FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS: STRESS-BUFFERING OR STRESS-EXACERBATION?

Abstract: Job control is traditionally considered a buffer against stress. To find out if there is any evidence to support this idea, I compared the perceived job stress levels among school principals in the public sector within the Gothenburg region with their degree of job control, more specifically, the possibilities to flexible work arrangements they experienced that their job provide. The data collected in the study is based on the principals’ answers to a questionnaire which I created for this study. This thesis aim to find out if the school principals who perceived that they had high levels of flexible work arrangements, (i.e. arrangements that allows an employee to alter the time and/or place when, where and how work is conducted on a regular basis), had lower levels of work related stress than the school principals that experienced that their work arrangements was controlled to a higher degree and lacking flexible work structures. In the study the collected data is analysed to see if it is possible to find evidence for or against the traditional view of personal control as a buffer against stress, and examine if flexible work arrangement may sometimes instead function as a stress exacerbation for the employees. The results presented in this thesis suggest that a perceived flexibility regarding work arrangement in fact has a positive correlation with the well-being of employees by making the employees’ experienced stress levels slightly lower. The results in this thesis provide evidence for participants with higher degree of flexibility in their work arrangement reported less stress than workers who perceived a lower level of job control in deciding work location, work time, and work related tasks. The results presented in this thesis therefore support the traditional view of flexible work arrangement functioning as a buffer against stress.