Six critical ingredients in creating an effective workplace

Flexible working and its relations with work-life conflict and well-being among crowdworkers in Germany

BACKGROUND

New forms of digital work such as crowdwork promise to increase potentials for flexible working. As crowdworkers can work highly autonomous and from anywhere at any time via the internet, they may be able to make work and private demands more compatible and avoid role conflicts between the life spheres, and in turn, experience enhanced well-being.

OBJECTIVE

This research asked whether crowdworkers benefit from flexible working potentials. It investigated the association of the use of different dimensions of flexible working (flex-time, flex-place, and task autonomy) in crowdwork with work-life conflict and well-being. Moreover, it explored whether the relationship between flexible working and well-being was mediated by work-life conflict.

METHODS

The study drew upon a sample of 470 crowdworkers from a cross-sectional self-assessment survey on four different German crowdwork platforms. Structural equation modeling was conducted to estimate the effects of flexible working on work-life conflict, somatic health symptoms, and life satisfaction. Indirect effects were estimated to test the mediation hypothesis.

RESULTS

The findings suggest that if crowdworkers use temporal and task flexibility, they experience fewer work-life conflict, fewer somatic health symptoms, and greater life satisfaction. This does not apply to flex-place. The relationship between flexible working and well-being is partly mediated by work-life conflict experiences.

CONCLUSION

This study supports that crowdwork offers a high potential for working highly autonomous and flexibly in time and place. It is associated with lower levels of work-life conflict and enhanced well-being, but the benefits of this flexibility are not universally included in crowdwork.

Work flexibility arrangements for educators: which one is best for whom? Insights from Indonesia

Purpose

Despite all the complications COVID-19 brought to the education sector, the pandemic has indirectly created various work flexibility arrangements for educators. This paper investigates the impact of different work flexibility arrangements on educators' emotional exhaustion while taking educators' backgrounds (gender, tenure and age) into consideration. This paper explores which work flexibility arrangements fit best for particular educators.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a quantitative approach to investigate the effect of different work flexibility arrangements (low, medium and high) on educators' emotional exhaustion. In total, 462 educators from various educational levels in Indonesia participated as the respondents.

Findings

In general, the findings suggest that female educators are more prone to experience emotional exhaustion than their male counterparts. This study also finds that educators' age negatively relates to emotional exhaustion, and the longer-tenured educators might not be suitable for highly flexible work arrangements. In addition, different degrees of work flexibility have various impacts on educators, depending on their gender, tenure and age. These results are potentially helpful for educational institutions to design the best work arrangements for educators.

Originality/value

It is crucial for educational administrators to determine how much work flexibility should be given to educators from different backgrounds. This study is among the first to empirically examine the impact of different work flexibilities on educators' well-being.

Managerial support

This study investigates how Australian employees perceive managerial support and the influence of union membership on their perception of managerial support using data from 4124 employed persons in Australia across a range of industry sectors. The results indicate that employee perceptions of the work environment (control over working hours, job security, pay equity and safety) influence their perceptions of managerial support, regardless of union membership. The findings imply that managers have a critical role to play in supporting the needs of employees, particularly as organizations confront the challenges posed by aging workforces, growing skill shortages and an increasingly diverse and mobile workforce. This article addresses the call for organizations to provide more support to their employees from governments and management scholars. It also addresses the issue of managers taking on greater prerogative as employee advocates in the light of declining union influence.

Working in Retirement

Despite the relatively large number of working retirees, very little research has focused specifically on their job experiences. This brief report aims to address this gap in the literature by examining what facets of workplace environment affect job satisfaction and engagement for people who are working in retirement. Data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a sample representative of United States workers, are used to compare workers aged 50 and above who consider themselves retired ( N = 203) to those in the same age group who do not consider themselves retired ( N = 936). Results suggest that although the economic security offered by the job is less important to job satisfaction and engagement among those who are working in retirement than it is for other older workers, their relationship with their supervisor may be more important. Implications of these findings are considered along with potential directions for future research.