The Invisible Leash: The Impact of Organizational Expectations for Email Monitoring After-Hours on Employee Resources, Well-Being, and Turnover Intentions

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liuba Y. Belkin ◽  
William J. Becker ◽  
Samantha A. Conroy

Emerging research demonstrates detrimental effects of work-related email use after-hours on employee emotions and well-being. This article extends existing literature by examining organizational expectations for email monitoring (OEEM) during nonwork hours as an antecedent of employee low work detachment, emotional exhaustion, diminished work–life balance, and increased turnover intentions. Adapting the conservation of resources perspective, we theorize that OEEM leads to negative individual and organizational outcomes via two different paths: lack of work detachment, and emotional depletion. The findings of a study with time-separated data collected from a large sample of 570 working adults support our predictions that OEEM decreases employee work–life balance through both low work detachment and emotional exhaustion, while the indirect effect of OEEM on employee turnover intentions is mediated by employee emotional exhaustion, and by work detachment through emotional exhaustion. We also find that decrease in work–life balance is negatively correlated with employee intentions to leave the company, but that this direct effect is not significant in the full model. Finally, we demonstrate that the time employees spend on work-related emails after-hours is not the main driver of negative outcomes. Taken together, our findings highlight deleterious implications of OEEM on employee resources and subsequent organization-related outcomes.

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Yuile ◽  
Artemis Chang ◽  
Amanda Gudmundsson ◽  
Sukanlaya Sawang

AbstractAn employee's inability to balance work and non-work related responsibilities has resulted in an increase in stress related illnesses. Historically, research into the relationship between work and non-work has primarily focused on work/family conflict, predominately investigating the impact of this conflict on parents, usually mothers. To date research has not sufficiently examined the management practices that enable all ‘individuals’ to achieve a ‘balance’ between work and life. This study explores the relationship between contemporary life friendly, HR management policies and work/life balance for individuals as well as the effect of managerial support to the policies. Self-report questionnaire data from 1241 men and women is analysed and discussed to enable organizations to consider the use of life friendly policies and thus create a convergence between the well-being of employees and the effectiveness of the organization.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Yuile ◽  
Artemis Chang ◽  
Amanda Gudmundsson ◽  
Sukanlaya Sawang

AbstractAn employee's inability to balance work and non-work related responsibilities has resulted in an increase in stress related illnesses. Historically, research into the relationship between work and non-work has primarily focused on work/family conflict, predominately investigating the impact of this conflict on parents, usually mothers. To date research has not sufficiently examined the management practices that enable all ‘individuals’ to achieve a ‘balance’ between work and life. This study explores the relationship between contemporary life friendly, HR management policies and work/life balance for individuals as well as the effect of managerial support to the policies. Self-report questionnaire data from 1241 men and women is analysed and discussed to enable organizations to consider the use of life friendly policies and thus create a convergence between the well-being of employees and the effectiveness of the organization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Xose Picatoste ◽  
Mirela Ionela Aceleanu ◽  
Andreea Claudia Șerban

The lifestyle of world citizens has suffered an unprecedented impact as a result of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19. Economies and worldwide societies expect huge damages comparable to that caused by war. To the effects of this crisis on employment and wages must be added those produced in the workplace, with a foreseeable increase in job strain, not only as of the result of the health security reasons in the workplace but also to the effects on work-life balance, training and promotion possibilities, etc. This research analyses the impact of the economic situation on health, the influence of health on labour strain and on job quality. Using OECD data and a structural equation model, we have investigated the relationship between economy, health, quality of the job, work-life balance and well-being. The importance of security and safeness in the workplace is one of the items for evaluating job strain, particularly when they become even more crucial in pandemic times. This issue implicates not only the real risk of individual and social health but also a stressful situation for workers. The main contribution of our paper relies on establishing and prove causal relations among social and economic variables related to health, well-being and job quality, including safeness at the workplace. Considering that this relationship will probably become reinforced after a pandemic, like COVID-19, the actual relevance of the analysed topic and the achieved results becomes crucial.


2016 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinn Galbraith ◽  
Leanna Fry ◽  
Melissa Garrison

This study measures job satisfaction, personal fulfillment, work/life balance, and stress levels of male and female librarians. Researchers surveyed 719 librarians at ARL institutions that either offer faculty status and tenure or offer neither. Females at libraries offering faculty status indicated poor work/life balance and high levels of stress compared to male colleagues and female librarians without faculty status; however, their reported job satisfaction was similar. Possible implications of the results are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sudhir Chandra Das ◽  
Shivani Khushwah

The paper is focused to assess the existing work-life balance initiatives taken by life and general insurance companies and to study the influence of work-life balance practices on employees retention. The survey has been carried out in life and general insurance companies in Kolkata, India with 16 statements of work-life balance (WLB) practices among 300 employees of managerial and supervisory cadre. Mean, Standard deviation, and Mann-Whitney U-Test have been performed in order to know the variation in WLB practices between life and general insurance companies and Ordinal Regression Analysis (PLUM) is applied to measure the impact of work-life initiatives on employees retention. The study found that the mean satisfaction/agreement score of life insurance employees is greater than general insurance employees for the eleven variables. The Mann Whitney U-test indicates that the response of life insurance employees varies from general insurance employees for nature of work, work overload, and training & development. The Pseudo R2 values (e.g. Nagelkerke = 50.8%; Cox and Snell= 42.8% and McFadden = 30.2%) show that 16variables of WLB initiatives explain a relatively higher proportion of the variation in employees retention. Further, the Wald test of significance traced five variables which are found to be statistically significant at 5% level. The outcome of OD is employee engagement perspectives arise based on the notion that work–life initiatives reduce stress, and increase personal and team resilience. This enables employees to cope with growing pressures from fast-paced environmental change in ways that are sustainable for their well-being and enhance the organisations performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 603-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guiyao Tang ◽  
Shuang Ren ◽  
Doren Chadee ◽  
Shuo Yuan

Purpose The increasing use of social media after work hours for work purposes, termed social media connectivity (SMC), is an emerging phenomenon in supply chain management. Although SMC can have debilitating effects on supply chain professionals and their organizations, research on its effects on work-related attitudes, especially turnover intentions, remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of SMC on voluntary turnover of supply chain professionals and the resulting implications for them and their organizations. Design/methodology/approach The study draws from the conservation of resources theory and the concept of information overload to explain how SMC leads to emotional exhaustion and impacts turnover intentions of supply chain professionals, contingent on work–life balance. The model is tested using survey data (n=325) collected at multiple times from a large Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor with spatially dispersed workforce and distribution facilities. Findings The results confirm that emotional exhaustion mediates the association between SMC and turnover intentions and that SMC exacerbates the intentions of supply chain professionals to quit their jobs. However, work–life balance is found to dampen the exhausting effects of SMC on emotional exhaustion thereby reducing its debilitating effects on turnover intentions of supply chain professionals. Originality/value The focus on SMC highlights the need for greater understanding of the dark side of social media on supply chain professionals and their organizations and how SMC can be better managed in an age of social media ubiquity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Elena Macchioni ◽  
Riccardo Prandini

Working carers deserve to receive more and more attention from welfare regimes and workplaces. Using the work–family interface approach, we analyzed the effects of the Family Audit workplace measures—an Italian work–life balance policy—on couple well-being. The research was carried out through a Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing survey which was addressed to the employees of the organizations that participated in the policy program in 2015. The results showed that the measures implemented by the companies were able to improve the perception of couple well-being of working carers, but they did not trigger a cultural change that would permit the elimination of differences due to gender in work–family balance. The most effective measures were characterized by high levels of flexibility. These features allow the reduction of the negative effects produced by some socio-biographic variables, some work-related aspects, and aspects related to the Mediterranean welfare regime.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261969
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Y. Chu ◽  
Thomas W. C. Chan ◽  
Mike K. P. So

During the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, many employees have switched to working from home. Despite the findings of previous research that working from home can improve productivity, the scale, nature, and purpose of those studies are not the same as in the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied the effects that three stress relievers of the work-from-home environment–company support, supervisor’s trust in the subordinate, and work-life balance–had on employees’ psychological well-being (stress and happiness), which in turn influenced productivity and engagement in non-work-related activities during working hours. In order to collect honest responses on sensitive questions or negative forms of behavior including stress and non-work-related activities, we adopted the randomized response technique in the survey design to minimize response bias. We collected a total of 500 valid responses and analyzed the results with structural equation modelling. We found that among the three stress relievers, work-life balance was the only significant construct that affected psychological well-being. Stress when working from home promoted non-work-related activities during working hours, whereas happiness improved productivity. Interestingly, non-work-related activities had no significant effect on productivity. The research findings provide evidence that management’s maintenance of a healthy work-life balance for colleagues when they are working from home is important for supporting their psychosocial well-being and in turn upholding their work productivity.


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