Part-time management in Europe. The current situation and recommendations for the implementation

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Cologne Business School Köln, language: English, abstract: For decades it has been known now what the future demographic development will be like and what radical impact it will leave on the employment structure of companies. Nevertheless, no proper responses have been made by companies to motivate, on the one hand, the Generation Y employees and, on the other hand, women to take over more responsibility and occupy a management position. One of the most important job specifications for the Generation Y and women, however, is the so called work-life balance, so employers must use work-life balance issues as incentives in recruiting.

As a consequence, this thesis correlates both topics and investigates the applicability of the concept of part-time work on the management level. In so doing, the specific focus on managers was chosen due to the fact that companies have a great interest in forming a lasting bond with this kind of highly qualified specialists and, therefore, are required to take better account of their needs regarding the working time management. Furthermore, reductions in working time at management level can help the labour market to reduce the gender segregation by attracting more women to top positions.

The crux of the thesis will therefore be to investigate the practicability of part-time management and to solve the following question: How does the current situation of part-time managers in Europe look like and what should companies do for a successful implementation?