유연근무시간제 확산의 제도적 동인과 사회적 파급효과

It has been increasingly documented that flexible working arrangements allow employees to perform their best and sustain work and life balance. Despite much interest in flexible working hours (FWH) as a viable workplace practice that helps better the well-being and productivity of employees in organizations, we know relatively little about how FWH has been institutionalized across the globe. In an attempt to fill this lacuna in the literature, we combine theoretical insights from new institutionalism and corporate governance research to shed light on the external and internal contexts under which firms decide (not) to adopt FWH practice. Our discrete-time survival analysis (estimated using complementary log-log model) of 2,641 ESG-rated firms across 34 OECD countries (excluding North American countries) during 2005~2017 reveal that FWH adoption was more likely when the focal firm operates in countries with a higher level of woman socio-political emancipation. FWH adoption rate is also higher when there are more prior adopters among the firm’s country- and industry-peers. We also find that firms with ESG performance incentives for top management and more women outside board members were more likely to adopt FWH than their counterparts. Interestingly, the effect of prior adoptions among reference group members (i.e., country-peers) on FWH adoption was amplified in countries with a higher level of woman socio-political emancipation, whereas the effect of female directors alleviates in countries with a higher level of woman socio-political emancipation. Finally, we provide evidence of positive social spillovers of FWH. Our result suggests that voluntary community engagement of employees is more likely among FWH adopters than among FWH non-adopters.