Samantha Metselaar’s dissertation investigates how spatial flexibility, the freedom to work across locations such as from home, at the office, or other spaces, shapes work-life balance experiences and performance in the modern world of hybrid work. While remote and hybrid models are often seen as drivers of autonomy and work-life balance, we still struggle to understand when and for whom spatial flexibility truly works. This dissertation examines the mechanisms and conditions behind these outcomes.
Drawing on mixed-method insights, such as survey data, interviews, an experiment and daily diary data this research followed employees over time to understand how spatial flexibility affects work-life balance and performance, as well as daily goal achievement. The findings show that spatial flexibility does not automatically lead to improved work–life balance or performance. Instead, spatial flexibility activates a set of mechanisms that depend on both work and home conditions and on employees’ efforts to manage boundaries between work and personal life.
A core finding is that autonomy is the gateway through which spatial flexibility translates into positive outcomes. Spatial flexibility contributes to work-life balance and performance primarily because it enables greater autonomy over how, when, and where work is done.
Furthermore, this research demonstrates that job characteristics matter: high task interdependence and demanding workloads can hinder the benefits of remote work, unless employees have strong collaboration support and shared routines within teams.
Moreover, findings of this dissertation indicate that the preference to work from home is mainly driven by work-related factors. Factors related to personal life certainly matter as well, but they can be considered an additional benefit. Ultimately, work is the determining factor.
The findings also highlight the daily dynamics of spatial flexibility. Working from home reduces work interruptions and allows smooth work-to-home transitions, which help employees accomplish personal goals without sacrificing work goal completion. These transitions function as a resource that helps combine life domains, demonstrating that spatial flexibility can create a genuine win-win for work and personal life.
Leadership emerges as another critical lever. Servant leadership behaviourssuch as empowering employees, enhance employees’ ability to benefit from spatial flexibility, supporting both work-life balance satisfaction and performance. Yet the challenge for leaders is pressing: enabling autonomy and maintaining meaningful connections becomes more difficult when everyone works remotely from one another. Leaders must carefully balance empowering individual employees with supporting team collaboration and achieving organisational outcomes.
This dissertation contributes to theory by combining perspectives on autonomy, cross-domain role transitions, job interdependence, and contextual work-life drivers in order to understand the relationship between spatial flexibility, work-life balance, and performance. For practice, the findings advocate a shift away from rigid office-first policies and toward evidence-based flexibility strategies that enhance both productivity and well-being.
In sum, spatial flexibility can enhance work-life balance and performance but only when embedded in a system that combines autonomy, supportive leadership, constructive boundary practices, and an understanding of personal and task-based differences. When these conditions align, spatial flexibility enables employees to thrive both at work and at home by designing work in a way that fits human lives and modern work realities.
Discover the full story here: https://pure.eur.nl/en/publications/when-flexibility-works-an-examination-of-the-relationship-between/.
