Pets at work: integrating pet-friendly initiatives into human resources for enhanced workplace harmony.

AIMS: The representation of companion animals, or pets, has been changing recently. Research concerning how pets influence employees' work-related well-being has also started to take its first steps. This research aimed to analyze (1) how managers perceive pet-friendly practices and their main effects at work, and (2) the impact of such practices on employees' well-being and work engagement. Relying on the social exchange perspective and the self-determination theory it was hypothesized that pet-friendly practices would positively influence employees' well-being and work engagement by satisfying their three basic needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). METHODOLOGY: Two studies with mixed methods were conducted. The first and exploratory study resorted to semi-structured interviews with six managers. The second was a two-wave study conducted with a large sample of workers (N = 379). RESULTS: The first study highlighted the primary advantages and disadvantages of pet-friendly practices, along with the various obstacles and limitations, and proposed managerial strategies to overcome them. Managers generally expressed interest and enthusiasm about the topic but also pointed out challenges in implementing a pet-friendly strategy due to the limited number of empirical studies demonstrating its benefits. The second study's findings indicated that pet-friendly practices positively impacted employees' work engagement and well-being by fulfilling their needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. ORIGINALITY: Overall, Portugal is seen as having a conservative culture, which slows the dissemination and implementation of these measures. To overcome these challenges, several managerial recommendations have been proposed. Raising awareness and fostering discussion on the topic are crucial steps toward integrating pet-friendly policies into human resources management.

How was your day? A within-person analysis of how mental health may moderate the route from daily micro-events to satisfaction after work via affect and contextual performance.

This study builds on the affective events theory and the conservation of resources theory to propose a model that analyses an affect-to-behaviour-to-outcome route, highlighting how daily micro-events and subsequent affective reactions lead to behaviours (performance) and cognitions (satisfaction after work), and how mental health moderates this process. Results from a 5-day diary study, during the pandemic (N = 250, n = 1221), provided data to test the proposed affect-to-behaviour-to-outcome route. Poorer mental health buffered the positive within-person relationship between daily micro-events, affective reactions, performance and satisfaction after work, suggesting that high levels of mental health allowed individuals to maximise the benefits of positive daily micro-events in their satisfaction after work via affect and performance. This study presents original research analysing how situational factors create a route through which individuals experience affective reactions that influence their work behaviour, and in turn their levels of satisfaction after work.

Applying the Affective Events Theory to Explore the Effect of Daily Micro-Interruptions on Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Affect and the Moderating Role of Pets at Work.

This study relied on the affective events theory and the social exchange theory to develop a framework that explains how situational factors (daily micro-interruptions) enhance affective reactions (negative affect) and, in turn, impair health conditions (mental health) at work. We further delineate theoretical arguments to propose the pet-human's health effect by demonstrating that pets are boundary conditions that attenuate this relation, and as such are protective conditions for employees' mental health. We conducted a 5-day diary study with two groups of participants, one with participants who owned pets (N = 82 x 5 = 410), and the other who did not own pets (N = 87 x 5 = 435). The multilevel results showed an indirect effect of daily micro-interruptions on individuals' mental health through negative affect, with a daily backdrop of poorer mental health for those who did not own a pet (compared to those who owned a pet). These results evidence the benefits of owning a pet for individuals' mental health, even at work, and as such provide recommendations for teleworking practices. Moreover, this study resorts to an innovative and robust data collection method to demonstrate the pet-human' health effect. This study expands knowledge on the role of pets in working daily routines and shows that pets may be a personal resource for individuals while working.

Daily uncertainty may overshadow the role of perceived manager effectiveness on daily performance via experienced daily positive affect: A multilevel study.

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we expand on the existing work on daily performance by focusing on (1) within-person fluctuation in perceived manager effectiveness in relation to daily positive affective experiences and daily performance and (2) between-person fluctuations in uncertainty as a relevant boundary condition of these relationships. METHODS: Multilevel data from 101 managers (1,010 measurement occasions) were used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: The results showed that fluctuations in the perception of a manager's effectiveness related positively to daily positive affective experiences, and this relationship was moderated by the team member's uncertainty levels in such a way that perceived uncertainty buffered the positive effect of leadership effectiveness on positive affective experiences. Further, the findings evidenced a positive association between daily positive affective experiences and daily performance. Finally, results showed a significant indirect effect from perceived manager's effectiveness to daily fluctuations in performance via daily fluctuations in positive affective experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived manager's effectiveness made employees feel more positive affective experiences, which contributed to their daily performance. However, uncertainty overshadows the influence of a manager's effectiveness on their workers' positive affective experiences. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

Mindfulness Fills in the Blank Spaces Left by Affective Uncertainty Uplifting Adaptive Behaviors.

Drawing on the integrative model of uncertainty tolerance, we aimed to investigate whether uncertainty relates to adaptive performance, at the within-person level. We argue that daily uncertainty at work will trigger negative affective reactions that, in turn, will minimize adaptive performance. Moreover, we focus on socio-cognitive mindfulness as a cross-level moderator of the indirect relationship of uncertainty on adaptive performance via negative affect. To capture changes in daily life and test our model, we conducted two diary studies across 5-working days: One with a sample of telecommuters (n = 101*5 = 505), and the other with a sample of non-telecommuters (n = 253*5 = 1,265). Study 1 took place between February and March of 2021 (during the mandatory confinement), and Study 2 occurred between April and May 2021 (out of the mandatory confinement). Both studies were conducted in Portugal. The multilevel results showed that at the day-level of analysis, uncertainty decreased adaptive performance through the enhanced negative affect. Moreover, at the person-level of analysis mindfulness moderated (a) the direct relationship of uncertainty to adaptive performance, and (b) the indirect relationship of uncertainty to adaptive performance via negative affect, in such a way that it became weaker when mindfulness was higher (multilevel-mediated moderation effect). This relation was different between Studies 1 and 2; that is, in Study 1, teleworkers who were high on mindfulness engaged in more adaptive performance when negative affect was high. In Study 2, adaptive performance significantly decreased, when negative affect was higher, even though this effect was weaker for mindful of individuals. The findings show that mindfulness helps to fill in the spaces of the affective uncertainty attenuating its detrimental effects.

'Pawing' uncertainty! how dogs attenuate the impact of daily hassles at work on uncertainty.

PURPOSE: This study relied on the integrative model of uncertainty tolerance to delineate an argument proposing that daily hassles trigger uncertainty, and this influences adaptive performance. Furthermore, relying on the "furr-recovery method" -where interactions with dogs allow dog owners to recover from negative situations or job demands - this study tested whether having a dog would moderate the relationship between daily hassles and uncertainty. METHODOLOGY: To test this proposed model, daily data during ten working days was gathered with a sample of white-collar workers who were teleworking (N = 233 × 10 = 2,330). FINDINGS: Multilevel results showed that daily hassles influenced adaptive performance via perceived uncertainty. However, the relationship between daily hassles and uncertainty was conditional on the ownership of a dog, in such a way that the relationship became weaker for those who had dogs. That is, those who did not have dogs had increased levels of uncertainty after daily hassles when compared to those who had dogs. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Managers may consider the adoption of pet-friendly work practices (for instance, telework - working from home allow employees to work nearby and interact with their dogs during worktime) as dogs appear to have a beneficial effect to help employees effectively cope with daily hassles and reduce their uncertain reactions. ORIGINALITY: This study advances knowledge regarding the pawing-effect (the reduced uncertainty to daily hassles on dog owners) on employees' uncertainty to daily hassles and opens new venues for research regarding their role in work-related outcomes. Further, future research could examine how human-dog interactions or the quality of their relationship may benefit owners and explore the benefits of bringing dogs to work periodically.

A longitudinal approach to disentangle how conscientiousness creates happy people: The mediating role of self-leadership and the moderating role of perceived leadership effectiveness.

This study relied on the conservation of resources model to explore the interaction between individual differences (conscientiousness and behavior-focused self-leadership) and contextual factors (perceived leadership effectiveness) to predict well-being. Using results from a three-wave longitudinal study of working adults (N = 107*3 = 321, mean age = 46.05 years, 54% male), we examined: (1) the indirect effect of conscientiousness on well-being via behavior-focused self-leadership; and (2) the moderating role of perceived leadership effectiveness on the indirect effect. The multilevel results showed that conscientiousness influenced well-being through behavior-focused self-leadership over time. The results also showed that the indirect effect was moderated by perceived leadership effectiveness, in such a way that it became stronger when individuals had leaders perceived as less effective (versus more effective). Thus, behavior-focused self-leadership seems to be a process through which conscientiousness influences well-being; when conscientiousness was lower there was an increase behavior-focused self-leadership when the leader was perceived as effective; this contextual need decreased as conscientiousness increased. That is, it seems that when there is something external regulating the individual, s/he feels less need to self-regulate. The results highlight the role of personal (conscientiousness), cognitive (behavior-focused self-leadership) and contextual resources (perceived leadership effectiveness) for well-being.

The intersectional effects of motivational and affective factors on managers' performance.

Drawing from the effort-recovery model, the authors analyzed the role of daily sleep quality as a driver for self-regulatory resources and consequently of task and contextual performance. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that self-regulatory resources would be a potential mechanism for enhancing workers' performance after a good night's sleep. Moreover, relying on the COR theory, the authors proposed health-related indicators (mental health and vitality) as intensifiers of the previously proposed indirect effect. Daily diary data were collected from 97 managers over five consecutive working days (485 daily observations) and analyzed using multilevel analyses. Sleep quality was positively associated with managers' self-regulatory resources and (task and contextual) performance at the person and day levels. Additionally, results provided support for most of the assumed indirect effects of sleep quality on both performance dimensions via self-regulatory resources. At last, the findings evidenced that these indirect effects were moderated by health indicators in a way that lower scores on health intensified such positive effects. Organizations should create mechanisms that could promote their workers' awareness of the potential benefits of sleeping well at night as well as its impacts on both self-regulatory resources and performance. The current intensification of workload together with working after hours may pose a risk to this important resource source for managers. These findings emphasize the day-to-day variation in self-regulatory resources needed to perform and that workers' sleep quality has the potential to stimulate a resource-building process for such benefits.

The Black Unicorn Effect: Micro-daily Events and Satisfaction Decrease the COVID-19 Xenophobia, but Only for Those With Low Levels of Neuroticism.

Drawing on the behavioral concordance model and the trait activation theory, this study examined how and when daily micro-events influence COVID-19 xenophobic attitudes. First, we examined the mediating role of satisfaction, and then, tested the moderating role of neuroticism in the mediated relationship. Overall, 340 working adults volunteered to participate in this study. The findings revealed that (1) satisfaction mediated the negative relationship between daily micro-events and xenophobic attitudes and (2) neuroticism moderated this relationship such that xenophobic attitudes increased for neurotic individuals, even when their satisfaction increased. Our findings contribute to understanding the relationship between daily micro-events and COVID-19 xenophobia and provide empirical evidence for the combined effects of personality factors and affective factors on xenophobic attitudes. Furthermore, we evidence the existence of the black unicorn effect, that is, neurotic individuals tend to transpose their neurotic cognitions and emotions to xenophobic attitudes despite the uplifting and satisfying nature of positive events.

Gratitude intersects with affect as a boundary condition for daily satisfaction: An affective dynamics perspective.

This study is based on the affective events theory to investigate the situational predictors for gratitude-related differences in daily affect and satisfaction. We tested a moderated mediation model in which daily microevents (daily hassles and uplifts) were related to satisfaction through affect, at the within-person level. We also tested the cross-level interaction of gratitude on this indirect relationship. A total of 195 participants participated in a 5-day diary study (195 * 5 = 975 measurement occasions). Multilevel modeling showed that, at the person-level of analysis, daily microevents were significantly related to daily affect and, in turn, to daily satisfaction. At the daily level of analysis, trait-based gratitude moderated the mediation of daily positive affect on the relationship between daily uplifts and daily satisfaction, such that it become stronger for individuals who scored lower on gratitude, but gratitude did not moderate the relationship between daily hassles, negative affect, and satisfaction. These findings make relevant theoretical contributions to understanding the power of gratitude for daily affective dynamics. These results also expand knowledge on within-person processes that explain daily affect and satisfaction, in addition to more traditional between-person factors. In sum, the present research demonstrates that "being grateful" may be associated with being happy and that individuals who are less grateful need to experience more daily uplifts and positive affect to feel satisfied.

How daily positive affect increases students' mental health, in mandatory quarantine, through daily engagement: the moderating role of self-leadership.

The COVID-19 crisis has had significant impacts on mental health. Students are dealing with an uncertain context, not only due to COVID-19 but also because most of them have never been involved with the challenges of online school. The COVID-19 situation presents daily challenges that require students to respond adaptively. However, little is known about how students handle their daily emotions, in such challenging settings. Drawing on the broaden-and-built theory, we developed a multilevel model arguing that daily-positive affect would enhance daily engagement, and this would be positively related to students' end-of-the-day mental health. We also predict that the mediating path would be stronger for students with higher levels of self-leadership. To achieve the goals, we conducted a 5-day diary study (n = 64∗5 = 320). Results from multilevel modeling showed that positive emotions trigger academic engagement which, in turn, increases mental health, both at the within and between-person level. Results also demonstrated that self-leadership strengthened the positive mediating path, for students with higher levels of self-leadership. Positive affect appears to be a significant predictor of mental health in higher education settings. Moreover, developing self-leadership is an added value, that may be conceived as a personal resource, and may protect students from the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 crisis.

The Furr-Recovery Method: Interacting with Furry Co-Workers during Work Time Is a Micro-Break That Recovers Workers' Regulatory Resources and Contributes to Their Performance.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and the recovery step model our research expands on a cognitive (regulatory resources) mechanism that links human-animal interactions and employee performance. This study aimed to explore whether daily human-animal interactions during worktime would be conceived as a daily-recovery process that restores the individual's daily regulatory resources and, as a result, improves daily adaptive and task performance. To test this, a daily diary study during 10 working days, with 105 teleworkers was performed (N = 105 × 10 = 1050). Multilevel results demonstrated that daily interactions between human and their pets served to recover their daily regulatory resources that, in turn, improved daily task-and-adaptive performance. This research not only expands our theoretical understanding of regulatory resources as a cognitive mechanism that links human-animal interactions to employee effectiveness but also offers practical implications by highlighting the recovery role of interacting with pets during the working day, as a way to restore resources needed to be more effective at work.

The Role of Dogs in the Relationship between Telework and Performance via Affect: A Moderated Moderated Mediation Analysis.

Although there is evidence that pets may help individuals facing significant daily stressors, and that they may enhance the well-being of their owners, little is known about the benefits of pets for job performance. Since the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, teleworking was a strategy implemented in many countries to reduce the virus widespread and to assure organizational productivity. Those who work from home and who own pets may work close to them. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study aimed to analyze whether positive affect mediated the relationship between telecommuting and self-reported job performance and if psychological and physical closeness to the pet would moderate this relationship in such a way that it would be stronger for those who worked closer to their pet, and who were more emotionally attached to them. For this study, we collected data from 81 teleworkers who did not own pets, and from 320 teleworkers who owned pets. Both answered an online questionnaire. Findings: Results from the study showed the existence of significant differences between those who owned and who did not own pets regarding positive affect and performance, in which those who owned pets reported higher levels of positive affect and self-reported performance and perceived telework more positively. Moreover, positive affect mediated the relationship between telework and self-reported job performance. Furthermore, emotional and physical closeness moderated the mediating effect. This study contributes to a better understanding of the human-animal interaction and how pets can be a personal resource able to change their owners' affective experiences and job performance while they are working from home. The findings demonstrate that telework may be a suitable organizational strategy for pet-owners.

Adapting to a New Country During an Expatriate Mission: The Vital Role of Events and Emotions.

The aim of this study was to identify the most relevant positive and negative events, and their consequent emotional experiences, occurring during the adaptation to a new country in an expatriate mission. We opted to train an artificial neural network to explore the relation between events and emotions since there is increasing evidence of the nonlinear patterns characterizing the adaptation to a new country as well as regarding the superior performance of nonlinear methods for understanding the experience of emotions. We surveyed 99 expatriate workers who reported a total of 221 events and 2,467 associated emotions. Three judges categorized the events, reducing them into 11 categories. The neural network architecture grouped the events into 3 hidden layers, two of them leading to positive emotions and the other one leading exclusively to negative emotions. We found that events related to self-realization and recognition and to overall well-being were the most relevant to the experience of positive emotions while those related to security were the most important predictors of negative emotions. This study addresses a major gap in the expatriates' literature by relating specific occurrences with the phenomenological emotional experience. Practical implications are further discussed.

Job crafting, meaningful work and performance: a moderated mediation approach of presenteeism.

This study aimed to (1) analyze the relationship between the three job crafting dimensions (task, cognitive and relational crafting) and performance; (2) explore whether meaningful work fully mediates the links between the three job crafting dimensions and performance; (3) analyze if presenteeism moderates the indirect effect of meaningful work in the relationship between job crafting and performance. To achieve these goals, we collected data with 146 workers from a town hall. We analyzed the proposed moderated-mediation model using the PROCESS macro. The results showed that (1) the meaning in work mediated the relationship between the three job crafting dimensions and performance; (2) presenteeism moderated the mediated relationship between job crafting and performance via meaningful work, that is, lower levels of presenteeism were positively related to performance, in particular, when the levels of meaning in work were lower. These results show the importance of empowering employees to craft their work, as it appears to increase employees' performance, by enhancing the meaning attributed to the work. Promoting health conditions, at work, also seems to be relevant for performance once it may decrease levels of presenteeism. The cross-sectional design should be regarded as a limitation, and we assessed all the variables through self-reported measures. The present study contributes to the literature by analyzing the relationship of job crafting to performance via meaningful work, within the public administration context. Moreover, this study adds to the literature the conditional effect of presenteeism which has not been discussed in prior studies. This study aids in bridging this gap.

Friends with Benefits: The Positive Consequences of Pet-Friendly Practices for Workers' Well-Being.

Although there is evidence that pets may help individuals who are facing significant daily stressors, little is known about the benefits of pet-friendly practices for their owners' well-being. Based on the social exchange theory and on the Rusbult investment model, we argue that organizational pet-friendly practices will be viewed as a source of support from an organization that increases workers' organizational identification, which in turn will lead to higher levels of psychological well-being and life satisfaction. For this study, 208 working adults answered an online questionnaire. Results from the study showed that the more pet-friendly practices the higher the workers' organizational identification, which led to higher indices of psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This study contributes to a better understanding of the human-animal interaction and how pets can function as a resource for individuals' well-being at work.

How is the life without unicorns? A within-individual study on the relationship between uncertainty and mental health indicators: The moderating role of neuroticism.

The pandemic crisis of COVID-19 led to higher levels of uncertainty for individuals. Mental health has been outlined as a major key research priority to support and inform interventions. This study aimed to examine whether uncertainty influenced negative affect which in turn, resulted in worst levels of mental health, during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and test if neuroticism moderated the negative effect of uncertainty on mental health, via negative affect. To capture changes in daily uncertainty, negative affect and mental health, a daily design was adopted to test our model. We collected data through five consecutive days (N = 320), in the early "lockdown" stage of the pandemic. The multilevel results showed a significant mediation effect from daily uncertainty to daily mental health via daily negative affect. In addition, neuroticism moderated the mediated relationship, in such a way that the relationship between daily uncertainty on daily mental health, via daily negative affect was strengthened when neuroticism was higher. In sum, living without unicorns, or see the world though a black lens, is a factor that enhances the blackness of uncertainty.

Measurement Invariance of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience Across 13 Countries.

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) is widely used to measure emotional experiences, but not much is known about its cross-cultural utility. The present study evaluated the measurement invariance of the SPANE across adult samples (N = 12,635; age range = 18-85 years; 58.2% female) from 13 countries (China, Colombia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States). Configural and partial scalar invariance of the SPANE were supported. Three items capturing specific negative emotions (sad, afraid, and angry) were found to be culturally noninvariant. Our findings suggest that the SPANE's positive emotion terms and general negative emotion terms (e.g., negative and unpleasant) might be more suitable for cross-cultural studies on emotions and well-being, whereas caution is needed when comparing countries using the SPANE's specific negative emotion items.

Unleashing the Furr-Recovery Method: Interacting with Pets in Teleworking Replenishes the Self's Regulatory Resources: Evidence from a Daily-Diary Study.

This study is based on the conservation of resources theory and the recovery step model in order to further explore the furr-recovery method-a mechanism through which workers break their routine by taking micro-moments to interact with their "furry co-workers," thus relieving their fatigue and tension or other negative affective states. Based on this, we argue that this method not only serves the purpose of restoring self-regulatory resources but also ameliorates mental health. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze how daily human-animal interactions during teleworking positively influence teleworkers' mental health, via recovering their self-regulatory resources, at the within-person level. Full-time teleworkers completed multiple online surveys for 5 consecutive workdays (N = 211 × 5 = 1055 daily observations). Multilevel path analysis results showed that on days on which employees had more micro-moments to interact with their "furry co-workers" during the day, they experienced a higher self-regulatory capacity and felt better while working. In sum, the findings give support for the theoretical resource perspective of interacting with pets as an effective energy management strategy while at work. This research extends the theoretical understanding of regulatory resources as a cognitive mechanism that links HAIs to employee mental health. Moreover, the findings outlined here offer practical implications by highlighting the furr-recovery method, a method that teleworkers who own pets may use as a strategy during the working day to restore resources needed to be healthier.