Telecommuting on Women’s Work-Family Balance through Work-Family Conflicts

Abstract

This study draws on the work-family border theory to examine the impact of telecommuting on work-family balance through work-family conflicts and managing psychological borders. Since telecommuters lack physical boundaries and work within psychologically created borders, it is more challenging for women telecommuters to balance work and family responsibilities while working from home as telecommuters. Although available literature has illuminated this concern, there is a dearth of literature on managing psychological borders. Addressing this gap, this study explores the impact of telecommuting on work-family balance (WFB) through the bi-directional nature of the mediating effect of work-family conflict and the moderating impact of mindfulness, which will be empirically tested. The research adopted a cross-sectional survey strategy to conduct quantitative research on women telecommuters in the information technology industry in Sri Lanka. Interestingly, the findings of this study reveal that telecommuting has an impact on WFB, and that the trait of mindfulness was found to impact women telecommuters’ WFB significantly. The study contributes to the existing literature by incorporating mindfulness as a moderator and highlights the importance of developing the trait of mindfulness, since it is not innate in most people.