Abstract:
The effects of the flextime program in AQ Advertising Incorporated was assessed
based on the employees’ perception. Specifically, the study, which is qualitative in
nature, aimed to gauge whether the implementation of a flexible working hours policy
had an effect on the capability of the Creative Department employees to generate ideas
to produce creative outputs such as print advertisements, etc. The research instrument
employed was the interview schedule. Since the said company only had four employees
under the Creative Department, a census sampling scheme was implemented. All of the
Creative Department employees underwent a focus group discussion. The Human
Resource Manager of the said agency was also interviewed to gain a better
understanding of how flextime is employed in the company. The focus group discussion
and interview data were recorded, transcribed and analyzed.
Results showed that AQ Advertising Incorporated implemented a rather lenient
flextime policy. The core hours were set at 10AM and 2PM but bandwidth and schedule
flexibility were on a project-to-project basis. This explained the Creative Department
employees’ varying starting and stopping times. Results also suggested that AQ
Advertising followed the ROI (relevance, originality and impact) philosophy in conjuring
concepts for a specific campaign and the department exemplified the creative process
proposed by Wallace (as cited in McShane and Glinoni, 2000). Flextime came in useful
during the incubation and insight stages. The implementation of flextime also led to
several incentives with regard to attaining personal and organizational goals. Flextime
allowed Creative Department employees to balance their priorities, engage in leisure
activities, maximize their potentials and generally make them feel less stressed and
pressured with regard to work. These enabled them to do what is expected of them,
thus, attaining the ultimate goal of the agency: deliver A-Quality results. Potential
flextime problems with regard to communication, schedule changes, workflow and
availability were countered by the management through compulsory meetings
conducted twice a week, multitasking and standardized communication forms. The
implementation of flextime produced a tremendous impact on the company as the
respondents felt they would not be as creative if they were to follow an ordinary working
schedule. Flextime is more of an advantage to the company; respondents were not able
to identify a disadvantage of the policy in their company.
