2027 KANTER LECTURE

Spoiled for Choice? When Work Flexibility Improves or Impairs Work-Life Outcomes

Brandon Smit, PhD

  • Monday, April 12, 2027
  • 2:00 PM Eastern (time allotted until 3:30 PM for Q&A)
  • Virtual Event, hosted via Zoom
  • Registration required; a Zoom link will be sent to registrants prior to the event
  • The Kanter Lecture Series is free and open to the public
Registration will Open Soon

At this year’s Kanter Lecture, Brandon W. Smit, PhD, will explore when workplace flexibility helps employees achieve better balance and less exhaustion, and when having more choice can actually make things harder. Drawing on research on work flexibility, planning, and employee well-being, Dr. Smit examines how individuals use the freedom to choose when and where they work.

The research shows that planning plays a critical role in helping employees turn flexibility into greater work-life balance and reduced exhaustion. However, flexibility does not benefit everyone in the same way. Changes or disruptions to familiar routines can encourage employees to plan and make better use of their flexibility, while stable circumstances may lead some employees to plan less and experience poorer work-life outcomes.

Attendees will learn why more flexibility does not always mean better outcomes and how organizations can create conditions that help employees make the most of workplace choice.

2026 Kanter Award finalist article: Smit, B. W., Boyar, S. L., & Maertz Jr, C. P. (2025). Spoiled for choice? When work flexibility improves or impairs work–life outcomes. Journal of Management, 51(5), 1730-1764. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01492063231215018

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Brandon Smit is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Executive PhD Program in the Management Department at Bentley University, where he teaches Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. He earned his PhD, MS, and BS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Saint Louis University, and began his academic career teaching at Ball State University and Indiana University East before joining Bentley’s faculty.

Dr. Smit’s research asks a question many working people wrestle with every day: how do we actually make flexibility work for us, rather than against us? His work explores work-life balance, psychological detachment and recovery, stress and coping, and pay secrecy, always with an eye toward what helps people thrive both on and off the clock. His research on workplace flexibility and its effects on work-family conflict, including the study featured in this lecture, has been published in leading outlets such as the Journal of Management, the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, and MIT Sloan Management Review, and has informed how organizations think about flexible work policies.

A dedicated member of the research community, Dr. Smit has received the Academy of Management’s Best Reviewer Award (Organizational Behavior Division) and is an active member of both the Work Family Researchers Network and the Academy of Management.

SPONSORED BY

The Center for Families & The Center for Working Well
College of Health and Human Sciences – Life Inspired
Department of Psychological Sciences
Department of Public Health
Department of Sociology
Human Resources, Purdue University
Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars (OGSPS)
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Department
Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence