Julkisen sektorin palveluprosessit kevyiksi lean-tuotantomalleilla - mutta kevyttuotteet eivät aina laihduta?

Working-Time Regimes and Work-Life Balance in Europe

The organization of times and places of work are key elements of working conditions, and define employees’ possibilities for balancing work and other life spheres. This study analyses several aspects of temporal and spatial flexibility, and their associations with employees’ work-life balance. This study separates four dimensions of temporal flexibility and one indicator of spatial flexibility. The dimensions of temporal flexibility are the number of hours worked, when the hours are worked, work-time intensity, and the degree of working-time autonomy. The workplace flexibility indicator is an index of work locations. Work-life balance is analysed with work-hour fit. The analyses were based …

Childcare and parental work schedules: a comparison of childcare arrangements among Finnish, British and Dutch dual-earner families

This study examined the association between parental work schedules and non-parental childcare arrangements among dual-earner families in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK. Data from the ‘Families 24/7’ web-survey were used, including 937 parents with children aged 0-12 years. Results showed a negative association between non-standard work and formal childcare across all countries. A similar association was found for using a combination of formal and informal childcare, whereas solely using informal childcare was not associated with work characteristics. Country differences showed that, compared with Finland, the probability of using formal childcare was lower in the Netherlands, whereas …

Family time negotiations in the context of non-standard work schedules

Present-day parenting is centred round the question of time, especially in the case of working parents. This study analysed negotiations over time in families where one or both parents work non-standard schedules, that is, during evenings, nights and weekends. We asked what aspects of time are negotiable and with whom, and who in the family bears the ultimate responsibility for these negotiations. The analysis was based on interviews with 47 people conducted in 2013 in Finland. The findings indicated that time negotiations within the family concerned everyday routines and schedules, social life and the family‗s philosophy. Family life and schedules in the context of non-standard schedules w…

Management in the 24/7-society raises concerns of fairness and social responsibility

Purpose Despite the pressure on work-family polices arising from the increase in nonstandard working times in various sectors, only a few studies have addressed management practices in 24/7 workplaces. This paper aims to investigate the challenges Finnish managers face in meeting the various tensions stemming from nonstandard working hours and services operating 24/7. Two typical 24/7 work contexts are focused: the hospitality and retail industries and flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The emphasis is on management practices relating to the planning of work shifts and children’s care schedules. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 comprises focus group i…

Mothers’ non-standard working schedules and family time : enhancing regularity and togetherness

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate Finnish working mothers’ experiences of the effects of non-standard working schedules (NSWS) on family time in two family forms, coupled and lone-parent families. Furthermore the aim is to find out what meanings mothers with NSWS attached to family time paying particular attention to the circumstances in which mothers experienced NSWS positively. Design/methodology/approach – Thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews was used to investigate mothers’ experiences of the effects of NSWS on family time. Findings – The key factor generating positive experiences was the ability to maintain regularity and togetherness, which was enhan…

Flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care: experiences of Finnish parents and educators

This study focuses on flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC), an institutional childcare service for Finnish families where both parents, or a single parent, work non-standard hours. Although many countries nowadays offer extended hours day care, only Finland has a publicly provided, law-based system guaranteeing ECEC during non-standard as well as standard hours. We explore, drawing on parental survey data, what kinds of families use such services and when. Furthermore, we utilise web-survey data obtained from early educators to find out what they report as the main challenges involved in implementing flexibly scheduled ECEC. The results showed that single-parent fami…

Work Schedules and Work–Family Conflict Among Dual Earners in Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom

Many European families are affected by the 24/7 economy, but relatively little is known about how working parents experience nonstandard hours. The aim of this study was to analyze the possible associations of dual earners’ work schedules and other work-related factors with their experience of time- and strain-based work–family conflict. These phenomena were examined among dual earners living in Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, countries that differ in working time practices and policies. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to analyze cross-cultural data on dual earners with children aged 0 to 12 years ( N = 1,000). The results showed that working nonstandard …

Organisaatioiden isomorfismi : julkiset organisaatiot ja yhdenmukaisuuden paine

Knowledge Work, Working Time, and Use of Time Among Finnish Dual-Earner Families

The industrial working-time regime is dissolving—not dramatically, but rather as a trend. A new trend is that those in dynamic sectors and in a good labor market position work long hours: Demanding knowledge work appears to require the marginalization of private life. This study investigates the family situation of knowledge workers, the concentration of knowledge workers into family, working time, and use of time in different family types. The analysis is based on the Finnish Use of Time data (1999-2000) using family(spouse)-level data. Compared with other categories of employment, the results suggest only minor quantitative differences between knowledge worker families in working time an…

Digital Technologies and Generational Identity

Työelämän digitalisoituminen ja media-alan työ työmarkkinajärjestöjen ulostuloissa

Media-ala ja media alalla tehtävä työ ovat digitalisoituneet nopeasti. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, miten erityisesti toimitustyön digitalisoitumista käsitellään työmarkkinajärjestöjen ulostuloissa. Millaisena ongelmana digitalisaatio esitetään? Millaisiin oletuksiin ja olosuhteisiin tämä representaatio perustuu? peerReviewed

Sense of belonging in a digitalised care work community

This chapter uses the theoretical framework of sense of belonging to explore how eldercare workers from Finnish service housing units for older people describe the use of digital devices and applications in their work and the work practices that relate to their sense of belonging. The study is based on interview data (n = 25) that was collected in 2018 for a study on digitalisation of eldercare. The chapter asks: what does a sense of belonging mean for care workers’ agency in a digital era? The analysis concentrates especially on the practices of belonging and how they are enacted in a digitalised work environment. The chapter proposes that in the digital era, a sense of belonging is partic…

Work at home and time use in Finland

This study examines the relationship between home-based work (HBW) and time use by comparing unpaid (overtime) home workers, paid (agreed) home workers and non-home workers. Especially, unpaid HBW was linked to the stretching of working hours and the reduction of free time.

Female knowledge workers and the illusion of working-time autonomy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ask: what are the temporal realities of female knowledge workers? It especially focusses on women’s possibilities of using working-time autonomy, and the work and non-work practices that shape their possibility to use work-hour autonomy. In knowledge work, working-time autonomy is usually high, but exercising autonomy is not always possible. The study was carried out in Finland, where full-time work is common also among women, even if they have small children. Design/methodology/approach The data include 19 semi-structured interviews of women who have knowledge-intensive work. The method of analysis is problem-driven content analysis. Findings Female…

Teknologisten laitteiden ja sovellusten käyttö vanhustyössä : työn piirteiden ja yksilötekijöiden vaikutusten tarkastelua

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan vanhustyössä käytettyjen teknologisten laitteiden ja sovellusten yleisyyttä ja toisaalta niiden käytön riippuvuutta työhön liittyvistä ja yksilöllisistä tekijöistä. Teknologian käyttö tiivistyy kolmeen pääulottuvuuteen: mobiiliin hoivateknologiaan, toimistoteknologiaan ja viihdeteknologiaan. Käyttöä määritti ensi sijassa sektori ja toimipaikan tyyppi, ei niinkään työntekijän yksilölliset piirteet. Viitteitä on myös siitä, että työn teknologisoituminen etenee ylhäältä alaspäin ja on yhteydessä nimenomaan työn rakenteellisiin piirteisiin. New technologies and applications are expected to cut expenditures, ease the workload of employees, and improve the quality of el…