Does nature work? Effects of workplace greenery on employee well-being

Popov, Boris (author), Popov, Snežana (author), Nastran, Mojca (author)

A significant number of studies have been conducted in order to explore the effects of greenery on various aspects of human functioning. However, little is known about how natural elements affect indicators of well-being at work, such as work burnout or work engagement. Two studies (Study 1, winter – Ljubljana, Slovenia; Study 2, spring – Novi Sad, Serbia) were performed in order to: 1) assess the effect of natural elements on work burnout and work engagement in two different seasons (winter and spring); 2) explore if gender moderates the effects of workplace greenery on work burnout and work engagement. The results from Study 1 (winter) showed that, after the exclusion of outliers from the dataset, neither indoor nor outdoor greenery had a significant effect on work engagement and work burnout. Contrary to this, in Study 2 (spring) outdoor greenery exerted a significant effect on both burnout and engagement, while indoor greenery did not. The moderating effect of gender was not clear and further studies on this topic are needed. Thus, the current research extends the existing literature on workplace greenery and demonstrates that natural elements can, to some extent, affect indicators of employee well-being, such as burnout and work engagement.

• Language: English
• Keywords: natural elements, workplace greenery, work burnout, work engagement
• Work type: Journal
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2023
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str.29-58
• Numbering: Vol. 16, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-146407
• UDC: 630*
• ISSN on article: 2334-7287
• DOI: 10.19090/pp.v16i1.2409
• COBISS.SI-ID: 154024963
• Publication date in RUL: 31.05.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Primenjena psihologija
• Shortened title: Primenj. psihol.
• Publisher: Filozofski fakultet, Katedra za psihologiju
• ISSN: 2334-7287
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68337155

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: delovni prostor, delovna angažiranost, stik z naravo, delovna izgorelost, zeleno

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: European Commission
• Project number: 603567
• Name: Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green Economy
• Acronym: GREEN SURGE