AUTHOR=Hartner-Tiefenthaler Martina , Mostafa Ahmed Mohammed Sayed , Koeszegi Sabine T. 

TITLE=The double-edged sword of online access to work tools outside work: The relationship with flexible working, work interrupting nonwork behaviors and job satisfaction

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035989

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035989

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide employees with online access to work tools outside work (OAWT), which can be seen as a double-edged sword fostering positive as well as negative aspects of flexibility. We used a randomized sample of 758 Austrian employees from a broad range of organizations and examined by means of structural equation modelling how OAWT relates to different forms of flexible working. In addition, we investigate the relationship between OAWT and both work interrupting nonwork behaviors and job satisfaction. Our findings revealed that OAWT is associated with available flexibility which relates positively to job satisfaction. However, at the same time, it is associated with required flexibility which relates negatively to job satisfaction and positively to work interrupting nonwork behaviors. OAWT has also been found to strengthen the positive relationship between required temporal flexibility and work interrupting nonwork behaviors, and attenuated the negative relationship between required temporal flexibility and job satisfaction. We discuss the practical implications and develop recommendations on how organizations should deal with OAWT.