Workplace flexibility across the lifespan

As demographic changes impact the workplace, governments, organizations and workers are looking for ways to sustain optimal working lives at higher ages. Workplace flexibility has been introduced as a potential way workers can have more satisfying working lives until their retirement ages. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on workplace flexibility across the lifespan. It discusses how flexibility has been conceptualized across different disciplines, and postulates a definition that captures the joint roles of employer and employee in negotiating workplace flexibility that contributes to both employee and organization benefits. Moreover, it reviews how flexibility has been theorized and investigated in relation to older workers. The paper ends with a future research agenda for advancing understanding of how workplace flexibility may enhance working experiences of older workers, and in particular focuses on the critical investigation of uses of flexibility in relation to older workers

A cross-national study on the antecedents of work–life balance from the fit and balance perspective

Drawing on the perceived work–family fit and balance perspective, this study investigates demands and resources as antecedents of work–life balance (WLB) across four countries (New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain), so as to provide empirical cross-national evidence. Using structural equation modelling analysis on a sample of 870 full time employees, we found that work demands, hours worked and family demands were negatively related to WLB, while job autonomy and supervisor support were positively related to WLB. We also found evidence that resources (job autonomy and supervisor support) moderated the relationships between demands and work–life balance, with high resources consistently buffering any detrimental influence of demands on WLB. Furthermore, our study identified additional predictors of WLB that were unique to some national contexts. For example, in France and Italy, overtime hours worked were negatively associated with WLB, while parental status was positively associated with WLB. Overall, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Does family life help to be a better leader? A closer look at crossover processes from leaders to followers

Although research on family-to-work processes is accumulating, not many studies have looked at how the leader's family issues spillover to work and what the consequences are for their followers. We investigate whether leaders’ family-to-work conflict (FWC) and enrichment (FWE) influence first their own well-being at work (i.e., job burnout and work engagement) and consequently the well-being of their followers due to crossover processes. We test whether crossover is due to the transfer of emotions from the leader to followers (affective crossover) or due to diminished or enhanced support from the leader (behavioral crossover). Using a sample of 199 leaders and 456 followers, we found that leader FWC (Time 1) was positively related to leader feelings of burnout 4 weeks later (Time 2), consequently enhancing follower feelings of burnout 5 weeks after Time 1 (Time 3). Similarly, leader FWE had a positive relationship with follower engagement, through leader enhanced engagement. Our findings fully supported the affective crossover mechanism. In addition, leader burnout was negatively related to leader supportive behavior, indirectly increasing burnout among followers. Our results underscore that leaders’ family life matters at work, influencing not only their own well-being but also how they motivate and support their followers

Collegiality under pressure: the effects of family demands and flexible work arrangements in the Netherlands

Collegial relationships at work have become more important now that organizations increasingly use team-based work processes. Collegiality is also facing new challenges, however: more employees are meeting heavy demands beyond the workplace and making more frequent use of flexible work arrangements. This study seeks to explain the effect of employees' family demands on collegiality and evaluates whether the use of flexible work arrangements improves or impedes collegial behaviour. Moreover, we aim to investigate collegial behaviour as an exchange process between co-workers, and therefore also take family demands and the use of flexible work arrangements by co-workers into account as predictors of employee collegiality. Based on a sample of 1114 employees from 30 organizations, the results show that when used by the employee and co-workers, flexitime decreases collegiality. Collegiality is decreased when the employee has young children, but increased when co-workers have older children. The implications of these findings for HR practices are discussed

Crossover of distress due to work and family demands in dual-earner couples: a dyadic analysis

Distress resulting from work and family overload is likely to be interdependent between partners, as both men and women increasingly participate in work and family tasks. We attempted to explain distress of both partners by looking at their work and family demands and the resulting time and energy deficits experienced by each partner. Furthermore, we investigated how time deficit, energy deficit and distress due to such demands crossover between partners. The study, which used a precise measurement of family demands, was based on a sample of both partners from 828 dual-earner couples in The Netherlands. The results showed that for both partners work and family demands increase time deficit and energy deficit. Energy deficit due to heavy demands resulted in more feelings of distress, whereas time deficit did not contribute significantly to distress. We found different patterns of crossover between male and female partners. Feelings of time deficit and energy deficit crossed over from the man to the woman, whereas feelings of distress crossed over from the woman to the man. These results indicate that the demands on each partner contribute to their own distress, as well as to their partner’s distress, either through the crossover of energy deficit or through the crossover of distress