An Economic Scale to Assess Work-Related Extended Availability

Abstract: Modern information and communication technologies provide employees with greater flexibility, but they also blur the boundaries between work and personal life. Work-related extended availability (WREA) refers to the availability of workers for work-related matters and the availability of work tasks for workers beyond the boundary of the work domain. In the present study, we developed and validated a new instrument for assessing WREA. In Sample 1 ( N = 310), we tested the initial item pool, and in Sample 2 ( N = 591), we examined the nomological network of the finalized measure using data collected at two time points. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a unidimensional structure. The scale demonstrated high correlations with conceptually closely related constructs, indicating convergent validity, and lower correlations with more distantly related constructs supported discriminant validity. Furthermore, associations with self-reported real-life behaviors, such as accepting work-related calls during personal time, and incremental validity in predicting work-to-family conflict demonstrated the scale’s criterion validity. Overall, the scale offers a brief and psychometrically robust measure of WREA.