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145
The Organization Needs to Provide Employees with Time to Participate in Physical Activity
Interventions
In both their survey responses and interview commentary, study participants
overwhelmingly indicated time to exercise influenced employee participation. Sufficient time to
exercise played an essential role in the expectancy value motivation influence discussed above.
In discussing cultural models of the university, participants indicated approval of flexible time as
the most prominent aspect of support university leaders should provide to encourage more
employees to participate in physical activity programming. Organizational change theories
undergird the three recommendations made to change this cultural setting for PCU and similar
institutions. In their extensive writing on improving organizational effectiveness, Clark and Estes
(2008) discuss the need for organizations to ensure that organizational messages, policies,
procedures, and rewards align with stated organizational goals and values. The authors also state
that, for change efforts to be effective, organizations must provide the resources of time,
equipment, and personnel to support employees in achieving their performance goals. Based on
the goal of engaging more university employees in physical activity, time is highlighted as a
resource of particular need for the change to be successful. As such, the following three
recommendations are advised for this context. The first recommendation is to perform an impact
study on effects of changing timekeeping policy and procedure as it relates to physical activity.
Next, if possible, change policy so that employee time is flexible for physical activity. Finally,
evaluate on-campus physical activity service provision to determine where improvements in
efficiency for employees might be possible.
It is necessary to remove barriers to change for change to occur (Kotter, 2007).
Therefore, it is necessary to remove barriers to employees’ controlling their time throughout the
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 154 |
| Full text | 145 The Organization Needs to Provide Employees with Time to Participate in Physical Activity Interventions In both their survey responses and interview commentary, study participants overwhelmingly indicated time to exercise influenced employee participation. Sufficient time to exercise played an essential role in the expectancy value motivation influence discussed above. In discussing cultural models of the university, participants indicated approval of flexible time as the most prominent aspect of support university leaders should provide to encourage more employees to participate in physical activity programming. Organizational change theories undergird the three recommendations made to change this cultural setting for PCU and similar institutions. In their extensive writing on improving organizational effectiveness, Clark and Estes (2008) discuss the need for organizations to ensure that organizational messages, policies, procedures, and rewards align with stated organizational goals and values. The authors also state that, for change efforts to be effective, organizations must provide the resources of time, equipment, and personnel to support employees in achieving their performance goals. Based on the goal of engaging more university employees in physical activity, time is highlighted as a resource of particular need for the change to be successful. As such, the following three recommendations are advised for this context. The first recommendation is to perform an impact study on effects of changing timekeeping policy and procedure as it relates to physical activity. Next, if possible, change policy so that employee time is flexible for physical activity. Finally, evaluate on-campus physical activity service provision to determine where improvements in efficiency for employees might be possible. It is necessary to remove barriers to change for change to occur (Kotter, 2007). Therefore, it is necessary to remove barriers to employees’ controlling their time throughout the |
