Citation: Alsulami, A.; Mabrouk, F.; Bousrih, J. Flexible Working Arrangements and Social Sustainability: Study on Women Academics Post-COVID-19. Sustainability 2023, 15, 544. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su15010544 Academic Editors: Javier Fombona-Cadavieco and Maria Angeles Pascual-Sevillano Received: 3 November 2022 Revised: 20 December 2022 Accepted: 23 December 2022 Published: 28 December 2022 Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Flexible Working Arrangements and Social Sustainability: Study on Women Academics Post-COVID-19 Alanoud Alsulami , Fatma Mabrouk and Jihen Bousrih * Department of Economics, College of Business and Administration, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia * Correspondence: jsbousrih@pnu.edu.sa Abstract: One of the main challenges faced by companies, scholars, and governments nowadays is achieving economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Remote working, reduced work weeks, and other types of flexible working time arrangements (FWAs) are the new characteristics that will shape the future of work to ensure social sustainability. In changing work patterns, working styles are changed to possibly improve women employees’ mental health and life–work balance. However, recently, very few firms have succeeded in adopting these new FWA trends. The purpose of this paper is to investigate women’s preferences towards FWAs in the academic sector as a social sustainability source. We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on female faculty members’ future job preferences. The data used in the research are collected from a survey given to female faculty members who work in a Saudi women’s university and have already experienced FWAs during the COVID-19 period. The study uses mixed methods of research, combining a choice modeling (CM) method, one sample t-test, a paired sample t-test, cluster analysis, and probit models. Our results show that flexible working arrangements improve the wellbeing of women employees, which ensures sustainable social development. The findings also show that flexibility in location plays a significant role in the decision made by female faculty members when revealing their flexibility preferences. However, flexibility in time did not play a significant role in the decisions made by respondents. This study adds to the empirical evidence in the current literature on female academic staff preferences for FWAs in Saudi Arabia, using choice modeling conjoint analysis and mixed approaches. Keywords: choice modeling; clustering; probit models; job preferences and life–work balance; higher education sector; social sustainability; flexible working arrangements; women academics’ preferences 1. Introduction “Man has always dreamt of a world without suffering, injustice, and above all, without work” [1]. Work and one’s related wellbeing are one of the main human concerns for social sustainability. Work is almost a chore for some people: they work to support their families, but their income does not always satisfy their needs. For others, working is a source of personal fulfillment. They work in a field that they are truly passionate about. Work brings passion to their lives. Social sustainability refers to a balance between working life and wellbeing, health, and safety for both organizations and employees [2]. Recently, to achieve social sustainability, flexibility at work has become a central concern of many governments, scholars, and employers. By advocating flexible working arrangements (FWAs), governments and employers aim to make work more agreeable and allow all workers to enjoy life. At the same time, they aim to ensure high productivity [3,4]. Adopting FWAs is assumed to perfectly reflect the work–life balance. FWAs have been employed in some organizations around the world, using different forms such as flexibility in location (working from home or working in mixed locations), flexibility in time (e.g., a four-day work week or flexible hours), and workload (e.g., part-time jobs or job sharing) [5–7]. Sustainability 2023, 15, 544. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010544 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability