Working and working out: Decision-making inputs connect daily work demands to physical exercise

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health Psychology
• Behavioral Decision Theory
• Exercise Science

Background:

• Work demands can negatively impact employee health and well-being by reducing physical exercise.
• Resource theories and decision-making theories offer frameworks to understand this relationship.
• Work stress may alter the energetic and emotional resources available for post-work exercise decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how work stress influences decision-making resources (energy and affect) related to physical exercise.
• To identify distinct daily decision-making profiles based on energy and affect.
• To examine the link between these profiles, work demands, and subsequent physical exercise engagement.

Main Methods:

• Diary-style data collected over two workweeks from 83 workers (783 days).
• Multilevel latent profile analysis used to identify daily decision input profiles.
• Analysis examined the relationship between daily job demands, decision profiles, and physical exercise likelihood and intensity.

Main Results:

• Three decision input profiles identified: visceral (low energy/high negative affect), automatic (low energy/low negative affect), and logical (high energy/low negative affect).
• The visceral profile was associated with the highest daily job demands.
• The visceral profile correlated with the lowest likelihood and intensity of physical exercise, while the logical profile was linked to higher exercise engagement.
• Exercise in the automatic profile group was moderated by individual health orientation.

Conclusions:

• Decision-making processes, influenced by work stress, are a key mechanism linking work demands to reduced physical exercise.
• Organizational interventions should consider addressing work stress, enhancing health orientation, and promoting logical decision-making to encourage employee physical activity.