Part-time employment and communication satisfaction in an Australian retail organisation

This study uses an empirical case study to examine the relationship between flexible work arrangements (whether employees work on a full-time or part-time basis) and one aspect of employee relations, namely communication satisfaction. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from employees in a major Australian retail organisation, resulting in 127 useable responses. The survey included the communication satisfaction questionnaire. Overall, respondents’ ratings of communication satisfaction indicated that at best they were only slightly satisfied. Part-time employees were significantly more dissatisfied than full-time employees on four dimensions of communication satisfaction. The study provides evidence that part-time employees are outside mainstream communication in the stores examined. The implications of the results for employee relations are discussed. Future research directions are identified. Introduction The Australian retail industry is coping with the deregulation of trading hours and changing customer demands by relying on flexible work arrangements to adjust the labour supply. Many supermarkets now remain open 24 hours per day, seven days per week and companies rely heavily on part-time employees to work the `̀ unsocial’’ hours late at night and at weekends. Thus, the contribution of the part-time workforce is critical for organisational success in the retail industry. Although the new work arrangements reduce labour costs, a major study which analysed data from The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (Callus et al., 1991) concluded that part-time employees fare less well than full-time employees in terms of pay rates, job security, training, and autonomy (Harley, 1994). However, very little research has been undertaken concerning the impact of work arrangements on employee relations. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between work arrangements and one aspect of employee relations, namely communication satisfaction, using a case-study approach in an Australian retail organisation. Part-time employees work fewer than 35 hours per week (Lewis, 1990). Currently, around 26 per cent of the Australian workforce are employed on a part-time basis (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999) and represent a growing segment of the workforce (Norris, 1993). The growth rate in part-time employment in Australia between 1966 and 1994 was 5.5 per cent per annum, which was over three-and-a-half times the rate of full-time employment growth T h e r e s e a r c h r e g is te r fo r th is jo u r n a l is a v a i la b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters T h e cu r r e n t i s s u e a n d fu l l t e x t a r c h iv e o f t h is jo u rn a l i s a v a ila b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm