This study explores the possibility that the 2008 economic recession affected the availability of flexible work arrangements by comparing two surveys of organizations in the USA, one conducted prior to the recession and the other after its onset. Adaptation and institutional perspectives are contrasted, revealing different expectations for the effects of economic tumult on the availability of flexible work arrangements. Greater support is found for the adaptation perspective, as organizations offered fewer flexible work options in 2009 than in 2006. They also engaged in less promotion of alternate work arrangements. Analysis indicates that prior trends toward increasing availability of flexible work arrangements have shifted downward.
AllenT (2001) Family-supportive work environments: the role of organizational perceptions. Journal of Vocational Behavior58(3): 414–35.
3.
AppelbaumE (2011) Macroeconomic policy, labour market institutions and employment outcomes. Work, Employment and Society25(4): 596–610.
4.
ArthurM (2003) Share price reactions to work-family initiatives: an institutional perspective. Academy of Management Journal46(4): 497–505.
5.
ArthurMCookA (2004) Taking stock of work-family initiatives: how announcements of ‘family-friendly’ human resource decisions affect shareholder value. Industrial and Labor Relations Review57(4): 599–613.
6.
BarnettRCGareisKGordonJBrennanR (2009) Usable flexibility, employees’ concerns about elders, gender, and job withdrawal. The Psychologist-Manager Journal12(1): 50–71.
BriscoeF (2006) Temporal flexibility and careers: the role of large-scale organizations for physicians. Industrial and Labor Relations Review60(1): 88–104.
9.
BuddJMumfordK (2004) Trade unions and family-friendly policies in Britain. Industrial and Labor Relations Review57(2): 204–22.
10.
ChattopadhyayPGlickWHuberG (2001) Organizational actions in response to threats and opportunities. Academy of Management Journal44(5): 937–56.
11.
DavisAKallebergA (2006) Family-friendly organizations? Work and family programs in the 1990s. Work and Occupations33(2): 191–223.
12.
Den DulkLPetersPPoutsmaE (2012) Variations in adoption of workplace work-family arrangements in Europe: the influence of welfare-state regime and organizational characteristics. International Journal of Human Resource Management23(13): 2785–2808.
13.
DiMaggioPPowellWW (1983) The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review48(2): 147–60.
14.
EatonS (2003) If you can use them: flexibility policies, organizational commitment, and perceived performance. Industrial Relations42(2): 145–67.
15.
EdwardsR (1979) Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workforce in the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Basic Books.
16.
GalinskyEBondJSakaiKKimSGiuntoliN (2008) 2008 National Study of Employers. New York, NY: Families and Work Institute.
17.
GlassJ (2004) Blessing or curse? Work-family policies and mother’s wage growth over time. Work and Occupations31(3): 367–94.
18.
GoldenL (2009) Flexible daily work schedules in U.S. jobs: formal introductions needed?Industrial Relations48(1): 27–54.
19.
GoodsteinJ (1994) Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: employer involvement in work-family issues. Academy of Management Journal37(2): 350–81.
20.
GornickJMeyersM (2003) Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
21.
GregoryAMilnerS (2009) Trade unions and work-life balance: changing times in France and the UK?British Journal of Industrial Relations47(1): 122–46.
22.
GruskyDCharlesM (eds) (2004) Occupational Ghettos. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
23.
HillJGrzywaczJAllenSBlanchardVMatz-CostaCShulkinS. (2008) Defining and conceptualizing workplace flexibility. Community, Work and Family11(2): 149–63.
24.
HutchensRGrace-MartinK (2006) Employer willingness to permit phased retirement: why are some more willing than others?Industrial and Labor Relations Review59(4): 525–46.
25.
HymanJScholariosDBaldryC (2005) Getting on or getting by: employee flexibility and coping strategies for home and work. Work, Employment and Society19(4): 705–25.
26.
IngramPSimonsT (1995) Institutional and resource dependence determinants of responsiveness to work-family issues. Academy of Management Journal38(5): 1466–82.
27.
KellyE (2003) The strange history of employer-sponsored child care: interested actors, uncertainty, and the transformation of law in organizational fields. American Journal of Sociology109(3): 606–49.
28.
KellyEKalevA (2006) Managing flexible work arrangements in US organizations: formalized discretion or ‘right to ask’. Socio-Economic Review4(2): 379–416.
29.
KellyEKossekEEHammerLDurhamMBrayJChermackK. (2008) Getting there from here: research on the effects of work-family initiatives on work-family conflict and business outcomes. The Academy of Management Annals2(7): 305–49.
30.
KossekEEFriedA (2006) The business case: managerial perspectives on work and family. In: Pitt-CatsouphesMKossekEESweetS (eds) The Work and Family Handbook: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Methods, and Approaches. Boston, MA: Lawrence Erlbaum, 611–26.
31.
KossekEELewisSHammerL (2010) Work-life initiatives and organizational change: overcoming mixed messages to move from the margins to the mainstream. Human Relations63(1): 3–19.
32.
LambertAMarlerJGueutalH (2008) Individual differences: factors affecting employee utilization of flexible work arrangements. Journal of Vocational Behavior73(1): 107–17.
33.
LambertS (2003) Added benefits: the link between work-life benefits and organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal43(3): 801–15.
34.
LambertS (2008) Passing the buck: labor flexibility practices that transfer risk onto hourly workers. Human Relations61(9): 1203–27.
35.
LawrencePLorschJ (1986) Organization and Environment. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
36.
LynessKSKropfMB (2005) The relationship of national gender equality and organizational support with work-family balance: a study of European managers. Human Relations58(1): 33–60.
37.
Matz-CostaCPitt-CatsouphesM (2010) Workplace flexibility as an organizational response to the aging of the workforce: a comparison of nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Journal of Social Service Research36(1): 68–80.
38.
MeyerJRowanB (1977) Institutional organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology83(2): 340–63.
39.
MillikenFDuttonJBeyerJ (2002) Understanding organizational adaptation to change: the case of work-family issues. Human Resource Planning13(2): 91–107.
40.
MoenPSweetS (2004) From ‘work-family’ to ‘flexible careers’: a life course reframing. Community, Work and Family7(2): 209–26.
41.
MontgomeryD (1979) Workers’ Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42.
MoshaviDKochM (2005) The adoption of family-friendly practices in family-owned firms. Community, Work and Family8(3): 237–49.
43.
NobleD (1979) America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
44.
OstermanP (1995) Work/family programs and the employment relationship. Administrative Science Quarterly40(4): 681–700.
45.
PettigrewAWoodmanRCameronK (2001) Studying organizational change and development: challenges for future research. Academy of Management Journal44(4): 697–714.
46.
PfefferJSalancikGR (1978) The External Control of Organizations. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
47.
PollertA (1988) Dismantling flexibility. Capital and Class34(1): 42–75.
48.
ReskinBMcBrierDKmecJ (1999) The determinants and consequences of workplace sex and race composition. Annual Review of Sociology25: 335–61.
49.
RichmanACivianJShannonLHillJBrennanR (2008) The relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive work-life policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention. Community, Work and Family11(2): 183–97.
50.
RoehlingPVRoehlingMVMoenP (2001) The relationship between work-life policies and practices and employee loyalty: a life course perspective. Journal of Family and Economic Issues22(2): 141–70.
51.
ScottRMeyerJ (1991) The organization of societal sectors: propositions and early evidence. In: PowellWDiMaggioP (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 108–40.
52.
ShererPLeeK (2002) Institutional change in large law firms: a resource dependency and institutional perspective. Academy of Management Journal45(1): 102–19.
53.
SuddabyRElsbachKGreenwoodRMeyerJZilberT (2010) Organizations and their institutional environments – bringing meaning, values, and culture back in: introduction to the special research forum. Academy of Management Journal53(6): 1234–40.
54.
SwanbergJPitt-CatsouphesMDrescher-BurkeK (2005) A question of justice: disparities in employees’ access to flexible schedule arrangements. Journal of Family Issues26(6): 866–95.
55.
SweetSBesenEPitt-CatsouphesMGoldenL (2014) Explaining organizational variation in flexible work arrangements: why the pattern and scale of availability matter. Community, Work and Family17(2): 115–41.
56.
ThompsonJ (1967) Organizations in Action. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
57.
VallasS (1996) The transformation of work revisited: the limits of flexibility in American manufacturing. Social Problems43(3): 339–61.
58.
WhartonAChiversSBlair-LoyM (2008) Use of formal and informal work-family policies on the digital assembly line. Work and Occupations36(3): 327–50.
59.
WoodSDe MenezesLMLasaosaA (2003) Family-friendly management in Great Britain: testing various perspectives. Industrial Relations42(2): 221–50.
