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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 5
Publication Date: May 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.85.10256. Chiware, M., Gweshe, T. G., Kanodeweta, F., Maiwasha, B., & Muronza, C. (2021). The Impact Of Flexitime On Motivation And Work
Performance Of Health Workers In Zimbabwe: Evidence From Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(5). 683-691.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Impact Of Flexitime On Motivation And Work Performance Of
Health Workers In Zimbabwe: Evidence From Parirenyatwa
Group Of Hospitals
Mervis Chiware
Tapiwa Gay Gweshe
Freeman Kanodeweta
Babra Maiwasha
Caroline Muronza
ABSTRACT
This article studies the impact of flexitime on health workers’ motivation and work
performance at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. Despite the positive contribution
of flexitime on motivation and work performance, adequate academic articles are
yet to be published in Zimbabwe’s public sector on this subject. The thrust of this
article was to close this gap in knowledge by determining the impact of flexitime on
motivation and work performance at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. Emailed
self-administered questionnaires, telephone interviews as well as documentary
research were used to find out the relationship between flexitime, motivation and
work performance. Results from the research painted a close relationship between
flexitime motivation and work performance. The study indicated that flexitime
improves work- life balance and the physical health of the health workers at
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. Organisational commitment evidenced by
reduced absenteeism was also achieved due to the implementation of flexitime.
Flexitime requires professional administration and top management support for
best results. The Ministry of Health and Child Care should adopt flexitime as a long
term policy to motivate employees and line managers require adequate training to
implement flexitime.
Key Words: Flexitime, Motivation, Work Performance, Health Workforce, Parirenyatwa
Group of Hospitals, Ministry of Health and Child Care
INTRODUCTION
As Zimbabwe’s public sector is riddled with inefficiency and ineffectiveness, the Ministry of
Health and Child Care has not been spurred. Public sector managers are faced with a daunting
task of finding a management policy that will improve motivation and work performance
thereby uprooting inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The ideal model is offered by Mc Nall et al.
(2010) who argue that flexible working hours contribute to higher job satisfaction, motivation
and employee engagement. As given by Stredwick (2005: 211), the concept of flexitime evolved
around a human resource management model of the ‘flexible firm’ developed by Atkinson in
1984 which is aimed at improving organisational performance. According to the Edith Cowan
University (2020:1) flexitime is a work system agreed by a Line Manager which allows
employees to arrange their work on the basis of making up a certain number of working hours
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 5, May-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
for a prescribed settlement period, while being allowed to start and finish work within a flexible
daily span of hours. Ahmad, Idris and Hashim (2013:208) note that flexible working hours
allows employees to focus on multiple roles in today’s competitive working environments. This
arrangement has been widely practiced in order to create balance between work and lifestyle.
Researchers agree that improving work-life balance of employees contribute to improve the
employees’ satisfaction, commitment and engagement (Allen and Armstrong 2006). Hyde et al.
2013 conclude that flexitime is amongst the human resource management practices which
highly contribute to enhance employee performance. In light of the above findings, this research
will fill in the empirical knowledge gap of the impact of flexitime on motivation and work
performance in Zimbabwe, particularly at Parirenyatwa Hospital. The study will be guided by
the following research questions:
1. What is the relationship between flexitime and workers’ motivation?
2. To what extent does flexible time improve health workers’ performance at Parirenyatwa
Group of Hospitals?
3. What other benefits are derived from using flexitime?
4. Which challenges can be encountered in flexitime implementation and how can they be
ironed out?
ORIENTATION AND BACKGROUND
The ability of a country to meet its health goals depends largely on the knowledge, skills,
motivation and deployment of the people responsible for organizing and delivering health
services (World Health Organisation 2010:25). Effective performance of the health workforce
remains a crucial element towards the achievement of health service related goals.
Disturbingly, it can be noted that the issue of working time remains a contested terrain for both
trade unions and employers (Hinrichs 1991 Cited in Peertz and Allan 2005:160). In some
increasingly global business context, variables such as technological developments, national
and global economic crises, rising unemployment, increasing competition have all attributed to
the need for changing working methods (Altindag and Siller 2014:1). In order to attain and
maintain competitive advantage through the human capital, employers have sought greater
flexibility in the scheduling, deployment and pricing of labour (Peertz and Allan 2005:160).
Given that the COVID-19 is still ravaging nations and disrupting the world (Nyamadzawo
2020:13), ample evidence on the pandemic’s impact on business entails that new ways of
working have to be rolled out; including home working (Nyamadzawo 2020:13). Businesses
are now expected to focus on diversity and complexity instead of standardised structures,
simplicity instead of size, liquidity and openness instead of normativeness, and sternness and
flexibility adapting to change instead of stagnation (Altindag and Siller 2014:1).
In Zimbabwe, the perennial labour withdrawal by nurses and doctors in the past two years
supported the claim that the government is inadequately remunerating health professionals
leading to calls for adopting flexible working hours to cushion health workers against the rising
costs (Nkala 2020:894). According to the Zimbabwean Health Service Board (2019), flexitime
was officially introduced in the Health Service through the signing of Collective Bargaining
Agreement 1 of 2019 on 5 January 2019, to enable members to save on prevailing
transportation costs. It was also noted that several members were spending a lot of time in fuel
queues, often buying the fuel at exorbitant prices on the black market. In this view it was agreed
that flexitime would be implemented through allowing members to rest without disturbing the
40-hour working week arrangement. This innovative initiative also sought to indirectly address
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685
Chiware, M., Gweshe, T. G., Kanodeweta, F., Maiwasha, B., & Muronza, C. (2021). The Impact Of Flexitime On Motivation And Work Performance
Of Health Workers In Zimbabwe: Evidence From Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(5). 683-691.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.85.10256
the challenges of low motivation and stress-related problems in the public health care system
in Zimbabwe. Ideally, this concept of flexibility is known for its ability to increase job
performance and it is known that the granting of material and financial incentives without more
flexible internal procedures is not enough to motivate the employees of a company (Bran and
Udrea 2016:136). Theoretically, it results in the creation of humanly sustainable organisations.
Bierema (2020:356) states that humanly sustainable organisations and communities are places
where culture, climate policies and practices promote the wellbeing of people who thrive
physically and mentally and actively contribute to the wellbeing of the world. Despite the fact
that literature is still looking for patterns that show undoubtedly the effect of applying
flexibility in an organisation (Bran and Udrea 2016:136), it is against this background that the
research seeks to analyse the impact of flexitime on motivation and work performance of health
workers in Zimbabwe.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In an attempt to give a theoretical appreciation of the research questions highlighted in the
introduction, this section reviews existing literature on the concept of flexitime.
Defining Flexitime
Since the mid-1970s, the struggle over work-life has been couched in the language of flexibility
(Peetz and Allan 2005:160). It is clear that studies on workplace flexibility are gaining
momentum. But the query remains on what exactly is involved in the concept of flexibility at
workplace. Workplace flexibility has remained a poorly understood and ambiguously defined
concept, despite its widespread use in both the academic and applied literatures (Hill et al
2008:1). It is multi-dimensional in nature, and various things like the kind of work, social
organisation, individual parameters may need to be taken into account when defining it (John
2017:2). It is often used as an umbrella term within the work life balance domain and it
encompass many approaches (Kelliher and Anderson 2008:3). Dex 2004 Cited in Downes and
Koemoer (2011:2) coined five categories of work-life balance policies as follows: Flexitime
schedules, flexiplace or telecommunication, job sharing, part-time flexiplace and sabbatical
sand career breaks. Workplace flexibility has been defined as ‘the ability of workers to make
choices influencing when, where, and for how long they engage in work-related tasks’ (Hill et
al. 2008:152). It means that workers have that autonomy to balance work and other life needs.
They have been granted the ability to choose to arrange core aspects of everyday work life (Hill
et al. 2008:152). In general, flexitime entails a flexible working time. In furtherance to this view,
some scholars argue that, the office or plant remains open for example from 7am -7pm within
this period, core hours are fixed, that is 7am -3pm where everyone must be present. It is of
paramount importance to note that the flexibility is in the time an individual is allowed to begin
and end work day (Stoltenberg 1978:2). Flexitime increases the time employees can arrange to
make more room for leisure (time away from work) (Stoltenberg 1978:2).
A synopsis on the influence of Flexitime on Job Performance
Traditionally, flexibility has been seen as a characteristic of poor quality jobs, where employers
have sought to achieve organisational flexibility by means of using ‘non-standard’ working
practices such as part-time work and temporary employment, much preference has always
been given on permanent and full time employment (Kelliher and Anderson 2008:3). On the
contrary, research revealed that, from a societal point of view, a flexible arrangement of social
activities for a happier life may be achieved through flexibility in work timings resulting in