Frontiers in Operations: When Does Schedule Consistency Improve Shift Worker Productivity?

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2025.0019

References

  • Amazon.com (2024) Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023 (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, DC).Google Scholar
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2024) Working Arrangements (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia).Google Scholar
  • Batt RJ, Gallino S (2019) Finding a needle in a haystack: The effects of searching and learning on pick-worker performance. Management Sci. 65(6):2624–2645.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Bavafa H, Jónasson JO (2024) The distributional impact of fatigue on performance. Management Sci. 70(5):3319–3337.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Beijing Daily (2022) The weather is hot. How to pay high temperature allowance? The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality (July 19), https://www.beijing.gov.cn/gongkai/hygq/202207/t20220719_2774299.html.Google Scholar
  • Bergman A, David G, Song H (2023) “I quit”: Schedule volatility as a driver of voluntary employee turnover. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 25(4):1416–1435.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Bernstein ES, Kesavan S, Staats BR (2014) How to manage scheduling software fairly. Harvard Bus. Rev. (December 2), https://hbr.org/2014/09/how-to-manage-scheduling-software-fairly.Google Scholar
  • Bøggild H, Knutsson A (1999) Shift work, risk factors and cardiovascular disease. Scandinavian J. Work Environ. Health 25(2):85–99.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bryce AM (2021) Weekend working in 21st century Britain: Does it matter for the well‐being of workers? The Manchester School 89(6):541–568.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cachon GP, Gallino S, Olivares M (2012) Severe weather and automobile assembly productivity. Preprint, submitted September 4, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2099798.Google Scholar
  • Caruso CC, Waters TR (2008) A review of work schedule issues and musculoskeletal disorders with an emphasis on the healthcare sector. Indust. Health 46(6):523–534.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Caruso CC, Lusk SL, Gillespie BW (2004) Relationship of work schedules to gastrointestinal diagnoses, symptoms, and medication use in auto factory workers. Amer. J. Indust. Med. 46(6):586–598.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Costa G (1996) The impact of shift and night work on health. Appl. Ergonom. 27(1):9–16.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Davis KD, Benjamin Goodman W, Pirretti AE, Almeida DM (2008) Nonstandard work schedules, perceived family well‐being, and daily stressors. J. Marriage Family 70(4):991–1003.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dingley J (1996) A computer‐aided comparative study of progressive alertness changes in nurses working two different night‐shift rotas. J. Advanced Nursing 23(6):1247–1253.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Driver C (2023) Shift workers – Why scheduling them can be difficult! Celayix. Retrieved December 9, https://www.celayix.com/blog/shift-workers-why-scheduling-them-can-be-difficult/.Google Scholar
  • Dunham RB (1977) Shift work: A review and theoretical analysis. Acad. Management Rev. 2(4):624–634.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ernst AT, Jiang H, Krishnamoorthy M, Sier D (2004) Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 153(1):3–27.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Folkard S (2008) Do permanent night workers show circadian adjustment? A review based on the endogenous melatonin rhythm. Chronobiology Internat. 25(2–3):215–224.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Frazier L, Grainger D (2003) Shift work and adverse reproductive outcomes among men and women. Clinics Occupational Environ. Med. 3(2):279–292.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gassman-Pines A (2011) Low-income mothers’ nighttime and weekend work: Daily associations with child behavior, mother-child interactions, and mood. Family Relations 60(1):15–29.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Golombek DA, Rosenstein RE (2010) Physiology of circadian entrainment. Physiological Rev. 90(3):1063–1102.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Green LV, Kolesar PJ, Whitt W (2007) Coping with time‐varying demand when setting staffing requirements for a service system. Production Oper. Management 16(1):13–39.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hill AE, Burkhardt J (2021) Peers in the field: The role of ability and gender in peer effects among agricultural workers. Amer. J. Agricultural Econom. 103(3):790–811.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • ILO (2004) Conditions of Work and Employment Programme (International Labour Organization, Geneva). Google Scholar
  • JD.com (2022) Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021 (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, DC).Google Scholar
  • JD.com (2024) Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2023 (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, DC).Google Scholar
  • Jeon HH, Kim SH, Song H, Kim K, Cho S, Hong JH (2024) To each their own (shifts): Incorporating worker preferences into shift schedules. Preprint, submitted April 5, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4750664.Google Scholar
  • Kamalahmadi M, Yu Q, Zhou YP (2021) Call to duty: Just-in-time scheduling in a restaurant chain. Management Sci. 67(11):6751–6781.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Karoly PJ, Goldenholz DM, Freestone DR, Moss RE, Grayden DB, Theodore WH, Cook MJ (2018) Circadian and circaseptan rhythms in human epilepsy: A retrospective cohort study. Lancet Neurol. 17(11):977–985.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kesavan S, Lambert SJ, Williams JC, Pendem PK (2022) Doing well by doing good: Improving store performance with employee-friendly scheduling practices at the Gap, Inc. Management Sci. 68(11):7818–7836.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Lan L, Lian Z, Pan L (2010) The effects of air temperature on office workers’ well-being, workload and productivity-evaluated with subjective ratings. Appl. Ergonomics 42(1):29–36.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lazear EP (2000) Performance pay and productivity. Amer. Econom. Rev. 90(5):1346–1361.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Leso V, Fontana L, Caturano A, Vetrani I, Fedele M, Iavicoli I (2021) Impact of shift work and long working hours on worker cognitive functions: Current evidence and future research needs. Internat. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18(12):6540.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Levi F, Halberg F (1982) Circaseptan (about-7-day) bioperiodicity—Spontaneous and reactive—And the search for pacemakers. La Ricerca Clin. Lab. 12(2):323–370.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • List JA (2023) Editor’s introduction to JPE micro. J. Political Econom. Microeconom. 1(1):1–6.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lu G, Du RY, Peng X (2022) The impact of schedule consistency on shift worker productivity: An empirical investigation. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 24(5):2780–2796.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Mas A, Moretti E (2009) Peers at work. Amer. Econom. Rev. 99(1):112–145.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • McMenamin TM (2007) A time to work: Recent trends in shift work and flexible schedules. Monthly Labor Rev. 130:3–15.Google Scholar
  • Megdal SP, Kroenke CH, Laden F, Pukkala E, Schernhammer ES (2005) Night work and breast cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur. J. Cancer 41(13):2023–2032.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Messenger JC, Lee S, McCann D (2007) Working Time Around the World: Trends in Working Hours, Laws, and Policies in a Global Comparative Perspective (Routledge, London).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Niu SF, Chung MH, Chen CH, Hegney D, O’Brien A, Chou KR (2011) The effect of shift rotation on employee cortisol profile, sleep quality, fatigue, and attention level. J. Nursing Res. 19(1):68–81.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Office for National Statistics (2021) Shift workers in the public sector. Retrieved October 21, https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/13069shiftworkersinthepublicsector.Google Scholar
  • Okamoto-Mizuno K, Mizuno K (2012) Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. J. Psych. Anthropology 31(1):14.Google Scholar
  • Olsen TL, Tomlin B (2020) Industry 4.0: Opportunities and challenges for operations management. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 22(1):113–122.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Patke A, Young MW, Axelrod S (2020) Molecular mechanisms and physiological importance of circadian rhythms. Nature Rev. Molecular Cell Biol. 21(2):67–84.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Presser HB (2000) Nonstandard work schedules and marital instability. J. Marriage Family 62(1):93–110.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Refinetti R, Sani M, Jean-Louis G, Pandi-Perumal SR, Durazo-Arvizu RA, Dugas LR, Kafensztok R, et al. (2015) Evidence for daily and weekly rhythmicity but not lunar or seasonal rhythmicity of physical activity in a large cohort of individuals from five different countries. Ann. Med. 47(7):530–537.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ruoff P, Rensing L (2004) Temperature effects on circadian clocks. J. Thermal Biol. 29(7–8):445–456.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Tan TF, Netessine S (2019) When you work with a superman, will you also fly? An empirical study of the impact of coworkers on performance. Management Sci. 65(8):3495–3517.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality (2010) Notice of the Beijing Municipal Government on Further Improving the Staggered Work Hours (Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, Beijing).Google Scholar
  • Torquati L, Mielke GI, Brown WJ, Burton NW, Kolbe-Alexander TL (2019) Shift work and poor mental health: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Amer. J. Public Health 109(11):e13–e20.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018) Standard occupational classification. Retrieved May 1, https://www.bls.gov/soc/2018/major_groups.htm.Google Scholar
  • Van den Bergh J, Beliën J, De Bruecker P, Demeulemeester E, De Boeck L (2013) Personnel scheduling: A literature review. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 226(3):367–385.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Vetter C, Fischer D, Matera JL, Roenneberg T (2015) Aligning work and circadian time in shift workers improves sleep and reduces circadian disruption. Current Biol. 25(7):907–911.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wickwire EM, Geiger-Brown J, Scharf SM, Drake CL (2017) Shift work and shift work sleep disorder. Chest 151(5):1156–1172.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Winik M (2022) 87 Amazon statistics and facts every retailer should know. Similarweb. Retrieved October 30, https://www.similarweb.com/blog/ecommerce/amazon-insights/amazon-statistics/.Google Scholar
  • Wright KP, McHill AW, Birks BR, Griffin BR, Rusterholz T, Chinoy ED (2013) Entrainment of the human circadian clock to the natural light-dark cycle. Current Biol. 23(16):1554–1558.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.