Dimensions Of Employee Well-being Research Articles

The effectiveness of well-being-oriented human resource management in the context of telework

Organizations can support employee well-being through a wide variety of HRM practices, which can be summarized as well-being-oriented HRM (WBHRM). It is unclear, however, whether these practices can also foster the well-being of teleworkers. Indeed, due to reduced visibility and salience, it is likely that WBHRM is less or even not effective in the telework context. To prove this assumption, we analyze how strong specific domains of WBHRM are related to different dimensions of employee well-being (including happiness, health, and relational well-being) in a non-telework and telework context. In the telework context, we also analyze the moderating role of telework intensity. Our analyses are based on data from 1,980 German employees at two consecutive points in time. Our findings reveal that the overall relationship between WBHRM and employee well-being in terms of happiness (engagement, job satisfaction) and health (strain) is not weakened in the context of telework. Nevertheless, we found differences in the importance of specific domains to foster happiness and health well-being. In terms of relational well-being, we found that WBHRM is positively related to social isolation in the telework and non-telework context (which is counterintuitive). We did not find support for any moderating effect through telework intensity.

THE APPLICATION OF ‘WORK-LIFE BALANCE’ IN RELATION WITH EMPLOYEES’ WELL-BEING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Purpose: This proposed research aims to explore the respondents’ understanding and expectations on ‘work-life balance’ concept, current policies, and issues in their work settings.
 
 Theoretical framework: The research will also study the relation of ‘work-life balance’ practices with respondents’ holistic well-being in terms of emotional and mental health, as well as social relationship dimension.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative research will employ an exploratory case study design, whereby data will be gathered from the purposively sampled respondents using a combination of open-ended survey questionnaire, observation checklist, and interview transcripts (for triangulation purpose).
 
 Findings: Results of this explorative research should be utilized to improve the employees’ condition at home and at workplace, especially after the era of COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: Explore the nuanced relationship between work-life balance and various dimensions of employee well-being, including physical health, mental health, job satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction. Develop flexible work arrangements that cater to diverse employee needs, considering factors like remote work, flexible hours, and compressed workweeks. Encourage organizations to adopt work-life balance practices as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives.
 
 Originality/value: Our research brings together diverse theoretical frameworks from psychology, organizational behavior, and sociology, offering a comprehensive understanding of the multidimensional facets of work-life balance and its impact on employee well-being. By integrating various perspectives, we contribute a nuanced framework that goes beyond simplistic views of work-life balance.

Investigating the impact of person-organization fit on employee well-being in uncertain conditions: a study in three central European countries

PurposeThe objective of this research is to explore the relationship between person-organization fit and employee well-being in the context of uncertainty across three Central European countries: Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a survey-based approach to gather primary data from Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary, resulting in a total of 1,140 respondents. The survey utilized a structured questionnaire designed with a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire consisted of three main sections: person-organization fit, employee well-being and demographic information. Person-organization fit was assessed through a 3-item scale, while employee well-being was evaluated using an 18-item scale that included 3 dimensions: life well-being, workplace well-being and psychological well-being. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the survey data.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal significant positive relationships between person-organization fit and three dimensions of employee well-being – life well-being, workplace well-being and psychological well-being – in three Central European countries: Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. Notably, there were discernible differences between Hungary and Lithuania, as well as between Slovakia and Lithuania. Conversely, no significant distinctions were observed between Hungary and Slovakia in relation to these variables.Originality/valueThis research has the potential to shed light on how the alignment between individual values and organizational values impacts employee well-being, particularly within the context of volatile periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This understanding can guide organizations in fostering a work environment that supports employees. Furthermore, the results of this study create the prospect of providing actionable guidance to organizations aiming to strengthen their approaches for enhancing employee well-being across dimensions such as life well-being, workplace well-being and psychological well-being.

Examining the effects of remote work arrangements implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on the overall wellness of employees at Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS)

During the initial years of the 1990s, there was an expectation that the practice of working from home (WFH) would become a customary mode of work, offering advantages to organizations in terms of job performance and employee contentment. The concept of working from home (WFH) has gained significant traction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because to its potential to ensure the continuity of organizations under certain circumstances. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of remote work arrangements implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on the various dimensions of employee well-being in Botswana. Specifically, the case of the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) will be utilized as a focal point for analysis. The study utilized a descriptive qualitative research approach, including in-depth interviews to collect data from a sample of 18 employees of BURS who were engaged in remote work during the COVID-19 lockdown. The researchers employed a non-probability sampling technique and conducted a theme analysis to analyze the data. The findings of the research suggest that working from home (WFH) offers several advantages, including the ability to sleep for extended periods and enhanced concentration. Additionally, the flexibility and autonomy provided by working from home allow individuals to avoid distractions commonly encountered in open-office environments. However, the study also highlights certain challenges associated with WFH, such as disruptions caused by family members and feelings of isolation. The study suggests the need for further research to be conducted on the effects of remote employment in Botswana. This research would provide valuable insights for policymakers in navigating the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

Exploring the Black and White Shades of Social Sexual Behavior at Workplace

Assertion of the word “sexual behavior” always creates a conflicting state of mind, as it is considered offensive, harassing, and harmful in nature. However, studies have determined it as an inevitable phenomenon that could be harmless and create a positive, enjoyable, and good work climate at the workplace. Considering this, the present study is aimed to determine the impact of social sexual behavior in two forms, that is, ambient sexual behavior and direct sexual behavior on various dimensions of employee wellbeing (work engagement, burnout, and job satisfaction). For the present study, 423 employees of the civil aviation industry have been surveyed working on different profiles. With the application of structural equation modeling, a statistical model has been developed and analyzed. The findings of the study have unveiled the black (negative) and white (positive) shades of social sexual behavior at the workplace. Ambient sexual behavior was found to reduce burnout among employees and enhances work engagement and job satisfaction. Further, the study has analyzed the negative relationship between direct social sexual behavior and the positive dimension of EWB (work engagement and job satisfaction). However, this relationship is found positive in concern to burnout.

STRATEGY TO MAINTAIN EMPLOYEE WELLBEING IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC TIME

The study used a random questionnaire that had been distributed to employees from various types of businesses, there were 157 respondents who filled in, and 134 data were processed by the author to analyze the company's strategy in maintaining employee well-being. Among them are: Demographics of respondents consisting of: Type of business entity, type of industry, size of company. In addition, we took data about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on companies. Strategies for maintaining employee well-being which include: a) implementation of strategies consisting of: types of wellbeing programs implemented by the company, description of the implementation of well-being programs before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. b) Dynamic implementation of strategies for maintaining employee wellbeing based on dimensions consisting of: application of wellbeing to improve physical health, psychological health, relationship, homework interface. Research result; an increase in the percentage of companies implementing well-being programs from 58% to 63%. The strategy applied by the company focuses more on the wellness program. Based on the dimensions of Employee well-being, companies implement more Physical Health programs by providing health care (masks, vitamins, hand sanitizers) and the lowest is Psychological Health.

High performance work practices and their associations with health, happiness and relational well-being: are there any tradeoffs?

Employee well-being is a multidimensional construct, hence high performance work practices (HPWPs) may have diverse effects on its various dimensions. However, extant research does not provide any compelling conclusion regarding the possibility of such tradeoff effects since researchers have usually focused on single well-being dimensions while using diverse research designs (e.g. samples from different countries, different conceptualizations and measures of HPWPs and employee well-being). Diversely, this paper explores the relationship between employees’ perception of HPWPs and three well-being dimensions (health, happiness, and relational well-being) using a probabilistic sample (n = 1,364 employees), from a single country (i.e. Germany), and a set of uniform measures of HPWPs and employee well-being. The findings show that some HPWPs indeed present tradeoff effects on different dimensions of employee well-being. Therefore, we argue that it is necessary to adopt an analytic view on the relationships between HPWPs and employee well-being.

The Employee Is Always Right: Employee Satisfaction and Corporate Performance in Brazil

Abstract I investigate the effect of employee satisfaction on corporate performance based on an extensive dataset of 114,004 online reviews of Brazil’s 1,000 largest listed and unlisted firms from 2013 to 2018 posted at a local subsidiary of Glassdoor. I find that overall employee satisfaction is positively associated with firm performance and that this relationship is likely to be economically relevant. Among the four dimensions of employee well-being, the link with performance is most evident for the dimension on culture, followed by career opportunities. On the other hand, the dimension on compensation and benefits was the least connected with firm performance. Taken together, these results support the view that intrinsic motivators are more relevant for superior performance than extrinsic ones popularized by the carrot and stick approach to management. I also find that the influence of employee satisfaction on performance is likely to be asymmetrical, in the sense that workplaces characterized by low satisfaction among workers are more likely to lead to poor performance than best-in-class companies are likely to produce superior performance. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to document an asymmetrical link between firm value and employee satisfaction, as well the first one to investigate this issue in an emerging economy using online reviews.

The Employee is Always Right: Employee Satisfaction and Corporate Performance in Brazil

I investigate the effect of employee satisfaction on corporate performance based on an extensive dataset of 114,004 online reviews of Brazil’s 1,000 largest listed and unlisted firms from 2013 to 2018 posted at a local subsidiary of Glassdoor. I find that overall employee satisfaction is positively associated with firm performance and that this relationship is likely to be economically relevant. Among the four dimensions of employee well-being, the link with performance is most evident for the dimension on culture, followed by career opportunities. On the other hand, the dimension on compensation and benefits was the least connected with firm performance. Taken together, these results support the view that intrinsic motivators are more relevant for superior performance than extrinsic ones popularized by the “carrot and stick” approach to management. I also find that the influence of employee satisfaction on performance is likely to be asymmetrical, in the sense that workplaces characterized by low satisfaction among workers are more likely to lead to poor performance than best-in-class companies are likely to produce superior performance. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to document a positive link between firm value and employee satisfaction in an emerging economy using online reviews. Because employee well-being is typically one aspect considered in ESG assessments carried out by institutional investors for capital allocation decisions, this paper further contributes to the link between ESG standards and performance by showing that employees’ reviews are a value relevant source of information for investors.

HR practices and employee performance: the mediating role of well-being

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the associations between the skill-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing dimensions of human resource (HR) practices and in-role and innovative job performance. Furthermore, it considers the mediating effects of psychological, physical and social employee well-being on these associations.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was utilized to analyze multi-source survey data from a sample of 300 employees and 34 immediate supervisors in a professional service company in Finland.FindingsThe results indicate that whereas physical and social employee well-being partially mediate the association between skill- and opportunity-enhancing HR practices and in-role job performance, psychological employee well-being partially mediates the association between motivation-enhancing HR practices and innovative job performance.Research limitations/implicationsGiven its cross-sectional nature, the authors cannot completely exclude the possibility of common method bias influencing the study results. The authors thus call for longitudinal research to examine the nature of causality within the associations analyzed in the study.Originality/valueThis study does not support the notion of trade-offs between HR practices, employee well-being and employee performance. Instead, it illustrates that even though different dimensions of HR practices enhance different dimensions of employee well-being, which, in turn, increase different types of employee performance, the different dimensions of HR practices work in the same direction and do not generate any unintended consequences in terms of reduced employee physical well-being.

Use of work–nonwork supports and employee well-being: the mediating roles of job demands, job control, supportive management and work–nonwork conflict

This paper examines the impact of the use of work–nonwork supports on well-being. It first develops hypotheses regarding how a reduction in job demands, and an increase in both job control and supportive management may explain this relationship. We then test these hypotheses using data from Britain’s Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 2011. The research reveals that the use of work–nonwork supports has a positive association with job control and supportive supervision. These in turn mediate a relationship between the use of supports and three dimensions of employee well-being, job satisfaction, anxiety-contentment and depression-enthusiasm, some of the effect being through their reducing work–to–nonwork conflict. Use of work–nonwork supports is, however, positively associated with job demands, but this effect of use on job demands does not affect well-being. Since job autonomy and supportive supervision are major mediators, and have a direct influence on work–nonwork conflict and well-being, policy should focus on integrating job quality and work–life balance issues.

Job Design Characteristics and Well-Being

The purpose of this symposium is to present five studies offering insight into the link between various job design concepts and dimensions of employee well-being. The first paper contributes to our...

Work Engagement and Its Relationship with Various Dimensions of Work-related Well-being in the Public Transport Industry

This study investigated work engagement and its relationship with various dimensions of employee well-being among Zimbabwean bus drivers ( n = 283). The participants completed variety of scales on various dimensions of work-related well-being: job satisfaction, happiness, stress/burnout, job demands and resources; and work engagement viz: the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), Work-Related Flow inventory (WOLF), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) as well as the Job Demands-Resources Scale (JD-R). Data analysis consisted of correlations, multiple regressions and multivariate analysis of variance to determine, if relationship existed between various dimensions of work engagement, happiness, job satisfaction, burnout, job demands and resources, the influence of job demands and resources on work engagement, happiness, job satisfaction and burnout and to assess if differences existed between the variables. Findings contribute to an understanding of how job demands and resources impact on employee’s work engagement, job satisfaction, work happiness and burnout, as well as propose pathways on how to increase positive aspects of employee well-being.

Nonlinear associations between breached obligations and employee well-being

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nonlinear association between proportions of breached obligations within the psychological contract (PC) and three dimensions of employee well-being, and the mediating role of contract violation in these relationships. With this study the authors gain a more detailed understanding of PC evaluations and their consequences for well-being. Design/methodology/approach – The authors build on asymmetry effects theory and affective events theory to propose that breached obligations outweigh fulfilled obligations in their association with well-being. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 4,953 employees from six European countries and Israel. Findings – The results provide support for the hypotheses, as the effect sizes of the indirect relationships for breached obligations on well-being via violation are initially strong compared to fulfilled obligations, but decrease incrementally as the proportion of breached obligations become greater. At a certain point the effect sizes become nonsignificant. Research limitations/implications – The study shows that PC theory and research needs to better acknowledge the potential for asymmetrical effects of breach relative to fulfillment, such that the breach of obligations can sometimes have a stronger effect on employee well-being than the fulfillment of obligations. Practical implications – Those responsible for managing PCs in organizations should be aware of the asymmetrical effects of breach relative to fulfillment, as trusting on the acceptance or tolerance of employees in dealing with breached obligations may quickly result in lower well-being. Originality/value – The findings have implications for the understanding of PC breach and its associations with employee well-being.

Authentic Leadership and Employee Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Attachment Insecurity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and the three dimensions of employee well-being (job satisfaction, perceived work stress, and stress symptoms). Furthermore, attachment insecurity was considered as a mediating factor between authentic leadership and the three dimensions of employee well-being. Data were obtained from a field sample of 212 health care providers with patient contact at five hospitals in the North East of Iran. Initially, collected data were analyzed with multiple confirmatory factor analyses. Then, structural equation modeling was applied to test proposed hypotheses. First, it was shown that authentic leadership negatively impacted attachment insecurity. Second, attachment insecurity proved to be a factor impinging upon job satisfaction. On the contrary, higher levels of attachment insecurity was associated with higher levels of perceived stress and stress symptoms. Third, it was revealed that attachment insecurity partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction and fully mediated the relationship between authentic leadership, perceived stress, and stress symptoms. According to the literature of authentic leadership, this is one of the first research studies, and literally the first in the East exploring the effects of authentic leadership on the exclusive combination of dimensions offered in this paper. Moreover, researchers in the field of management have not delved enough into attachment and its antecedents and consequences in leader–follower relationship. This is one of the first studies to provide evidence of the relationship between authentic leadership, attachment security and employee well-being. As a further analysis, the final model was separately put under the two different lens of gender (female and male) and some interesting findings were discussed in the discussion.

Happiness, Health, or Relationships? Managerial Practices and Employee Well-Being Tradeoffs

Although managerial practices are often structured with the explicit goal of improving performance by increasing employee well-being, these practices frequently create tradeoffs between different dimensions of employee well-being, whereby one aspect of employee well-being improves but another aspect of employee well-being decreases. We call attention to the multi-dimensional nature of well-being and highlight the importance and prevalence of these well-being tradeoffs. Our review sheds new light on the effects of managerial practices on employee well-being, and offers guidelines for managing and mitigating well-being tradeoffs.