Empowered or overwhelmed? Procrastination extinguishes the positive effects of work flexibility on work–family conflict

Abstract

Providing flexibility at work is the most pervasive tool for organizations to help employees manage the work–family (WF) interface. Extant research, however, indicates that flexibility does not consistently reduce WF conflict. This paper reports on two studies that contribute to our understanding of how, and for whom, perceived work flexibility improves these outcomes. We extend work on the mechanisms by which flexibility influences outcomes and extend conservation of resources theory using choice overload theory to understand the boundaries of flexibility as a positive resource, specifically, in the form of procrastination. In Study 1, we found that perceived work flexibility was negatively related to subjective work demand for those low on procrastination. In Study 2, we replicate these effects and extend them by finding that effects of flexibility on WF conflict were mediated by its influence on subjective work demand. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and practice around flexibility in the WF interface.