The Flexible Work and Well-Being Study

A Research Initiative at the University of Minnesota, funded by the National Institutes of Health

The University of Minnesota is part of a national research network, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to investigate workplace policy innovations that might promote the health of employees and their families.  Professors Phyllis Moen and Erin Kelly (the directors of the project) have partnered with Best Buy and Culture Rx headquartered in the Twin Cities to study a new workplace flexibility initiative called ROWE, Results Only Work Environment.  The goal is to understand the ways this flexibility innovation affects employees’ productivity and life quality, as well as the health and well-being of their family members. The Flexible Work and Well-being Project serves as a key node in this national research network investigating the interrelationships among work, family, health, and well-being.

The University of Minnesota's Flexible Work and Well-Being Study focuses on the clockwork of work the rules and regulations shaping where and when work is done.  Flexibility is now center stage as both a workforce and a productivity issue.  An organization called Corporate Voices  recently summarized the evidence on the business case for more flexible working arrangements.

Dramatic shifts in the conditions of paid work and in family life over the last fifty years have created a mismatch between the experiences of workers (and their families) and the inflexible time and timing of paid work.  Research has shown that many employees feel stressed and overloaded, on the job but also in their private lives. Consequences of this mismatch include work-family conflicts and other forms of stress, as well as a variety of health problems.

The Flexible Work and Well-Being Study examines what is taking place in Best Buy as it moves beyond the existing, typically inflexible, clockworks of work that most Americans take for granted.  This U. of M. Best Buy research partnership offers something of a “natural experiment," as the corporation seeks to lead change on workplace flexibility. The Minnesota team is collected data through observations (including shadowing individual workers), informal discussions, and in-depth interviews, as well as two web-based surveys at two different points in time.

The Flexible Work and Well-being Study is designed to investigate workplace policies and practices that enhance employees' flexibility and control over where and when they work and the number of hours they spend on the job. Research suggests that greater scheduling latitude may be critical for improving the effective functioning, health, and well-being of workers and their families at every life stage. We aim to identify and evaluate the feasibility of possible changes in work-hour latitude policies and practices in this organization and in others.

The Minnesota team is uniquely qualified to contribute an independent assessment of the intended and unintended impacts of the corporation’s changing policies. Dr. Moen holds the McKnight Presidential Chair in Sociology. She studies and has published numerous books and articles on occupational careers, retirement, health, gender, policy and families, as they intersect and as they play out over the life course. Her two most recent books are It's About Time: Couples and Careers (2003) and The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream (2005, with Pat Roehling). Dr. Kelly has studied the development, diffusion, and implementation of workplace policies such as family leaves, employer-sponsored child care, sexual harassment policies, and diversity management programs. Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, among other venues, and she received the 2000 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Work-Family Research.