Assignment Task: Please help me with this question with explain.
Closing Case A Saner Workplace Companies everywhere are starting to retool.
"The one-size-fits-all workplace doesn't work," says the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Kathleen Christensen. "The idea that you will work full-time year in and year out, that you will be on a career trajectory that is a straight line, is vanishing. Employees increasingly feel more entitled to say: 'I need and I want to work in a certain way.'" In their book, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success, broadcasters Claire Shipman and Katty Kay cite studies that show the increasing impact of professional women on companies' bottom lines and give practical advice on how to create "a more sane" work life. Women may be driving the workforce revolution, but men are realizing the benefits, too. At Capital One Financial, Judy Pahren, director of human resources, realized that flexibility was not just a "woman initiative," but rather, a need across an entire employee base. "We had thought that maybe it was gender-based; however, it was true of the men who worked at Capital One Financial also." A few months later, the Flexible Work Arrangements program was implemented for the entire company. The program allows employees to determine their work schedules with their immediate supervisors; options are flextime, telecommuting, a compressed workweek, or part-time employment. More and more workers of both sexes are willing to scale back career goals, according to Families & Work Institute data. In focus groups, employees say things like "I need to make these choices because my family is a priority" or "I need to make these choices to make my life work." According to Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee, "Today's business environment provides the opportunity for work-life balance. This doesn't mean employees work less; instead, it means empowering employees to do their work on a schedule that works for them. So if they want to work from their kitchen table at 3:00 a.m., as long as the work gets done, who cares when or where they are doing it? Companies need to recognize that this kind of flexibility offers employees the ability to manage and balance their own career and lives, which improves productivity and employee morale."*
Questions
Q1. On the basis of your personal and professional needs, design a flexible work arrangement that would allow you to have work-life balance in your career.
Q2. Predict the implications of a flexible work arrangement program for the future. Evaluate the impact on business/industry, management, employees, and consumers. Is the Capital One Financial's Flexible Work Arrangement program a realistic option for employees who work in retailing? Manufacturing? The hospitality industry? Explain your answer.
Q3. Capital One thought work flexibility was a key issue only for female employees. They realized, with additional inquiry, that it was true for the men employees as well. Analyze why both sexes are willing to scale back career goals and the implications their decisions will have on their career and life choices.