Role Conflict and Flexible Work Arrangements: The Effects on Applicant Attraction

Abstract

This paper challenges a popular assumption that organizations with flexible work arrangements are more attractive to job seekers than those with a standard work arrangement. Drawing on boundary theory, we suggest that the attractiveness of these arrangements depends in part on job seekers' interrole conflict. Subjects were 142 MBA students at a midsized midwestern university. Those with high role conflict were more attracted to an organization when flextime was offered than when it was not. Those with low role conflict, however, were just slightly less attracted to an organization when flextime was offered. Conversely, subjects with low role conflict were more attracted to an organization when telecommuting was offered than when it was not; subjects with high role conflict were indifferent. These results suggest that organizations should understand the needs of their targeted applicant pool and carefully consider recruitment implications of work arrangements when analyzing costs associated with these policies. Our thanks to three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier versionsof this article and to Becky Metz and Jenni Brumm for their assistance in survey administration and data entry. The authors gratefully acknowledge the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, College of Business Administration, for financial support for this project. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Barbara Rau, College of Business Administration, 800 Algoma Boulevard, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901; rau@uwosh.edu. COPYRIGHT 0 2002 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, INC.

Gestión individual del equilibrio entre el trabajo y la vida personal: Revisión e integración de la literatura

“…En este sentido, Rau & Hyland (2002) en su estudio sobre estudiantes de postgrado a nivel de Maestría en Administración de Negocios, indagaron sobre la influencia de la percepción individual en el grado de conflicto trabajo-vida en sus búsquedas laborales. Sus resultados indican que los individuos que se encuentran buscando activamente trabajo y presentan niveles altos de conflicto, perciben a las organizaciones con horario flexible y opciones de teletrabajo como más atractivas.…”

“…Mientras que algunos autores sostienen que son políticas integradoras (Rau & Hyland, 2002;Shockley & Allen, 2010), otros sugieren que, en realidad, fomentan la segmentación de dominios (Rothbard et al, 2005). Futuras investigaciones deberían profundizar en la comprensión del impacto de las políticas de conciliación trabajo-vida que implementan las organizaciones respecto a las preferencias de los individuos (Shockley & Allen, 2010), como así también seguir indagando sobre los antecedentes y consecuencias de la gestión individual del equilibrio trabajo-vida.…”

Human resource management in the project-oriented organization: Employee well-being and ethical treatment

“…A person can work in different projects at the same time, maybe even in different project roles. This can create role conflict at an individual level (Rau and Hyland, 2002). The organization also needs HRM practices to assign people to several projects or programs, and to smooth the demands between projects and programs.…”

Examining the Relationship between Work Life Conflict, Stress and Turnover Intentions among Marketing Executives in Pakistan

“…More flexility can address the problem of work life balance (Marks & Scholarios, 2001). "Because the objective of flexible work arrangements is to improve inter-role conflict, and it also seems reasonable to assume that flexible arrangements will be attractive to workers, especially those faced with competing demands" (Rau & Hyland, 2002).…”