Female talents in the knowledge economy: Flexibility, performance and career prospects.

The Bournemouth University Business School invites applications to this funded PhD project, which explores how flexible work arrangements impact on women knowledge workers (e.g. IT and management consultants, university lecturers and researchers, etc). The project is important and timely, as the current talent shortage within the UK's knowledge economy is widely recognised. In a competitive business environment, where the war for talent is globalised, how to utilise female talent potential is an area of concern for both the government and organisations. Traditionally, women are expected to share more family obligations and are more likely to experience work­ life conflicts. There is evidence to suggest that this is still the case in the 21st century. In an attempt to alleviate such conflicts and retain female talent, many
organisations have adopted flexible work arrangements, such as flextime, flexplace and part-time work to help female employees manage both work and family domains.

However, how flexible employment impacts on the careers of women knowledge workers remains highly debatable. Some argue that the emergence of the knowledge economy and the current skill shortage trigger changes in the employment relationship, whereby knowledge workers are empowered and will opt for contingent work to avoid organisational constraints (Arthur, 2008). Many high-skill workers are self­ employed or work as freelancers. The fragmented career model could potentially benefit women as it liberates women from a lifelong hierarchical career model. On the other hand, other scholars believe that flexible work arrangement would further damage women's careers, as flexibility is often negatively related
to perceived performance and reinforced gender inequity by differentiating the 'committed' from the 'not so committed'.

Methodologically, the research may be conducted qualitatively by using in-depth interviews with women knowledge workers who adopt flexible work arrangement to explore their career paths and personal experience.

We are committed to appointing only the very best candidates to our PhD programme. To apply you should have a good first degree (BA or BSc Honours or equivalent), at upper second class or equivalent with evidence of some 1st class work, and/or a Masters qualification (at Merit or above) in a business and management discipline. All applicants will be judged according to the same criteria, namely: record of academic and/or professional achievement; quality of their proposal synopsis; and subject knowledge related to the theme of the studentship. International applicants must achieve IELTS at level 6.5.