The perceived organizational support and employee engagement in the context of flexible working arrangements

Abstract

The work environment has vastly become more demanding and organizational practises have required have needed to be cognisant of methods to keep employees engaged. The topic of flexible working arrangements (FWA) has grown in popularity by research scholars and business practitioners. Considerable research has been conducted on the various dynamics of FWA and the influence of employee engagement. This research however aims to explore emerging themes in perceived organizational support (POS) and employee engagement in the context of flexible work arrangements, to gain in-depth understanding of the relationship between POS and employee engagement, in addition to what has been contributed to literature. The research study was conducted through qualitative methodology of exploratory obtained by the researcher. 14 semi-structured interviews were largely conducted through virtual communication platform, Zoom; and where possible interviews were conducted face-to-face, through open-ended questions. Respondents consisted of 7 Managers and 7 Employees from different organisations across three different industries. The analysis of the interviews was conducted through the six-stage thematic analysis. The research found four emerging themes FWA associated with flexible working schedules, enabling infrastructure, work life balance and adapting to a new way of working. The research also found a positive relationship between employee engagement and POS through common themes such as trust between managers and employees, decision making and dedication to work tasks. The perspectives and views from the participants were commonly affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore the researcher made every attempt to gain perspectives prior the pandemic and during the pandemic from the participants. The research was limited to medium to large sized organisations operating in South Africa.