Health and Productivity Management in Hospital Organizations and Work Engagement of Nurses.

Objective: In Japan, there is an urgent need to strengthen efforts to retain nurses and prevent high turnover. The Japan Nurses Association has set the goal of creating a supportive work environment for nurses to work with peace of mind and improve outcomes throughout their lives. Against this background, we examined the relationship between nurses' health and productivity management and their work engagement (WE) in Japanese hospital organizations. Design: A cross-sectional design was used. Methods: A web-based survey was administered to full-time employed nurses working in Japanese hospitals with 100 or more beds. Results: Total WE scores were analyzed as the objective variable; WE crude odds ratios (ORs) were significantly higher in the high group than in the low group for all indicator items related to a healthy workplace culture. For adjusted ORs, propensity scores were calculated from gender, age, years of service, years of experience, job title, marital status, work shift, frequency of exercise per week, and hours worked per week and used as moderator variables. The results showed that the adjusted ORs for the high group were significantly higher than the adjusted ORs for the low group for all items except "participation of the person in charge from the planning stage of the initiative" and "reflection of the person in charge's opinion in the planning of the initiative." Conclusions: This study suggests that health and productivity management initiatives in hospital organizations may positively impact nurses' WE. Furthermore, it suggests that these initiatives may contribute to improving nurse retention and preventing turnover.

The Impact of Exercise and Health Management on Workplace Creativity.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate Japan's service sector employees to determine whether employee creativity is associated with the provision of a fitness program (that encourages employees to perform physical exercise) or a health and productivity management (H&PM) program at the workplace. Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Methods: A nationwide online survey was conducted using stratified sampling. Data were obtained for respondents' demographic characteristics, subjective health, exercise frequency, and organizational wellness support. Workplace creativity, psychological safety, and leadership were evaluated using standardized scales. A binary logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between organizational wellness support programs and workplace creativity. Results: Respondents were 1,955 full-time employees in private-sector organizations (979 men and 976 women; mean age 40.30 ± 10.85). Workplace creativity was significantly more likely respondents whose employers provided a fitness program (adjusted OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.39-2.48, p<.001) or an H&PM program (adjusted OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.53-2.80, p<.001). Furthermore, workplace creativity was significantly more likely in employees who perceived themselves as rather healthy or healthy. Employees who exercised frequently over the past year were more likely to display creativity than those never exercised. Conclusions: Workplace creativity was associated with good subjective health, high exercise frequency, and organizational wellness support programs offered by employers. Human resource management for employees' fitness and health is crucial for cultivating the productivity and innovation necessary for business success.

Utterances as Signals for Sharing Tacit Images in Collective Interaction.

In ball games, individuals collaborate to enhance their team's performance by sharing images and ideas that have not been verbalized. One of a coach's roles is to ascertain whether players share a common understanding of their team's images so as to devise tactics. Accordingly, this study aimed to verify the hypothesis that sharing images such as tacit knowledge that has not been verbalized occurs in collective interaction when utterances increase substantially during problem-solving. The participants were 13 male university handball players whose teams were championship contenders in Japan. A mixed methods research design was employed. Scenes in which two groups engaged in problem-solving were recorded and data of each participant's utterances were obtained. The utterances were analyzed quantitatively by employing Smirnoff-Grubbs and the time periods including those with a substantial number of utterances were identified. What happened during the identified time periods verified as outliers including the high frequency utterances were analyzed qualitatively by employing consensual qualitative analysis. Finally, the results of the consensual qualitative analysis were used to examine statistically to determine whether specific events occurred during times of extreme high frequency utterances. The exact binomial test was used to determine the 95% confidence interval of the population ratio and the effect size (g) of the mother ratio (0.05) to determine whether non-verbalized images such as tacit knowledge were being shared among members. Of the 26 time periods, 22 were supported the hypothesis. Of the time periods with extremely high utterances, the population ratio of the time periods supporting the hypothesis was 0.846 (CI = 0.681-1.00, g = 0.80). The results revealed that tacit image sharing occurred when there were a substantial number of utterances. This study demonstrated the possibility that sharing images that have not been verbalized occurs in collective interaction when there is a hotspot of utterances.

Consequences of organizational commitment in abolished company sports team - a case study in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to show that how the abolishment of company sports team influenced the organizational commitment in employees. In this study, Three-Component Model of Organizational Commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1997) was tested with 16 employees (10 males, 6 females) of T Company in NAGANO prefecture. The average age of the participants was 44, 50 years (SD=±0.85). And from 16 employees, 3 male employees were measured on organizational commitment with interview test. According to the analysis, the relation between organizational commitment in employees and the abolishment of company sports team was not positive significant correlation. Furthermore, results of interview test did not show the relation between organizational commitment in employees and the abolishment of company sports team. However, results of interview test showed the relation with organizational commitment of players in T Company sports team. Consequently, the goal to possess a sports team in T Company was not to boost organizational commitment in employees. In addition, it is necessary to reconsider the correlation among employees engaged in T Company in the future.

A study on the relationship between commitment of club activity and vocational readiness among university students.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between commitment of club activities and the vocational readiness among juniors at university. In this study, organizational commitment questionnaire (Mowday, 1979) and vocational readiness scale (Wakabayashi, Goto, and Shinkai, 1983) were tested with 178 (120 men, 58 women) juniors at one physical education university in the metropolitan area. According to correlation analysis, the relation between commitment of club activities and the vocational readiness was positive significant correlation (r = .303, p < .01). Moreover, we executed t-test. As the combined results, this study provided the following three conclusions; 1) Vocational readiness score of students who belonged to the club were higher than that of other students. 2) Vocational readiness score of students who were committed to club activities were higher than that of students with low commitment to club activities. 3) Students who were committed to club activities tended to increase the score of vocational readiness. It was not able to be declared that there were positive influences of the club activities in university education from the viewpoint of vocational readiness acquisition. Therefore, it is necessary to consider what the club activities should be from the viewpoint of university student's career education.

A longitudinal study on the effects of team building for university baseball team in Japan: from the view point of team-vitalization.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect in the experience of TB among university baseball team from the view point of team-vitalization. We carry out one university baseball team (102 males, 6 female). The average age of the participants was 19.99 years (SD = 1.41). Then, using Check List of Team- Vitalization that was developed by consulting firm in Japan, we examined the degrees of team-vitalization. The answers of this investigation were collected from the participants at fifth times (before intervention of TB, immediately after TB, after three months of TB, before intervention of follow-up training of TB, and immediately after follow-up training of TB). This study for eight months provided the following three conclusions; 1) University baseball team was vitalized through the experience of TB. 2) Team-vitalization was higher than before TB experience, but this effect of the TB did not seem to be permanent. 3) To keep intervention of TB was very important.

Construction of the integrated model for practical career support to the professional athletes.

Recently, along with the enhancement of the argument for career of athletes, many researchers who major in sports psychology focus mainly on athletic retirement, a coordination of transitions in sport or and outside sport, social support and professional assistance in career transition, in the context of the second career concerning to professional athletes in Japan. However, when it comes to career transition of professional athletes, it is necessary to consider "career" from the whole perspectives of human life. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to clarify the career transition of professional athletes by the way of questionnaire and interview survey, which is approached from the view point of industrial/organizational psychology. For this purpose, we implemented the interview survey to professional athletes in 2008. In addition, we carried out the investigation to professional football players (interview survey: 5 players, questionnaire survey: 102 players) in 2009. Consequently, three following findings were led in conclusion. (1)Career intervention to professional athletes should be performed before the turning point of the career (career transition). (2)It is important to assess the career intervention to professional athletes. (3)It is an important stance to watch the processes when professional athletes open up one's career by oneself.