Work flexibility arrangements for educators: which one is best for whom? Insights from Indonesia

Abstract

Despite all the complications COVID-19 brought to the education sector, the pandemic has indirectly created various work flexibility arrangements for educators. This paper investigates the impact of different work flexibility arrangements on educators’ emotional exhaustion while taking educators’ backgrounds (gender, tenure, and age) into consideration. This paper explores which work flexibility arrangements fit best for particular educators. This study employs a quantitative approach to investigate the effect of different work flexibility arrangements (low, medium, and high) on educators’ emotional exhaustion. In total, 462 educators from various educational levels in Indonesia participated as the respondents. In general, the findings suggest that female educators are more prone to experience emotional exhaustion than their male counterparts. This study also finds that educators’ age negatively relates to emotional exhaustion, and the longer-tenured educators might not be suitable for highly flexible work arrangements. In addition, different degrees of work flexibility have various impacts on educators, depending on their gender, tenure, and age. These results are potentially helpful for educational institutions to design the best work arrangements for educators. It is crucial for educational administrators to determine how much work flexibility should be given to educators from different backgrounds. This study is among the first to empirically examine the impact of different work flexibilities on educators’ well-being.