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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test forward-looking incentives against backward-looking incentives. Design/methodology/approach – Wage growth model to estimate forward-looking effects of unpaid overtime and a probit model of participation in unpaid overtime controlling for excessive pay to estimate backward-looking effects. The authors use data form the OSA labour supply panel (years 1994, 1996 and 1998). Findings – The importance of backward-looking incentives is demonstrated in an empirical analysis of participation in unpaid overtime. The authors show that employees who have relatively good wages now or who have had relatively good wages in the recent past participate more often in unpaid overtime. The authors also show that participation in unpaid overtime does not lead to extra wage growth. Research limitations/implications – These results imply that involvement in unpaid overtime is to be explained from backward-looking incentives, not from forward-looking incentives. The paper concludes that backward-looking incentives deserve more attention in the economic literature, especially as they are well-accepted as work motivation devices by employees. Limitations are the length of the panel study (four years) and the fact that the data are restricted to one country (the Netherlands). Social implications – Personnel policies should focus more on the intrinsic motivation of personnel rather than on extrinsic motivation. Originality/value – This is the first paper to test both forward- and backward-looking incentives simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to unexplore the area of information and communication technology (ICT) use in organizations related to the assumed productivity gains by the use of ICTs. On the one hand, the paper focus on the losses of labor time that are caused by malfunctioning hardware or non-functional software, and on the other hand, the paper focus on the labor time losses that are caused by a lack of skills to maximize ICT. Design/methodology/approach – To estimate these losses, the paper conducted a large-scale survey among the Dutch workforce. The respondents were presented scenarios, and then they were asked to assess the loss of labor time. Findings – When working with ICTs, malfunctioning ICT and ICT skill insufficiencies lead to a loss in labor time of 7.5 percent. The losses increase with decreasing educational attainment level. Age does not contribute to the total average losses. Workers highly underestimate the effects of ICT-related training. The role of co-workers is more significant than the formally organized means by the organization. Originality/value – Due to ICT's significance among the labor force, investigating the reported losses is an important step to further improve the use of ICTs in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study examined the relationship between two types of mismatch (i.e. non-correspondence between preferred and actual number of hours), and affective commitment. It was argued that specific groups of employees, i.e. women and part-time working employees, attach more importance to their working hours and, therefore, are less likely to show affective commitment when they experience a mismatch. Design/methodology/approach - Using data from 222 employees of a Dutch Ministry, hypotheses were tested using regression analyses. Findings - It was shown that a mismatch of working more hours was differentially related to the affective commitment of employees who wanted to work more and who wanted to work fewer hours. Moreover, gender and full-time status were found to moderate the negative relationship between a mismatch and the affective commitment of employees who wants to work less. Research limitations/implications - The focus is on affective commitment; however, it is possible that other types of commitment are also associated with perceptions of psychological contract breach. Practical implications - Tailored HRM is needed: assisting employees with a mismatch wanting to work fewer hours can be achieved by allowing them more flexibility in their working schedules. Employees with a mismatch of wanting to work more hours can be assisted with additional support, e.g. shopping services. Originality/value - FIRM practices can be tailored to different preferences: the value of this paper is the examination of different types of mismatch for different group of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the work of the Dutch government's "Taskforce Part-time Plus" set up to stimulate longer working hours for particularly Dutch women holding part-time jobs of less than 24 h per week, to help counteract a predicted structural shortage of manpower. Design/methodology/approach – In 2009, the Taskforce commissioned two studies. The first study comprised three surveys, respectively, among: women holding smaller part-time jobs; full-time working men; and employers. The second study focused on the relationship between ambition, working hours and gender. A survey of 7,000 male and female labour-market participants was combined with qualitative data collection, encompassing focus group interviews with 35 male and female part-time workers and their managers, and three group model building sessions. Findings – The first study showed that only a small amount of Dutch part-time working women is willing to work longer hours in the short term. In the second study, the hypothesis that women's lower working hours could be explained by a lack of career ambition was rejected. However, the results showed that women did neither feel challenged, nor supported by their working and household conditions to extend their working hours to realize their ambitions (in the short run). Originality/value – The paper illustrates that, in the Dutch case and in some contexts, greater equality, diversity and inclusion not only demands support for reduced work-loads, but rather calls for a new culture in which women's marginal labour-market participation does not remain unquestioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]