Natural workgroups are an important if rarely acknowledged aspect of job design; their distinctive features reflect a radical notion of worker choice and task structuring based on “natural” work methods, i.e. common‐sense understandings of how tasks should be accomplished. The article...

Following extensive research at a company in the printing industry, management is concluded to have operated in an unimaginative way towards the introduction of new technology. Conversely, recent publications on the subject have emphasised its flexibility, and the extent to which there is some...

Managers at Marriott Hotels typically worked more than 50 hours a week. The prevailing idea was that the more hours one put in, the better. “See and be seen” were the watchwords. But by the mid‐1990s, the company was having increasing difficulty recruiting talented people. Some of its best...

When UK financial‐services provider Prudential decided to introduce extensive remote working as part of its drive to build stronger customer relationships, the company was keen to ensure that its employees not only had the technology, but also the skills, to maximize the individual and...

Beauty Essential, a medium‐size company in the Thai clothing industry, has changed its working procedures to conform to an international standard on social responsibility – and improved productivity into the bargain. The company produces garments for such international brands as Calvin...

IBM Australia began to introduce telecommuting among some of its employees around five years ago and now leads other large Australian organizations in adopting this form of working. A survey reveals that the practice is particularly common among the IBM Australia’s public‐relations and...

Higher recruitment and retention levels, lower sickness absence and improved staff morale are only some of the positive outcomes of a strategy adopted by Hertfordshire County Council that received recognition in a work‐life balance award. An on‐line survey conducted by the Department of...

Substantial benefits to both the organization and its employees have resulted from job‐flexibility and work‐life balance initiatives at UK building society Nationwide. In the organization’s latest employee‐opinion survey, more than three‐quarters agreed with the statement: “I am...

Around a quarter of employees at UK bank Barclays now work part time – a figure which is rising all the time as a pioneering national job‐share register helps to match potential job‐share partners. Fiona Adams, Barclays equality and diversity manager, explained: “A dedicated equality and...

Teleworking increases productivity, reduces absenteeism and improves quality of life, but also increases working hours, a survey of almost 2,000 staff registered with Workabout, BT’s official teleworking scheme, has revealed. BT, one of Europe’s leading telecommunication companies and one of...