Does flexibility in location and time affect behavior towards work - Research Paper Example

? Project Critique: BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE The paper seeks to find out whether flexibility in location and time affect behavior towards work and if it has any impact on the business development. For this the a project is developed involving 73 employees of a company with the “traditional” ways of working and taken to a new office environment where New Ways of Working are introduced with flexibility in time and location enabled (allowed). The employees are left to operate in this new environment for two years and data about their behavior is collected using a special system developed for this purpose called the work@task and online questionnaires. The project finds out that there is no much difference on the behavior of employees even with the increased flexibility in time and location of work. 2. IN DEPTH CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE Purpose The researcher clearly identifies the research problem before working on the research. He clearly states the problem and links the problem to the current way of doing things. In the title, “New ways of working: does flexibility in time and location of work change work behavior and affect business outcomes?” the researcher has here clearly indicated, using this title, that he intends to identify, if any, how flexibility in time and location of work changes the work behavior and affect business outcomes. Further, in the abstract, the researcher explains what he means by business outcomes, where he identifies business outcomes to be the productivity of a business. It is important to note that his identification of what business outcomes means breaks would be ambiguity in the statement and makes it easier for the reader to follow on the purpose of the research. Therefore, the question that lingers is whether it is easy to determine what the researcher intends research? Yes it is. The researcher intends to find out how the “New Ways of Working” which bring about the flexibility in the time and location of work affects the productivity of a business and the impacts it has on the work behavior. (Strauss, Kochan, & Ichnowiski, 2000) Literature Review The author has not literature review section, which in my view weakens the credibility of the research. Having literature review works to give legitimacy to what one is studying and connects it to previously done works. Such a connection would enable readers of the research document to figure out what previous researchers have suggested in their findings regarding a similar topic or a related one. With nothing to compare the research with or to derive scientific knowledge from this puts dents on the findings of this research because of the lack of a benchmark. That having been said, the researcher tried to use others findings in his references and in text citations e.g. “The Telework Trendlines 2009 [7] reported that the number of U.S. employees who worked remotely at least one day per month increased 39% in two years from approximately 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008.” Though this is worth mentioning, it cannot be used to replace the literature review section (Merle, Schelvis, Groenesteijn, & Vink, 2012). Objective and hypothesis When it comes to the identification of the objectives and the hypotheses of the research, the researcher did a good job since it is very clear from the beginning what the research intends to achieve. The research question is “does flexibility in time and location of work change work behavior and affect business outcomes?” which is clear in the tile of the research and severally repeated throughout the research document. The hypothesis of the research has not been clearly stated though was indirectly alluded. “Expectations of these measures are often high, such as a reduction in operating costs and an increase of productivity.” Here the researcher is trying to give the general expectations of the research though he is not clearly stating what the hypothesis is. Ordinarily, the researcher would be expected to identify the research hypothesis which is mostly guided through previous research conducted on the same or related topic. This may have been harder for this research since it has no literature review which was to discuss others thoughts on this topic or a related one. Ethical Standards Applied The 73 employees used in the research were well informed of the nature of the research that they were engaging in. They knew the aims of the study and were well informed of the objectives of the same. Their confidentiality was well guaranteed since they were to respond to the questionnaires on the internet which guaranteed anonymity. The research did not pose any harm therefore, it is safe to say the participants were well protected. (Kenedy, De, Kuijer, & Desen, 2005) Operational definitions The researcher doesn’t have a definitions of words segment in the research paper and therefore some words and concepts were not defined. This should not have been the case since the definitions of words helps the readers have a deeper understanding of the contents discussed in the paper. He however tried to use implied meanings of the words as he did his paper but did not categorically define them. This in my view weakens the research depth and doesn’t therefore take in consideration all categories of readers that may be interested in reading the research but are not well conversant with words used in the paper. Methodology The research design has been well identified and the researcher has continued to use different methods to collect/gather information. The work@task system which was used in collaboration with the questionnaire were able to give correct or near correct responses. This is because of the timely nature of the work@task system. Respondents had to reply to the messages instantaneously, which would therefore give exact locations. The development of the system included use of messages and coding of the place of work and the messages responded to using these codes. This made it easier to respond to the messages and also correctly identified the places where the respondents were at the particular instant. There was however no pilot study conducted. This should not have been the case since pilot study enables the researcher to have an upfront idea on what expectations to have during the actual study. (Dimbia, 2008) Data analysis/Results The use of both quantitative and qualitative data helped the research develop a balanced result. The questionnaire used and the work@task used were both able to provide research with both sets of data. The test given was appropriate. This is because the research was meant to identify how flexibility at work placed in terms of time and location influenced the change in work behavior of the employees. The method used sought to get just that. The research involved 73 participants and all of them participated in the study. The findings helped understand the difference brought about by the new ways of working. The results however did not show much difference with the traditional ways of working. Tables and charts are well employed in the results section which enable the ease of reading through the results. They bring out the illustratively the results section. (Merle, Schelvis, Groenesteijn, & Vink, 2012) Discussion There were no findings linked to the literature review since there is no literature review in the paper. The hypothesis identified were well supported in the paper though the research results did not show significant change in work behavior. This was even after the respondents were well aware of the increased flexibility. The strengths and limitations were fully exhausted. The researcher reckons that the new ways of working used may have not reared significant findings because the four new ways of working may have not been implemented enough to cause a change. Further research is recommended. This will help identify whether the four new ways of working were well implanted or confirm that they have no significant difference in influencing change in the behavior at the work place. It may also highlight more new ways of working that can be implemented alongside the four or even reduce the new ways of working. References All books and journals alluded in the study were accurately referenced. The research was referenced using MLA style of referencing. This was well done from the in text citations used to the list of references at the end of the paper. Conclusion The paper is well researched but averagely presented. The researcher took his time to develop a system meant to measure the flexibility and the change in behavior caused by the same. This was significant since it shows the researcher was interested in finding the out accurate findings of the research question. The presentation though is a bit lacking since there is not a literature review section. This normally would give the research credibility and enable comparison between the current research and related research on the same topic. 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY References Dimbia, D. (2008). Research Methods. Chicago: Cambridge. Kenedy, S., De, C., Kuijer, M., & Desen, F. (2005). The effect of office concepts on worker health and performance: a systematic review of the literature. New York: Oxford. Merle, B., Schelvis, R., Groenesteijn, L., & Vink, P. (2012). New ways of working: does flexibility in time and location of work change work behavior and affect business outcomes? Landbergstraat: IOS Press. Strauss, O., Kochan, L., & Ichnowiski, C. (2000). What works at work: overview and assessment. The American Workplace. Skills compensation and Employee Involvement, 1-37. Read More