Improving productivity and resilience at work: Assessing the use self-regulation techniques to enhance effectiveness of corporate wellness initiatives
Citation
Demekhina, Kateryna. 2021. Improving productivity and resilience at work: Assessing the use self-regulation techniques to enhance effectiveness of corporate wellness initiatives. Master's thesis, Harvard University Division of Continuing Education.Abstract
The recognition of relationship between employee health and business profitability and reputation has resulted in a steady growth in corporate well-being programs aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors. Despite companies spending close to $800 per employee, as a substantive portion of one’s daily actions are accounted for by habitual behaviors these wellness initiatives have a limited rate of success. By applying insights from habit research, this study aimed to determine (1) if embedding a combination of mental contrasting and implementation intentions into wellness initiatives aimed at behavioral habits change among professionals could improve their efficacy; and (2) if habit change process was subject to one’s self-control. Given the global pandemic environment of 2020, the training was carried out online and took a form of an animated webinar with a nonobtrusive short questionnaire intervention. Analysis of results revealed that, contrary to expectations, there was no significant difference in the magnitude of change in habit strength over the two-week period between the intervention (n = 54) and the control (n = 56) groups. A number of possible explanations for null findings are discussed, including the breakdown in the basic context-response mechanism that underlies habit formation as a consequence of routine disruptions during COVID-19. The results also indicated that one’s self-control capacity did not affect the habit formation process, which could indicate that habit change does not operate through self-control or be another consequence of the pandemic hindering one’s ability to use situational strategies of self-control. Limitations, other potential moderators in the formation of habits, implications of these findings for health behavior change in shifting contexts and future directions for research on wellness interventions are discussed. I conclude that to promote greater adherence to health behavior targets in unstable environments one may require a more flexible and/or frequent approach to address motivation and volition, with greater emphasis on the underlying goals.Terms of Use
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https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37367700
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