Involuntary wellness programs: the case of a large US company

The impact of organizational support for employees’ health on organizational commitment, intent to remain and job performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational support for employee health (OSEH) and employees’ turnover intention and job performance, with a focus on the possible mediating roles of affective commitment and wellness program participation in these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from surveys of employees at a public university that provides employees with a variety of wellness program options. Conditional procedural analysis was conducted to test the model.

Findings

Results showed that employees’ perceptions of OSEH positively related to both turnover intention and job performance and that affective commitment fully mediated the relationships between OSEH perceptions and both dependent variables.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-sectional data were collected on OSEH, affective commitment, employees’ intent to remain in the organization and job performance. Future studies based on panel data would be helpful to establish the causal relationships in the model.

Practical implications

Our findings show that employees’ perceptions of OSEH are likely to affect behavioral outcomes through affective commitment, suggesting that managers should ensure that employees are aware of organizational support for health promotion. Our findings also suggest that organizations move beyond a focus on design of wellness programs to include an emphasis on the overall OSEH.

Originality/value

This research study is the first empirical examination on the two possible channels through which organizational health support may influence employees’ intent to remain and job performance – participation in wellness programs and affective organizational commitment. The results are of value to researchers, human resource management managers, employees and executives who are seeking to develop practices that promote employee health at the workplace.