Workplace flexibility, work hours, and work-life conflict: Finding an extra day or two.

Abstract

This study explores the influence of workplace flexibility on work-life conflict for a global sample of workers from four groups of countries. Data are from the 2007 International Business Machines Global Work and Life Issues Survey administered in 75 countries (N = 24,436). We specifically examine flexibility in where (work-at-home) and when (perceived schedule flexibility) workers engage in work-related tasks. Multivariate results indicate that work-at-home and perceived schedule flexibility are generally related to less work-life conflict. Break point analyses of sub-groups reveal that employees with workplace flexibility are able to work longer hours (often equivalent to one or two 8-hr days more per week) before reporting work-life conflict. The benefit of work-at-home is increased when combined with schedule flexibility. These findings were generally consistent across all four groups of countries, supporting the case that workplace flexibility is beneficial both to individuals (in the form of reduced work-life conflict) and to businesses (in the form of capacity for longer work hours). However, work-at-home appears less beneficial in countries with collectivist cultures.

Use of family-friendly work arrangements and work–family conflict: Crossover effects in dual-earner couples.

“…Finally, our study also demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between different types of family-friendly work arrangements (Glass and Finley, 2002;Hill et al, 2010). We showed how the different types of family-friendly work arrangements affected employees' work-family conflict in different ways and through different processes.…”

Corporate social responsibility: Playing to win, or playing not to lose? Doing good by increasing the social benefits of a company’s core activities

“…This, in turn, has consequences for how people organize their personal lives, for example, by allowing parents to take their children to school after first doing some work at home, and going to work after the rush hour, thus reducing their own CO 2 footprint (Kossek et al, 2010) and creating a better balance between work and private life. The freedom to choose where to work, at home or at the office, has significantly reduced feelings of conflict between family and work requirements (Hill et al, 2001(Hill et al, , 2010Kossek et al, 2006), increasing employees' life satisfaction (Adams et al, 1996;Hill et al, 2010).…”

“…The approach focuses at creating benefits for societyincreased efficiency as well as increased life satisfaction through reduced work-family conflict (cf. Hill et al, 2010) -rather than at minimizing costs created by the organization, and may improve the societal impact of the company's own core activities (producing computer software).…”

“…Organizations should critically assess the potential consequences of what they deliver to society, not only to their direct customers, but also what the effects of customers using their products and services have upon others in society. For instance, Microsoft's New Way of Working may result in cost savings for Microsoft's direct customers (Van Heck et al, 2012), but the flexibility that its customers' employees derive from choosing when and where they work, enabling them to establish a more favorable work-life balance, is much more important from a societal point of view (Hill et al, 2010). However, recent research among large organizations still shows a highly reactive pattern of responding to external pressures as if they were merely Public Relations issues, without much tendency to incorporate CSR deeply into their core processes (Bondy et al, 2012).…”

Managing Work-Family Conflict among Entrepreneurs: An Empirical Study

“…Work schedule flexibility was measured by adopting the works of Greenhaus et al (1989) (α = 0.68) and Hill et al (2010) (α = 0.72), with the items also utilising a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (being very inflexible) and 5 (being very flexible).…”