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The 30-hour Workweek - A Promising Alternative for Knowledge Workers?

Wolfsberger, Juliana LU and Rübelmann, Jutta Lena LU (2017) BUSN49 20171
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
Long working hours and burnout as well as other stress-related symptoms are common concerns amongst knowledge workers. An obvious solution might be to reduce working hours, for example, to a 30-hour workweek. Hence, this explorative study is interested in exploring the effects of the 30-hour workweek on knowledge workers. Object of study is a digital marketing agency; eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted. With a qualitative abductive approach, we aim to understand how the concept of the 30-hour workweek affects knowledge workers as well as key aspects of knowledge work such as autonomy, communication, creativity, motivation and commitment, and subjective quality assessment. Our findings suggest that the 30-hour workweek is a... (More)
Long working hours and burnout as well as other stress-related symptoms are common concerns amongst knowledge workers. An obvious solution might be to reduce working hours, for example, to a 30-hour workweek. Hence, this explorative study is interested in exploring the effects of the 30-hour workweek on knowledge workers. Object of study is a digital marketing agency; eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted. With a qualitative abductive approach, we aim to understand how the concept of the 30-hour workweek affects knowledge workers as well as key aspects of knowledge work such as autonomy, communication, creativity, motivation and commitment, and subjective quality assessment. Our findings suggest that the 30-hour workweek is a promising concept for knowledge workers and that it helps to counteract some modern challenges related to knowledge work such as work intensification, empty labour and psychological contract building. In addition, an attempt is made to draw the business case for the 30-hour workweek. Having used an interpretive approach, this study further places this concept in a wider economic and societal context in order to paint a rich picture of the 30-hour workweek. (Less)
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author
Wolfsberger, Juliana LU and Rübelmann, Jutta Lena LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN49 20171
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
alternative working time concepts, empty labour, knowledge intensive firm, knowledge work, knowledge worker, overtime, presenteeism, psychological contract, reduced working hours, work intensification, work-life balance, work-life integration, 30-hour workweek
language
English
id
8919921
date added to LUP
2017-08-03 09:12:20
date last changed
2017-08-03 09:12:20
@misc{8919921,
  abstract     = {{Long working hours and burnout as well as other stress-related symptoms are common concerns amongst knowledge workers. An obvious solution might be to reduce working hours, for example, to a 30-hour workweek. Hence, this explorative study is interested in exploring the effects of the 30-hour workweek on knowledge workers. Object of study is a digital marketing agency; eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted. With a qualitative abductive approach, we aim to understand how the concept of the 30-hour workweek affects knowledge workers as well as key aspects of knowledge work such as autonomy, communication, creativity, motivation and commitment, and subjective quality assessment. Our findings suggest that the 30-hour workweek is a promising concept for knowledge workers and that it helps to counteract some modern challenges related to knowledge work such as work intensification, empty labour and psychological contract building. In addition, an attempt is made to draw the business case for the 30-hour workweek. Having used an interpretive approach, this study further places this concept in a wider economic and societal context in order to paint a rich picture of the 30-hour workweek.}},
  author       = {{Wolfsberger, Juliana and Rübelmann, Jutta Lena}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The 30-hour Workweek - A Promising Alternative for Knowledge Workers?}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}