Decreases in 16% of the organizations Reduced
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Study Osteen (1979) Port Authority (1975) Shamir (1980) swart (1974) Uhlmann (1977) U.S. Army, Natick Laboratories (1974) U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command (1975) U .S. Information Agency (1975) Wilton & Harrison (1975)
Absenteeism
Turnover
Reduced No change Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Half-day and one-day absences decrease in 52% of the companies, increase in 4%; no change in longer absences
Reduced in 14% of the companies
recent research. Of the studies which looked at the effect of flextime on absenteeism (n = 23), 78% reported a reduction in absenteeism, 4% found no change, 9% reported instances of reductions or no change, and 9% found mixed effects (i.e., includes increasesand decreases).Similarly, for the effect of flextime on turnover (n = 7), 43% reported a decrease, 14% found no change, 2% reported instances of reduction or no change, and 14% found mixed effects. While this research indicates that most studies found flextime to have a neutral to positive effect upon reducing absenteeism and turnover, as Golembiewski and Proehl note, most of the studies in their reviews lacked methodological rigor. Comparison groups, longitudinal time frames, and/or statistical treatments of the data were typically missing. Also, a priori rationales for the behavior were not usually made. This study addressesthese methodologicalshortcomings with a substantive focus on interrole conflict. Role Demands on Males and Females
At least three significant societal changes affecting the likelihood of interrole conflict have taken place over the past decades. First, there has been a substantial increase in the number of single-parent families (McCrosky, 1982). Second, a majority of women work outside of the home for the first time ever (Allen, 1982). Third, dual career families are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon (Holahan dz Gilbert, 1979a; Rapaport & Rapaport , 1969). All three of these issues deal directly or indirectly with women entering the business world. Attempting to meet the demands of both the work
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and family roles has been shown to lead to higher interrole conflict for women than men (Hall & Gordon, 1973). Therefore this research focuses on female employees since they are viewed as currently being more susceptible to interrole conflict than males because of their socialization (Herman & Gyllstrom, 1977; Holahan & Gilbert, 1979a). That is, both men and women view maintaining a home as a woman’s role (Holahan & Gilbert, 1979a, Pleck, 1977). Thus, women perceive the work role as more likely to conflict with the family role than men do (Herman & Gyllstrom, 1977). When role conflicts force them to make a choice, women will frequently choose absenteeism at work rather than at home. While the increasing acceptance of women in business may help to reduce this conflict, the growing number of dual career families may result in increased interrole conflict for both male and female workers in the future. Thus, inter-role conflict is a problem that is growing in magnitude, and is one that has serious consequences for the organization. Flextime may reduce the need to choose between work and home. As noted, flextime permits discretion in the specific hours that an employee may work (Swart, 1978). This flexibility allows the employee to better integrate potentially conflicting roles. As such, flextime is an intervention that is an organizationally sanctioned modification of the formal organizational structure (Golembiewski et al., 1974). Changing the rigid organizational work schedule structure to be more flexible may help minimize the absenteeism and turnover outcomes of the interrole conflict which have contributed to the stereotype of women in business as being less responsible and less committed (Nieva & Gutek, 1980; Rosen, Rynes, 8z Mahoney, 1983). If flextime facilitates responding to interrole conflict, thereby decreasing absenteeism and turnover, then it may be a useful management plan for unlocking a new pool of talent, while meeting EEOC regulations (Campbell, Daft, & Hulin, 1982; Martin, 1974). The significance of this research is twofold. First, it examines the impact of forces outside the work place (e.g., family demands) on absenteeism and turnover. Studying the impact of nonwork forces has generally been neglected (Johns & Nicholson, 1982;Kopelman, Greenhaus, & Connolly, 1983). Second, this research investigates a mechanism, flextime, that has the potential to aid employees in reducing their conflict between family and work demands. Since this conflict tends to affect female employees more than male employees, flextime may also facilitate the movement of women into management. The identification of such mechanisms is an important concern of management (Campbell, Daft, & Hulin, 1982). Proposed Effects of Flextime The specific question which this study investigates is can flextime help employees more susceptible to interrole conflict (e.g., females) reduce
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absenteeism and turnover when compared with employees less susceptible to interrole conflict (e.g., males)? As such, females on-flextime (i.e., group on-flextime more susceptible to interrole conflict) is designated as the experimental group. The comparison groups are females not-on-flextime, males not-on-flextime, and males on-flextime. The longitudinal changes in absenteeism and turnover for the experimental group are contrasted with those of the comparison groups. Since flextime facilitates responding to interrole conflict, it is predicted that both groups on flextime would have lower absenteeism and turnover levels and, in particular, that flextime would have a greater impact on the absenteeism and turnover of the group more susceptible to interrole conflict, females on-flextime. As such, the following three propositions were developed. Proposition 1: Females on-flextime will have significantly less absenteeism and turnover than females not-on-flextime. Proposition 2: Females on-flextime will have significantly less absenteeism and turnover than males not-on-flextime. Proposition 3: Females on-flextime will not have significantly more absenteeism and turnover than males on-flextime. METHOD Subjects
Subjects were all of the nonsupervisory computer programmers from two state agencies. Subjects were college graduates and relatively young. This type of individual was selected because they typically are more representative of those who would have the interest and ability to pursue a career in management. Depending upon their sex and work schedule these subjects were placed into one of four groups: female programmers on a flextime work schedule, female programmers not-on-flextime, male programmers not-on-flextime, and male programmers on-flextime. Since this was a longitudinal study spanning 2 years, there were some variations in sample sizes due to turnover. The female on-flextime group ranged from 23 to 25 subjects over this period. The female not-on-flextime group fluctuation between 17 and 20. The male not-on-flextime group ranged from 44 to 47, while the male on-flextime group varied between 34 and 37. The two on-flextime groups were employed by one agency while the not-on-flextime groups were employed by the other state agency used for this study. However, all four groups were from the same geographic location. Also, all subjects worked an 8-h day, 40-h week. The bandwidth for the flextime groups was from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The core hours were 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. The lunch period varied in length, at the discretion of the individual, from 2 to 1 h in length. The not-on-flextime agency worked from 8:30 AM to 5:OOPM with a 30-min scheduled lunch.
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Measures
Data for absenteeism and turnover were unobtrusively compiled from agency records for this 2-year time period. The data available on the subjects were summarized by group on a monthly basis. Therefore, absenteeism was measured as the average number of hours absent per employee per month. Turnover was measured as the percentage of individuals in each work group who left the group each month. Design
The group of females with the flextime intervention was treated as the experimental group. The other three groups were treated as comparison groups to the female on-flextime group. The study also contained three time periods: pretest, post-test, and long post-test. The pretest time period was the 6 months immediately prior to the introduction of flextime. The post-test time period was the 6 months immediately following the introduction of flextime. The long post-test time period was the 6-month period of time that began 1 year after the flextime program was put into operation. Analysis
The analysis consisted of three steps. First, the baselines for the acrossthe-model comparisons were established. To determine if there were initial differences in levels of absenteeism and/or turnover between the flextime and not-on-flextime agencies, and between males and females, two ANOVAs on the pretest data were run. Also, a through-time baseline was established using ANOVA to test the patterns of absenteeism and turnover for females not-on-flextime versus males not-on-flextime across the three test periods. Second, to test across-the-model differences, a 2 x 2 x 3 ANOVA with repeated measures was used. For this ANOVA there were two conditions with two levels each. The first condition was work schedule: on-flextime or not-on-flextime. The second condition was sex: male or female. These combined to form the four between groups variables. The three testing periods, pretest, post-test, and long post-test, were the repeated measures factor. Nested under each of these testing periods were six replications. That is, each of these three periods was made up of monthly data for 6 months per period. The replications were crossed with the conditions for this analysis. Third, where significant across-the-model differences (i.e., a significant interaction effect) in the mean levels of absenteeism or turnover were found, a multiple comparison test was used to identify, specifically, the pair or pairs of means that were different. When the ANOVA procedure did not identify across-the-model differences, the multiple comparison tests were not run. When differences were identified with ANOVA, a series of nine multiple comparison tests were run. The following are the
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three tests that were run for the pairwise comparison of the experimental group with each of the three comparison groups. The first test was to determine the significance of the pretest to post-test differences between the experimental group and a comparison group. The second looked at the post-test to long post-test time frame. The third test determined the significance of the overall pretest to long post-test period. For these multiple comparison tests, the Bonferroni technique (Kirk, 1968) for setting the comparison-wise error level of an experiment was used to determine the critical F value. RESULTS Analyses of possible pretest differences between the samples from the two agencies indicated that there were no significant differences for either absenteeism, F(1, 22) = 0.14, p > .05, or turnover, F(1, 22) = 1.01, p > .05. However, for the pretest time period, when the total sample was split by sex, the female employees were found to be absent significantly more than the male employees, F(1, 22) = 4.98, p < .OS.There were no significant differences due to sex for turnover, F(1, 22) = 0.55, p > .05. For the 2-year period of this study, the female not-on-flextime group maintained a significantly higher level of absenteeism than the male noton-flextime group, F(1, 30) = 31.79, p < .OOl. The through-time comparisons for each of these groups indicated that there were no significant longitudinal changes for the males not-on-flextime, F(2, 15) = 2.49, p > .05. However, females not-on-flextime showed significant longitudinal differences, F(2, 15) = 4.18, p < .05. For turnover, no significant differences were found. The results from the across-the-model ANOVAs for absenteeism and turnover were mixed. There were no significant interaction effects for turnover. As such, no multiple comparison tests were run for turnover. For absenteeism, the interaction of work schedule and testing period was significant, F(2, 60) = 13.9, p < .Ol. The mean values and standard deviations for the pretest, post-test, and long post-test are presented in Table 2. Figure 1 presents a graphic representation of these absenteeism trends. In the pretest time period, the absenteeism of the experimental group was higher than that of the three comparison groups. Therefore, if there were any initial differences it was the experimental group that had the greatest problem. During the post-test, the absenteeism level of the experimental group fell below that of the female not-on-flextime and male not-on-flextime groups. By the long post-test the absenteeism level of the experimental group had also fallen below that of the male not-onflextime group, though not significantly. However, this cross-over effect ensures that the treatment effect was not threatened by possible dissimilarities between the experimental and comparison groups.
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I
I
I
I POltl~lt
P&d
PkX*t
Fig. 1. The longitudinalchangesin employeeabsenteeism. An implication of the significant interaction effect of the ANOVA is that there are differences between people both on- and not-on-flextime across the different periods of time from pretest to long post-test. Given these significant differences for absenteeism, the multiple comparison tests were run to determine which pair or pairs of means were different. The results of the multiple comparison tests for absenteeism are presented in Table 3. The Bonferroni comparison-wise error level for nine comparisons with an experiment-wise (Ylevel of .05 was determined to be (Y,, = 405. For the comparison of females on-flextime with females not-on-flextime, there was a significant decrease in absenteeism for the females on-flextime from the pretest time period to the post-test time period, F(1, 60) = 16.59, p < .005. There was not a significant decrease from the post-test to the long post-test time period. The overall pretest to long post-test effect was a significant decrease for the experimental group, F(1, 60) = 22.24, p c .005. The trend was similar for the comparison of females on-flextime to males not-on-flextime. The pretest to post-test period resulted in significant decreases for the female group with flextime, F(1,60) = 11.73, p c .005. The post-test to long post-test period showed no significant decreases with, once again, the pretest to long post-test outcome being a significant decrease, F(1, 60) = 17.71, p C .005 (see Table 3). TABLE 2 SummaryStatisticsof the Hours Absentper Monthper Employee Pretest Group
Femaleson-flextime Femalesnot-on-flextime Males not-on-flextime Males on-flextime
Post-test
Long post-test
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
4.53 4.39 4.07 4.07
0.41 0.26 0.17 0.52
3.83 4.81 4.31 3.78
0.33 0.20 0.20 0.22
3.43 4.58 4.13 3.51
0.28 0.17 0.14 0.39
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TABLE 3 Multiple Comparison Tests on Absenteeism for the Experimental Group, Females onFlextime with the Three Comparison Groups: Females Not-on-Flextime, Males Not-onFlextime, and Males On-Flextime Comparison Females not-on-flextime from pretest to post-test Females not-on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Females not-on-flextime from pretest to long post-test Males not-on-flextime from pretest to post-test Males not-on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Males not-on-flextime from pretest to long post-test Males on-flextime from pretest to post-test Males on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Males on-flextime from pretest to long post-test
FU, W 16.59* 0.42 22.24* 11.73* 0.72 17.71* 2.18 0.24 3.88
* p < .005.
The comparison of females on-flextime with males on-flextime resulted in no significant differences (see Table 3). This research is subject to the limitations generally associated with ex post facto field studies. The researcher does not have direct control over the independent variable. That is, manipulation of the independent variable, flextime, was not possible. Similarly, randomization was not possible either. The agencies determined who would work in the areas selected for analysis. DISCUSSION In a nationwide survey conducted by Louis Harris for General Mills, it was reported that now “the potential impact of family life on work seems to be as great or greater than the impact of work on the family.” In turn, it has been predicted that there will be increasing pressure on employers to adopt family-oriented policies (McCroskey, 1982). For management, a problem will be discerning the useful policies from the useless. In general, the findings of this study support flextime as a useful means to ease interrole conflict and the associated problem of absenteeism. However, flextime was not found to have a significantly positive effect on turnover. While this finding is consistent with those of Harvey and Luthans (1979), it does not reflect the typical findings of previous flextime research (Golembiewski & Proehl, 1978, 1980). The more intriguing findings of the study are the longitudinal changes in the levels of absenteeism for the four groups. Both the females onflextime and the females not-on-flextime had significantly higher levels of absenteeism than the males in the pretest time period. The absenteeism level of the females not-on-flextime remained significantly higher than the males not-on-flextime during the two post periods. Conversely, the absenteeism level of females on-flextime dropped during the post period
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to approximately the same level as males on-flextime, which was significantly lower than the absenteeism level of males not-on-flextime. One way to put this decrease into perspective is to note that the female onflextime group (on average, 25 women) saw their total absenteeism drop on an annual basis by 330 h, or by over 8 weeks worth of an individual’s work. In summary, both women and men may benefit from their reduced need to be absent under flextime. For example, the pretest difference due to sex was not found with flextime. One implication is that the work hours discretion provided by flextime helps to reduce work/family interrole conflict differences between females and males, and as such minimizes absenteeism differences for females due to family role demands. The lack of sex differences in the post-test periods is consistent with the findings of Herman and Gyllstrom (1977) who report that interrole conflict is a function of the number of roles one holds and not one’s sex. A second implication is that flextime may be a promising means to help dual career families to resolve their interrole conflict problems. As such, it appears that flextime helps both men and women to cope with interrole conflict and, in turn, to reduce absenteeism. REFERENCES Allen, T. (1982, January). The third annual salary survey. Working Women, pp. 51-53. Beatty, R. W., & Beatty, J. R. (1975). Longitudinal study of absenteeism of hard-core unemployed. Psychological Reports, 36, 395-406. Bemardin, H. J. (1977). The relationship of personality variables to organizational withdrawal. Personnel Psychology, 30, 17-27. Burke, R. J., Weir, T., & DuWors, D. E. (1979). Type A behavior of administrators and wives’ reports of marital satisfaction and well-being. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 57-65. Campbell, J. P., Daft, R. L., & Hulin, C. L. (1982). What to study: Generating and developing research questions. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Canada Trust. (1974). Flexible working hours ut Canada Trust. Personnel Resources. Elbing, A. O., Gadon, H., & Gordon, J. R. M. (1975). Flexible working hours: The missing link. California Management Review, 17, 50-57. Environmental Protection Agency. (1977, 1978).Flexitime in EPA headquarters. Semiannual headquarters flexitime evaluation, internal memo, August 1977;and final headquarters flexitime evaluation, internal memo, July 1978. Finkle, A. L. (1979, May/June). Flextime in government. Pub/it Personnel Management 8, 152-155. Fried, J., Wertman, M., & Davis, M. (1972). Man-machine interaction and absenteeism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 56, 428-429. Giammo, T. (1977). Testimony before subcommittee on employee ethics and utilization of the committee on post office and civil service on H.R. 2732. Part-time employment andflexible work hours (pp. 150-152). Golembiewski, R. T., & Hilles, R. (1977). Drug company workers like new schedules. Monthly Labor Review, 100, 65-69. Golembiewski, R. T., Hilles, R., & Kagno, M. (1974). A longitudinal study of flex-time effects: Some consequences of an OD structural intervention. Journal of Applied Behuviorul Science, 10, 503-532.
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Uhlmann, G. J. (1977, July). Testimony before subcommitee on employee ethics and utilization of the committee on post office and civil service on H. R. 2732. Part-time employment andj7exible work hours (pp. 87-95). U.S. Army, Natick Laboratories (Massachusetts). (1974). Summary report of flexitime program on the federal government. Bureau of Policies and Standards, U.S. Civil Service Commission. U.S. Army, Tank Automotive Command (Michigan). (1975). Summary report of&dime program in the federal government. Bureau of Policies and Standards, U.S. Civil Service Commission. U.S. Information Agency. (1975). Summary onflexirimeprogram in thefederal government. Bureau of Policies and Standards, U.S. Civil Service Commission. Wilton, M., & Harrison, G. F. (1975). The time of your life: A report onjexible working hours. Haskins and Sells and Associates. Received: June 22. 1984.
The Effect of Flextime on Absenteeism and Turnover for Male and Female Employees DAVID
A. RALSTON AND MICHAEL F. FLANAGAN
School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut Interrole conflict resulting from the demands of work and family roles has become increasingly common over the past decade due to significant societal changes. Females are seen as more susceptible to this interrole conflict because maintaining the home is still perceived as primarily a woman’s role. As such, females tend to have higher interrole conflict than males. Flextime may be instrumental in reducing work/family conflict because of the discretion it permits. In turn, the improved integration of conflicting roles is hypothesized to reduce absenteeism and turnover. Thus a longitudinal investigation of potential differences in absenteeism and turnover for females and males on-flextime and females and males not-on-flextime was conducted. Significant decreases in absenteeism but not turnover for females and males on-flextime were found. It was concluded that flextime, by reducing the need for absenteeism, has positive benefits for employees with interrole conflict problems (e.g., dual career families) and for the organization. 0 1985 Academic Press, Inc.
The absenteeism and turnover literature identify a number of factors which are seen as antecedents to absenteeism (Muchinsky, 1977; Porter & Steers, 1973) and turnover (Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, dz Meglino, 1979; Muchinsky, 1983). Among these factors are family size and responsibility (Beatty & Beatty, 1975; Robinson, 1972), role clarity (Lyons, 1971),job autonomy and level (Fried, Wertman, & Davis, 1972;Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Hrebiniak & Roteman, 1973), role orientation (Graen & Ginsburgh, 1977), and role stress (Bernardin, 1977; Hedges, 1973). Similarly, the conflict literature identifies these same factors as components of interrole conflict (Holahan & Gilbert, 1979b; Riger & Galligan, 1980; Terborg, 1977). As such, inter-role conflict may be seen as an antecedent to withdrawal behaviors. This view is reinforced by Porter and Steers (1973) and Steers and Rhodes (1978) who note that a frequent outcome of inter-role conflict is absenteeism and turnover. Therefore, it logically The authors express their appreciation to Cynthia A. Thompson for her helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper and to David J. Gustafson for his statistical advice. Requests for reprints should be sent to David. A. Ralston, Box U-41, School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268. 206 oool-8791185 $3.00 Copyright All rights
0 1985 by Academic Press, Inc. of reproduction in any form reserved.
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AND TURNOVER
follows that reducing interrole conflict should lead to decreases in absenteeism and turnover. Flextime, because of the discretion that it permits employees in scheduling their specific hours of work, is seen as a means to reduce interrole conflict (Elbing, Gadon, & Gordon, 1975; Hicks & Klimoski, 1981). Thus, it is proposed that flextime may reduce absenteeism and turnover because of its favorable effect upon interrole conflict. The findings in two literature reviews of flextime studies by Golembiewski and Proehl (1978, 1980) support the contention that flextime favorably affects absenteeism and turnover. Table 1 presents a summary of 24 studies which integrates the work of Golembiewski and Proehl with more TABLE 1 Studies of the Relationships of Flextime with Absenteeism and Turnover Study Canada Trust (1974) Environmental Protection Agency (1977, 1978) Finkle (1979) Giammo (1977) Golembiewski, Hilles, & Kagno (1974)
Golembiewski & Hilles (1977)
Harvey & Luthans (1979) Hopp & Sommerstad (1977) Kim & Campagna (1981) Krausz & Freibach (1983) Lufthansa (1974) Martin (1974) Mueller & Cole (1977) Narayanan & Nath (1982) Office of Accounting, Department of Labor (1977)
Absenteeism
Turnover
-
Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced One-day absences increase but at half the rate for comparison group; long-term absences decrease by 35% in F-T units while comparison groups increase by 15% While total sick days increase by over 20%, single-day absences decrease by about 14%, comparing the year after F-T to the year before Reduced Sick leave declines in all but the summer months Reduced Reduced Reduced Decreases in 65% of the organizations rated Reduced Reduced Reduced
Reduced
No change Lower in one-quarter of program; higher in 2 summer months of program
Decreases in 16% of the organizations Reduced
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RALSTON AND FLANAGAN TABLE I-Continued
Study Osteen (1979) Port Authority (1975) Shamir (1980) swart (1974) Uhlmann (1977) U.S. Army, Natick Laboratories (1974) U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command (1975) U .S. Information Agency (1975) Wilton & Harrison (1975)
Absenteeism
Turnover
Reduced No change Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Reduced Half-day and one-day absences decrease in 52% of the companies, increase in 4%; no change in longer absences
Reduced in 14% of the companies
recent research. Of the studies which looked at the effect of flextime on absenteeism (n = 23), 78% reported a reduction in absenteeism, 4% found no change, 9% reported instances of reductions or no change, and 9% found mixed effects (i.e., includes increasesand decreases).Similarly, for the effect of flextime on turnover (n = 7), 43% reported a decrease, 14% found no change, 2% reported instances of reduction or no change, and 14% found mixed effects. While this research indicates that most studies found flextime to have a neutral to positive effect upon reducing absenteeism and turnover, as Golembiewski and Proehl note, most of the studies in their reviews lacked methodological rigor. Comparison groups, longitudinal time frames, and/or statistical treatments of the data were typically missing. Also, a priori rationales for the behavior were not usually made. This study addressesthese methodologicalshortcomings with a substantive focus on interrole conflict. Role Demands on Males and Females
At least three significant societal changes affecting the likelihood of interrole conflict have taken place over the past decades. First, there has been a substantial increase in the number of single-parent families (McCrosky, 1982). Second, a majority of women work outside of the home for the first time ever (Allen, 1982). Third, dual career families are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon (Holahan dz Gilbert, 1979a; Rapaport & Rapaport , 1969). All three of these issues deal directly or indirectly with women entering the business world. Attempting to meet the demands of both the work
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and family roles has been shown to lead to higher interrole conflict for women than men (Hall & Gordon, 1973). Therefore this research focuses on female employees since they are viewed as currently being more susceptible to interrole conflict than males because of their socialization (Herman & Gyllstrom, 1977; Holahan & Gilbert, 1979a). That is, both men and women view maintaining a home as a woman’s role (Holahan & Gilbert, 1979a, Pleck, 1977). Thus, women perceive the work role as more likely to conflict with the family role than men do (Herman & Gyllstrom, 1977). When role conflicts force them to make a choice, women will frequently choose absenteeism at work rather than at home. While the increasing acceptance of women in business may help to reduce this conflict, the growing number of dual career families may result in increased interrole conflict for both male and female workers in the future. Thus, inter-role conflict is a problem that is growing in magnitude, and is one that has serious consequences for the organization. Flextime may reduce the need to choose between work and home. As noted, flextime permits discretion in the specific hours that an employee may work (Swart, 1978). This flexibility allows the employee to better integrate potentially conflicting roles. As such, flextime is an intervention that is an organizationally sanctioned modification of the formal organizational structure (Golembiewski et al., 1974). Changing the rigid organizational work schedule structure to be more flexible may help minimize the absenteeism and turnover outcomes of the interrole conflict which have contributed to the stereotype of women in business as being less responsible and less committed (Nieva & Gutek, 1980; Rosen, Rynes, 8z Mahoney, 1983). If flextime facilitates responding to interrole conflict, thereby decreasing absenteeism and turnover, then it may be a useful management plan for unlocking a new pool of talent, while meeting EEOC regulations (Campbell, Daft, & Hulin, 1982; Martin, 1974). The significance of this research is twofold. First, it examines the impact of forces outside the work place (e.g., family demands) on absenteeism and turnover. Studying the impact of nonwork forces has generally been neglected (Johns & Nicholson, 1982;Kopelman, Greenhaus, & Connolly, 1983). Second, this research investigates a mechanism, flextime, that has the potential to aid employees in reducing their conflict between family and work demands. Since this conflict tends to affect female employees more than male employees, flextime may also facilitate the movement of women into management. The identification of such mechanisms is an important concern of management (Campbell, Daft, & Hulin, 1982). Proposed Effects of Flextime The specific question which this study investigates is can flextime help employees more susceptible to interrole conflict (e.g., females) reduce
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absenteeism and turnover when compared with employees less susceptible to interrole conflict (e.g., males)? As such, females on-flextime (i.e., group on-flextime more susceptible to interrole conflict) is designated as the experimental group. The comparison groups are females not-on-flextime, males not-on-flextime, and males on-flextime. The longitudinal changes in absenteeism and turnover for the experimental group are contrasted with those of the comparison groups. Since flextime facilitates responding to interrole conflict, it is predicted that both groups on flextime would have lower absenteeism and turnover levels and, in particular, that flextime would have a greater impact on the absenteeism and turnover of the group more susceptible to interrole conflict, females on-flextime. As such, the following three propositions were developed. Proposition 1: Females on-flextime will have significantly less absenteeism and turnover than females not-on-flextime. Proposition 2: Females on-flextime will have significantly less absenteeism and turnover than males not-on-flextime. Proposition 3: Females on-flextime will not have significantly more absenteeism and turnover than males on-flextime. METHOD Subjects
Subjects were all of the nonsupervisory computer programmers from two state agencies. Subjects were college graduates and relatively young. This type of individual was selected because they typically are more representative of those who would have the interest and ability to pursue a career in management. Depending upon their sex and work schedule these subjects were placed into one of four groups: female programmers on a flextime work schedule, female programmers not-on-flextime, male programmers not-on-flextime, and male programmers on-flextime. Since this was a longitudinal study spanning 2 years, there were some variations in sample sizes due to turnover. The female on-flextime group ranged from 23 to 25 subjects over this period. The female not-on-flextime group fluctuation between 17 and 20. The male not-on-flextime group ranged from 44 to 47, while the male on-flextime group varied between 34 and 37. The two on-flextime groups were employed by one agency while the not-on-flextime groups were employed by the other state agency used for this study. However, all four groups were from the same geographic location. Also, all subjects worked an 8-h day, 40-h week. The bandwidth for the flextime groups was from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The core hours were 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. The lunch period varied in length, at the discretion of the individual, from 2 to 1 h in length. The not-on-flextime agency worked from 8:30 AM to 5:OOPM with a 30-min scheduled lunch.
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Measures
Data for absenteeism and turnover were unobtrusively compiled from agency records for this 2-year time period. The data available on the subjects were summarized by group on a monthly basis. Therefore, absenteeism was measured as the average number of hours absent per employee per month. Turnover was measured as the percentage of individuals in each work group who left the group each month. Design
The group of females with the flextime intervention was treated as the experimental group. The other three groups were treated as comparison groups to the female on-flextime group. The study also contained three time periods: pretest, post-test, and long post-test. The pretest time period was the 6 months immediately prior to the introduction of flextime. The post-test time period was the 6 months immediately following the introduction of flextime. The long post-test time period was the 6-month period of time that began 1 year after the flextime program was put into operation. Analysis
The analysis consisted of three steps. First, the baselines for the acrossthe-model comparisons were established. To determine if there were initial differences in levels of absenteeism and/or turnover between the flextime and not-on-flextime agencies, and between males and females, two ANOVAs on the pretest data were run. Also, a through-time baseline was established using ANOVA to test the patterns of absenteeism and turnover for females not-on-flextime versus males not-on-flextime across the three test periods. Second, to test across-the-model differences, a 2 x 2 x 3 ANOVA with repeated measures was used. For this ANOVA there were two conditions with two levels each. The first condition was work schedule: on-flextime or not-on-flextime. The second condition was sex: male or female. These combined to form the four between groups variables. The three testing periods, pretest, post-test, and long post-test, were the repeated measures factor. Nested under each of these testing periods were six replications. That is, each of these three periods was made up of monthly data for 6 months per period. The replications were crossed with the conditions for this analysis. Third, where significant across-the-model differences (i.e., a significant interaction effect) in the mean levels of absenteeism or turnover were found, a multiple comparison test was used to identify, specifically, the pair or pairs of means that were different. When the ANOVA procedure did not identify across-the-model differences, the multiple comparison tests were not run. When differences were identified with ANOVA, a series of nine multiple comparison tests were run. The following are the
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three tests that were run for the pairwise comparison of the experimental group with each of the three comparison groups. The first test was to determine the significance of the pretest to post-test differences between the experimental group and a comparison group. The second looked at the post-test to long post-test time frame. The third test determined the significance of the overall pretest to long post-test period. For these multiple comparison tests, the Bonferroni technique (Kirk, 1968) for setting the comparison-wise error level of an experiment was used to determine the critical F value. RESULTS Analyses of possible pretest differences between the samples from the two agencies indicated that there were no significant differences for either absenteeism, F(1, 22) = 0.14, p > .05, or turnover, F(1, 22) = 1.01, p > .05. However, for the pretest time period, when the total sample was split by sex, the female employees were found to be absent significantly more than the male employees, F(1, 22) = 4.98, p < .OS.There were no significant differences due to sex for turnover, F(1, 22) = 0.55, p > .05. For the 2-year period of this study, the female not-on-flextime group maintained a significantly higher level of absenteeism than the male noton-flextime group, F(1, 30) = 31.79, p < .OOl. The through-time comparisons for each of these groups indicated that there were no significant longitudinal changes for the males not-on-flextime, F(2, 15) = 2.49, p > .05. However, females not-on-flextime showed significant longitudinal differences, F(2, 15) = 4.18, p < .05. For turnover, no significant differences were found. The results from the across-the-model ANOVAs for absenteeism and turnover were mixed. There were no significant interaction effects for turnover. As such, no multiple comparison tests were run for turnover. For absenteeism, the interaction of work schedule and testing period was significant, F(2, 60) = 13.9, p < .Ol. The mean values and standard deviations for the pretest, post-test, and long post-test are presented in Table 2. Figure 1 presents a graphic representation of these absenteeism trends. In the pretest time period, the absenteeism of the experimental group was higher than that of the three comparison groups. Therefore, if there were any initial differences it was the experimental group that had the greatest problem. During the post-test, the absenteeism level of the experimental group fell below that of the female not-on-flextime and male not-on-flextime groups. By the long post-test the absenteeism level of the experimental group had also fallen below that of the male not-onflextime group, though not significantly. However, this cross-over effect ensures that the treatment effect was not threatened by possible dissimilarities between the experimental and comparison groups.
213
FLEXTIME, ABSENTEEISM,AND TURNOVER
I
I
I
I POltl~lt
P&d
PkX*t
Fig. 1. The longitudinalchangesin employeeabsenteeism. An implication of the significant interaction effect of the ANOVA is that there are differences between people both on- and not-on-flextime across the different periods of time from pretest to long post-test. Given these significant differences for absenteeism, the multiple comparison tests were run to determine which pair or pairs of means were different. The results of the multiple comparison tests for absenteeism are presented in Table 3. The Bonferroni comparison-wise error level for nine comparisons with an experiment-wise (Ylevel of .05 was determined to be (Y,, = 405. For the comparison of females on-flextime with females not-on-flextime, there was a significant decrease in absenteeism for the females on-flextime from the pretest time period to the post-test time period, F(1, 60) = 16.59, p < .005. There was not a significant decrease from the post-test to the long post-test time period. The overall pretest to long post-test effect was a significant decrease for the experimental group, F(1, 60) = 22.24, p c .005. The trend was similar for the comparison of females on-flextime to males not-on-flextime. The pretest to post-test period resulted in significant decreases for the female group with flextime, F(1,60) = 11.73, p c .005. The post-test to long post-test period showed no significant decreases with, once again, the pretest to long post-test outcome being a significant decrease, F(1, 60) = 17.71, p C .005 (see Table 3). TABLE 2 SummaryStatisticsof the Hours Absentper Monthper Employee Pretest Group
Femaleson-flextime Femalesnot-on-flextime Males not-on-flextime Males on-flextime
Post-test
Long post-test
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
4.53 4.39 4.07 4.07
0.41 0.26 0.17 0.52
3.83 4.81 4.31 3.78
0.33 0.20 0.20 0.22
3.43 4.58 4.13 3.51
0.28 0.17 0.14 0.39
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TABLE 3 Multiple Comparison Tests on Absenteeism for the Experimental Group, Females onFlextime with the Three Comparison Groups: Females Not-on-Flextime, Males Not-onFlextime, and Males On-Flextime Comparison Females not-on-flextime from pretest to post-test Females not-on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Females not-on-flextime from pretest to long post-test Males not-on-flextime from pretest to post-test Males not-on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Males not-on-flextime from pretest to long post-test Males on-flextime from pretest to post-test Males on-flextime from post-test to long post-test Males on-flextime from pretest to long post-test
FU, W 16.59* 0.42 22.24* 11.73* 0.72 17.71* 2.18 0.24 3.88
* p < .005.
The comparison of females on-flextime with males on-flextime resulted in no significant differences (see Table 3). This research is subject to the limitations generally associated with ex post facto field studies. The researcher does not have direct control over the independent variable. That is, manipulation of the independent variable, flextime, was not possible. Similarly, randomization was not possible either. The agencies determined who would work in the areas selected for analysis. DISCUSSION In a nationwide survey conducted by Louis Harris for General Mills, it was reported that now “the potential impact of family life on work seems to be as great or greater than the impact of work on the family.” In turn, it has been predicted that there will be increasing pressure on employers to adopt family-oriented policies (McCroskey, 1982). For management, a problem will be discerning the useful policies from the useless. In general, the findings of this study support flextime as a useful means to ease interrole conflict and the associated problem of absenteeism. However, flextime was not found to have a significantly positive effect on turnover. While this finding is consistent with those of Harvey and Luthans (1979), it does not reflect the typical findings of previous flextime research (Golembiewski & Proehl, 1978, 1980). The more intriguing findings of the study are the longitudinal changes in the levels of absenteeism for the four groups. Both the females onflextime and the females not-on-flextime had significantly higher levels of absenteeism than the males in the pretest time period. The absenteeism level of the females not-on-flextime remained significantly higher than the males not-on-flextime during the two post periods. Conversely, the absenteeism level of females on-flextime dropped during the post period
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to approximately the same level as males on-flextime, which was significantly lower than the absenteeism level of males not-on-flextime. One way to put this decrease into perspective is to note that the female onflextime group (on average, 25 women) saw their total absenteeism drop on an annual basis by 330 h, or by over 8 weeks worth of an individual’s work. In summary, both women and men may benefit from their reduced need to be absent under flextime. For example, the pretest difference due to sex was not found with flextime. One implication is that the work hours discretion provided by flextime helps to reduce work/family interrole conflict differences between females and males, and as such minimizes absenteeism differences for females due to family role demands. The lack of sex differences in the post-test periods is consistent with the findings of Herman and Gyllstrom (1977) who report that interrole conflict is a function of the number of roles one holds and not one’s sex. A second implication is that flextime may be a promising means to help dual career families to resolve their interrole conflict problems. As such, it appears that flextime helps both men and women to cope with interrole conflict and, in turn, to reduce absenteeism. REFERENCES Allen, T. (1982, January). The third annual salary survey. Working Women, pp. 51-53. Beatty, R. W., & Beatty, J. R. (1975). Longitudinal study of absenteeism of hard-core unemployed. Psychological Reports, 36, 395-406. Bemardin, H. J. (1977). The relationship of personality variables to organizational withdrawal. Personnel Psychology, 30, 17-27. Burke, R. J., Weir, T., & DuWors, D. E. (1979). Type A behavior of administrators and wives’ reports of marital satisfaction and well-being. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 57-65. Campbell, J. P., Daft, R. L., & Hulin, C. L. (1982). What to study: Generating and developing research questions. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Canada Trust. (1974). Flexible working hours ut Canada Trust. Personnel Resources. Elbing, A. O., Gadon, H., & Gordon, J. R. M. (1975). Flexible working hours: The missing link. California Management Review, 17, 50-57. Environmental Protection Agency. (1977, 1978).Flexitime in EPA headquarters. Semiannual headquarters flexitime evaluation, internal memo, August 1977;and final headquarters flexitime evaluation, internal memo, July 1978. Finkle, A. L. (1979, May/June). Flextime in government. Pub/it Personnel Management 8, 152-155. Fried, J., Wertman, M., & Davis, M. (1972). Man-machine interaction and absenteeism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 56, 428-429. Giammo, T. (1977). Testimony before subcommittee on employee ethics and utilization of the committee on post office and civil service on H.R. 2732. Part-time employment andflexible work hours (pp. 150-152). Golembiewski, R. T., & Hilles, R. (1977). Drug company workers like new schedules. Monthly Labor Review, 100, 65-69. Golembiewski, R. T., Hilles, R., & Kagno, M. (1974). A longitudinal study of flex-time effects: Some consequences of an OD structural intervention. Journal of Applied Behuviorul Science, 10, 503-532.
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