Workplace Flexibility and Performance

This assignment examines the relationship between workplace flexibility and new product development performance. It delves into the roles of telework and flexible work schedules, analyzing their influence on organizational outcomes. The analysis draws upon scholarly research and academic publications to provide a comprehensive understanding of this important topic in modern work environments.

Running head: TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Trends in Global Business Environment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Dynamics in the Global Business Environment..............................................................................3
Reasons behind the increase in operations of enterprises in international business........................4
Changes in the workplace arrangements with time.........................................................................5
New Workplace Arrangements........................................................................................................6
a) Work From Home....................................................................................................................6
Motivations behind implementation of working from home...................................................7
Problems in working from home.............................................................................................8
Case Study...............................................................................................................................9
b) Hot-Desking............................................................................................................................9
Motivation behind implementing hot-desking in business enterprises..................................10
Problems in hot-desking........................................................................................................11
Case Study.............................................................................................................................11
c) Stand-Up or Corridor Meeting..............................................................................................12
Motivations to implement Stand-up Meeting........................................................................12
Problems in Corridor or Stand-Up Meetings.........................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

2TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
The economic framework in the global framework, over the years, has experienced
significant dynamics and modifications in the last few decades, which in turn can be attributed to
the economic and global phenomena occurring in different corners of the world. The global
economic environment, over the past decades has become more integrated and inclusive owing
to economic phenomena like Globalization, Liberalization of economic environment of the major
countries and increasing scopes of setting up commercial and political relations among the
different countries across the world. This immense dynamics in the global economy have direct
implications on the business and commercial environment across the world, which has also been
subjected to immense modifications relating to the changing patterns of operations of businesses
in different parts of the world.
Over the years, the main incentive of doing business, globally, has remained the same,
that is of acquiring maximum profit and economic prospects as well long term sustainability in
their operations. However, the mode of operations in the business organizations and the work
culture have significantly changes over the years, catering to the needs of the situations and
facilitated by the inventions and development of technologies and provisions which makes the
process of doing business easy, convenient, cost saving and time effective. The changes in the
work culture and global business environment includes multi-dimensional domains like the way
in which the employees interact, the communications among different participants in the
businesses, production methods, management of businesses and others to name a few. With a
more integrated international commercial environment and with increasing number of businesses
going global, these changes have become inevitable and have been facilitated by facilities like
internet, which makes communication across the world extremely easy.

3TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Taking this aspect into consideration, many business organizations are undergoing radical
changes in their workplace arrangements, which includes introduction of new practices like that
of hot-desking, stand-up and corridor meetings, home offices and others to make their operations
more dynamic and cost and time effective. The concerned report tries to discuss these new
methods taken by the business organizations in the contemporary periods, in details. The report
also emphasizes on analyzing the need for introduction of the same, the motivation behind the
same and tries to analyze whether the companies, implementing such methods are getting added
advantages and desired benefits over those who still stick to the conventional methods of doing
business. For the purpose of doing the same the report tries to conduct an extensive review of the
literatures and scholarly works which are present regarding aspects, thereby comparing and
discussing the learned opinions prevailing across the world regarding this aspect, taking into
account the empirical evidences and examples relevant to the same.
Dynamics in the Global Business Environment
To understand the evolution and implementation of radical changes in the workplace
operations by the different enterprises across the world, it is of immense importance to
understand the trends prevailing in the global business environment and the evolution of the
same over the years. There exists different opinions regarding the concept of the global business
environment of which the one put forward by Wild, Wild and Han (2014), seems to be robust
and inclusive. The authors define the concept of the international business environment as the
open forum in which the commercial transactions (both public and private) takes places between
the relevant organizations of different countries. Over the years, with the integration of the
leading economies of the world, attributed to phenomena like Globalizations, Liberalizations,
Free Trade Agreements and inter-country migration and usage of labor and other resources of

4TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
production, there has been a significant increase in the number of enterprises and countries
actively operating under the domain of international business environment. There are several
contributing factors, according to the literary evidences to the expansion of operations in the
global business environment, with more and more companies going global. The primary ones, as
found to be asserted by different scholarly opinions are discussed in the following sections.
Reasons behind the increase in operations of enterprises in international business
Casson (2013) in his working paper briefly discussing about the evolution of the global
business environment, elaborates about the primary reasons behind the continuously expanding
domain of international business and inclusion of more organizations as participants in the same.
The primary ones put forward by the author are as follows:
 Increasing innovations and progress in technological aspects, which facilitates in
integrating the global economy and making overseas operations of businesses convenient
and time saving
 Increase in easy transport globally and the fall in the cost of overseas travel has also
facilitated commercial enterprises to increase their domain of operations in countries
other than their home country
 With communication getting easier, mainly due to the invention and increased usage of
internet, it becomes easier for the organizations to connect instantly with any corner of
the world, which in turn helps them in controlling their business operations in different
countries from a remote place of operations
 The views of Casson are strongly supported by many other authors including Verbeke
(2013), who adds to the arguments by adding the aspects of change in consumption and

5TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
life style patterns of people across the world. This in turn has changed the global
consumption patterns massively, thereby making the business environment more
inclusive as well as competitive. Given this situation and the ease of doing international
business, more companies are expanding their domain of operations globally
The arguments put forward by the authors in the above section, emphasizes on the fact
that over the years the operational framework of the business organizations have changed
massively, with most of them going global and venturing in more than one domain of operations,
thereby making their production and supply of products and services multi-dimensional. This in
turn, as argued by Putnam and Mumby (2013), indicates towards the need for change and
improvisations in the modes of operations within these business enterprises, which also includes
the workplace arrangements, such that the resources present with the companies can be optimally
used and the production can be maximized.
Changes in the workplace arrangements with time
There are many opinions regarding the fact that over the years the commercial
organizations have been modifying their workplace arrangements significantly and incorporating
new means in doing the same, the changes being radical in many instances. Christensen and
Schneider (2015), have argued in this aspect asserting that over the years the usual commercial
workplaces have undergone considerable changes in the pattern of operating with the inclusion
of new ways of working by the employees in these organizations. However, the authors have not
elaborated on the measures and new age working methods which are being adopted by these
organizations in this aspect and have only discussed about the evolution of business workplaces
across the world over time.

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Coenen and Kok (2014), augments the arguments put forward by the former authors,
regarding the evolution of commercial workplaces with time and the new arrangement adopted
by them in the global scenario. According to the authors, to cater to the changes in the demand as
well as supply patterns, the operations and production activities of the companies have been
experiencing significant changes, which includes radical workplaces changes like
implementation of work from home, hot-desking, corridor and stand-up meetings, space sharing,
flexible work shifts and others. These new age workplace arrangements, as opined by different
scholars, are put forward in the following sections.
New Workplace Arrangements
Over the last few decades, the conventional concept of workplace, that is of several
people sitting in a room, at same place and working for a fixed duration daily, doing several pre-
assigned jobs, has changed considerably. The businesses going global and multi-dimensional, the
organizations are venturing in many industries and domain of operations, which in turn have led
them to relax the conventional working norms and work cultures and implement flexibilities in
the same to utilize the resources present with them as far as possible and find new channels to
reap profits by finding new ways of utilizing their full capacities. The new changes, often
implemented in the workplace arrangements are as follows:
a) Work From Home
One of the current workplace arrangement changes which are increasingly taken into
account by the business organizations across the world, in many industries, is the practice of
home office or working from home. Bloom (2014), elaborately discusses the concept of working
from home as the method of operations, especially adopted by the different commercial

7TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
organizations across different parts of the world, where the employees of the company can
perform their professional activities without being present at the work location during the
normal business timings. This implies that an employee can work independently from home,
without staying electronically connected to the team or the employer, during the business hours.
Motivations behind implementation of working from home
Bridgman (2016), discusses the expected benefits of the implementation of working from
home in the contemporary commercial scenario, which motivates the organizations to implement
the same. These motivating reasons according to the author are as follows:
 The first benefit of introducing the practice of working from home, as per the assertions
of the author, is that it is expected to increase the productivity of the employees by saving
time and effort to travel to the workplace, this being especially true for those employees
who stay far from their offices.
 Another argument in favor of the same is that this practice helps the employers to cut the
overhead costs of making provisions for the employees within the office to a considerable
level, thereby increasing the cost effectiveness in their production operations.
 Kruse (2018), puts forward another motivating factor behind the incorporation of work
from home practices in the current business scenario across the world, which is the aspect
of less distraction, less stressed environment and working in the quieter atmosphere,
which is expected to increase the productivity of the employees, thereby benefitting the
employers in the long run, in terms of profitability.
 Another crucial aspect of the need for implementing the working from home practices in
the commercial domain, as put forward by Klein and Myrdal (2013), is that from the
perspective of female workers. As has been rightly put forward by the authors and

8TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
supported by many other scholarly evidences including that of Slaughter (2015), the work
force participation of women have increased significantly over the years, with increasing
scopes of education and skill development of women. However, in spite of their
increasing participation in different commercial arena, across the world, the women
workforce still faces the problem of trading off between their work and household
responsibilities, especially after their marriage and child birth. According to the authors,
this leads to immense lay-offs and resignation of the female employees in many
organizations, thereby affecting the welfare of the employees as well as the profitability
of the enterprises negatively.
However, with the implementation of work from home practices, the authors argue that
this problem can be combated to a considerable extent, as the female employees will no
longer have to trade off between work and child rearing and can maintain a perfect work
life balance. This may also help the male employees in the same aspects. This in turn can
help the business organizations in terms of retaining their precious resources and increase
in the overall productivity and cost effectiveness.
Problems in working from home
Thus, it can be seen that there exists significant positive arguments in favor of the
implementation of the practice of working from home in the businesses in the contemporary
periods. There are, however, several arguments put forward by scholars, against the concept of
work from home. Sturges (2012), argues that often with the implementation of working from
home practices, the productivity of employees decrease as they tend to pay less attention to work
and there rises sincerity issues. The author also argues that there exists many industries and job
roles where there remains no scope of implementing work from home option, thereby making the

9TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
scope of implantation of the same restricted. His views are also supported by Clapperton (2018),
who suggests that among the problems of working from home, the trust issues of the employers
is not the primary issue. The main issues according to the author, are the problem of over-
working of the employees, lack of colleague support, feeling of isolation and also the absence of
proper infrastructure in the residences, the last problem being even more acute in the low
developed countries.
Case Study
Bloom et al. (2014), conducted an experiment on the reputed Chinese travel company,
CTrip, with 16,000 employees, where the call center support staffs who opted for work from
home option showed a 13% increase in their performance. This led the company to roll out the
same for all the employees, where the increase in the productivity of the company was as high as
22%, much due to the work satisfaction and convenience of the employees.
b) Hot-Desking
Another important change in the conventional arrangements in the workplaces, which
have been increasingly adopted by the business organizations across the world, is the practice of
hot-desking in the business organizations. According to Gilson et al. (2012), the term “Hot-
Desking”, being a new concept in work-place arrangement, refers to the system, where more
than one worker can work from one “desk” or work station, thereby having no fixed sitting
arrangements and dynamic access to resources as per requirement of the workers. Given the
dynamics which the business organizations face in the contemporary global scenario, there are
several motivations, on part of the companies, which have been asserted by many scholars over
time.

10TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Motivation behind implementing hot-desking in business enterprises
Felstead (2012), in his elaborate research on the aspects of changing workplace dynamics
in the current economic situations, emphasizing especially on the business enterprises operating
in the United Kingdom, puts forward the motivations prevailing in the aspect of hot-desking,
which are as follows:
 As per the author, hot-desking allows different employees to access the same working
desk in an office, at different times, which reduces the cost of the companies significantly
as they do not need to create a work station for each employee. This is especially
beneficial in the ever integrating global business environment. The author argues that,
with more businesses going global, the need for multi-shift working among the business
organizations are increasing, which in turn, required the same to employ workers in
different shifts to cater to their multi-national clientele. Hot-desking comes as an efficient
workplace arrangement for such situations, as the same increases the productivity of each
resource and decreases the cost of operations of the business organizations.
 Another argument, put forward in favor of the practice, by Strobbe et al. (2012), is that
working in different work stations on different days, help the employees to work in the
neighborhood of different people in the same office, which in turn helps in better
communication, inflow of knowledge from different sections and expansion of the
domain of expertise of the employees. This in turn, expectedly contributes positively in
the long run productivity of the concerned companies.
 Brinkø, Van Meel and Nielsen (2014) augment the previous assertions by arguing that
hot-desking not only encourages employees to reduce cumbersome clutters, but also
make them feel more free to use the resources present in the office. Under this practice,

11TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
each employee can use the infrastructures present in the office more efficiently, thereby
making the production more cost effective.
Problems in hot-desking
Not all scholars agree to the positive implications of hot-desking in the business
organizations. Baldry and Barnes (2012), argue in their elaborate and empirically supported
research findings that there are several impacts of hot-desking, which contributes negatively in
the productivity of the employees, thereby having negative implications for the companies in the
long run. As per the authors, hot-desking often gives rise to a state of unorganized and
inadequate accommodation for the employees, especially when employees are more in number.
This forces the employees to waste time in finding a work station for themselves, thereby
decreasing their productivity and the profitability of the organizations. The practice, according to
the authors, also creates the problem of lack of focusing capabilities among the employees as
they need to get accustomed to a new work desk and neighborhood every day (Den Dulk et al.
2013).
Case Study
The findings of Bull and Brown (2012), suggest that there are mixed implications of hot-
desking in the contemporary commercial organizations. While there are evidences of positive
implications of the same in the big Silicon Valley based companies like Amazon, Google and
others, the evidences provided by Coenen and Kok (2014), show that many people in general do
not support the idea as it detaches them from their team, thereby increasing their stress levels as
they do not get their familiar peers and their support.

12TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
c) Stand-Up or Corridor Meeting
Susman (2018), in his article, discussed about another radical change which the
workplaces are often implementing in their work culture, which is commonly known as stand-up
meeting or corridor meeting. The practice involves the work related discussions and meetings
among the attendees, but not in the conventional set-up, but while standing.
Motivations to implement Stand-up Meeting
According to the author the main benefits of stand-up meeting, which motivates the
companies to take this method are as follows:
 The meetings are usually short and compact as they are done while standing, which
creates discomfort if dragged for a long time.
 The meetings being short-spanned can be done in an informal way, on a regular basis,
among teams, which in turn may help in understanding the progress of the same and may
also help in creating more channels of communication among the employees.
Problems in Corridor or Stand-Up Meetings
However, there may also be several problems in conducting the meeting in this way.
Brunelle, (2012), argues that this arrangement, due to the short span of meeting, only works
when all the participants of the same are focused and clear about their objective of the meeting.
Otherwise this may actually be a waste of time.
Conclusion
Apart from the above discussed changes in the arrangements, there have also been
introduction of new work methods like that of virtual meetings, webinars and others, which is
highly facilitated by the new age technologies and usage of internets. As the evidences shown

13TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
above suggests, the implications of the same are mixed. While most of the companies,
implementing these methods are benefitted in terms of cost effectiveness, time saving and team
integration, there have also been evidences of negative effects of the same in some cases, in
terms of inconvenience of some employees and managements, which actually added to the loss
of their productivity. Together the findings suggest that there are scopes and prospects of
implementation of new age workplace arrangements, with the work patterns and operational
dynamics considerably changing with time and with more and more companies expanding their
domain of operations in other countries as well as in different industries, provided the
arrangements are implemented keeping relevance to the structure of the concerned companies,
the conveniences of the employers as well as the employees and also the feasibility and viability
of the measures for the same.

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16TRENDS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
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