The relationship between international business travel and sleep problems via work-family conflict

Fly-in-fly-out work: A review of the impact of an extreme form of work-related travel on mental health

Large distances between work and home require many workers to stay away from home for work over extended periods. An extreme case of such work is fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work. FIFO work requires workers to stay, over a fixed number of days or weeks, in remote employer-arranged accommodation. Given the disruptive nature of this work arrangement, it is important to develop an understanding of its implications for worker mental health. Based on a systematic review, we identify mostly negative mental health implications of FIFO work and propose an integrative model that brings together FIFO work's key features: the simultaneous fracturing and blending of personal and work lives. The model can guide future research. For example, we suggest that researchers investigate how FIFO workers and other work-related travelers experience fracturing and blending, and how they manage the frequent fluctuation between these two extremes.

Plain language summary

Fly-in-fly-out work represents a specific and extreme case of work-related travel in which workers are housed by employers and have fixed schedules that prescribe blocks of time at work followed by blocks of time at home, alongside other rules. This paper provides an overview of the literature regarding the mental health implications of FIFO work. Moreover, an integrative model of FIFO work is proposed that brings together its key defining attributes: the simultaneous fracturing and blending of personal and work lives, which FIFO workers, and by extension other work-related travellers, experience. The model identifies the key attributes of this type of work arrangement that shape fracturing namely the commute (i.e., duration, mode, distance) and rosters (i.e., length and ratio of time on and off) and blending experiences, namely accommodation (i.e., type and quality), extent to which autonomy is limited (i.e., via choice in food, activities, scheduling) and social isolation. While developed for an extreme, highly standardized, and specific case of work-related travel, the model may also be useful in research focused on work related travel more broadly,

Flexible global working arrangements: An integrative review and future research agenda

The topography of global mobility within multinational enterprises (MNEs) is evolving where we now have a portfolio of flexible global working arrangements (FGWAs) including: international business travellers, flexpatriates, short-term international assignees, international commuters, and rotational assignees. The need for more agile structures and more efficient mechanisms to transfer globally dispersed knowledge are two key enablers in this evolution. With increased interest, this paper offers the first systematic, integrative review of 100 articles on FGWAs. The review indicates that these forms of global work appear to be a somewhat overlooked double-edged sword in that they may confer significant but unrealised value for MNEs alongside hidden, adverse consequences for individuals. Notable was the lack of insight into the HR function's input or oversight at either a strategic or operational level. We find that there is a distinct lack of strategic linkages to global mobility and/or HR functions. We propose a research agenda that centres on better understanding the international HR function's role and responsibility in providing a more strategic and sustainable perspective of these increasingly common FGWAs alongside virtual work. The COVID-19 pandemic may offer a critical juncture point in which there is greater strategic consideration on the utilisation and support of such arrangements.

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This is the first systematic review on flexible global working arrangements

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There is a clear imbalance in representation of the work arrangements in the literature

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Value creation and destruction highlight the doubled-edged nature of such work

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There is a lack of research into the HR function's input or oversight

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Research on strategic IHRM integration and sustainable management is proposed

Ill-being or well-being? Energising international business travellers

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore well-being experiences of international business travellers (IBTs) and contribute to our understanding of personal and job characteristics as antecedents of ill- or well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors’ insights are based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 32 IBTs assigned to various destinations ranging from single-country travel to global operation. Participants in this study represent a range of traveller personas (regarding demographics, type of work, travel patterns). Thematic analysis is used to reveal new insights.

Findings

The authors’ analysis revealed trip-load (i.e. workload, control, organisational support) and intensity of travel (i.e. frequency, duration and quality) as job characteristics that sit on an energy stimulation continuum, driving work-related outcomes such as stress and burnout or health and well-being. Energy draining and boosting processes are moderated by cognitive flexibility and behavioural characteristics.

Practical implications

Findings represent a framework for managing IBT well-being via adjustments in job and travel characteristics, plus guidance for training and development to help IBTs self-manage.

Originality/value

The insights within this paper contribute to the conversation around how to enhance well-being for IBTs and frequent flyers. The study intends to offer direction as to which specific job, psychological and behavioural characteristics to focus on, introducing a novel framework for understanding and avoiding serious consequences associated with international mobility such as increased stress, burnout and ill-health.

Divergent concurrent and lagged effects of the reciprocal relation between work-nonwork interactions and sleep disturbance

STUDY OBJECTIVES

Work-nonwork interactions and sleep disturbances are found to be important predictors of well-being and job performance outcomes. However, little is known about the mutual interrelations of the interactions between life domains and disturbed sleep over short and long periods of time.

METHODS

In total, 4079 representative individuals of the Swedish working population completed three subsequent waves of surveys with a time interval of 2 years (i.e. longitudinal design).

RESULTS

Concurrent, cross-lagged, and reverse directionality effects were simultaneously examined using autoregressive longitudinal path analysis. Contemporarily, interference between work and nonwork increased sleep disturbances, whereas work-nonwork enhancement decreased sleep disturbances. From one time point to the other, work-nonwork interference negatively related to sleep disturbances, and work-nonwork enhancement was mostly no longer (or positively) related to sleep disturbances. Over time sleep disturbances, in turn, predicted more interference and less enhancement between both life domains.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight that problematic work-nonwork interactions (i.e. high work-nonwork interference and low work-nonwork enhancement) disturb an individual's sleep in the short term (i.e. cross-sectional). Furthermore, the results suggest that individuals adapt to negative work-nonwork interactions over time, but that sleep disturbances impair an individual's work-nonwork interactions 2 years later.

Work-family conflict faced by international business travellers

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and moderating effect of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict (WFC) among international business travellers (IBTs) on the basis of the conservation of resources theory.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study was conducted among 1,366 Finnish people in jobs demanding international business travel and a moderated hierarchical regression was utilised in data analysis.

Findings

– An increase in the number of international business travel days and being a parent is positively related to WFC. Women with dependent children experience a lower level of WFC than do men with dependent children. However, a significant interaction effect between international business travel days, parental status and gender was found that indicates that the volume of travel days increases the level of WFC for those women who have children more than it does for women who do not have children. For men, increased numbers of travel days raises levels of WFC, as does having children, but there is no interaction between travel days and parental status among men. An increased number of travel days was least critical for WFC among women without dependent children and most critical for WFC among women with dependent children However, women with dependent children were able to travel to a considerable extent before their levels of WFC overtook those of men with dependent children.

Practical implications

– The findings indicate that organisations should pay particular attention to developing policies and practices that take account of the family status of the traveller. In addition, to assist IBTs to cope with their WFC, attention should be paid to the intensity of work-related travel. However, gender seemed not to play a particularly important role in WFC, indicating that organisations need not be wary of recruiting both men and women into roles involving international business travel.

Originality/value

– This is the first study focusing on IBTs WFC that simultaneously takes account of how the intensity of business travel and both gender and parenthood are related to it.