Article: Introduction, Flexible Employment Practices( Part time work 1-Contract work 2-Shift work 3-Telework. 4-Temporary work). Flexible employment practices and country culture, Methodology Measures Results.

1. Presentation
IHRM
Flexible Employment Practices
in Europe: Country vs Culture
Keywords: Flexible employment; country culture;
European HRM; Hostede.

2.  ANAM NASIR (054)
 SHAZIA GULZAR (055)
 FAZILA SAJJAD (021)
To Whom Present:
Mam Maria Sehar
Group Members

3. Abstract
This paper examines extent to which variances in flexible
employment practices across fourteen European
countries may be attributed to cultural variances.

4. Data were gathered through a survey of human
resources practices in 4,876 companies. We find use of;
1.) Part time work is related to PD and individualism;
2.) Contract work is related to uncertainty avoidance
and individualism
3.) Shift work is related to uncertainty avoidance ,power
distance and individualism
4.)Teamwork is related to femininity.

5. Introduction
Employees , understanding of work ,their approach to it
and the way they expect to be treated are factors most
directly influenced by the values and norms of their
country.
Understanding the Human resource practices and country
culture.

6. Among the various human resource ,the use of flexible
employment practice deserves particular attention.
In recent years, organizations around the world have
increasingly utilized flexible employment practices to
reduce labor costs, increase market share ,increase
employee retention and attract a desirable a human
resources pool.

7. Important Context:
Introduction of the European common market means an
increasing international competitive pressure faced by
European firms. This makes the increase use of flexible
employment practice a salient issue.
European organizations exhibit distinctive national patterns
in their human resource management practices and the
countries exhibit wide variations in their cultures, this
provide us the opportunity for examining cultural
differences.

8. Main discussion topics:
First we briefly describe the use of various flexible
employment practice in Europe. We then hypothesize
relationships between these practice and the culture
dimension develop by Hosted. Next, we test the
hypotheses utilizing data collected from over 4,000
European organizations.

9.  Flexible employment practices basically include work
pattern other than the standard eight-hour-a-day job
for all working days in a year. Some of these have
been in use for several years(temporary work) and
other are fairly recent practices(telework).
Flexible employment practice.

10. Flexible practices:
1) Part time work
2) Contract work
3) Shift work
4) Telework.
5) Temporary work

11. Flexible employment practices
and country culture

12.  Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the extent to
which the members of a culture feel threatened by
uncertain or unknown and ambiguous situations.
 Among European countries, Hofstede (1991) found
 High uncertainty avoidance (Belgium, France, and
Turkey)
 Low uncertainty avoidance (Denmark, Sweden and
Ireland)
1-Uncertainty Avoidance:

13.  Alternative Hypothesis:
 H1a: organization in High uncertainty avoidance will
use a greater proposition of shift work and contract
work
 H1b: organization in low uncertainty avoidance
cultures will use a greater proposition of telework,
part time work and temporary work
Continued,

14. Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful
members of organizations expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally.
Power distance influences centralization, participation,
leadership style and use of status symbols.
Among European countries, Hofstede(1991) found
 High power distance countries ( Turkey, Belgium and
France)
 Low power distance countries ( Denmark, Sweden and
Norway)
2-Power Distance

15.  Alternative Hypothesis:
 H2a: organization in high power distance cultures will use a
greater proposition of shift work.
 H2b: organization in low power distance cultures will use a
greater proportion of temporary work, contract work, telework
and part-time work.
Continued,

16. Individualism related to societies in which the people seek
and protect their own interests over the common goal of the
society.
Collectivism related to societies in which people from birth
onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups.
Among European countries, Hofstede (1991) found
 High Individualism countries (Great Britain, Italy, and
Belgium)
 High Collectivism countries ( Turkey, Finland and
Switzerland)
3-Individual/Collectivism

17.  Alternatives Hypothses:
 H3a: organization in high individualism cultures will
use a greater proposition of temporary work,
contract work, part-time work and telework.
 H3b: organizations in low individualism cultures will
use a great proposition of shift work
Continued,

18. The Masculinity are associated with greater importance attached to
earnings, recognition, advancement and challenging work.
The Femininity dimension associated with good relationship with
supervisor, co-operation, quality of life and employment security.
Among European countries Hofstede (1991) found
 High masculinity countries ( Italy, Switzerland and Great Britain
 low masculinity countries ( Denmark, Norway and Sweden)
4-Masculinity- Femininity

19.  Alternatives Hypotheses:
 H4a: organization in high masculinity cultures will use
a greater proportion of temporary work, contract
work and shift work.
 H4b: organization in low masculinity culture will use a
greater proportion of part-time work and telework
Continued,

20.  Sample and Procedure:
 Utilized survey data from the Cranfield Network of European Human
Resource Management Project.
 The survey was carried out in 14 counties across Europe.
They further specify it 15 separate industries;
 Draft questionnaire prepared for the data collection.
Methodology
Private Non-Profit

21. Nature of study Cross cultural practices in Europe
Purpose of the study Hypotheses Testing
Unit of Analysis Industries/Organizations
Research Approach Deductive Approach
Sample Size 4876
Target Population 29,706 companies of 14 countries which
received mails
Responded Rate 6,342 filled the questionnaire(21.3%)
Sectors of Study Private and non profit sectors
Sampling Technique Probability Sampling(Simple Random and
Stratified sampling)

22.  This analysis is based only on companies with 200 or
more employees, and this reduced the sample size to
4,876. So the mean size of the organizations was 2306
employees.
 Table 1 gives a description of the number of firms
sampled from each of the fourteen countries.
Continued,

23.  Flexible employment practices:
A six-point scale, coded as follows, was used:
1. practice not used=1
2. less than 1 per cent used=2
3. 1-5 per cent= 3
4. 6-10 per cent=4
5. 11-20 per cent=5
6. more than 20 per cent=6
Measures

24.  Country Culture:
 The country culture measures was derived from the location of the
corporate headquarters.
 Respondents indicated the country in which the company headquarters
were located. Hofstede’s (1991) value indices were then substituted for each
of the countries for all the four value dimensions.
 A high score on power distance indicated high degree of power distance,
 A high score on individualism/collectivism indicated high individualism and
low collectivism,
 A high score on masculinity/ femininity indicated high masculinity and low
femininity,
 A high score on uncertainty avoidance indicated greater value on
uncertainty avoidance
Continued,

25.  Hypotheses is based on existing theory.
 Uncertainty Avoidance:
 Negative correlation between practices and culture values, thus
not significant.
 Power Distance:
 Positive correlation and supported our hypotheses.
 Individualism:
 Not significant
 Masculinity:
 High femininity cultures, negatively correlated with masculinity,
so not supported.
Results:

26.  Discussion
 Questions/Answers Section.
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