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114
instructors’ expertise to planning new programming and engaging new participants can benefit
efforts to support culture change at PCU.
In summary, Get Fit participants’ experiences as employees who have engaged in
physical activity informed their recommendations for creating new programs and engaging more
employees in physical activity. Firsthand accounts of the significant support that instructors
provide for the knowledge, motivation, and facilitation of a cultural setting align with literature
recommendations to employ available experts to contribute to organizational change efforts.
Cultural Setting 1: Time and Flexibility to Participate in Physical Activity. Survey
responses and participant interviews revealed the critical importance of the availability of time to
employee participation in Get Fit. In addition to the need to either be able to use flexible time
with a supervisor’s tacit or implied approval, or to have agency over one’s schedule, an
individual’s professional engagements on a given day also had to favorably align with the time
challenges and related outcomes of Get Fit participation for study participants to attend. The
added time necessary to travel to and from program locations, shower, and change clothes were
also factors that influenced employee participation and perceptions of the ease of participation.
Flexibility, convenience, and the opportunity to efficiently use time emerged as themes in
participants’ discussion of the positive aspects of Get Fit.
Two survey items addressed factors related to physical activity that require additional
time—changing one’s clothing and showering. Participants’ perceptions of the ease and
convenience of changing clothes divided at 50%, with half of participants disagreeing to some
extent that it was easy and convenient to change clothes, and the other half agreeing to some
extent that it was easy and convenient to change clothing before and after participating in Get
Fit. In an item that asked participants to indicate their level of agreement with a statement about
Object Description
| Title | Physical activity interventions to reduce rates of sedentary behavior among university employees: a promising practice study |
| Author | DeFrank, Ginny Mary |
| Author email | ginnydefrank@gmail.com;defrank@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2020-06-19 |
| Date submitted | 2020-08-11 |
| Date approved | 2020-08-11 |
| Restricted until | 2020-08-11 |
| Date published | 2020-08-11 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Malloy, Courtney |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Canny, Eric Stowe, Kathy |
| Abstract | The purpose of this study was to understand factors influencing employee participation in a university-offered physical activity program to inform recommendations for other institutions of higher education seeking to address high rates of university employee sedentary behavior with physical activity programming. The instructor-led program was held four times per week beginning at noon each day and lasted one hour in duration on a university campus in the western United States. The program, which was offered at no cost to employees, typically served 20-30 participants each week. The Clark and Estes Gap Analytic Framework (2008) was employed to assess relevant knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences affecting university employee engagement with the physical activity program. The study utilized a convergent parallel mixed methods design, engaging 24 university employees by means of a fifty-four-item quantitative survey. Six survey respondents also participated in interviews. Research findings revealed the importance of the interplay of employee factual and metacognitive knowledge, as well as motivation influences including self-efficacy and expectancy value within the organization’s cultural models and settings. Recommendations for other institutions seeking to engage employees in physical activity were informed by the findings and supported by a review of literature. Recommendations include the use of training, communication strategies, information guides, modeling, and opportunities for reflection to meet employee knowledge and motivational needs. Evaluating and changing organizational policies, cultural values, and existing physical activity programming was recommended to ensure employees understand an organization’s support for participation in physical activity. Additionally, implications for practice involved a focus on the role of instructors and the development of communities of continuity to support and improve rates of university employee engagement in physical activity during the workday. |
| Keyword | sedentary behavior; physical activity; workplace physical activity; physical activity intervention; university physical activity; exercise |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | DeFrank, Ginny Mary |
| Physical access | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-DeFrankGin-8921.pdf |
| Archival file | Volume13/etd-DeFrankGin-8921.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 123 |
| Full text | 114 instructors’ expertise to planning new programming and engaging new participants can benefit efforts to support culture change at PCU. In summary, Get Fit participants’ experiences as employees who have engaged in physical activity informed their recommendations for creating new programs and engaging more employees in physical activity. Firsthand accounts of the significant support that instructors provide for the knowledge, motivation, and facilitation of a cultural setting align with literature recommendations to employ available experts to contribute to organizational change efforts. Cultural Setting 1: Time and Flexibility to Participate in Physical Activity. Survey responses and participant interviews revealed the critical importance of the availability of time to employee participation in Get Fit. In addition to the need to either be able to use flexible time with a supervisor’s tacit or implied approval, or to have agency over one’s schedule, an individual’s professional engagements on a given day also had to favorably align with the time challenges and related outcomes of Get Fit participation for study participants to attend. The added time necessary to travel to and from program locations, shower, and change clothes were also factors that influenced employee participation and perceptions of the ease of participation. Flexibility, convenience, and the opportunity to efficiently use time emerged as themes in participants’ discussion of the positive aspects of Get Fit. Two survey items addressed factors related to physical activity that require additional time—changing one’s clothing and showering. Participants’ perceptions of the ease and convenience of changing clothes divided at 50%, with half of participants disagreeing to some extent that it was easy and convenient to change clothes, and the other half agreeing to some extent that it was easy and convenient to change clothing before and after participating in Get Fit. In an item that asked participants to indicate their level of agreement with a statement about |
