The Interplay Between Cognitive Flexibility, Emotion Regulation, and Work-Life Balance: Exploring the Mediating Effect of Job Crafting

With the rise of remote work practices, employees' personal and professional lives have become more intertwined, highlighting the significance of the work-life balance issue. Within academic research, there is a growing interest in exploring the coping mechanisms used by employees to uphold a harmonious work-life balance. This study focuses on emotion regulation (reappraisal and suppression) and cognitive flexibility (alternatives and control) as strategies utilized by employees to preserve their work-life balance and the mediating effect of job crafting in this relationship. To reveal the mentioned relationships, structural equation modeling is employed. The participants were chosen among workers whose organizations implemented a remote work policy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings show both dimensions of cognitive flexibility and the reappraisal dimension of emotion regulation have important effects on job crafting. It is also demonstrated that job crafting significantly affects work-life balance, but the mediation effect cannot be proved with this structural equation model.