The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) includes the health and well-being of employees at the workplace and therefore the balance between work and off-job time. In this paper we introduce the concepts of daily need for recovery (NFR), off-job activities and daily well-being. First, we consider the concept of daily recovery and distinguish between social, physical and low-effort off-job activities. Second, we describe the method of the study and subsequent empirical findings. Third, we suggest practical implications for HR programs and contribute to the general topic of external compliance versus internal commitment within the area of Business Ethics and CSR.

1. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND
HEALTH AT WORK:
A DAY RECONSTRUCTION STUDY
Dr. Milena Valeva
EthNa - Competence Center CSR, University of Applied
Sciences Niederrhein
M.Sc. Ivan Valev
Erasmus University Rotterdam

2. 3/13/2014 2

3. Agenda
• Health at Work
– Theoretical Background
– Method & Sample
– Results
– Overview of Findings
• Practical Implications for CSR
• Theoretical Implications for CSR/Business
Ethics
33/13/2014

4. Theoretical Background
43/13/2014
Effort-Recovery (Meijman & Mulder, 1998)
• Investing effort at work is unavoidable, causing acute load reactions
• When off-job activities don’t occupy the same type of resources needed for work,
then these activities possess a recovery function
Conservation of Resources (Hobfoll, 2002)
• People strive to obtain, retain, protect, and build personal resources
• People attempt to restore their resource during after-work hours
Need for Recovery (NFR) (Demerouti et al., 2009)
• Sense of urgency that people feel to take a break from job demands when personal
resources are exhausted
• Indicates an impaired state of well-being
Well-being (Shirom, 2004; Sonnentag, 2001)
• Vigor: cognitive liveliness & physical strength
• External Recovery: the extent to which people restore their personal resources to
pre-stressor levels during off-work time/activities

5. Method & Sample
• Trait Questionnaire to establish baseline levels
• Daily Questionnaire to assess day levels
• Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) to assess well-being at bedtime and
daily need for recovery (Kahneman et al., 2004)
 Ecologically valid method of accounting for daily intrapersonal variation
 Closer examination of momentary constructs experienced at the task level
• 79 participants
• 351 days reconstructed
• 2,556 logged activities overall
• Mean age: 32.01 (SD = 11.19)
• Working hours, weekly average: 37.58 (SD = 13)
53/13/2014

6. DRM: Example
3/13/2014 6

7. Results
Scheme
*** = p < .001, est = estimate
Direct Effect Moderation Effect
73/13/2014

8. Overview of Findings
• High Daily Need for Recovery leads to less
Time spent on Social off-job activities
• Daily Need for Recovery and Time spent on
Physical Activities interact to impact Daily
Well-being at bedtime:
83/13/2014

9. Practical Implications I
• The classification of social & physical activities along the
“active vs. passive” spectrum only is not satisfactory
• Not the activity, but the subjective experience of an activity
matters:
Vitality programs should be diverse in their offering and
encourage employees to try out different activities in non-
work time
The ideographic and not the nomothetic approach could
lead to diversity and high variety of options for off-time
activities
93/13/2014

10. Practical Implications II
• Current vitality programs provide means of external motivation:
 Beneficial to individuals already into the given activities
 Challenge: Reach out and Activate individuals internally
motivated (pleasure) to participate in (a variety of) recovery
activities
• To illustrate:
 A HR-program encouraging employees to visit a local gym by
providing membership discounts by default excludes non-gym-
goers who prefer running outside or engaging in team-based
sports
• A suggestion:
 A HR-program should consider individual employee preferences
and go beyond universal solutions: address employees’ needs
and offer them an opportunity to improve their well-being
103/13/2014

11. Theoretical Implications
• Findings confirm the general understanding of Business Ethics
and CSR of Peter Ulrich – integrative economic ethics:
The internal commitment of the members of an
organization is key.
The moral capacity of employees is the starting point of
further ethical reflection,
whereby the usual emphasis on externally given norms
isn’t productive in the long run.
113/13/2014

12. Thank You for Your attention!
Dr. Milena Valeva M.Sc. Ivan Valev
123/13/2014