Employee-workplace alignment: employee characteristics and perceived workplace requirements

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the employee characteristics which are most strongly associated with perceived requirements for different aspects of the workplace environment. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was completed by 364 employees from a large private-sector organisation. Respondents were surveyed on different work-related, personality and demographic characteristics. They then completed a series of items measuring perceived requirements for four aspects of the workplace environment (workspace segregation, workspace territoriality, individual environmental control and aesthetic quality). Associations between employee characteristics and perceived workplace requirements were explored using multiple regression analyses. Findings – Numerous significant associations emerged. For example, the requirement for more segregated workspaces was associated with higher susceptibility to distraction, and the requirement for higher workspace territoriality was associated with less positive perceptions regarding the impact of flexible working on work effectiveness. Originality/value – The individual difference factors which moderate satisfaction with the workplace environment have received relatively little attention in past research. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by including a wider range of employee characteristics and comprehensively investigating which of these most strongly predict differences in perceived requirements for the workplace

An experience sampling approach to the workplace environment survey

The purpose of this study was to pilot test the effectiveness of the experience sampling approach for measuring employee satisfaction with the workplace environment. Additionally, we also aimed to explore which aspects of environmental comfort have the strongest impact on momentary wellbeing and productivity. Fifteen knowledge workers in an open-plan office environment were sent a brief survey (measuring environmental comfort, momentary wellbeing, and perceived productivity) each day over an 11-day study period, and provided 78 individual survey responses in total. All but one of the measures on the survey had low test-retest reliability, indicating that employees’ experiences of environmental comfort varied significantly each time they completed the survey. Additionally, higher environmental comfort was associated with improved wellbeing and productivity. The results suggest that an experience sampling approach to the workplace occupant survey is justified to better capture the temporal variability in experiences of environmental comfort. The results also suggest that improving environmental comfort, particularly by reducing the level of distractions, will enable employees to work more productively. To our knowledge, this is the first field study which has attempted to directly address limitations in traditional occupant surveys by using an experience sampling approach rather than a one-time-only questionnaire

Salutogenic Workplace Design: A conceptual framework for supporting sense of coherence through environmental resources.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss opportunities for health promotion through the workplace environment, adopting a ‘salutogenic’ perspective of health which more explicitly focuses on factors that support human health and wellbeing, as opposed to factors which cause disease. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the introduction, the salutogenic model of health and the Environmental Demands-Resources model are discussed, providing a conceptual framework to represent the workplace environment as a composite of pathogenic ‘demands’ and salutogenic ‘resources’. Subsequently, a narrative review is performed to discuss the existing literature from the perspective of this novel framework, identifying environmental resources which might strengthen the three components of an employee’s ‘sense of coherence’ (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness), an individual orientation associated with more positive health outcomes. Findings: Comprehensibility can be supported by effectively implementing a clear set of rules governing the use of the workplace. Manageability can be supported through biophilic design solutions, and through design which supports social cohesion and physical activity. Meaningfulness can be supported by recognising the importance of personal identity expression and through design which reinforces the employees’ sense of purpose. Originality/Value: The salutogenic perspective is a potentially valuable but relatively under-considered paradigm in workplace practice. The key contribution of this paper is to encourage researchers and practitioners to recognise the crucial role that an individual’s sense of coherence plays in supporting higher levels of physical and mental health, so that they increase their ability to provide truly ‘healthy’ workplaces, capable of promoting health as well as minimising the risk of disease. The emerging healthy workplaces movement is primarily concerned with the pathogenic (harm-causing) potential of the office environment. The quality of the indoor workplace environment may contain numerous contributors towards ill health (see Al Horr et al., 2016, for review), partly as a result of the cost reduction paradigm which pervades workplace practice, in which space efficiency is prioritised above occupant requirements (Haynes, 2007a). As such, recent certification schemes for optimising heath and wellbeing in the built environment (e.g., the WELL Building Standard; International WELL Building Institute, 2018) largely focus on improving indoor environmental quality through strategies such as the minimisation of airborne pollutants and by reducing various sources of environmental discomfort. In this paper, we will argue that the mitigation of pathogenic environmental components is a necessary but not sufficient step towards the goal of providing truly healthy workplaces. We suggest that it is equally important to consider salutogenic (health-promoting) aspects of the workplace environment, in order to more suitably answer calls for more enabling paradigms in workplace practice (Haynes, 2007a). The distinction between harm-causing and health-promoting factors echoes the World Health Organisation’s (1948) definition of health as a “state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, and also has parallels with the distinction between ‘languishing’ (the presence of mental illness) and ‘flourishing’ (the presence of positive emotions) in the positive psychology movement (Keyes, 2002). In recognition of the fact that the majority of workplace research has tended to be largely atheoretical and segmented by discipline (Sander et al., 2018), we believe future research and practice should be more explicitly designed in accordance with relevant conceptual frameworks. Accordingly, in this paper we explicate two conceptual frameworks to support understanding of the salutogenic potential of the workplace environment. First, we discuss the salutogenic model of health (Antonovsky, 1987), which has received good empirical support in healthcare disciplines. Second, we present the Environmental Demands-Resources (ED-R) model as a way of illustrating the pathogenic and salutogenic aspects of the workplace environment, and how they can be determined through the dynamic employee-workplace relationship

Leveraging variational autoencoders for multiple data imputation

Missing data persists as a major barrier to data analysis across numerous applications. Recently, deep generative models have been used for imputation of missing data, motivated by their ability to capture highly non-linear and complex relationships in the data. In this work, we investigate the ability of deep models, namely variational autoencoders (VAEs), to account for uncertainty in missing data through multiple imputation strategies. We find that VAEs provide poor empirical coverage of missing data, with underestimation and overconfident imputations, particularly for more extreme missing data values. To overcome this, we employ $\beta$-VAEs, which viewed from a generalized Bayes framework, provide robustness to model misspecification. Assigning a good value of $\beta$ is critical for uncertainty calibration and we demonstrate how this can be achieved using cross-validation. In downstream tasks, we show how multiple imputation with $\beta$-VAEs can avoid false discoveries that arise as artefacts of imputation.Comment: 17 pages, 3 main figures, 6 supplementary figure

Dynamische modellering van streeflasten voor bossen in Vlaanderen

For forest and nature policy it is important to know the highest level of atmospheric nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) deposition below which harmful acidifying effects on forest soils do not occur. Therefore, target loads for acidification were determined for Flemish forests according to the harmonized methodology of the Coordination Center of Effects. Target loads are calculated in a similar way as critical loads, but account for soil buffer mechanims. Critical loads are based on a steady-state mass balance and equal the highest long-term deposition that still respects a pre-defined soil-chemical status. A target load is the deposition for which the chosen status is respected from the target year on. This requires taking into account the buffering capacity of soil processes such as cation exchange and N immobilisation, as these create a time lag in soil recovery when the potentially acidifying deposition declines. Critical loads were calculated for 1438 Flemish forest locations; on the one hand for the protection of roots against acidification using a maximum ratio of aluminum vs. base cation concentration in soil water, on the other hand for eutrophication using a maximum nitrate leaching. For non-calcareous forest soils in Flanders, the median critical load of S (criterion Al:Bc = 1) amounted to 1754 eq ha-1 year-1. The median critical load of acidifying N was 3010 eq ha-1 year-1 including denitrification and 2227 eq ha-1 year-1 assuming no denitrifi-cation. The median critical load for nutrient N with respect to eutrophication (criterion NO3le,acc = 100 eq ha-1 year-1) was 935 eq ha-1 year-1. Target loads for acifidication were determined for 83 non-calcareous Flemish forest stands of the forest soil and forest vitality network (Level I and II plots). The Very Simple Dynamic (VSD) model was used for simulating the chemical composition of soil and soil water throughout time based on soil characteristics and rainfall, deposition and growth data. Target loads were calculated for the target years 2030, 2050 and 2100. To respect the Al:Bc criterion from 2050 on, for example, a N and S deposition reduction was needed in 84% of the plots according to the VSD model. In 12% of the plots no additional deposition reduction was needed compared to the Gothenburg agreements, while for 4% the Al:Bc criterion could not be reached in 2050 even when N and S deposition would be reduced to zero from 2010 on. The median target load of S for target year 2030 amounted to 58% of the median critical load of S; for the years 2050 and 2100 this ratio was 65% and 86%, respectively. For N the difference between target loads and critical loads was smaller than for S due to the time dependent N immobilisation. The critical and target loads of S were lower for deciduous stands than for coniferous stands because of the higher nutrient uptake by deciduous trees. The acceptable acidifying deposition was lower for forests on sandy sails than on loamy or clayey soils due to the lower mineral weathering rate in sandy soils. According to the sensitivity analysis, the calculated target loads depended mostly on the base cation fluxes mineral weathering, deposition, and net growth uptake. Furthermore, the chosen cation exchange model and the assumed relationship between the soil solution pH and aluminium concentration clearly affected the results. Despite the inherent uncertainty in modelling soil acidification at a regional level, the present research implies that important N and S deposition reductions are needed to allow recovery of Flemish forest soils to a minimal chemical quality

Acoustic comfort in open-plan offices: The role of employee characteristics

Purpose – This paper aims to determine the extent to which employees’ experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices are determined by specific characteristics (including demographic information, task characteristics, and personality traits). Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was distributed to the occupants of three open-plan office sites and was completed by 166 employees in total. Findings – The results indicated that acoustic comfort in open-plan offices is largely determined by noise sensitivity. Higher noise sensitivity was associated with more negative ratings of acoustical quality, more perceived disturbance by speech and more difficulties in concentration. More negative experiences were also reported by employees with lower interactivity with colleagues. Practical implications – There is significant inter-individual variability in experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices. As such, workplace practitioners should consider acoustic and behavioural solutions for introducing a greater diversity of functional workspaces within the office, so that employees can choose the most suitable working area for their requirements. Originality/value – Whereas the majority of past acoustics research has been laboratory-based, this study is conducted in real office environments with a representative sample of knowledge workers

Hepatic fibrogenesis requires sympathetic neurotransmitters

Background and aims: Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are activated by liver injury to become proliferative fibrogenic myofibroblasts. This process may be regulated by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) but the mechanisms involved are unclear. Methods: We studied cultured HSC and intact mice with liver injury to test the hypothesis that HSC respond to and produce SNS neurotransmitters to promote fibrogenesis. Results: HSC expressed adrenoceptors, catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes, released norepinephrine (NE), and were growth inhibited by α- and β-adrenoceptor antagonists. HSC from dopamine β-hydroxylase deficient (Dbh(−/−)) mice, which cannot make NE, grew poorly in culture and were rescued by NE. Inhibitor studies demonstrated that this effect was mediated via G protein coupled adrenoceptors, mitogen activated kinases, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Injury related fibrogenic responses were inhibited in Dbh(−/−) mice, as evidenced by reduced hepatic accumulation of α-smooth muscle actin(+ve) HSC and decreased induction of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and collagen. Treatment with isoprenaline rescued HSC activation. HSC were also reduced in leptin deficient ob/ob mice which have reduced NE levels and are resistant to hepatic fibrosis. Treating ob/ob mice with NE induced HSC proliferation, upregulated hepatic TGF-β1 and collagen, and increased liver fibrosis. Conclusions: HSC are hepatic neuroglia that produce and respond to SNS neurotransmitters to promote hepatic fibrosis

Acting on impulse: using the neuroscience of impulse control to improve the law

This thesis investigates the potential legal utility of neurotechnologies which measure correlates of impulsive behaviors. Chapter 1 explains my philosophical position and how this position compares to others in the field. Chapter 2 explores some of the technical concepts which must be understood for the discussion of neurotechnologies and their applications to be fruitful. These chapters will be important for both explaining the capabilities of a neuroscientific approach to neural abnormalities as well as how they relate to the kind of regulation in which the law is engaged. The purpose of Chapter 3 will be a descriptive account of Canadian law where I will begin to explore how to apply ideas and experiments from neuroscience to specific areas of law. Chapter 3 will look at actual examples of Canadian criminal law and will span topics from the creation of law to the construction of appropriate sentences. Chapter 4 will debate if and how we should apply the neuroscientific perspective to the law given the ethical concerns surrounding the applications described in Chapter 3. The thrust of the chapter is that the development of the law does not occur in a vacuum and any alteration either to the laws themselves, how they are interpreted, or the technologies used to provide evidence, must have an ethical justification, that is, a way in which the proposed change will better meet the needs of society and the ethical objectives of the law. Sometimes these justifications can be drawn directly from constitutional documents, such as the Charter, or from the Criminal Code, while at other times these justifications depend upon arguments about furthering meaningful responsibility and therapeutic outcomes