CONSTRAINTS ON THE CHOICE OF WORKING HOURS: A CRITIQUE
This research critiques the article identified below this paragraph. The critique considers the relevance of the article to human resource management, the logic and completeness of the authors' argument, the reviewer's perception of the weaknesses and strengths of the article, and the reviewer's disagreement or agreement with the key points stated in the article. The article critiqued was obtained from the main library at the University of British Columbia.
Kahn, Shulamit, & Lang, Kevin. (1992). Constraints on the choice of work hours. The Journal of Human Resources, 27(4), 661 678.
The relevance of this article to human resource management lies in developments over the past two decades in which such concepts as flex time, the four day week, job sharing, and other concepts affecting work hours have been introduced into organizational environments (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1986, p. 126). Organizations developed and implemented such initiatives as one means of developing structures and systems that would permit them to integrate often conflicting demands. One set of often conflicting demands pits employee pressures for changes in the standard 40 hour per week, eight hour per day work week against organizational demands for productivity increases. A change in the standard work week need not lead to productivity reductions. The effect of such a change on productivity will depend largely on the structure of the new system, and how well the characteristics of the new system meshes with organizational
requirements. An ill considered, hasty change could, potentially, cause a serious deterioration in productivity to occur, while a well planned change in system might not only maintain productivity levels, but could conceivably lead to improvements in productivity.
Kahn and Lang (1992, pp. 661 678) examined one single aspect of the hours of work ...