Boundary role transitions: A day-to-day approach to explain the effects of home-based telework on work-to-home conflict and home-to-work conflict

Abstract

Does working from home on a given day complicate or rather facilitate combining work and home roles that day, why and for whom? To answer these questions, we examined how a teleworking day affects daily work-to-home conflict and daily home-to-work conflict. Based on boundary theory, we expected these relationships to be mediated by daily role transitions and moderated by employees’ preferences to protect their home(/work) domain from work(/home) interruptions. Hypotheses were tested through multilevel moderated mediation modeling using diary data collected during 14 consecutive workdays with 81 employees ( N = 678 data points). In line with our expectations, employees were found to make more work-to-home transitions (i.e. interruptions of work activities to deal with home demands during work hours) on teleworking days, which was related to lower work-to-home conflict but higher home-to-work conflict on these days. They also made more home-to-work transitions (i.e. interruptions of home activities to deal with work demands after hours) on teleworking days, which was related to more work-to-home conflict on these days. The latter effect was stronger for employees with a home protection preference. There was no moderating impact of work protection preference. Overall, employees experienced less work-to-home conflict but more home-to-work conflict on teleworking days compared to non-teleworking days.

Fatigue and recovery among Malaysian doctors: the role of work-related activities during non-work time

“…Doing work task at home was the only taskrelated activities that is associated with higher acute fatigue which probably causes failure to experience psychological detachment from work. 22 In contrast, doing work task at workplace during non-work time was associated with higher recovery, which probably contributed by non-permeation Open access of work-related demand into the home domain 59 and avoidance of rumination on the unfinished task at home. 56 60 61 Attending to work-related training during non-work time was also associated with higher recovery, which is possibly due to the benefit of knowledge gain that supports recovery through mastery experiences.…”

An affordance perspective of team collaboration and enforced working from home during COVID-19

“…In turn, this leads to increased job satisfaction (Fonner & Stache, 2012). Increased work autonomy that allows knowledge workers to have flexibility in their schedule has been reported as one of the key benefits of working from home and contributor to employees' wellbeing (Delanoeije et al, 2019). Moreover, with the blurring boundaries between the work and home space, remote e-workers have lower work-to-home conflicts (Golden et al, 2006).…”

“…Fewer distractions, increased flexibility, increased autonomy accommodating private commitments and reduced commuting time (Delanoeije et al, 2019;Fonner & Stache, 2012;Golden et al, 2006) Comply with governmental or organisational restrictions, and to limit the risk of infection, or spreading COVID-19 (Engle et al, 2020) Preparation Time to plan. Less training and support from the organisation (Tietze & Nadin, 2011) Little time to plan and prepare mentally (Avdiu & Nayyar, 2020;Savić, 2020 Free to travel for professional and social engagements (Golden et al, 2006) Restricted freedom to travel for professional and social engagements (Georganas, 2020) Social interactions Marginalised professionally but with more flexibilities in personal contacts (Cooper & Kurland, 2002) Social contact is limited to their household or on virtual platforms (Von Gaudecker et al, 2020) knowledge workers during COVID-19.…”

“…Remote e-workers are often marginalised compared to their in-office counterparts which create feelings of social and professional isolation (Cooper & Kurland, 2002), missed informal learning opportunities, and decreased support from the company (Tietze & Nadin, 2011). Furthermore, these remote e-workers often do not work from home every day (Delanoeije et al, 2019). However, during COVID-19, many knowledge workers are forced to work from home every day, and the power distance between remote e-workers and their previously on-site colleagues has disappeared.…”

Predictors of Intershift Fatigue Recovery Among Doctors

“…Scheduled and actual intershift duration will be measured by directly asking their scheduled and actual time they start and finish their intershift period, followed by calculation of both duration. Work-related activities during off-job time will be measured by 4-item 7-point Likert scale of work-home transition questionnaires (Delanoeije, Verbruggen, & Germeys, 2019). Recovery experiences will be measured by using Recovery Experiences Questionnaires (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007) containing three subscales, namely Social Science Protocols, March 2020, 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.7565/ssp.2020.2809 10 psychological detachment from work, relaxation and autonomy; each subscale consists of 4 items with 5-point Likert scale.…”