The paradox of flexibility: Unraveling the impact of flexible work arrangements on affective commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Due to technological progress and the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible work arrangements (FWA) have spread enormously. Thus, many companies offer different forms of flexible work now. The aim of the study is to analyze the consequences for employees' affective commitment brought on by FWA. In order to effectively establish FWA, support is needed from the manager. Transformational leadership can be seen as a supportive and facilitating leadership style in this context. In addition, FWA change the way people work together, especially in terms of informal communication. Therefore, informal communication and transformational leadership were analyzed as possible mediators or moderators. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used on a sample of 224 German employees. The study results indicated that FWA are statistically significantly negatively associated with affective commitment. The role of informal communication as a mediator as well as the role of transformational leadership as a moderator were not confirmed. This study examined the impact of FWA on affective commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic, as existing research findings had been inconsistent regarding the direction of that relationship to date. Moreover, this is the first study examining the effects of informal communication and transformational leadership in this research stream.