Despite the great potential for flexible work policies to increase worker temporal flexibility—the extent to which workers control when and where their work tasks are completed—organizational scholars have found that employees rarely use them for fear of career penalties. This study sheds light on this flexibility paradox by drawing attention to the overlooked yet crucial role of physical space. Using 14 months of field research during an office redesign at a large professional sales organization, I find that a reconfiguration of physical space intended to reduce costs had the unintended consequence of disrupting taken-for-granted greeting practices, noticing practices, and evaluative beliefs. Changes to social practices led employees to feel less concern about trait inferences of dependability and commitment arising from their physical presence and to experience greater temporal flexibility. The findings contribute to a model in which the relationship between flexible work policies and temporal flexibility is moderated by the physical space. By identifying the physical space as a novel determinant of temporal flexibility, the study reveals the structural underpinnings of the flexibility paradox and more generally contributes to our understanding of how physical spaces structure social life in organizations.

中文翻译：

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从面对面时间到弹性时间：物理空间在工人时间灵活性中的作用

尽管灵活的工作政策在增加工人的时间灵活性方面具有巨大的潜力——工人控制他们的工作任务完成的时间和地点的程度——组织学者发现，员工很少使用它们，因为害怕职业惩罚。这项研究通过引起人们对物理空间被忽视但至关重要的作用的关注，揭示了这种灵活性悖论。在一家大型专业销售组织重新设计办公室期间进行了 14 个月的实地研究，我发现旨在降低成本的物理空间的重新配置会产生意想不到的后果，即破坏了理所当然的问候习惯、注意习惯和评价信念。社会实践的变化使员工不再担心因他们的实际存在而产生的可靠性和承诺的特质推断，并体验到更大的时间灵活性。研究结果有助于建立一个模型，其中灵活的工作政策和时间灵活性之间的关系由物理空间调节。通过将物理空间确定为时间灵活性的新决定因素，该研究揭示了灵活性悖论的结构基础，更广泛地有助于我们理解物理空间如何构建组织中的社会生活。