How much job autonomy is good?

Cognitive demands of flexible work

In recent years, more and more organisations have been introducing more flexible working arrangements. Many decisions that were made at the management level in the past are the individual employee’s responsibility today, who has to decide independently when, where and how s/he works. Even though the increased scope for decision-making allows employees to have more control over their work, flexible working arrangements might also have certain downsides. Employees face specific cognitive demands as they have to independently plan, structure and coordinate their work. These cognitive demands of flexible work can have positive as well as negative effects on employees – their effects are ambivalent. On the one hand, the cognitive demands of flexible work can lead to an expansion of competences, as they present a challenge and provide the opportunity to apply complex skills in daily work. On the other hand, cognitive demands can lead to stress, as they require mental effort. By means of observation data, self-evaluation reports, short-term and long-term longitudinal studies as well as an intervention, the CODEofWORC research project explores...

  1. how employees assess the cognitive demands of flexible working arrangements;
  2. the effects of the cognitive demands of flexible working arrangements on well-being, work effort and the reconciliation of private and professional life;
  3. the short-term and long-term underlying processes that explain the link between the cognitive demands of flexible working arrangements and their consequences;
  4. individual and organisational resources for dealing with the cognitive demands of flexible working arrangements; and
  5. recommendations for reducing stress caused by the cognitive demands of flexible working arrangements without losing their potential to further improve at work.

Facts and figures