Man's best friend may make a positive difference in the workplaceby reducing stress and making the job more satisfying for other employees, accordingto a Virginia Commonwealth University study. Stress is a major contributor to employee absenteeism, morale andburnout and results in significant loss of productivity andresources. But a preliminary study, published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management, found that dogs in the workplace may buffer the impact of stressduring the workday for their owners and make the job moresatisfying for those with whom they come into contact. The VCU researchers compared employees who bring their dogs towork, employees who do not bring their dogs to work and employeeswithout pets in the areas of stress, job satisfaction,organizational commitment and support.
"Although preliminary, this study provides the first quantitativestudy of the effects of employees' pet dogs in the workplacesetting on employee stress, job satisfaction, support andcommitment," said principal investigator Randolph T. Barker, Ph.D.,professor of management in the VCU School of Business. "Dogs in the workplace can make a positive difference," he said."The differences in perceived stress between days the dog waspresent and absent were significant. The employees as a whole hadhigher job satisfaction than industry norms." The study took place at Replacements, Ltd., aservice-manufacturing-retail company located in Greensboro, N.C.,which employs approximately 550 people.
Approximately 20 to 30 dogsare on the company premises each day. The study took place over aperiod of one work week in the company setting, during which timeparticipants completed surveys and collected saliva samples. Pagerswere assigned to prompt employees to complete surveys during theday. The researchers did not observe a difference between the threeemployee groups on stress hormone levels, which was measured via asaliva sample, in the morning, but during the course of the workday, self-reported stress declined for employees with their dogspresent and increased for non-pet owners and dog owners who did notbring their dogs to work. The team noted that stress significantlyrose during the day when owners left their dogs at home compared todays they brought them to work.
According to Barker, the team observed unique dog-relatedcommunication in the workplace that may contribute to employeeperformance and satisfaction. For example, he said, although notpart of the study, that employees without a dog were observedrequesting to take a co-worker's dog out on a break. These werebrief, positive exchanges as the dogs were taken and returned andalso resulted in an employee break involving exercise. Barker said that other findings revealed mostly positive commentsfrom employees such as "pets in the workplace can be a great bonusfor employee morale ...," "having dogs here is great stress relief"and "dogs are positive; dogs increase coworker cooperation." "The effect of pets in reducing the impact of stress and enhancingcommunication found in other settings may extend to the workplace,"said Barker.
"Pet presence may serve as a low-cost, wellness interventionreadily available to many organizations and may enhanceorganizational satisfaction and perceptions of support. Of course,it is important to have policies in place to ensure only friendly,clean and well-behaved pets are present in the workplace," he said. According to Barker, further research with larger sample sizeswithin the organizational setting is needed to replicate thefindings of this initial study. Additional References Citations. I am a professional writer from Plastics & Products, which contains a great deal of information about diamond star pendant , what is clenbuterol, welcome to visit!
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