Workplace Flexibility as an Organizational Response to the Aging of the Workforce: A Comparison of Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations

ABSTRACT

The degree to which flexible work options are available to employees has been used as an indicator of the extent to which organizations have responded to workforce needs, including those related to the aging of the workforce. This article uses an organizational adaptation framework to determine factors that explain variation in the degree to which flexible work options are offered in for-profit and non-profit organizations. Findings indicate that while the scope of flexible work options offered was similar among for-profits and non-profits, the factors that predicted variance in the scope of these options differed somewhat between the two sectors.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonprofit
• for-profit
• social service sector
• aging of the workforce
• older workers
• workplace flexibility
• organizational adaptation
• organizational response

Acknowledgement

The Sloan Center on Aging & Work is grateful for the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development and for the resources that the Foundation has provided for other Center initiatives.

Notes

^ayes = 1, no = 0.

^a1 = yes, 0 = no.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

***p < .001.

1. Other potential organizational responses include: actively recruiting mature-age workers, training and retraining, fair and equal treatment regardless of age, and ergonomic job design, and the development of specific employment programs to assist mature-age workers (Farrell, 2005).

2. The response rate was calculated using the most common method in establishment surveys, according to the Interagency Group on Establishment Survey Nonresponse (1998; response rate = number of responding eligible reporting units/number of eligible reporting units in survey).

3. For example, if 60% of the respondent organization's workforce was full-time and the flexible option in question was available to only “some” of these full-time employees, the organization would receive a score of .60 for this item (.60 × 1 = .6 points).

4. Univariate examinations of this variable revealed two extreme outliers at the very top of the distribution at 100% and 78%. These cases were recoded to 60% and 55%, respectively, to bring them closer to the rest of the distribution.

5. Univariate examinations of this variable revealed an extreme outlier at the very bottom of the distribution at 1.24. This case was recoded to 1.67 to bring it closer to the rest of the distribution.