Helping others and feeling engaged in the context of workplace flexibility: The importance of communication control

Claartje  ter Hoeven; Ward van Zoonen

doi:10.1177/2329488419898799

Helping others and feeling engaged in the context of workplace flexibility: The importance of communication control

Claartje ter Hoeven, Ward van Zoonen

Communication Science

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Workplace flexibility can lead to fewer physical encounters, impacting the extent to which employees can help others. This is important because giving help to coworkers facilitates engagement. This study draws on two-wave panel data from 329 employees to examine the relationship between workplace flexibility and engagement through helping behavior. Furthermore, the role of communication control—that is, an employee’s ability to regulate the use of work-related communication technologies—is examined, as it may buffer the negative associations between workplace flexibility and helping behavior. The results demonstrate that spatial flexibility is detrimental to engagement because it reduces helping behavior. Importantly, this negative impact may be alleviated by high levels of communication control (as opposed to low levels). Furthermore, the study provides insights into the independent effects of spatial and temporal flexibility on helping behavior and supports the notion that doing good may lead to feeling good, as helping behavior is positively associated with engagement.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	62-83
Journal	International Journal of Business Communication
Volume	60
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488419898799
Publication status	Published - Jan 2023

Funding

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1572-0652 ter Hoeven Claartje L. 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8531-8784 van Zoonen Ward 2 1 Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands 2 University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Claartje L. ter Hoeven, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (ESSB), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, Netherlands. Email: [email protected] 1 2020 2329488419898799 © The Author(s) 2020 2020 Association for Business Communication Workplace flexibility can lead to fewer physical encounters, impacting the extent to which employees can help others. This is important because giving help to coworkers facilitates engagement. This study draws on two-wave panel data from 329 employees to examine the relationship between workplace flexibility and engagement through helping behavior. Furthermore, the role of communication control—that is, an employee’s ability to regulate the use of work-related communication technologies—is examined, as it may buffer the negative associations between workplace flexibility and helping behavior. The results demonstrate that spatial flexibility is detrimental to engagement because it reduces helping behavior. Importantly, this negative impact may be alleviated by high levels of communication control (as opposed to low levels). Furthermore, the study provides insights into the independent effects of spatial and temporal flexibility on helping behavior and supports the notion that doing good may lead to feeling good, as helping behavior is positively associated with engagement. workplace flexibility spatial flexibility communication control helping behavior work engagement Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003246 451-13-012 edited-state corrected-proof typesetter ts1 Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research under Grant Number 451-13-012. ORCID iDs Claartje L. ter Hoeven https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1572-0652 Ward van Zoonen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8531-8784 The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research under Grant Number 451-13-012.

Funders	Funder number
The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	451-13-012

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abstract = "Workplace flexibility can lead to fewer physical encounters, impacting the extent to which employees can help others. This is important because giving help to coworkers facilitates engagement. This study draws on two-wave panel data from 329 employees to examine the relationship between workplace flexibility and engagement through helping behavior. Furthermore, the role of communication control—that is, an employee{\textquoteright}s ability to regulate the use of work-related communication technologies—is examined, as it may buffer the negative associations between workplace flexibility and helping behavior. The results demonstrate that spatial flexibility is detrimental to engagement because it reduces helping behavior. Importantly, this negative impact may be alleviated by high levels of communication control (as opposed to low levels). Furthermore, the study provides insights into the independent effects of spatial and temporal flexibility on helping behavior and supports the notion that doing good may lead to feeling good, as helping behavior is positively associated with engagement.",

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Helping others and feeling engaged in the context of workplace flexibility: The importance of communication control

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