Disentangling work-life balance implications of teleworking: a serial mediation analysis through job motivation and job satisfaction

Some literature assumes that teleworking, i.e. any form of work conducted away from the physical workplace allowing workers to work either part time or full time, using ICTs to communicate and collaborate, improves employees’ work-life balance. However, other literature warns about negative side effects of teleworking. Entailing work intensification and blurring boundaries between everyday life and working activities, flexible working arrangements may generate negative drawbacks on the employees’ ability to manage the work-life balance. The article aims to push forward the understanding about implications of teleworking on work-life balance drawing on the evidence provided by a unique sample of European workers. Our secondary data came from the Eurofound’s sixth European Working Condition Survey (EWCS). The sample consists of 16,473 employees working in the private sector across Europe. Performing a serial mediation analysis, we investigate the indirect effects produced by teleworking arrangements on work-life-balance through employees’ motivation and job satisfaction. Our findings confirm that teleworking exacerbates work-life balance. However, our serial mediation analysis suggests that teleworking – triggering an improvement of job motivation that, in turn, boosts individual job satisfaction – may foster a positive effect on employees’ perceived work-life balance. Whilst calling for further conceptual and practical developments, our evidence invites to pay attention to the complex interplay between teleworking and work-life balance, emphasizing the mediating role of job motivation and job satisfaction.