ABSTRACT
Commuting time is the duration of the transition between the work and private (typically family) domains. The status of commuting in theories dealing with work-family issues or boundary management is not very clear. We discuss commuting taking a different perspective from the literature (e.g., as a demand, source of time-based work-family conflict, impediment to the flexibility and permeability of the work-home boundary, and as a resource for work-family boundary management), concluding that the demand aspects of commuting are dominant. From this perspective, we analyzed the association between the commuting time as a work-related demand at baseline and work-family conflict (WFC), affective commitment (AC), and intention to quit (ITQ) 1 year later (N = 838). We assessed commuting time objectively by using Google Maps to estimate travel time based on postal codes of home and workplace. As expected, longer commuting predicted all three outcomes. Furthermore, autonomy-manifested in flexible work arrangements-moderated these effects for two out of three outcome variables: Temporospatial autonomy reduced the positive associations between commuting time and WFC and ITQ. The effect sizes were small; however, effects were adjusted for baseline levels of the relevant outcome, demographic variables, and several work and private stressors.
