Managing Teams in the Hybrid Age: The HBR Guides Collection (8 Books)

CHAPTER 1

A Primer on True Flexibility

by Ellen Ernst Kossek, Patricia Gettings, and Kaumudi Misra

What does flexibility at work look like in practice? And how can you know whether your team or organization is using it successfully?

We are researchers who study how organizations of all types—from professional services and IT firms to hospitals, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities—manage flexibility. In the course of our work we have asked leaders how they do it (or don’t). Here is a range of typical responses:

I accommodate employee needs for time to go to the gym during lunch or to take a class by allowing a special arrangement with respect to the work schedule.

If a family member is ill or someone has been in a car accident, it’s no ...