Rebecca Robbins and Brian Wansink
Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore a potentially high-impact solution – Health Codes of Conduct – for engaging and motivating employees to assume responsibility for their health.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed methods study draws on interview and survey methodology with a sample of 149 working adults to examine the feasibility of Health Codes of Conduct. Descriptive and inferential statistics are calculated to understand reactions, characteristics of the companies likely to support the idea, and components of a Health Code of Conduct.
Findings
Nearly all employees offered moderate to high support for Health Codes of Conduct; this included overweight but not obese employees. Additionally, all demographic groups either moderately or strongly supported the policy when they included either monetary incentives (such as prescription discounts) or often overlooked non-monetary incentives (such as employee recognition). Some of the more popular features of Health Codes of Conduct included annual physical exams, exercise routines, and simply being encouraged to stay home when ill.
Research limitations/implications
Health Codes of Conduct offer a surprisingly well-supported potential solution. Favorable reactions were observed across all examined segments of workers, even overweight (but not obese) employees. Using the specific features of Health Codes identified here, visionary companies can tailor their company’s Health Code of Conduct with the appropriate monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives.
Social implications
What if the workplace could be a positive source of health and empowerment for valued employees? The authors show employee Health Codes of Conduct could be this empowering, engaging solution that has been missing.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to propose the concept Health Codes of Conduct and solicit feedback from employees on this novel idea. Furthermore, the authors identify both the monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives that employees believe would be most compelling.
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Keywords
Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore a potentially high-impact solution – Health Codes of Conduct – for engaging and motivating employees to assume responsibility for their health.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed methods study draws on interview and survey methodology with a sample of 149 working adults to examine the feasibility of Health Codes of Conduct. Descriptive and inferential statistics are calculated to understand reactions, characteristics of the companies likely to support the idea, and components of a Health Code of Conduct.
Findings
Nearly all employees offered moderate to high support for Health Codes of Conduct; this included overweight but not obese employees. Additionally, all demographic groups either moderately or strongly supported the policy when they included either monetary incentives (such as prescription discounts) or often overlooked non-monetary incentives (such as employee recognition). Some of the more popular features of Health Codes of Conduct included annual physical exams, exercise routines, and simply being encouraged to stay home when ill.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to propose the concept of Health Codes of Conduct and solicit feedback from employees on this novel idea. Furthermore, the authors identify both the monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives that employees believe would be most compelling.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details
Keywords
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the seventeenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items, in English published in 1990. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
Rebecca J. Evan, Stephanie Sisco, Crystal Saric Fashant, Neela Nandyal and Stacey Robbins
This research applies social identity theory (SIT) to examine how White diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals perceive their role and contributions to advancing…
Abstract
Purpose
This research applies social identity theory (SIT) to examine how White diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals perceive their role and contributions to advancing workplace DEI.
Design/methodology/approach
Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to structure and guide the study, and data were collected from interviews with 16 White DEI professionals.
Findings
The SIT concept of social categorization was selected as a framework to discuss the findings, which were divided into two sections: in-group identity and out-group identity. The participants' in-group identities demonstrated how the participants leveraged the participants' Whiteness to grant the participants the influence and agency to perform DEI work. The participant's out-group identities revealed how the participants attempted to decenter the participants' Whiteness and unpack insecurities related to the participants' White identity and DEI contributions. Each of these findings has been associated with a specific role: leader, beneficiary, ally and pathfinder.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this study are critically examining White DEI employees' lived experience to develop an understanding of Whiteness while holding White people accountable for DEI efforts within workplaces.
Originality/value
Deeper and more honest conversations are needed to explore the phenomenon of how White DEI professionals enact and perceive the DEI contributions of the White DEI professionals. Therefore, this paper will provide further discussion on literature concerning White individuals engaged in organizational-level DEI work.
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John F. Sacco and Gerard R. Busheé
This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end…
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.
John Rodwell, Rebecca Flower and Defne Demir
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether occupational social contexts differentiate the processing of changes in the employment relationship, as represented by the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether occupational social contexts differentiate the processing of changes in the employment relationship, as represented by the psychological contract. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of the psychological contract and justice, with negative affectivity (NA), on medical practitioners or administrative staff in healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
Samples of 54 medical practitioners (30 percent) and 122 administrative staff (59 percent), primarily providing public services, responded to a cross-sectional survey. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses.
Findings
Among medical staff, psychological contract obligations were associated with lower commitment and psychological distress, whereas fulfillment was associated with higher commitment and job satisfaction, yet higher distress. Distributive justice was associated with lower distress, and NA was associated with higher distress. Among administration staff, fulfillment was associated with commitment and job satisfaction, and NA was associated with lower job satisfaction and higher distress. Essentially, reforms are likely to have more impact on less powerful occupations.
Practical implications
Psychological contract fulfillment is a key predictor of hospital employees’ commitment and satisfaction, placing clinicians, particularly, under pressure. To retain employees, hospitals must keep their promises. Further, occupational power activates the role of obligations, with practitioners having negative outcomes and holding the organization to account until the obligations are fulfilled.
Originality/value
This study highlights the differential nature of the psychological contract among healthcare employee groups, with differences depending on occupational power.
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Daniel Briggs, Luke Telford, Anthony Lloyd and Anthony Ellis
This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.
Findings
Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.
Social implications
Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.
Originality/value
This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.
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Tuba Angay-Crowder, Christi L. Pace and Rebecca Rohloff
The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students’ professional development in higher education…
Abstract
The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students’ professional development in higher education. Drawing from Mezirow’s (1997) notion of transformative learning and Bass’s (1990) theory of transformational leadership, the researchers discuss how an academic student organization, Alpha Upsilon Alpha, provided opportunities for transformative leadership in scholarship and service thus crafted academic identities and re-envisioned student organizations as spaces of transformative professional development.
Rebecca Flower, Defne Demir, John McWilliams and Dianne Johnson
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between components of the psychological contract, organisational justice, and negative affectivity (NA), with key…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between components of the psychological contract, organisational justice, and negative affectivity (NA), with key employee outcomes (i.e. organisational commitment, job satisfaction, depression, and psychological distress) among allied health professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 134 (response rate of 46 per cent) Australian allied health professional completed a questionnaire.
Findings
Multiple regressions revealed that higher NA was associated with lower organisational commitment, lower job satisfaction, and higher levels of depression. The psychological contract variable, breach, was associated with depression. Informational justice was associated with organisational commitment. Distributive justice was associated with job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited by its cross-sectional design and that the data were self-reported. The results obtained suggest the potential utility of collecting longitudinal data to replicate and extend the results.
Practical implications
While NA may be beyond management control, it may be ameliorated by attention to improving communication of management decisions and by sensitivity to the elements implicit in psychological contracts. The negative consequences of contract breach may be offset by informational and distributive justice.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to examine multiple measures of the psychological contract in addition to organisational justice and NA. Further, this study adds to the literature for allied health professionals, where little is known about factors contributing to their turnover.