When flexibility feels like control: competing autonomy and Technostrain pathways linking digital work flexibility to employee well-being

Digital work flexibility may be accompanied by both greater discretion and greater technology-related strain. We examine whether Digital Work Flexibility is associated with Digital Autonomy and Technostrain, how these two experiences are associated with Employee Well-Being, and whether employees' perceived After-hours Availability Expectations (AAE) condition the two first-stage relationships. Survey data from 462 full-time employees in Jiangxi Province, China, with one respondent per organization, were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Digital Work Flexibility was positively associated with both Digital Autonomy and Technostrain. Digital Autonomy was positively associated with Employee Well-Being, whereas Technostrain was negatively associated with it. The two indirect relationships were significant and opposite in direction, and their relative balance varied across levels of perceived AAE: the flexibility-autonomy association was weaker and the flexibility-technostrain association stronger at higher AAE. These findings are consistent with a conditional resource-strain pattern in digitally flexible work. Because the data are cross-sectional and self-reported, the indirect relationships are interpreted as statistical associations rather than established causal mechanisms.