Critical Management Studies (CMS)

What We Have Learned about Implementing Flexible Working: Moving to the Future

Public talk and Panel event followed by drinks reception

April 26^th 2023

4.30-6pm

Location: David Seizer Lecture Theatre, Bancroft Building, Queen Mary, University of London, E1 4NS (nearest underground Mile End)

UK workers are being called back in the office by companies worried about productivity losses and slack. At the same time, of the 61 companies participating in a four-day working week trial, over 90% have chosen to continue.

What works and what doesn't when it comes to flexible working? And how can employers implement flexible working policies that work for all?

Join us for a keynote speech by our Distinguished Visiting Fellow Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek (Purdue University, USA) after which our expert panel will explore questions such as:

• Which flexible working practices work and which do not?
• Can flexible working be exploitative? What pitfalls do workers and employers need to watch out for?
• What is the evidence for and against flexible working? Are employers right to call staff back to the office?
• And what lessons have been learned from the Covid-19 pandemic for working parents and carers and their line managers?

Our expert panel includes:

Professor Ellen Ernst Kossek, IHSS Distinguished Visiting Fellow.  She is the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. She is one of the leading researchers in the U.S. and internationally on work and family policies and gender equality. She is an elected Fellow in the Academy of Management (less than 1% of members) for making significant contributions to the science and practice of management and the American Psychological Association. Harvard Business Review recently included one of her works as a Must Read for 2023 and her work has been cited over 26,000 times.

Professor Heejung Chung is a labour market and welfare state researcher and Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Kent. She has written extensively on work-life balance, flexible working, worker well-being and gender inequality from a comparative perspective and is the author of the book 'The Flexibility Paradox: Why Flexible Working Leads to (Self-) Exploitation'  which was published by Policy Press in 2022. She has worked on several funded projects on flexible working including the ESRC Future Research Leader Award "Work Autonomy, Flexibility and work-life balance". Currently her projects include work with the TUC on BAME workers' experience of flexible working, and a H2020 project exploring cross-national differences in flexibility stigma.

Dr Maria Adamson is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED). She recently released an important report on key findings and takeaways from a 2-year study on managers who are parents and who worked from home during and after the Covid-19 lockdowns. Maria is an interdisciplinary scholar and has published widely on inclusion, leadership, and work-balance. She recently completed an ESRC-funded project on Gendered Inclusion in Contemporary Organisations.

Professor Rob Briner is a Professor of Organizational Psychology at QMUL. He is part of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED) and Scientific Director at the Center for Evidence-Based Management. His research and writing focus on evidence-based management practice, hybrid working and the future of work. He has written extensively on the importance of psychological contracts at work and is currently leading a research project on evidence-based human resource management with the Corporate Research Forum.

Chair. Dr Patrizia Kokot-Blamey is a Senior Lecturer in Organization Studies and a member of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED), QMUL. Her work focuses on elite women, childcare and fertility and her forthcoming book 'Gendered Hierarchies of Dependency'  will be released by Oxford University Press in the autumn.