title: Changing work, changing health: can real work-time flexibility promote health behaviors and well-being?
abstract: This article investigates a change in the structuring of work time, using a natural experiment to test whether participation in a corporate initiative (Results Only Work Environment; ROWE) predicts corresponding changes in health-related outcomes. Drawing on job strain and stress process models, we theorize greater schedule control and reduced work-family conflict as key mechanisms linking this initiative with health outcomes. Longitudinal survey data from 659 employees at a corporate headquarters shows that ROWE predicts changes in health-related behaviors, including almost an extra hour of sleep on work nights. Increasing employees' schedule control and reducing their work-family conflict are key mechanisms linking the ROWE innovation with changes in employees' health behaviors; they also predict changes in well-being measures, providing indirect links between ROWE and well-being. This study demonstrates that organizational changes in the structuring of time can promote employee wellness, particularly in terms of prevention behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. phylmoen@umn.edu
authors.forename: Phyllis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moen
authors.forename: Erin L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tranby
authors.forename: Qinlei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D017146:Models, Organizational; D016272:Occupational Health; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012890:Sleep; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance