300550 Flexible working revisited: Advantages and flaws in organizational realities (MA: Sozialstruktur und soziale Ungleichheit) (S) (SoSe 2025)

Flexible working arrangements such as telework, flexitime, or part-time employment shape the perception of occupational realities of many workers in their daily lives. While the access and the use of such arrangements are socially stratified, organizational realities further shape their implications. This seminar aims to understand the various implications of flexible working in the context of organizational norms. For instance, ideal worker norms of location-dependent full-time employment constitute the dominant ideal for workers' devotion of time and effort at the workplace with overtime and constant digital connectivity as prerequisites. Otherwise, time- and locational flexibility can serve as a new opportunity for work-life reconciliation and collaboration in distributed teams. The seminar will investigate the shift towards more flexibility in many occupations and discuss its access, implications, and cultural perception for different employees in various organizational contexts.

The seminar will be held in English. English language skills are required for reading, class discussion and presentation.

Preliminary literature

Barley SR, Bechky BA and Milliken FJ (2017) The changing nature of work: Careers, identities, and work lives in the 21st Century. Academy of Management Discoveries 3(2): 111–115.

Chung H (2022) The flexibility paradox: Why flexible working leads to (self-)exploitation. Bristol: Policy Press.

Hochschild AR (2000) The time bind: When work becomes home and home becomes work. New York: Holt.

Sennett R (1999) The corrosion of character: The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York: Norton.