유연근무제의 성공적인 정착요건으로서의 듀얼아젠다: 병원과 공공기관 사례를 중심으로

초록

Flexible working arrangements (FWA) are considered one of the most important workplace practices in improving work-life balance for employees. They are also viewed as a good way of enhancing workplace effectiveness by promoting innovative work practices. These perspectives have led to a great surge in the introduction of flexible working arrangement across profit and non-profit organizations. However, despite the increase in FWA, these arrangements have not been utilized as expected by policy makers. This lack of utilization can be largely attributed to the fact that organizational decision makers consider FWA primarily as an employee benefit program rather than as a strategic opportunity to achieve organizational goals more effectively and innovatively. A dual agenda approach recognizes the importance of pursuing both the goals of employee work-life satisfaction and organizational workplace effectiveness in the successful implementation of FWA. If organizational decision-makers consider FWA only as an employee benefit program, without considering implications for productivity, they may not actively support the introduction and implementation FWA practices. On the contrary, if an organization promotes FWA mainly for the purpose of improving productivity, employees may not have ownership over the program success. Although a dual agenda approach is intuitive at a conceptual level, it requires learning among organizational members. Such an organizational learning process is often achieved by action research in which researchers and organizational members actively collaborate to find solutions that are tailored specifically to their organizations. This study compares the cases of the K Organization and C Organization, where members worked side by side with a researcher to introduce and implement FWA. Specifically, the study compared the initial motivation for FWA, the process of organizational change efforts to introduce and implement them, and the result of these organizational change efforts. Although the two organizations had similar motivations for introducing FWA, their processes showed stark differences. The K Organization attempted an across-the-board introduction of FWA policy, while the C Organization took a team-based tailored approach. The difference in processes resulted in different utilization patterns of FWA. FWA were not utilized actively in the K Organization, but was implemented actively among departments in the C Organization. We attempted to identify the differences in successful introduction and implementation by comparing these two cases. The critical requisites for the successful settlement of FWA can be summarized as follows. First, flexibility should be connected to effective and productive work practices, that represent as dual agenda approach. Organizational culture changes only when the new work practices and policies benefit both the employees and the organization. In many organizations, FWA are considered as as benefits that improve the work-life balance of the employees. This approach is limiting in the sense that it discourages active uses of the policies and fails to bring about any fundamental changes inof organizational culture. If both flexibility and effectiveness are satisfied through the introduction of FWA, they can be used as a strategic tool in the management of the organization. Second, a team-based tailored approach is more effective than the across-the-board introduction of new policies. For the organization-wide introduction of flexible work arrangements to be successful, far-reaching organizational reform would need to support the change. In other words, the changes in vision, HR policies, IT, and organizational structure and culture would have to be aligned with the introduction of FWA, which is not feasible in reality. However, the team-based tailored approach considers team-specific and contextual nature of works, and addresses both the needs of the employees and the organization. This approach also enables a more well-defined assessment of organizational outcomes of FWA. Third, the attitudes of managers are very important in instituting FWA. Even if the CEO has a strong will to introduce and implement the new arrangements, it is impossible to diffuse the change throughout the whole organization without managers’ active cooperations. A dual agenda approach is a pre-requisite for the successful adoption of the FWA. In a team-based tailored approach for a dual agenda, the role of the team head is critical. A team head with a positive attitude in taking initiatives in the change process will encourage employees to use the FWA. He or she will also proactively suggest tailored work arrangements that satisfy the team-specific needs and will manage the resistance to change. This will help the change to be invigorated and diffused throughout the organization. Fourth, employees should be able to turn the introduction of flexibility into an opportunity to improve work practices. A dual agenda approach requires changes not only in also in organizational culture but also in work practices, and small improvements in work practices add up to fundamental changes in organizational culture. For this to happen, organizational members should be able to find the starting point and direction of the change, acquire the capacity to implement the changes, willingly undergo trial and error, and seek new ways for change. This cyclic process of progressive change will lead to the successful settlement of FWA in an organization.

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