The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Millennials: A Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

Recent statistics show that millennials make up about 40% of the employees struggling with mental health issues at the workplace in Malaysia. Concurrently, inflexible work schedules have been listed as one of the work place hazards in the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the workplace. Hence, as millennials will constitute a major part of the global workforce in years to come, it is crucial to study the impact of flexible working arrangements on this category of employees. As flexible working arrangements (FWAs) provide a degree of control to the employees to decide their work arrangements in terms of time, place and method of working, it inadvertently allows an increase in autonomy of the employees. This conceptual paper first deliberates how flexible working arrangements may improve well-being and productivity of millennials since this generation values autonomy more than the previous generations. By using Self-Determination Theory at the workplace, this paper describes how flexible working arrangements (FWAs) support the need for autonomy among millennials, leading to improved well-being and productivity. Arguably, this paper proposes autonomy to be the mediator that links flexible working arrangements (FWAs), well-being and productivity. Finally, a theoretical framework is proposed for future research.