IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i6p3239-d521246.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Job Quality and Work—Life Balance of Teleworkers

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Rodríguez-Modroño

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Pablo de Olavide University, 41002 Seville, Spain)

  • Purificación López-Igual

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Pablo de Olavide University, 41002 Seville, Spain)

Abstract

As telework and mobile work arrangements become more widespread with new advancements in digitalization, these flexible models of work are rapidly expanding to new categories of employees and completely modifying working conditions and job quality. The aim of this study was to assess how particular types of telework affect different dimensions of job quality. We applied multivariable techniques to a sample of 35,765 workers from the Sixth European Working Conditions Survey. Our findings show that gender and types of telework by workplace and ICT-use intensity are crucial factors affecting working conditions and job quality. Occasional teleworkers are the group with the best job quality, while highly mobile teleworkers are those with the worst job quality and work–life balance. Home-based teleworkers, especially women, present better results than highly mobile workers in terms of working time quality and intensity, though in exchange for lower skills and discretion, income, and career prospects. This study contributes to deepening our knowledge on the impacts of flexible arrangements of work, providing an analysis of current data on different dimensions of job quality and work–life balance and including gender as a crucial axis of analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Rodríguez-Modroño & Purificación López-Igual, 2021. "Job Quality and Work—Life Balance of Teleworkers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3239-:d:521246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3239/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3239/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesca Bettio & Janneke Plantenga, 2004. "Comparing Care Regimes In Europe," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 85-113.
    2. Francis Green, 2020. "Health effects of job insecurity," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 212-212, December.
    3. Wellington, Alison J., 2006. "Self-employment: the new solution for balancing family and career?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 357-386, June.
    4. Bertil Vilhelmson & Eva Thulin, 2001. "Is Regular Work at Fixed Places Fading Away? The Development of ICT-Based and Travel-Based Modes of Work in Sweden," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(6), pages 1015-1029, June.
    5. Eva Thulin & Bertil Vilhelmson & Martina Johansson, 2019. "New Telework, Time Pressure, and Time Use Control in Everyday Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Michael N. Bagley & Ilan Salomon, 1998. "The impact of gender, occupation, and presence of children on telecommuting motivations and constraints," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 49(12), pages 1115-1134.
    7. Gallouj, Faïz & Weber, K. Matthias & Stare, Metka & Rubalcaba, Luis, 2015. "The futures of the service economy in Europe: A foresight analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 80-96.
    8. Ylenia Curzi & Barbara Pistoresi & Tommaso Fabbri, 2020. "Understanding the stressful implications of remote e-working: Evidence from Europe," Department of Economics 0165, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    9. Eugenio Actis Di Pasquale & Marcela Iglesias-Onofrio & Sofía Pérez de Guzmán & Valentina Viego, 2021. "Teletrabajo, vida cotidiana y desigualdades de género en Iberoamérica. La experiencia del confinamiento originado por la COVID-19 como laboratorio," Revista de Economía Crítica, Asociación de Economía Crítica, vol. 31, pages 44-61.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Purificación López-Igual & Paula Rodríguez-Modroño, 2020. "Who is Teleworking and Where from? Exploring the Main Determinants of Telework in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Erik Elldér, 2019. "Who Is Eligible for Telework? Exploring the Fast-Growing Acceptance of and Ability to Telework in Sweden, 2005–2006 to 2011–2014," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Thomas de Graaff & Piet Rietveld, 2004. "ICT and Substitution Between Out-of-Home and at-Home Work: The Importance of Timing," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(5), pages 879-896, May.
    4. Eva Thulin & Bertil Vilhelmson & Martina Johansson, 2019. "New Telework, Time Pressure, and Time Use Control in Everyday Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Purificación López-Igual & Paula Rodríguez-Modroño, 2021. "Factores de desigualdad entre teletrabajadores en Europa," Revista de Economía Crítica, Asociación de Economía Crítica, vol. 31, pages 62-79.
    6. Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Anna Matysiak, 2016. "The Causal Effects of the Number of Children on Female Employment - Do European Institutional and Gender Conditions Matter?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 343-367, September.
    7. Antigone Lyberaki, 2008. "“Deae ex Machina”: migrant women, care work and women’s employment in Greece," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 20, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    8. Joanne S. Muller & Nicole Hiekel & Aart C. Liefbroer, 2020. "The Long-Term Costs of Family Trajectories: Women’s Later-Life Employment and Earnings Across Europe," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1007-1034, June.
    9. Juan Sandoval-Reyes & Sandra Idrovo-Carlier & Edison Jair Duque-Oliva, 2021. "Remote Work, Work Stress, and Work–Life during Pandemic Times: A Latin America Situation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-12, July.
    10. Julie A. Nelson, 2013. "Gender and caring," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 5, pages 62-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Kunwon Ahn & John V. Winters, 2023. "Does education enhance entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 717-743, August.
    12. Willems, Kim & Smolders, Annelien & Brengman, Malaika & Luyten, Kris & Schöning, Johannes, 2017. "The path-to-purchase is paved with digital opportunities: An inventory of shopper-oriented retail technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 228-242.
    13. Aniela Balacescu & Aurelia Patrascu & Loredana Maria Paunescu, 2021. "Adaptability to Teleworking in European Countries," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(58), pages 683-683, August.
    14. Thomas Leoni & Martin Falk, 2010. "Gender and field of study as determinants of self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 167-185, February.
    15. Homayounfard, Amir & Zaefarian, Ghasem, 2022. "Key challenges and opportunities of service innovation processes in technology supplier-service provider partnerships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1284-1302.
    16. Seungil Yum, 2019. "The interaction between knowledge-intensive business services and urban economy," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 63(1), pages 53-83, August.
    17. Marit RØNSEN, 2014. "Children and family: A barrier or an incentive to female self-employment in Norway?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(2), pages 337-349, June.
    18. Jihad FRAIJ & Nemer ABURUMMAN, 2021. "How Does Telework Act As A Solution To The Public Sector In The Time Of Pandemic?," Network Intelligence Studies, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 17, pages 13-24, June.
    19. Elizabeth Gibson & Tugrul Daim & Edwin Garces & Marina Dabic, 2018. "Technology Foresight: A Bibliometric Analysis to Identify Leading and Emerging Methods," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 6-24.
    20. Alexander, Bayarma & Ettema, Dick & Dijst, Martin, 2010. "Fragmentation of work activity as a multi-dimensional construct and its association with ICT, employment and sociodemographic characteristics," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 55-64.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3239-:d:521246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.