The Center for Working Well is committed to supporting research that will aid in our central mission: to develop a robust understand of what “working well” means to employees and organizations—here, encompassing challenges with promoting personal well-being, creating sustainable performance, adopting to grand challenges in modern organizations, and cultivating positive and inclusion relationships at work and at home broadly defined. In service of this mission, there will be three annual Center for Working Well Research Awards at a maximum of $5,000 each.
2023-2024 Research Awards
Organizational behavior scholars in the past two decades have provided guidance for contemporary organizations on how to devote resources that support employees with family responsibilities, including family supportive supervisor behaviors and flexible work arrangements. However, scholars have recently called for more attention on single workers’ well-being and work performance. The current research helps advance knowledge on single workers by exploring the work and well-being outcomes for employees who are active dating app users. The mix of experiences employees gain from dating app usage may carry over to their work domain, particularly because dating is a prominent part of single people’s lives. Our central research question is how different types of experiences on dating apps may promote or challenge the work behaviors, work attitudes, and interpersonal well-being of single employees. By examining the influence of individual dating app experiences, we aim to provide insights that will allow organizations to better support their single workers.
Companion animals provide mental, physical, and social benefits to their human counterparts. Given these benefits, it is no surprise that incorporating companion animals into the workplace is gaining popularity, yet evidence for its efficacy is limited. Preliminary literature suggests lower stress levels and a more positive work environment within pet-friendly workplaces. The Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine has a long-standing bring your dog to work program, but its impacts have yet to be evaluated. We will evaluate the impacts of the Purdue Good Office Dog Program by quantitatively identifying psychosocial and workplace wellness impacts and by qualitatively evaluating experiences and perceptions of the program. The resulting holistic evaluation will be used to identify areas of success and refinement prior to potential expansion of the program as an evidence-based workplace well-being initiative. Results will be a guide for employers seeking ways to sustain productivity and employee numbers all while making the workplace a more positive, inclusive space and maintaining total workplace well-being.
Accessible technology has revolutionized how people manage work, blurring the lines between their professional and personal lives. This shift has given way to an "always-on" work culture, glorifying round-the-clock availability and inadvertently reinforcing the notion of the ideal worker. This relentless reinforcement of availability norms and continuous connectivity to work negatively impacts both productivity and well-being. Despite these detriments, many employees still passively conform to these expectations. Yet, some employees gently rebel against these norms in a future- and change-focused way. These intentional acts of rebellion—what we term proactive pushbacks—visibly, yet subtly, challenge the invasive "always-on" work culture and model a boundaried approach to work-life management. In this research, we introduce proactive pushbacks to the organizational sciences and explore the social reactions to proactive pushbacks within organizations. We draw on research on social emotions to understand the opposing emotional reactions—specifically feelings of resentment and feelings of admiration—to proactive pushbacks in the workplace. Further, we consider whether boundary conditions of the coworker relationship—such as perceived similarity—weaken (or strengthen) the relationship between proactive pushbacks and feelings of resentment and admiration. Ultimately, we propose these emotional reactions will inspire critical workplace behaviors including emulation and sabotage that impact the wellbeing of individuals and their organizations. This project directly informs what it means to “work well” for employees by emphasizing the potential benefits of creating healthy boundaries around work and life and proactively challenging the work factors that are most often associated with burnout and “unwellness” at work.
