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152
instructors may provide insight into avenues for cost savings for universities. More importantly,
literature suggests the need for organizations to conduct overarching cost-benefit analyses of the
costs associated with successfully engaging employees in health behaviors like physical activity
to prevent future health care costs versus incurring such costs in the future. If supporting such
programming makes financial sense in addition to upholding missions and stated support for
employees, universities would be even more incentivized to promote culture change.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic must be highlighted as an area rich with research
opportunities in relation to physical activity. Instructors of the Get Fit program and other
physical activity instructors worked to transition physical activity programming to online formats
to continue to engage people who would typically use on-campus facilities. Some online fitness
classes were offered live and others asynchronously, which offers interesting variables to
consider in examining rates of employee engagement. If online physical activity offerings
engaged similar class sizes and/or reached new participants, online course offerings would offer
a scalable platform to address the problem of university employee sedentary behavior. Research
into the challenges and successes found in developing and offering online physical activity
courses, and recommendations for sustained engagement of participants, whether through online
platforms or a hybrid model, could potentially inform cost-effective methods to serve a large
quantity of university employees without increasing the need for on-campus physical resources
to do so.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to better understand the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences that affect college employee participation in a workplace physical
activity program to inform recommendations for other universities seeking to address the need to
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 161 |
| Full text | 152 instructors may provide insight into avenues for cost savings for universities. More importantly, literature suggests the need for organizations to conduct overarching cost-benefit analyses of the costs associated with successfully engaging employees in health behaviors like physical activity to prevent future health care costs versus incurring such costs in the future. If supporting such programming makes financial sense in addition to upholding missions and stated support for employees, universities would be even more incentivized to promote culture change. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic must be highlighted as an area rich with research opportunities in relation to physical activity. Instructors of the Get Fit program and other physical activity instructors worked to transition physical activity programming to online formats to continue to engage people who would typically use on-campus facilities. Some online fitness classes were offered live and others asynchronously, which offers interesting variables to consider in examining rates of employee engagement. If online physical activity offerings engaged similar class sizes and/or reached new participants, online course offerings would offer a scalable platform to address the problem of university employee sedentary behavior. Research into the challenges and successes found in developing and offering online physical activity courses, and recommendations for sustained engagement of participants, whether through online platforms or a hybrid model, could potentially inform cost-effective methods to serve a large quantity of university employees without increasing the need for on-campus physical resources to do so. Conclusion The purpose of this study was to better understand the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences that affect college employee participation in a workplace physical activity program to inform recommendations for other universities seeking to address the need to |
