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Using the Canadian General Social Survey of 2016, a large nationally representative dataset, the present paper compares different types of flexible work arrangements in their associations with employee wellbeing and organizational outcomes.

The dataset contains 7,446 observations. Informed by the past scholarship, eight outcomes of job satisfaction, work-life balance satisfaction, organizational belonging, job motivation, perceived advancement prospects, perceived job security, workplace social capital, and turnover intentions are investigated.

First, employees with both flextime and flexplace, and only flextime, have a significantly higher job and work-life balance satisfaction. Second, the possibility of working from home without any discretion over timing does not elicit positive wellbeing outcomes. Third, the results show that the combination of flexplace and flextime is synergistic. Fourth, rather unexpectedly, the positive associations of the FWAs with work-life balance satisfaction are stronger among men and women without dependent children. Finally, there are significant positive associations for the combination of flexplace and flextime, and flextime alone, with other outcomes, such as organizational belonging and job motivation, especially among men.

Given the nonrandom assignment of the workers into the FWAs, the results only reflect ceteris paribus correlations.

This is the first Canadian study of flexible work arrangements, using a large nationally representative dataset.

ABB’s commitment to adding value for customers includes a constant quest for innovation and improvement – new ideas, new thinking, new solutions and stronger customer relationships. FlexPlace is an example of that new thinking. Developed at ABB’s body‐in‐white facility in France, it is a software solution that will greatly improve efficiency and cost‐effectiveness in auto body assembly. Robots with FlexPlace use sensors and pattern recognition to automatically assemble the larger parts of a car, like the roof and the doors, with sub‐millimeter accuracy, and do away with the heavy and expensive tooling traditionally used.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of work-life balance (WLB) practices on the financial results of Spanish accounting audit SMEs.

Using survey data from 148 Spanish accounting audit SMEs, a regression analysis was developed to estimate the direct effects of WLB practices on firms’ financial results (return on capital employed and return on assets). Firm age and size are considered as control variables.

Senior managers should foster some WLB practices (time-reduction and flexible-work practices) so as to enhance SME audit firms’ financial results. Work-leave practices should be analyzed so as to promote some positive outcomes for firms, through internal reorganization or by reorienting employees to resorting to the most beneficial practices.

Not all WLB practices have positive effects on the business results of SMEs. Therefore, managers may try to reduce these negative effects or redirect employees to WLB practices that have more positive effects on their firms’ financial results. Strategic information is also provided to employees and public institutions about fostering WLB in SMEs.

The availability of WLB practices has been deemed fundamental not only for policy makers and society, but also for the organizational culture and for human resource management practices.

This study is the first to investigate the association between the availability of WLB initiatives in SMEs and firms’ financial results.

This study examines whether group-level homogeneity in telecommuting status is associated with performance differences between teleworkers and non-teleworkers at the individual level. The authors further investigate the impact of group-level task interdependence on this relationship.

A group of 225 employees in 41 work groups were surveyed, and employee performance data from the organization was used. A multilevel perspective was used to examine the influence of normative telecommuting on individual performance.

It was found that while performance differences between telecommuters and non-telecommuters in mixed groups favor non-telecommuters, those differences become non-significant as the proportion of telecommuters increases. Results further show that when group task interdependence is low, there are no performance differences between telecommuters and non-telecommuters. When group task interdependence is high, telecommuters perform better as the proportion of telecommuters in the group increases.

Future studies should examine the group norms that are formed in predominantly telecommuting groups that support successful telecommuting outcomes.

Telecommuters perform better in groups with proportionally more telecommuters, even when task interdependence is high.

This study furthers our understanding around how telecommuting can be managed at the group level to maximize performance potential.

This paper investigates how (1) a work environment designed to sustain creativity (i.e. through flexible arrangements and elements of the social-organizational work environment) and (2) the amount of enacted work interactions among employees, interpreted as facilitators of new idea generation (i.e. outdegree centrality in instrumental networks), differently impact creativity and work–life balance.

The authors conducted a quantitative study in a knowledge-intensive multinational company and collected data through a survey on a sample of 207 workers.

Findings highlight that flexible work arrangements are positively related to increased work–life balance but not to creativity, whereas having access to a social-organizational work environment designed to foster creativity is associated to an increased level of idea generation, but to a reduction in work–life balance. In addition, centrality in instrumental social networks is also associated to a reduction of work–life balance. Findings thus point to a potential trade-off between structures aimed at increasing creativity and initiatives aimed at engendering work–life balance.

The research contributes to the current debate on new organizational practices for innovation and creativity, highlighting their unexpected implications for workers. The research also contributes to the literature on work–life balance by unraveling previously unexplored antecedents, i.e. social networks and the social-organizational work environment designed for creativity.

If employers are having a hard time finding capable employees today, just wait until tomorrow. Those responsible for recruiting entry‐level staff in the 1990s and beyond will have their hands full. Demographic studies show that companies will be hard pressed to find an adequate supply of properly skilled young people from the generation that is about to enter the job market.

In 1987, Claire Logan, a sales representative for a garment manufacturer in New York City, was looking forward to her first bonus after moving to a commission‐based pay schedule. She had brought in over US$5 million in sales for her employer, including a new $2 million account with a major department store, and was owed a $15,000 bonus. After receiving a partial payment of $5,000 from her employer, Logan discovered she was pregnant and informed her boss. Within days she found herself out of a job and short $10,000 of the bonus owed to her. Logan filed a complaint against her employer with New York City's Human Rights Commission and four years later settled her claim of discrimination for $45,000.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many working mothers in India adopted involuntary telecommuting work option for the first time. However, no research explored their adjustments and experiences in the new work setting. This paper aims to gain an in-depth understanding of Indian working mothers' lived experience of involuntary telecommuting.

A phenomenological research design was adopted. The authors conducted 14 in-depth, semi-structured telephonic and online interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework.

The data analysis yielded two interconnected superordinate themes in this research: (1) characteristics of involuntary telecommuting and (2) the impact of involuntary telecommuting. Under the first theme, four sub-themes emerged: long working hours, increased family demands, reduced interaction with coworkers and technology-enabled communication with supervisors. The second theme comprised five sub-themes: time-based work interference with family, time-based family interference with work, strain-based family interference with work, absence of emotional and professional support and performance management concerns. Involuntary telecommuting mothers faced challenges due to lack of control over their daily work schedule and demands, along with an increased burden of unpaid household work, leading to difficulties in managing their work schedule and negotiating their professional role identity within the family. These findings emphasize that working mothers who participated in involuntary telecommuting encountered bidirectional time-based conflicts and unidirectional strain-based conflict.

The study examines a particular subset of women telecommuters who were working mothers with young children. These potential limitations are to be addressed in future research.

The findings suggest that managers should develop HR policies and telecommuting ecosystems in order to enhance effectiveness of telecommuting. Specifically, organizations offering telecommuting work options should create opportunities for informal interaction among peers and formal one-to-one interaction with managers. Moreover, HR managers should develop and implement employee-friendly telecommuting policies.

The research contributes to HRM and gender literature.

The paper contributes to the discourses of work-life balance, workplace relationships and work policies within telecommuting literature.

As a result of COVID-19 and associated stay-at-home orders, the number of employees working remotely reached unprecedented levels during early periods of the pandemic. Since that time, some employees have returned to the office; yet, there is a lasting impact on employees’ desires for remote work. In response, decision-makers in organizations should be equipped with knowledge regarding what makes remote work beneficial for both employees and the organization and also fair and compliant with the law. This paper aims to take a dual perspective spanning human capital and legal aspects of remote work to offer six practical recommendations to organizations.

This paper reviews the human resources (HR) scholarly literature on remote work, using principles from evidence-based management to select valid and reliable findings in which to base practical recommendations for organizations. Associated legal risks are identified through a review of the legal literature on remote work and integrated into the recommendations.

Building on a multilevel model of HR practices, the authors offer the following six practical recommendations to organizations: offer hybrid work and both location and schedule flexibility; ensure fair and compliant work schedules; acknowledge manager perceptions; ensure fair approval and evaluation of remote workers; acknowledge individual workers; and align remote work practices with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The multilevel model of remote work practices discussed in this paper offers an organizing framework for identifying advantages and disadvantages of remote work that future research may build upon. The six recommendations help bridge the research–practice gap by providing organizations with knowledge on how to maximize the benefits of remote work while mitigating potential legal risks.

The present research aims to understand how and why flexible work arrangement (FWA) policy use by co-workers affects policy non-users by investigating perceived changes to work, fairness and organizational identification as factors that shape policy non-users’ job satisfaction.

A survey was distributed to 300 Canadian respondents solicited from an online panel owned by Qualtrics Inc. Hypotheses were developed and tested using a moderating mediation model. SPSS Macro Process (Hayes) was used to test the hypotheses.

This survey found that perceiving negative changes to work stemming from co-worker FWA use corresponded to policy non-user job satisfaction, fairness dimensions mediated this effect and organizational identification moderated the relationship driven by interactional fairness. Policy non-users who care most about organizations seem to be most vulnerable to the negative consequences associated with co-worker FWA policy use.

FWA use has been linked to many positive outcomes for policy users. However, the workplace adjustments that occur to accommodate policy use by co-workers could also have implications for policy non-users. This study explores the effects of FWA policy use by co-workers on policy non-users job satisfaction.