Organizational Support and Hybrid Work Policies: A Conceptual Framework for Enhancing Employee Resilience and Work-Life Balance in the IT Sector

Hybrid work; organizational support; employee resilience; work-life balance; IT sector; HR assistance; training and development; inclusive workplace policies.

In a brief period since the inception of the hybrid working arrangements, the manner in which work is carried out in the information technology (IT) sector has been transformed with new possibilities and challenges brought in to both the employers and their employees. Hybrid work is more flexible, autonomous and accessible to work, but it also brings with it issues regarding employee stress and work-life blur, virtual collaboration challenges, and shifting workplace expectations. With organizations further institutionalizing the hybrid work patterns, the need to comprehend the mechanisms that promote the well-being of employees and sustainable performance is on the rise. Specifically, work-life balance and resilience of employees have proven to be extremely valuable products that determine personal performance and organizational performance. This theoretical dissertation tries to construct a framework to describe the mediating role of organizational support with respect to the correlation between a hybrid work policy and organizational resilience and work-life balance within the IT sector. The paper hypothesis is grounded on the Job Demands Resources (JD-R) Theory and Organizational Support Theory (OST) and states that the resource of organizational support will help the employees to cope with the challenges of working in a hybrid environment. The framework visualizes the organizational support in three dimensions that consist of: HR assistance, training and development and inclusive organizational policies. These support systems should maximize the ability of the employees to manage issues at the workplace and lead to a healthier-balanced work and personal life. The proposed framework strengthens the body of knowledge on hybrid work by integrating organizational support and employee resilience with the work-life balance into a single theoretical framework. It also offers useful lessons to IT organizations to strategize on supportive hybrid work strategies to enhance the wellbeing of workers, their resilience, and the whole organization sustainability.