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New Ways of Working and Satisfaction of Psychological Needs

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Job Demands in a Changing World of Work

Abstract

This chapter discusses psychological need satisfaction in the context of flexible working arrangements. The first section of the chapter provides current data on the prevalence of flexible working in Europe before defining three forms of flexible working arrangements. More concretely, an arrangement where workers have flexibility in deciding when to work (flextime ), one with flexibility in choosing where to work (flexplace ), and one without temporal and locational limitations of work (nomadic work) are considered. The second section provides an overview of studies describing if and how and when psychological need satisfaction is possible for workers within these three forms of flexible work arrangements . This section considers the need for autonomy , competence, and relatedness (three basic needs according to self-determination theory) , as well as the personal need for structure . Next, interdependencies among these four needs are discussed, contrasting one worker with a high need for structure with another with a low need for structure . Finally, the chapter closes with guidelines on how leaders can design flexible working arrangements that support need satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Cornelia Gerdenitsch

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  1. Cornelia Gerdenitsch
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Correspondence to Cornelia Gerdenitsch .

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  1. Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Christian Korunka

  2. Department of Applied Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Bettina Kubicek

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Gerdenitsch, C. (2017). New Ways of Working and Satisfaction of Psychological Needs. In: Korunka, C., Kubicek, B. (eds) Job Demands in a Changing World of Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54678-0_6

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