New Work Practices Call for New Work Responses: Employee-Driven Initiatives to Exploit NWPs

Organizations increasingly implement new work practices (NWPs) (e.g., flexible working hours, reporting to multiple leaders) to remain competitive in changing work environments and fulfill employees' needs. Research findings show that NWPs lead to contradicting and ambiguous results and may bring about both positive and negative outcomes for employees. Yet, research on how employees and their organizations exploit the potential of NWPs is largely absent. This leaves open important questions on how organizations can cope with these new work practices. The aim of this symposium is to shed light on employee-driven initiatives and responses that can aid in reaping the potential benefits of NWPs. The symposium combines three empirical studies examining the effects of adaptive and proactive behaviors (e.g., spatial and ICT job crafting, employee intrapreneurship, polychronicity) on employee well-being, innovation, and performance in the context of NWPs. Furthermore, one case study explores the initiatives flex working managers undertake to cope with flex working employees; and a final case study is presented that explores how employees experience and cope with a specific NWPs, namely annual hours contracts. Following the presentations, Darl Kolb and Paul Collins will act as discussants to link the emerging insights from the contributions, provide both theoretical and practical suggestions, and lead the interactive discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]