Leisure time management in the workplace: Providing a model

2.1 Leisure time at or outside the workplace

The results of studies which considered employees’ leisure outside the workplace illustrate positive effects of paying attention to leisure activities. These results are job satisfaction, job efficiency, lower levels of absenteeism, job enthusiasm, welfare, reduction of therapeutic costs, reduction of job burnout and increased job effectiveness [1, 17–23].

Work breaks, rest breaks, leisure, workplace recreation, workplace leisure behavior, fun at workplace, and fun at work are subjects of studies which consider leisure at the workplace. These subjects have been considered through two functional and non-functional approaches. In Wisdom’s research (2012), employees’ leisure activities are non-functional. According to Wisdom, such activities can be detrimental for firms and people’s performance although he believes that leisure activities are tasks such as surfing the internet, personal telephone conversations and watching news and television and points out that it is unsystematic and contrary to professional ethics [16]. Lebbon (2013) explored the effect of leisure behaviors at the workplace and concluded that leisure behaviors of more than 40 percent of their work time will have a negative and converse relationship with employees’ job performance and efficiency [40]. In Shrivastava’s study (2018), addiction to the internet at workplace can have a negative effect on personal and work life of employees [24]. The common point in all studies in which employees’ leisure is considered inefficient is lack of any program to manage leisure time, and spending it idly. This is the main problem in the present study.

However, those studies which considered leisure activities at the work environment to improve welfare conditions of employees in the firms have mentioned its positive effects in various aspects [4, 25–30]. According to World Health Organization reports, entertainment and recreation at the workplace improve personnel’s performance and their quality of life, as well [4]. Specialists and researchers in social sciences pay considerable attention to the leisure activities regarding the reduction of the work time and more free moments. Leisure can be defined as a conceived mental situation where people feel mental freedom and leisure. This sense might arise in any environment or condition [11].

Lebbon (2013) mentions in his research that if the leisure behaviors of employees reduce to less than fifteen percent of the work time, it affects their performance positively [40]. Other studies suggest the positive effect of sport facilities and conditions of physical activity inside or near the workplace on employees’ health and improvement of employee’s performance in organizations [18, 19]. Epstein (2016) refers to the rest time and leisure at workplace with work pause or pause. He believes that these words can describe an enormous range of activities. Also, this pause and rest might improve overall performance in spite of the short-term cost. Park (2019) insists on the importance of the rest breaks during work time, and reduction of the problems in the spheres of the health and fitness in shift works with long hours [31]. Galdwell (2019) refers to the necessity of a short nap after work fatigue and its effect on reduction of errors and increased safety that make a fatigue management strategy in work environments [32].

4.1 Qualitative procedure

To explore the various aspects and examples of leisure time at the workplace, we used a qualitative approach, particularly “Grounded Theory Technique”.

The statistical population of the qualitative section should be aware of the research subject. Since all hospitals and medical employees are acquainted with the concept of leisure time at hospital and understand its importance, they could participate in this interview and respond to the questions. The interviewees were selected from various specialties and occupational ranks, so the criteria of the interview were based on the knowledge and experience of the employees in health and hospital environment. The statistical sample of this phase included 16 people working in health sector and academic experts determined through saturation principle (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The opinions of the interviewees were saturated after the 12th interview, and the interview process finished after the 16th interview. Due to the variety of managerial policies, the interviewees were selected from various departments (support, office affairs, medical) and different hospitals (private and public). The interviews were performed by face-to-face, in-depth, and open-ended questions from 30 to 60 minutes. The notes were taken simultaneously with recording the interviews and those records were transcribed afterwards. Then, the important variables were recognized through open and axial-coding technique and the dimensions of the variables were extracted through selective coding, causal condition, central phenomenon, contextual condition, strategies, intervening condition and consequence.

4.2 Determining the content validity of the research

After finishing the selective coding, the extracted codes in the form of questionnaires were distributed among 18 professors and experts in health and medical sector, and organizational behavior. It should be noted that for determining content validity, CVR, and CVI some of these experts were interviewees. Finally, 15 questionnaires were completed and analyzed. After the final calculation of CVR and CVI, the unacceptable codes were eliminated and the remaining codes were contrived in the designed conceptual mode.

The following criteria were used to determine the rejection and acceptance principles in this research:

Unconditional acceptance of the index; if CVR is equal or greater than 49%. According to the 15 respondents of the panel, this number was extracted through Lawshe’s Table.

After determining and calculating CVR, the questionnaire of Content Validity Index (CVI) was used for certainty of the criteria and tools to measure the content. CVI demonstrates the sophistication in judgments of validity or the fitness of the model, test and the tool.

Thus, the questionnaires were distributed among those 15 experts to calculate CVI, and they were asked to evaluate the remaining 46 questions according to the following three criteria based on the Likert Quadrat Spectrum Relevance, Simplicity, and clarity (1 = not clear, 2 = fairly clear, 3 = clear, 4 = crystal clear). The value of validity index for the selected codes of this research was 0.57 and according to the CVI of the confirmed codes in Content-Validity Segment, one code was eliminated which was related to the causal conditions with a value lower than 0.57.

4.3 Quantitative procedure

The paradigm model in the qualitative part was distributed among 420 participants through a questionnaire with 53 questions and 390 questionnaires were selected for final analysis. The inclusion criterion was holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher; therefore, the selected employees could respond to the questions regardless of their field of specialty. The sample numbers were calculated with structural equation modeling (5 to 15 times the number of questionnaire questions) using stratified random sampling for distribution of the questionnaires. This questionnaire is based on the 5-point Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by content and structure methodology. The professors and experts confirmed the content and the structural section was confirmed by the structural equation modeling. The reliability was measured using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient with Amos 22 software (Table 1). According to the results, the validity of the structure is acceptable.

5.1 Qualitative analysis

Question 1: What are the constituent elements of this process (causal condition, central phenomenon, contextual condition, intervening condition, strategies and consequences)?

After analyzing the qualitative data and performing the three-step coding of the research, 51 axial codes were put into the categories of causal, central phenomenon and contextual conditions, intervening condition factors, strategies and consequences of leisure-time management in the workplace. In the content-validation step, the selected axial codes were distributed among some of the interviewees and academic experts in medical and organizational behaviors sectors in the form of questionnaires with respect to their opinions about these codes. As a result, one code was rejected from the 10 selected codes of causal conditions and 9 were accepted and in the strategy part, 3 codes were rejected from the 6 selected codes and 3 were accepted. In the consequence part, one code was rejected from 22 selected codes. The contextual and intervening conditions and the central phenomenon category were all confirmed. The results of the final analysis are included in Tables 2–7.

Question2: What is the conceptual model of leisure time management in the workplace?

Qualitative phase: In this phase of the study, after a thorough systematic review of interview transcripts and following the stages of coding, 170 open codes were obtained initially. With further categorization of codes in axial and selective coding stages, the number of codes was reduced to 61. From these, the experts in the validation phase eliminated five codes, ultimately resulting in 56 codes in six themes. After final verification of these codes, the causal, contextual, central phenomenon and intervening condition as well as strategies and consequences of workplace leisure management, and ultimately the conceptual model of workplace leisure management were obtained. The conceptual model is shown in Figure 1.

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Fig.1

Conceptual model of workplace leisure management.

Question3: Do the constituent elements of the conceptual model have an acceptable fitness?

The comparison between the values of indexes and their fitness show an acceptable value for all indexes. (Table 8)

6.1 Causal conditions

Leisure time in workplaces is necessary due to the humans’ variety of needs in different dimensions. According to Edward Boyle, one of the most essential responsibilities of the management in any organization is paying attention to the needs and demands of the employees, especially the need for rest time and break from work to allow physical and mental recovery [15]. Portela (2018) insists on recovery and reduction of the negative effect of the physical activities in the work time with leisure time activities, as supported by Park (2019) [31]. Shengwei, Lee and Liu investigated employees’ health improvement in the workplace. Other codes identified in the category of causal conditions include improved work problem resolution and effective decision-making capability, work crisis management, reduced rate of human error, and enhanced work focus and precision [6, 33]. Galdwell (2019) refers to the necessity of a short nap after work fatigue and its effect on the reduction of errors in the workplace [32].

In medical affairs, where decisions and their outcomes have direct impacts on human life and health, it is even more important to prepare the conditions as much as possible for people to make the best possible decisions. Certainly, leisure management reduces the rate of fatigue-induced human errors which may undermine decision-making about treatments and the quality of procedures. These results are in agreement with Blasche [28] and Michishita [29].

6.2 Central phenomenon

Leisure can refer to a variety of activities. But in our interviews with the employees, it is considered as a possibility to have a facility with the necessary comforts for an undisturbed and relaxed rest, including a place with natural light, open-air windows, sufficient sunlight, proper ventilation and temperature, natural elements such as flower pots or being in a natural environment such as hospital garden, and use of exciting or relaxing colors in employees resting rooms. In a study by Kaplan [34], the results demonstrated the positive effect of greenery and natural elements in the workplace on the well-being and effectiveness of employees. Resting spaces can be equipped with games and entertainment tailored proportional to the organization’s culture, and audio-visual and virtual communication gadgets to improve the mental recovery of employees. The library facilities with a variety of specialized and non-specialized books will allow the employees to use a part of their rest time to find more about work-related issues arising during treatments, which will help them become more mentally relaxed during treatment processes. However, the issue that was most emphasized by the interviewees was the access to open air and sunlight even for a brief period.

Bisswas and Biernat referred to the accessibility of the leisure and sport facility, its vicinity to the workplace and the positive effect on increasing the employees’ physical activities and their health [19, 35].

6.3 Contextual conditions

The presence of a suitable contextual condition work for workplace leisure programs such as managers’ supportive attitude, mutual trust between managers and employees and a strong culture of collaboration and organizational citizenship among the employees were found to be among the contextual conditions, which are needed for workplace leisure management. Managers are completely in charge of the changes, and the introduction of new cultures in the organization and no plan or program will succeed without their acceptance and support. Concerning contextual conditions, the interviewees stated that there could be no genuine and effective leisure time unless there is perfect empathy and cooperation between colleagues and, of course, there is a sufficient workforce to make it possible. If these conditions are met, then an employee can take a rest and actually enjoy his rest without worrying about work, fully confident that the activities are being done properly in his absence. Researchers in [36] also reported the positive effect of support from managers and colleagues on leisure satisfaction in tourism employees.

6.4 Strategies

The three strategies identified in this research for workplace leisure management are: proper planning of leisure time in the organization, adoption of precise monitoring and supervision policies, and giving employees the freedom to choose how to spend their leisure time. To be effective, planning for the employees’ leisure must be done with the cooperation and participation of the employees themselves. The plans for meeting the needs of the employees and how they spend their leisure time cannot be devised behind closed doors and without attention to their tastes and requests. Brajša has shown that the pattern of leisure activities varies with age and gender [37]. Further, several studies on different generations of workers have shown that millennials (GenMe/GenY), who are born between 1981 and 2000, do not consider work as the centerpiece of their life and attribute more importance to fun and leisure [7–10]. Supervisory and monitoring policies for leisure programs should be precisely defined prior to implementation, preferably with direct input from department heads and even based on the employees’ surveys.

6.5 Intervening conditions

The suitability of leisure program regarding the type of work and workload is one of the most important factors that can affect this program. Undoubtedly, given the variety of therapeutic and non-therapeutic services offered in the healthcare field, and especially in hospitals, it is impossible to devise a common plan for all hospital departments. The type of conditions and facilities provided for the leisure time of the employees should be tailored to the type of work, the intensity of work stress, and the type of department. For example, the type and timing of leisure activities provided for the employees of the emergency department or ICU should be quite different from those provided to the employees of administrative and support departments and even other less stressful departments. The daily rate of direct interactions with patients and their family members is an important intervening condition factor, as well. Park and Bramante insists on the importance of the rest breaks during work time and reduction of problems in the spheres of health and fitness in shift works with long hours [5, 31].

6.6 Consequences

Implementation of the leisure time management plans and patterns has personal, organizational, and social outcomes. The most important consequences that were strongly emphasized by a large number of interviewees are the mental and physical recovery for employees. According to many health care workers, when a person can take a break from a challenging and stressful work environment, he can return to his job with ease of mind, more energy and convalesced strength. Naturally, this break from work can reduce and even prevent many fatigue-induced behaviors such as aggressiveness and medical errors. Most of the outcomes identified in this study are a subset of the effects of physical and mental work recovery. Apart from caring about and fulfilling physical, mental and spiritual needs and according to people’s opinions, considering leisure-time and providing facilities for spending this period fruitfully is a respect by organizational administrators to the significance of the employees. However, as noted by the interviewees, to be effective, it must be able to induce complete relaxation and isolation from work stresses.

The results of similar studies show that well-managed entertainment facilities in the workplace reduces visits to physicians and improves the physical and mental capacity of employees, which ultimately lead to higher work output [4, 37–39].

In the quantitative section, it was determined that all elements of the proposed conceptual model have acceptable and suitable goodness.

Finally, it is emphasized that the main effective factors on leisure time management and its strategies and total results have been mentioned in this study based on the accomplished qualitative survey. Mainly, it can be stated that some conditions and requirements are universal because they are a general response to basic needs of humans in all cultures and countries, such as spending work breaks for physical and mental refreshment, and creating a quiet and joyful mental environment. But definitely, some circumstances like decoration of the bedroom, creating a space for group games and recreations and playing effective music or short films during the rest time can not only be different given the type of culture and religion in the society, but even the type of a manager’s attitude in this case can be effective. Hence, this study proposes a general conceptual model and explores major aspects of leisure time management and it is the responsibility of domestic and local decision-makers of therapeutic systems in any society to naturalize the conditions for its provision and planning.