Involuntary vs. Voluntary Flexible Work: Insights for Scholars and Stakeholders

Details

• Personal Author:
  Genadek, Katie ; Kaduk, Anne ; Kelly, Erin L. ; Moen, Phyllis
• Description:
  Building on insights from the early stages of our research partnership with a U.S. Fortune 500 organization, we came to differentiate between voluntary and involuntary schedule variability and remote work. This differentiation underscores the complexity behind flexible schedules and remote work, especially among white-collar, salaried professionals. We collected survey data among the partner firm's information technology (IT) workforce to evaluate whether these forms of flexibility had different implications for workers, as part of the larger Work, Family, and Health Network Study. We find that a significant minority of these employees report working variable schedules and working at home involuntarily. Involuntary variable schedules are associated with greater work-to-family conflict, stress, burnout, turnover intentions, and lower job satisfaction in models that adjust for personal characteristics, job, work hours, family demands, and other factors. Voluntary remote work, in contrast, is protective and more common in this professional sample. Employees working at least 20% of their hours at home and reporting moderate or high choice over where they work have lower stress and intentions to leave the firm. These findings point to the importance of both stakeholders and scholars distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary forms of flexibility, even in a relatively advantaged workforce. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Workplace Flexibility Employee Satisfaction Flexible Work Arrangements Job Stress Remote Work Schedule Control Telecommuting Total Worker Health Translational Research TWH Work-life Balance Workforce Development Work Performance Work Schedules

  More +
• ISSN:
  1366-8803
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Massachusetts ; Minnesota ; Oregon ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  32 pdf pages
• Volume:
  22
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066612
• Citation:
  Community Work Fam 2019 Aug; 22(4):412-442
• Contact Point Address:
  Erin L. Kelly, MIT Sloan School of Management, E62-340, 100 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
• Email:
  elkelly@mit.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  Portland State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050901
• Source Full Name:
  Community, Work & Family
• End Date:
  20081130
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d9662f5f8572a316ce3d3fc19e3a1a5d3b71889f6a749dcb26a63f8f54de54bdb1f1839b77e53691fcffbe34a40dbb125035dc1bf98445817a436bf10966ad8a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230683/cdc_230683_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.03 MB ]