Institutional Factors Affecting Adoption of Flexible Working Arrangements Among Academic Staff of Maseno University, Kenya

Abstract

Recognition of the importance of the work life balance by many organizations is now pushing employers to develop flexible working arrangements in order to maintain a productive work force. Employees are confronting problems of work-family conflicts and stress in a rigid week schedule. There has been no study which has been carried out to clearly demarcate institutional factors affecting flexible work arrangements in the specific context of Maseno University. Conventionally, the University engages its employees on full time basis and requires them to work for eight hours a day, for five days a week. No considerations have been made towards adoption of flexible work arrangements. Despite this, there is limited range of scholarly disseminations on the study'S context. This study investigated the institutional factors affecting adoption of flexible working arrangements among academic staff at Maseno University. Specifically, the study intended to determine the effect of institutional culture on adoption of flexible working arrangements, establish extent to which commitment by management affects adoption of flexible working arrangements, and to find out the effect of organizational structure on adoption of flexible work environment at Maseno University. The study is anchored on the theory of work adjustment. The study adopted a cross sectional research design on a target population of 412. 10 participants were used in pilot testing, which yielded a Cronbach's alpha statistic of 0.686; indicating that the data collection instrument was reliable. A sample of 121 employees was picked from the remaining 402 through a stratified random sampling technique. The main strata were Professors (8), Associate Professors (8), Senior Lecturers (14), Lecturers (41) and Assistant Lecturers (50). Data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics of regression and correlation analysis. Based on the regression analysis results, PI =0.123, p<0.05; P2 = - 0.243, p<0.05 and P3 = 0.844, p<0.05; which means that both institutional culture and commitment positively affects the adoption of flexible working arrangements whereas institutional structure negatively affects the adoption of flexible working arrangements. The implications of the results are that institutions could enhance their culture and commitment of the management in addition to making the structures less rigid and complex in order to provide flexible working arrangements for the employees. The study recommended that there is need to motivate employees as well as provide good working environment, which enhances the flexible working arrangements and offer scholarly contributions for the academia wishing to further the research.