Preview
Document Type
Graduate Research
Creation Date
4-8-2015
Department
Human Resources Development
Abstract
Reducing employee stress in the workplace is a large concern and focus for many organizations in the United States today. With more focus on employee stress at work, employers are looking for new and cost effective ways to help reduce this issue. Some of the U.S’s top organizations are inputting the idea of allowing employees to bring their personal dogs into the workplace. Many of these organizations have been listed on Forbes top 100 companies to work for, such as Google and Amazon.
Employees who are experiencing stress in the workplace can become inefficient workers, take more sick days, as well as have a bad attitude while in the workplace. These characteristics can harm organizations and lose them both time and money. Since the idea of allowing dogs into the workplace to reduce the stress of employees is so new; many organizations are not aware of the many benefits it can provide. Some of the benefits that research has found are: employees are more productive, efficient workers, healthier, and more willing to work longer hours for less pay.
In order to address the problem of employee stress in the workplace, the proposed research study will try and answer the following research question:
- How and to what extent does bringing a dog into the office space reduce employee stress in the workplace?
The proposed research study will using a mixed method for analyzing the effects on employee stress when a dog is present in the workplace. The data that is collected will be from employers who allow employees to bring dogs into the workplace. The employees stress levels will then be compared to days that their dog is present and days the dogs is not present in the workplace. With the consent of participants and proper approvals, interviews with participating employees will be conducted. Seeing how the employees felt their stress levels were when the dogs was present versus when the dog was absent will help to give a correlation of the data.
