Please, Do Not Interrupt Me: Work–Family Balance and Segmentation Behavior as Mediators of Boundary Violations and Teleworkers’ Burnout and Flourishing

How teleworking adoption is changing the labor market and workforce dynamics?

This article investigates how teleworking adoption influenced the labor market and workforce dynamic using bibliometric methods to overview 86 years of teleworking research [1936-2022]. By grouping the retrieved articles available on the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database, we revealed a holistic and topical view of teleworking literature using clustering and visualization techniques. Our results reflect the situation where the adoption of teleworking in the last three years was accelerated by the pandemic and facilitated by innovation in remote work technologies. We discussed the factors influencing one's decision to join the workforce or a specific company, besides the unintended consequences of the rapid adoption of teleworking. The study can aid organizations in developing adequate teleworking arrangements, enhancing employee outcomes, and improving retention rates. Furthermore, it can help policymakers design more effective policies to support employees, improve labor force participation rates, and improve societal well-being.

Boundary violations and university teachers' well-being during mandatory telework: Recovery's role and gender differences

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to explore the role of psychological detachment from work in the relationship of boundary violations and flourishing, as well as gender differences among university teachers during mandatory telework. We developed and tested a moderate mediation model where psychological detachment was the explanatory mechanism of the relationship between boundary violations with flourishing and using gender as the moderating variable.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 921 Brazilian university teachers (mean age 44 years, 681 women and 240 men) during mandatory telework. Multigroup analysis and moderate mediation were performed using Mplus 7.2.

RESULTS

Psychological detachment mediated the relationship between boundary violations (in both directions) and flourishing and work-to-family violations were more harmful to women' recovery instead family-to-work violations were more harmful to men' recovery, among university teachers during mandatory telework.

CONCLUSION

By focusing on boundary violations in the context of mandatory telework, the study sheds light on the impact of blurred boundaries between work and personal life. This contributes both literature on work-life balance and literature recovery. Moreover, it helps to understand a crisis setting of remote work. Further, the study's findings regarding gender differences highlight how men and women may experience and cope with boundary violations differently during mandatory telework, supporting future specific interventions across genders.

From Conflict to Balance: Challenges for Dual-Earner Families Managing Technostress and Work Exhaustion in the Post-Pandemic Scenario

Within the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has contributed to changing many aspects of individual and collective life. Focusing on professional life, the forced shift to remote working modalities, the consequent blurring of work-family (WF) boundaries, and the difficulties for parents in childrearing have significantly impacted family routines. These challenges have been more evident for some specific vulnerable categories of workers, such as dual-earner parents. Accordingly, the WF literature investigated the antecedents and outcomes of WF dynamics, highlighting positive and negative aspects of digital opportunities that may affect WF variables and their consequences on workers' well-being. In view of the above, the present study aims to investigate the key role of WF conflict and WF balance in mediating the relationship between technostress and work exhaustion. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine direct and indirect relationships among technostress, WF conflict, WF balance, and work exhaustion. Respondents were 376 Italian workers, specifically dual-earner parents who have at least one child. Results and implications are discussed with specific reference to the organizational policies and interventions that could be developed to manage technostress and WF conflict, fostering individual and social adjustment to the new normal.

Women’s Risk-Taking Behaviour during COVID-19 Pandemic: Will Work–Family Enrichment and Work Satisfaction Prevent Turnover Intention?

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all employment conditions as working during the pandemic is a risk to employees’ health. This study investigates women’s intentions to leave their job during times of crisis. However, opportunities for job selection were quite limited, and there are better ways to deal with job insecurity than leaving an organisation. The questionnaires were tested on valid data from 593 female employees of four-star hotels, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. Cultural characteristics and the macroenvironment in Indonesian society cause different practices for women to achieve work–family enrichment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention than in developed Western cultures. Female employees will not be inclined to leave their job even though they are not satisfied. Moreover, work–family enrichment has an essential role in enhancing work satisfaction because it can improve women’s quality of life. Work–family enrichment was also found to reduce the intention of women to leave an organisation. However, work–family enrichment has a more substantial influence on intensifying work satisfaction than on deflating the choice to quit during a crisis. Therefore, the research findings revealed that work–family enrichment is essential in improving work satisfaction, increasing employees’ likelihood of remaining in the organisation. This study contributes to filling the research gap within work–family enrichment by digging into the practical lessons of women’s work behaviour in the service sector, specifically in the hotel industry.

Relationship Satisfaction in Young Couples: Evidence for Validity of Short Scale Combining CFA and IRT

This study aimed to validate a short relationship satisfaction scale (RAS) in a sample of young people and adults in the Lima metropolitan area. There were a total of 806 participants aged between 18 and 30 years: 622 females (77.20%) and 184 males (22.80%). Every participant was currently in a love relationship of a minimum of three months. The methodologies of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Item Response Theory (IRT) were combined to determine the structure and assess the reliability of the instrument. The Omega coefficient (ω) was used from CFA, while the test information function and empirical reliability (r_xx) were used from IRT. The results showed that the RAS could be interpreted as a one-dimensional scale when eliminating the items 4-7 and joining the items 1-2. This model shows high goodness of fit from a CFA-perspective. A similar situation occurs in IRT, except that error covariance is not considered. Nevertheless, assuming the elimination of items 4-7 is still a good option. The reliability in both CFA (ω = .838) and IRT (r_xx = .862) was satisfactory. The evidence of relationship with other variable showed inverse and big relationship with violent spells of tension and difficulty.

The Impacts of Work-Life Balance on the Emotional Exhaustion and Well-Being of College Teachers in China

UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 states that “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.” The sustainable well-being of college teachers deserves attention. Currently, college teachers in China are facing enormous challenges and pressures, which may increase their emotional exhaustion (EE) and hinder the sustainable development of their well-being (WB). Therefore, this study examined Chinese college teachers’ well-being in relation to their work-life balance (WLB) and EE. An online survey was conducted. The valid subjects included 586 college teachers (367 females, 62.6%). We assessed their WLB, EE, and WB. The results revealed that among the Chinese college teachers, (1) WLB was negatively correlated with EE, but positively correlated with WB; EE was negatively correlated with WB; (2) EE partially mediated the relationship between WLB and WB; and (3) College teachers who are male, class tutors, and in public colleges scored higher on EE and lower on WLB and WB than those who are female, non-class tutors, and in private colleges, respectively. The findings indicated that WLB is an important factor for the sustainable development of the well-being of college teachers, and special attention should be paid to college teachers who are male, class tutors, and in public colleges in China.

The work-family interface and the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review

In an unprecedented fashion, COVID-19 has impacted the work-family interface since March 2020. As one of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences, remote work became widely adopted. Furthermore, it is expected that other pandemics will occur in the future. Hence, this context represents a chance to gain deeper insight into telecommuters' work and family spheres. Following PRISMA guidelines, the present narrative review aims to synthesise the COVID-19 impact on the work-family interface. Out of 121 screened references, 32 articles that measure at least one of the following variables-work-family conflict (25), work-family enrichment (3), work-family balance (8), and boundary management (21) were included. A thematic analysis using NVIVO12 was conducted, from which eight topics emerged: "paid workload, unpaid workload, and gender"; "well-being and gender"; "job resources, job demands, and gender"; "couples and gender"; "parenting and gender"; "occurrence of work-family enrichment with work-family conflict and gender"; "enforced blurred boundaries, its management, and gender"; "boundary management impact on work-family conflict, work-family enrichment, and work-family balance." Overall, studies point out that COVID-19 had a complex effect on both work-family conflict and work-family balance, making it difficult to state whether these variables were mitigated or augmented. Findings demonstrated that COVID-19 produced little changes in work-family enrichment. As for the COVID-19 impact on work-family boundary management, individuals had to create new tactics to manage them due to the absence of boundaries between both systems. Besides, due to traditional gendered roles, the COVID-19 health crisis seems to have brought additional hurdles to couples and women.

Systematic Review Registration

[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021278254], identifier [CRD42021278254].

Telework as a Game-Changer for Sustainability? Transitions in Work, Workplace and Socio-Spatial Arrangements

The COVID-19 pandemic makes home-based telework commonplace and promotes a discussion about addressing mobility problems. Many studies focus on the relationship between the urban form at the place of residence and mode of transport or travel distance. Less attention has been paid to the spatial location of the workplace and its implications for mobility. In this article, we investigate these shifting patterns of work (places) from a socio-spatial mobility perspective. Companies in suburban areas are often characterised by limited access to public transport, cause accordingly high commuting volumes of car traffic and have a strong impact on mobility systems throughout whole regions. Anchored in a case study in Burgwedel, in the suburban area of Hannover, Germany, we analyse the impact and the potential of telework concerning workplaces and sustainable mobility. The data analysis is based on qualitative interviews with local employers (n = 10) and a survey of employees in Burgwedel (n = 367) during October–December 2021. We identify three groups of employees according to their abilities to implement telework defined by the nature of their job and their company’s culture. We show that teleworking can be a game-changer for sustainable mobility in cooperation with local companies.

Mediation-Moderation Model: An Empirical Examination of Sustainable Women Entrepreneurial Performance towards Agricultural SMEs in Ivory Coast

The consistent finding of knowledge management practices with women’s entrepreneurial performance is one of the gaps intended to fill in this paper. Several previous research studies on knowledge management practices (KMPs) with sustainable women’s entrepreneurial performance (SWEP) have been drawing the attention of many researchers, and this study includes the mediating role of opportunity recognition (OR) and moderating role of family interference (FI). Smart-PLS software was used to test the proposed hypotheses with gathered data of 450 women-entrepreneur respondents. The findings show a positive and significant impact of KMPs on women’s entrepreneurship and partial mediation of opportunity recognition between sustainable women’s entrepreneurial performance and KMPs. Moreover, family interference strengthens the relationship between opportunity recognition and women’s entrepreneurial performance. The study results proposed that in Ivory Coast, entrepreneurial women face several challenges in running their businesses. Therefore, it is suggested that a combined effort of women entrepreneurs, family interference, society, market opportunities, and researchers can overcome their challenges. Discussion is based on the study findings, and suggestions have been made for researchers and practitioners.

Telework in Baltic Countries during the Pandemic: Effects on Wellbeing, Job Satisfaction, and Work-Life Balance

As a result of the rapid and unplanned adoption of telework by European companies during the pandemic, specific telework characteristics have arisen. Thus, employees’ experience of telework requires further analysis. Based on the “Living, Working, and COVID-19” results for Baltic countries, this paper studies the effect of telework experience on wellbeing, both directly and mediated by Work-Life balance and job satisfaction, through structural equation modelling. After verifying the significant differences in telework preferences, the model is also tested in high versus low telework preference groups. The main findings corroborate the effect of a positive telework experience on perceived wellbeing, but only indirectly via Work-Life balance. Additionally, data from the group with a high telework preference best fits the proposed model, revealing not only the mentioned indirect effect, but also the direct positive effect of telework experience on wellbeing. Thus, employees with a negative experience of telework during the pandemic will be more reluctant to accept telework over more traditional work arrangements. The implications as well as some limitations to be examined in further studies are also presented.

Parents' Emotion Management for Personal Well-Being When Challenged by Their Online Work and Their Children's Online School

Parents' emotional management was highly required during the COVID-19 lockdown, as juggling as their own job moved online and with being a parent of a child whose school was online proved to be a challenge for many. Our sample was restricted to parents who had to work online from their homes while their children had to attend school online, as external imposed conditions. The present study was based on Mayer and Salovey's theory and we aimed to investigate the relationship between parents' emotional intelligence and their ability to manage their emotions during this period, hypothesizing that a higher emotional intelligence and well-developed emotional management abilities contribute to better adjustment to everyday challenges, thus contributing to keeping levels of exhaustion low. The double role played by these adults strained their resources, therefore we were also interested in their level of burnout after almost a year spent in a home turned into office and school. We also investigated the participants' level of flourishing, as described by Ed Diener, as these changes impacted differently on every parent's well-being. The analysis of the data obtained offered us the possibility of issuing a series of recommendations for parents' well-being in such a situation, as the prospect of continuing to work and learn online in future seems very real. The need to set clear boundaries between the roles played in these settings emerged as a main objective of future therapeutic interventions based on positive psychology.

Transforming the Emotional Intelligence of the Feeders in Agribusinesses into the Development of Task Performance and Counterproductive Work Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Simple Summary

This research proposes a psychological model to describe how leadership can deal with the work burnout of feeders in livestock production agribusinesses to solve the important problems of mental health and well-being, thereby increasing the sustainable work of feeders. The empirical evidence comes from 240 livestock feeders from 80 Taiwanese livestock production agribusinesses. The research results can push the literature of emotional intelligence and implementation methods to livestock production agribusinesses.

Abstract

The present research poses a novel multilevel model to describe how transformational leadership can significantly affect task performance and counterproductive work behavior through intermediary effects of emotional intelligence, work engagement, and work burnout. The empirical data is from 240 livestock feeders from 80 Taiwanese livestock production agribusinesses. The empirical results demonstrate that leadership could indeed transform the emotional intelligence of livestock feeders into positive task performance and negative counterproductive work behavior. The research results can provide an implementation method for livestock production agribusinesses to achieve the sustainable work of feeders in agribusinesses through handling task performance and counterproductive work behavior of feeders.

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated the Future of Work or Changed Its Course? Implications for Research and Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique transboundary crisis which has disrupted people's way of life more dramatically than any event in generations. Given the ambiguity surrounding the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and its enduring negative effects, it is important to understand how this has affected important future of work trends. The aim of the current paper is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commonly discussed future of work trends relevant to occupational safety and health priority areas. These topics include work arrangements, compensation and benefits, and the organization of work. For each topic, we assess trends leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, discuss the impact of the pandemic on these trends, and conclude with implications for research and practice. Overall, the pandemic appears to have both accelerated and disrupted various trends associated with future of work topic areas. These effects are discussed in terms of implications for both policymakers and organizations.