Fine-Tuning What We Know About Flexible Work Arrangements: Deconstructing Employees’ Experience

Prior research has generally found a positive relationship between flexible work arrangements (FWA) and employee attitudes. However, we know relatively little about organizational boundary conditions that affect the strength of this relationship, as there is little multi-level, multi-company research on FWA. Questions also remain about the relative effects of different aspects of FWA when multiple types FWA practices are considered simultaneously. This study explores three aspects of employees’ experience with FWA-- perceived availability of the number of FWA, different types of FWA, and actual use of FWA--and their effects on employee job satisfaction and organization commitment. Using a large multi- company data set (1,799 companies, 17,895 workers), we found that employees who perceive more FWA available to them have higher job attitudes, especially in organizations that report offering fewer formal FWA polices. Among different types of FWA, perceived availability of flexible scheduling is more positively associated with job satisfaction (although not with commitment) than flexible location and hours. We also found that employees who actually use flexible scheduling have lower job attitudes than those who have it available but do not use it. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed.