How do managerial, task, and individual factors inflruence flexible work arrangement participation and abandonment?

Abstract

Since the enactment of the Smartwork policy permitting flexible work arrangements (FWA), increasing numbers of Korean government agencies have allowed their staff to participate in FWA that help them achieve a good work/life balance. Yet, Korean public employees in general are reluctant to participate in FWA and many that initially participate wind up abandoning FWA. With a comprehensive theoretical framework, this article examines how managerial factors, task factors, and individual characteristics influence Korean public employee participation in and abandonment of FWA. With the 2016 Survey of Public Employee Perception on Smartwork, this article finds that all of these factors and characteristics affect Korean government employee participation in and/or abandonment of FWA. In particular, the findings present that supervisory support for balancing work/life issues increases FWA participation and decreases FWA abandonment. On the other hand, the findings illustrate that a hierarchical organizational culture is an obstacle to FWA participation and increases FWA abandonment.