Investigating the impact of employee development activities on employee well-being

Abstract

The present study applied a multiple time point methodology to evaluate the relationship between participation in employee development activities and well-being outcomes.In doing so, a comprehensive model of well-being was evaluated.Ideas were integrated from the organizational support (Gillet, Fouquereau, Forest, Brunault, & Colombat, 2012;Kraimer, Seibert, Wayne, Liden, &Bravo, 2011) and Self-determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002) literatures to propose a model of the pathways through which employee development impacts employee well-being.It was predicted that employee development would facilitate positive well-being through the satisfaction of the three fundamental psychological needsautonomy, relatedness, and competence.Additionally, a potential boundary conditionself-concordance of participation in developmentwas explored.Results provided strong support for Page and Vella-Brodrick's (2009) model of employee well-being, which differentiates between workplace well-being (WWB), subjective well-being (SWB), and psychological wellbeing (PWB).Participation in employee development (formal and informal) predicted all three of these well-being outcomes.Further, results indicated that participation in development impacts the well-being dimensions through satisfaction of different fundamental needs.For example, participation in formal development activities predicts positive WWB through satisfaction of the need for autonomy and the need for relatedness, whereas participation in formal development predicts positive PWB through iv competence need satisfaction.Exploration of the boundary condition did not support the expectation that the impact of development on well-being outcomes is dependent on the level of self-concordance of development (i.e., the extent to which the employee participates in development more because it is consistent with his/her personal values, beliefs, and desires than because it is externally controlled; Sheldon & Elliot, 1999).Finally, results suggest that formal and informal development demonstrate similar relationships with the dimensions.However, the magnitudes of relationships are larger for informal development than formal development.Combined, results suggest that both formal and informal employee development, when aligned to employees' personal values and beliefs, can facilitate employee psychological need satisfaction and, ultimately, wellbeing.v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have grown up hearing the adage "It takes a village…" repeated like a mantra among my family.Now that I am approaching the end of my graduate student career at the University of Akron, I can't help but think "It really did take a village."I would like to acknowledge a few special villagers who guided and supported me over the years.To Paul Levy: thank you for having the faith in me to trust me to set my own path and see it through (even when neither of us was certain where it would lead).You have always guided me without pushing or forcing me to follow in anyone else's footsteps, and that is something that I not only appreciate but that gave me the opportunity to pursue a line of research that excites me.To Jim Diefendorff, Joelle Elicker, Andee Snell, and Steve Ash: thank you for taking this journey with me and nudging me in the right direction if I started to go a bit astray.This research never could have become a reality without your knowledge and support to back it up.I also want to thank Rosalie Hall for the cross-continental stats help and encouragement along the way.

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