Towards workplace flexibility: flexitime arrangements in Sri Lanka

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present and discuss the findings of a study on flexitime as a novel people management practice emerging in Sri Lanka. Specifically, the paper presents and discusses factors that predict the level of satisfaction with flexitime, differences in attitudes towards flexitime, the effectiveness of flexitime as a strategy to attract and retain employees, and barriers that hinder its use. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 108 employees involved in producing IT‐related output as their primary job function, from 30 software development companies, responded to the self‐administered survey questionnaire. In analysis, univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques were adopted. Findings – Flexitime allowed autonomy to employees to harmonize work and non‐work demands on their time, resulting in better workplace relations. Overall, the findings support a non‐traditional approach to people management. However, the findings also have important implications for the design or modification of flexitime arrangements. Originality/value – The majority of flexitime research is criticized for its theoretical nature, a failure to include statistical treatment of the data, and failure to pay specific attention to managerial and professional employees. Further, there is a marked absence of research‐led literature in developing countries to clarify the way in which non‐traditional people management practices work in different contexts. Specifically, no such studies have been conducted in the context of Sri Lanka.