Flexible work designs and employee well-being: examining the effects of resources and demands

Advances in communication technology continue to expand the possibilities for redesigning work environments to allow for temporal and spatial flexibility. Although flexible work designs (FWDs) are typically launched with high expectations, recent research shows that FWDs also pose challenges to employees and can even impede employee well-being. Based on the Job Demands-Resources model, we argue that FWDs offer both advantages (FWD-related resources) and challenges (FWD-related demands) to employee well-being. The results (n = 999) show that FWDs are related to employee well-being through several positive and one negative pathways. FWDs are positively associated with employee well-being through enhanced work/life balance, autonomy, and effective communication and negatively associated with employee well-being through increased interruptions. Thus, we introduce a framework that reveals the underlying positive and negative mechanisms in the relationship between FWDs and employee well-being.