An investigation into employees’ factors of flexible working hours (FWH) for productivity in Saudi: a mixed qualitative triangulation

Abstract

One of the most controversial HRM topics that have received extensive attention from academics and practitioners communities over the past two decades is flexible working hours (FWH) and its impact on productivity. Nevertheless, the work is focused almost exclusively on business and organizational aspects neglecting the employees’ and social perspectives, and thus far lacks a strong theoretical foundation, particularly social theory. Therefore, unlike other work, the present study focuses heavily on the employees’ perspective based on a social theory; namely: social exchange theory (SET). This study aims to explore and evaluate the antecedents for requesting FWH, mainly: employee and social-related factors, which affect their productivity. SET was found valuable to serve the aim of the research because it magnifies the importance of the employee as a partner who is in reciprocal social relations. Two mixed triangulated sets of qualitative data were collected, namely: semi-structured interviews and document analysis (cross-sectional and longitudinal). Thirty-two interviews were conducted with employees and with management. Document analysis is a novel source of data that was extracted from the company’s internal technological platform and contains employees’ first-hand computerized typewritten comments about FWH. The analysis of the findings reveals that the most significant factors found affecting employees’ decision to demand FWH for productivity are midday breaks, traffic/transportation, schooling, and social life. Moreover, the findings suggest that HR practitioners need to recognize employees’ social factors before applying FWH practice. This present research makes an original and important contribution to HRM scholarship and reflects theoretical rigor (social exchange theory), methodological (mixed triangulation methods), empirical, and practical. For example, theoretical contributions regarding SET’s reciprocity “black box” were highlighted. Moreover, the implication of the findings assists HR, in particular in Saudi organizations, to ensure the FWH contributes to overcoming these identified employees’ related antecedents.