April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: The Role of Belongingness as Central to Well-Being in the Workplace: An Analysis of Employee Data Since the COVID-19 Shutdown
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverberate across the United States’ workforce and beyond with employees seemingly less resilient to workplace stress, prone to more instances of burnout, and communicating low satisfaction with their current work situations. These problematic workplace outcomes lead to both individual employee health and wellbeing challenges a well as organizational challenges. For example, reports persist of “quiet quitting” where employees are not willing to go beyond the minimum of what their workload requires, and the “great resignation” which references employees’ ongoing willingness to quit their jobs in search of something better. With increases in remote and hybrid work characterizing employee work experiences, a complex and dynamic context continues to evolve and requires innovative approaches that support employee wellness. Belongingness, the fundamental need to feel accepted as a member of a group (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), provides one lens to consider employee well-being because feelings of belongingness may potentially support positive mental health and physical health outcomes as a fundamental need of employees is met (Maslow, 1968). According to Baumeister and Leary (1995), experiencing too little belongingness can be harmful to mental health in particular; additionally, any imagined, potential, or real changes in belongingness status can produce an emotional response, with decreases in belongingness being connected to negative affect and increases in belongingness leading to positive affect (Cockshaw et al., 2012). The current study investigates the relationship between employees’ feelings of belongingness in their current workplace and their self-reported perceived stress and physical health.
Participants (N=1,033) were recruited through a paid Qualtrics panel. Data were collected over a two-week period in November 2023 from full-time employees over the age of 21-years-old who have been in their current positions for at least six months. The majority of the sample was White with approximately 25% reporting their ethnic/racial background as Black, Latino, Mixed, or Asian. This brand new data set will be analyzed to test the following hypotheses:
H1: Employee perceptions of belongingness are negatively related to self-reported stress measures and positively related to self-reported physical health measures.
H2: The relationship between belongingness and health outcomes (stress and physical health) will be moderated by workplace modality (in person, hybrid, and fully remote).
We expect our results to illuminate the role that belongingness plays in promoting wellbeing in the workplace. This research is important from both health and organizational communication scholars because belongingness is a fundamental need and motivator that has been understudied in the health and wellbeing context of the workplace. With significant changes and flexibility in how and where we engage in full-time employment, particularly since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research helps us to better understand the implications of belongingness for employee wellbeing across different work modalities. Communication strategies and messages that promote feelings of belongingness and connectedness in the workplace may serve as key intervention points that benefit both employee and organizational wellbeing.
Participants (N=1,033) were recruited through a paid Qualtrics panel. Data were collected over a two-week period in November 2023 from full-time employees over the age of 21-years-old who have been in their current positions for at least six months. The majority of the sample was White with approximately 25% reporting their ethnic/racial background as Black, Latino, Mixed, or Asian. This brand new data set will be analyzed to test the following hypotheses:
H1: Employee perceptions of belongingness are negatively related to self-reported stress measures and positively related to self-reported physical health measures.
H2: The relationship between belongingness and health outcomes (stress and physical health) will be moderated by workplace modality (in person, hybrid, and fully remote).
We expect our results to illuminate the role that belongingness plays in promoting wellbeing in the workplace. This research is important from both health and organizational communication scholars because belongingness is a fundamental need and motivator that has been understudied in the health and wellbeing context of the workplace. With significant changes and flexibility in how and where we engage in full-time employment, particularly since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research helps us to better understand the implications of belongingness for employee wellbeing across different work modalities. Communication strategies and messages that promote feelings of belongingness and connectedness in the workplace may serve as key intervention points that benefit both employee and organizational wellbeing.