CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

The main goal of introducing flexible work arrangements in an organization is to help employees manage these different elements in their lives. Flexible work arrangements have been defined "employer provided benefit that permits employees some level of control over when and where they work outside of the standard workday (Lambert, 2008). Avery (2001) present another definition where flexible work arrangements are seen as individually negotiated conditions of employment involving adjustments in the timing, scope and/or place of work. The goal is to change the time and/or place of where work is usually done in a way that is controllable and predictable for both employers and employees. Flexible work arrangements bring the focus to results as opposed to time spent in the office because as long as the work gets done it does not matter where and when you do it.

Flexible work arrangements constitute a part of the wider notion of work -life initiatives or work- life policies, which are designed to assist employees in better integrating paid work with other parts of their lives such as family or leisure (Ryan, 2008). There are various types of flexible work arrangements available. One of the most popular types is part-time work or shifting. If full-time work refers to working anywhere from 40 hours a week, then anyone working less than that can be referred to as a part-time worker. Part-time workers will mostly negotiate a set schedule of at what times and which days they work. In some cases the employer can make use of part-time workers to meet peaks of work demand and can also allow variation within the scheduling of the part-time worker. This requires both a trusting relationship between the employer and the employee as well as goodwill and cooperation from both parties. Working part time often proves to be a challenge.

For many employees today both male and female lives are becoming more consumed with a host of family and other personal responsibilities and interests in addition to demands of the workplace (Grantol-Vallore & Donaldson, 2001).There is therefore a perceived imbalance between the demands of current lives and people’s abilities to adequately cope with them and this may lead to an experience of stress (World of Work Report, 2011). In a society filled with conflicting responsibilities and commitments, flexible work arrangement has become a predominant issue in the workplace. Three major factors contribute to the interest in and importance of serious consideration of flexible work arrangement: global competition, renewed interest in personal lives, family values and an aging workforce. Concerns have always been raised regarding policy and debates on flexible work arrangement from perspectives of the quality of working life when weighed against the broader family matters. However the challenge has been how employees would adopt good flexible work arrangement practices and the organizations to adopt policies to tackle conflicts that ensue from the interface of family or social pressures and work stress.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The fast pace of economic development in the 20th century across the globe has created new endeavors for the organizations. Globalization has changed the world into a global village where this change has pushed the organizations like the telecommunication sector (MTN Nigeria call centres) to strive hard to gain and sustain their competitive advantage with other networks in Nigeria. Customer satisfaction and customer service being the prime work in the telecommunication sector has evoked changes which consequently have brought changes in work setups (Korir, 2015). For example employees in the Telecommunication sector in Nigeria are more involved in their jobs, working longer hours more than 48 hours (IL0, 2010) hence making it difficult for employees to keep a balance between job, family and other personal issues (Muhammadi, 2009). Hence this has resulted in work life conflicts which have been found to be associated with mental health issues like stress and depression (Beck, 2004) which in the long run affects performance of the employees and organization.

International labour organizations global report on flexible work arrangement of 2010 rates Nigeria among those with the highest prevalence of long working hours more than 48 hours per week (ILO, 2010). Research has shown that work life balance (WLB) is associated with reduced levels of stress and somatic complains, increased job satisfaction and reduced labor turnover as well as organizational and employees performance (Rathi, 2013).

1.3       The Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of flexible arrangements on employees performance. Other specific objectives of this study are to:

        i.            Determine the effects of shifting in working hours on employees performance.  

      ii.            Find out how schedule of duty roster affects employees performance.

    iii.            Examine the effects of negotiation arrangement among workers affect employees performance.

1.4       Research Questions.

For this study, the following research questions were formulated and answered

        i.            Does shifting working hours affects employees performance?

      ii.            To what extent does schedule of duty roster affects employees performance?

    iii.            Do you think negotiation arrangement among workers affect their performance?

1.5       Research Hypothesis

The following hypotheses were formulated and tested in line with the objectives and research questions.

Ho: Shifting working hours have no significant effect on employees performance

Ho: Schedule of duty roster does not significantly affects employees performance

Ho: Negotiation arrangement among workers does not significantly affect employees performance

1.6       Significance of the Study

Management of MTN will find this study useful as it will investigate and explore the area of work effort and work efficiency change following the adoption of flexible work arrangements. Shareholders as owners, who are usually concern with maximization of their wealth, could also find this study useful. This is because the success of the MTN is largely depended upon effective human capital. Hence, this study is aimed at providing information on the effects of work effort and work efficiency change following the adoption of flexible work arrangements.

This study will aid the government to make sure they strategies different work life incentive that will encourage the employees to be more productive on their job.

Also this study will aid managers of various organizations to encourage their employee to fix their leave at their convenient period after performing all their work related duties. Other researchers working on similar research work will find this study useful when comparing the flexible work arrangement on employee’s performance of MTN Nigeria with other organizations in other places around Nigeria.

Flexible working arrangements have a significant effect on different parts of employee well-being, it is important to the government to investigate which factors influence the well-being of employees because most of the times, a happy employee is a productive employee.

1.5       Scope of the Study   

The study covers all the MTN call centres in Jos, Nigeria focusing on branches within Jos town. Specifically the study sought to determine the impact of shifting, negotiation, and scheduling of flexible work arrangement on employee’s performance of MTN call centres Jos, Nigeria looking at shifting working hours, negotiation arrangement between manager and employees of MTN and schedule of duty roster of employees of MTN as variables for this study. The period for this study commenced from last year December 2017 till present.

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