Abstract Book of the 6th International Conference on Research in Human Resource Management
Year: 2025
[PDF]
The Benefits of Supporting Employee Health for Individuals and Organizations
Anna Aschbacher, Ralf Terlutter, Heiko Breitsohl
ABSTRACT:
New Ways of Working allow time- and place-independent work by using Information- and Communication Technologies (ICTs). While the accompanying flexibility can be beneficial for individuals, permanent access to work through ICTs may also be harmful to employees´ health, e.g., lack of mental disconnection from work, more sedentary behavior, or working odd hours. Based on the Theory of Work Adjustment (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984) and Boundary Theory (Ashforth, Kreiner & Fugate, 2000), the current research investigates how employees’ Work-Health Balance (WHB) (Gragnano et al., 2017) can be improved by working environments that either support segmentation (i.e., clear boundaries between work and private life) or integration (i.e., permeable boundaries) and how this depends on individuals´ boundary management preferences. We also investigate how higher WHB is beneficial for individuals and organizations. An experimental vignette study with n=352 employees was conducted. The working environment was manipulated with two vignettes, one describing integration and one segmentation. Vignettes had been pretested. Participants answered questions about their boundary management preferences, WHB, psychological health/well-being, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Initial analyses suggest that segmenting plays a crucial role in achieving WHB, particularly in flexible working environments (i.e., integration). WHB increases employees´ job satisfaction and psychological health/well-being and lowers employees´ turnover intentions. Supporting employee health by providing flexible working environments and enabling segmentation is not only beneficial for employees themselves but having healthy employees is also beneficial for organizations. Organizational communication can be considered an essential tool in creating awareness for and fostering WHB.
Keywords: boundary management, integration, new ways of working, segmentation, work-health balance