Employer-oriented flexible work in health care: A diary study on the resulting cognitive demands and their relationship with work–home outcomes

This study investigates how cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility (i.e. to coordinate with others, to structure work tasks and to organize work and private obligations) relate to work–home outcomes among health care professionals. To understand the underlying psychological mechanisms of the relationship between cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility and work–home outcomes, we combined the challenge–hindrance approach with role theory. We hypothesized a positive relationship between cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility and work–home conflict via cognitive effort (strain process) and between cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility and work–home enrichment via learning to self-organize (learning process). Eighty-eight health care professionals working in eldercare homes participated in a diary study and provided 407 day-level datasets. They completed questionnaires twice a day over 5 working days. Our analyses show that the relationships between daily cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility and work–home outcomes depend on strain and learning processes. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that cognitive demands resulting from employer-oriented flexibility, although ambivalently related to work–home outcomes on the person level, trigger distinct strain and learning processes on the day level: daily coordinating with colleagues and daily structuring work tasks were related to work–home conflict via cognitive effort, whereas daily organizing work and family obligations was associated with work–home enrichment via learning to self-organize.