Planning and Practicing Flexibility: Implications for women in 'Best Practice' Australian organisations

Abstract

Increasingly, flexible work practices are seen as remedies for work/life conflict, and although in theory they are gender-neutral, the reality is that women with family responsibilities comprise a large proportion of those working part-time or unconventional hours. Can flexibility created in response to business pressures also benefit employees? This paper examines the results of interviews conducted in Australian companies that can be considered 'best practice' organisations in terms of policies for women. It explores what these organisations mean by 'flexibility' and how it operates at the level of the individual workplace. The paper concludes that flexible work practices do not necessarily benefit workers but there are ways in which women, managers and organisations can find common purpose, and business and individual needs can coalesce. But our research shows that this is labour market driven and is not applied consistently across even 'best practice' organisations.