Flexibility at the Workplace: Does it impact empowerment and Quality of Life?

Abstract

Empowering women to participate in economic life is one way to improve the quality of life for women and families. However, many Malaysian women exit from the formal labour market resulting in women’s participation stagnating at around 40 percent since the 1990s. Using a mixed method approach, this study examines whether workplace flexibility may impact women’s empowerment and quality of life. A sample of 400 female employees from the services sector answered a self-administered questionnaire complemented by 30 interviews. Multivariate analysis and structured interviews showed that a workplace designed with flexibility has a positive impact on women’s empowerment and quality of life.Keywords: Empowerment; Flexible working arrangements; Quality of life; Workplace flexibility; Women in the labour market.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i11.105