Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability
The practice of working from home (WFH) has become more common due to the isolation requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although quarantine measures have been lifted, WFH continues and is expected to become permanent for many employees. However, research on the effectiveness of WFH with regar...
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Istanbul University Press
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Psikoloji Çalışmaları |
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| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/02F261B60D474A3EACBB8428493218A2 |
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| author | Ferhat Ayyıldız Samet Arslan |
| author_facet | Ferhat Ayyıldız Samet Arslan |
| author_sort | Ferhat Ayyıldız |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The practice of working from home (WFH) has become more common due to the isolation requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although quarantine measures have been lifted, WFH continues and is expected to become permanent for many employees. However, research on the effectiveness of WFH with regard to balancing the work and nonwork life domains has yielded contradictory results. The outcomes of WFH may differ depending on how organizations manage this work process. Thus, examining the situations in which WFH is beneficial is critical for balancing employees’ work and nonwork lives. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of WFH studies by examining how extended availability moderates the relationship between WFH and the work-nonwork balance. Both the WFH practice and extended availability are based on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although ICTs are considered beneficial because they provide employees with the opportunity to carry out their work anytime and anywhere, they also create some potential problems for employees. Extended availability results in employees being prevented from psychologically disengaging from work and hinders their recovery process. Thus, this study proposes higher extended availability to reduce WFH’s positive effect on the work-nonwork balance. The study’s respondents involve 307 employees from different sectors. The study uses a cross-sectional design and online questionnaire to collect the data and PROCESS macro to test the hypothesis. The results reveal that WFH is not significantly associated with employees’ work-nonwork balance. However, the interactive effects of WFH and extended availability on the work-nonwork balance are significant. Conditional effects have shown WFH’s effects on the worknonwork balance to only be significant when extended availability is low. These findings suggest that higher extended availability may prevent WFH’s benefits regarding maintaining the balance between the work and nonwork life domains. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-545d6cda7a4a499a873c873eb2a32d0c |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2602-2982 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Istanbul University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Psikoloji Çalışmaları |
| spelling | doaj-art-545d6cda7a4a499a873c873eb2a32d0c2025-08-20T02:16:01ZengIstanbul University PressPsikoloji Çalışmaları2602-29822023-12-0143352355210.26650/SP2023-1243838123456Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended AvailabilityFerhat Ayyıldız0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3898-1118Samet Arslan1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4757-9104İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul, TürkiyeThe University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United-KingdomThe practice of working from home (WFH) has become more common due to the isolation requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although quarantine measures have been lifted, WFH continues and is expected to become permanent for many employees. However, research on the effectiveness of WFH with regard to balancing the work and nonwork life domains has yielded contradictory results. The outcomes of WFH may differ depending on how organizations manage this work process. Thus, examining the situations in which WFH is beneficial is critical for balancing employees’ work and nonwork lives. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of WFH studies by examining how extended availability moderates the relationship between WFH and the work-nonwork balance. Both the WFH practice and extended availability are based on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although ICTs are considered beneficial because they provide employees with the opportunity to carry out their work anytime and anywhere, they also create some potential problems for employees. Extended availability results in employees being prevented from psychologically disengaging from work and hinders their recovery process. Thus, this study proposes higher extended availability to reduce WFH’s positive effect on the work-nonwork balance. The study’s respondents involve 307 employees from different sectors. The study uses a cross-sectional design and online questionnaire to collect the data and PROCESS macro to test the hypothesis. The results reveal that WFH is not significantly associated with employees’ work-nonwork balance. However, the interactive effects of WFH and extended availability on the work-nonwork balance are significant. Conditional effects have shown WFH’s effects on the worknonwork balance to only be significant when extended availability is low. These findings suggest that higher extended availability may prevent WFH’s benefits regarding maintaining the balance between the work and nonwork life domains.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/02F261B60D474A3EACBB8428493218A2working from hometeleworkwork-nonwork balanceextended availability |
| spellingShingle | Ferhat Ayyıldız Samet Arslan Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability Psikoloji Çalışmaları working from home telework work-nonwork balance extended availability |
| title | Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability |
| title_full | Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability |
| title_fullStr | Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability |
| title_short | Working from Home and Balancing Work and Nonwork Life: The Moderating Role of Extended Availability |
| title_sort | working from home and balancing work and nonwork life the moderating role of extended availability |
| topic | working from home telework work-nonwork balance extended availability |
| url | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/02F261B60D474A3EACBB8428493218A2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ferhatayyıldız workingfromhomeandbalancingworkandnonworklifethemoderatingroleofextendedavailability AT sametarslan workingfromhomeandbalancingworkandnonworklifethemoderatingroleofextendedavailability |