The enigmatic effects of telework on work-family conflict: Investigating boundary conditions

Abstract

Telework has been widely used after the COVID-19 pandemic, making work away from the office possible. Although telework has potential beneficial effects due to the compatibility, it can also interfere with nonwork lives. Indeed, previous studies have showed mixed effects of telework on work-family conflict. To clarify the ambiguity, we conducted two studies on the boundary conditions of the relationship between telework and work-family conflict. In the first study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2022), we examined environmental characteristics called permeability and flexibility as the moderators, proposed by the work-home border theory, among 219 Korean employees who teleworked at least once a week. In the second study, we added individual differences regarding segmentation preference as the moderator and tested three-way interactions among telework, work-home border characteristics (permeability or flexibility), and segmentation preference in explaining work-family conflict. The data were collected from 310 Korean employees who responded after the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2024). The results demonstrated that the effect of telework could depend on personal characteristics concerning individual preference as well as environmental characteristics concerning the border between work and home