Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to examine the decision-making process that goes into whether or not an employee enrolls in a flexible work arrangement (FWA). The effects of five work and life factors (having a family, having a stressful commute, having supervisor support for FWAs, having less interdependent work tasks, and having fewer workplace friendships) on an individual's decision to enroll in a FWA are examined. Additionally, unlike in previous studies, four specific FWAs (full-time telework, part-time telework, flextime, and compressed work schedule) are considered independently via a policy capturing methodology. Results (n=241) suggest that individuals evaluate all FWAs similarly, regardless of the FWA about which they are responding. Supervisor support for FWA use is by far the strongest predictor of likely FWA use. A final issue addressed in this paper is whether actual experience with the work and life factors under investigation impact participants' responses to the hypothetical scenarios presented in the policy capturing study. Results showed that actual experience with the factors did not impact the substantive results of this policy capturing study. Discussion focuses on the contributions of the study to the FWA and policy capturing literature and implications of the results for practitioners.
