Staff Work Groups - Foundational Literature

Sense of Belonging

Sense of belonging refers to the degree to which staff feel valued by the institution, engaged, comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, and a part of the university community. Research shows that when people feel included at work they report higher job satisfaction, well-being, and productivity thereby reducing turnover intentions. 

Individuals develop a sense of belonging through frequent, positive interactions that lead to stable and enduring interpersonal relationships (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). In workplaces, quality relationships combined with a perception of shared values help to create a sense of belonging among employees (Waller, 2020). A sense of belonging does not necessarily emerge organically, but rather is something that must be actively cultivated and fostered by organizations. Employers who offer training and rewards for relational behaviors (active listening, emotional intelligence, communication skills) can help to promote the development of quality relationships and a sense of belonging among employees (Baker & Dutton, 2017). Beyond direct employer involvement, employees report feeling they add value to the workplace when they are given autonomy and positive feedback (Gardner & Pierce, 1998), in addition to recognition and rewards for their contributions (McClure & Brown, 2008). Belle, Burley, and Long (2015) take a more expansive approach to the cultivation of belonging in the workplace in their study of high-intensity teleworkers. They find that individuals develop a sense of belonging when they exhibit choice in the workplace, can negotiate how they conduct their work, and are equipped with knowledge of the organization, its norms, and an understanding of self and others. Overall, when employees experience a sense of belonging, they report feeling  greater competence regarding their work (Levett-Jones & Lathlean, 2009). 

Mental Health & Well-Being

Occupational well-being is a multi-dimensional construct that includes affective, professional, social, cognitive, and psychosocial well-being. Literature indicates that in complex jobs like university staff roles, satisfaction–a key domain of well-being at work–is linked to positive personal and professional outcomes. Staff well-being and mental health are influenced by relationships with colleagues and students through supportive and inclusive communities and culture.

Colleges and universities are increasingly recognizing the need to develop integrated systems of care that target the mental health and wellbeing of their diverse populations (Travia et al., 2022). Implementing mental health and wellness programs in university settings is especially important because employees in these environments have been shown to have higher stress levels compared with workers in other settings (Winefield & Jarrett, 2001). Hill-Mey and colleagues (2015) argue that colleges are ideal settings for health promotion programs because of 1) the amount of time people physically spend at these work locations; 2) preexisting modes of communication that are in place to promote programs; 3) the social support employees can receive from co-workers and managers; 4) the capability to implement policies that can foster behavioral changes; and 5) preexisting fitness and health facilities. Keida, Harris, and Friedman (2021) examined the impact of a university wellness program and found that participants experienced significant improvements in stress, nutrition, physical activity, and sleep. To be successful, these programs should be driven by faculty or staff with expertise in wellness, have leadership buy in, be developed based on existing resources, require formal evaluation, be theory driven and evidence based, and aim to create a universal culture of health (Lloyd et al., 2017). Others argue that even brief micro-interventions can lead to reduced levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among university employees (Parker et al., 2022). Comparing university employees in the UK with the general population, Mark and Smith (2012) showed that when employees were provided with job control, social support, and rewards, they experienced lower levels of depression and anxiety and higher rates of job satisfaction. Staff members who participate in stress-reduction programs also report higher trust in senior management (Pignata & Winefield, 2015). Overall, health-related interventions on university campuses have been shown to yield positive results for physical activity, fitness, mental wellbeing, stress management, and nutrition (Plotnikoff et al., 2015). 

Mentoring & Professional Development

Mentoring and sponsorship involve more experienced individuals assisting others with personal and professional development. Staff mentoring can take the form of a dyad model or a developmental network with multiple mentoring relationships, both formal and informal, sometimes expanding beyond the organization. Professional development includes structured opportunities to nurture staff success and professional growth. Mentorship and sponsorship are associated with enhanced career development, progression, and satisfaction. Outcomes include an improved sense of confidence and increased professional success. 

Although there are multiple definitions of mentoring in employment contexts, most build upon the foundational definition proposed by Kram (1988), who describes mentoring as an intensive relationship between two people where a more experienced person (mentor) helps a junior person (mentee) by providing support and advice on career-related (e.g., coaching) and psychosocial (e.g., sense of competence, identity, professional effectiveness) topics. Research shows that individuals are more attracted to organizations that have formal mentoring programs (Allen & O’Brien, 2006). Workplace mentorship has positive benefits for both mentors and their mentees, promoting career success and career satisfaction (Collins, 1994), and helping both parties develop leadership skills (Grocutt et al., 2020; Lester et al., 2011). In a survey of IT personnel, Craig and colleagues (2013) identified a relationship between employees who experienced positive mentoring at work and higher levels of affective organizational commitment, which in turn led to reduced turnover intention. When employees receive career-related and psychosocial support, they experience less burnout (Varghese et al., 2020). In an interview-based study with 34 female engineers, participants indicated that having role models who demonstrated how to balance work and parental responsibilities made them feel more valued, competent, and confident when pursuing promotions. This led to secondary outcomes, which included feeling positive about the organization’s climate and seeing a future in engineering. When women have proper mentorship, they are also more likely to report incidents of sexual harassment (Yu & Lee, 2021). In general, female mentees who have female mentors tend to receive more social support (Scandura & Viator, 1994).

Equity-Focused, Proactive Recruitment & Hiring

Equitable, proactive recruitment practices lead to balanced new staff hiring that reflects the diversity of the university community. An equity lens on recruitment and hiring is essential to the success of the university and can be improved by institutional interventions. Job advertisements, position descriptions, search committee composition, anti-bias training, inclusive interviews, and compensation all influence equitable recruitment and hiring. 

In order to have a balanced and diverse workforce, organizations have been striving to implement interventions to reduce biases in the recruitment and hiring process. Lindsey and colleagues (2013) argue that a well-balanced recruitment strategy includes targeted recruitment, authentic commitment, explicit communication of diversity-related recruitment efforts, and facilitation of the application process. This includes cultivating relationships with a variety of educational institutions, minority organizations, and professional organizations (Digh, 1999), having a diverse recruitment group (Kravitz, 2008), and phrasing employment advertisements to be appealing to minority groups (Born & Taris, 2010), among others. To avoid bias in the process of hiring, recruiters should be trained before they start meeting and evaluating applicants (Connerley, 2014) in order to enhance diversity within organizations (Derous & Ryan, 2019). Derous, Nguyen, and Ryan (2021) tested the effects of two cognitive training interventions designed to reduce hiring discrimination against ethnic minority job applicants in the resume-screening phase. The successful intervention, based on an intercultural effectiveness training (IET), had both short- and long-term effects on reducing hiring discrimination. Once in the evaluation phase, evaluators are heavily influenced by candidate demographics, even though they may not be predictive of past or future performance. However, when decision criteria is set before candidates are evaluated, issues of bias can be reduced or eliminated (Uhlmann & Cohen, 2005). Moreover, when asked to evaluate groups of individuals jointly, evaluators are more likely to base their decisions on an individual’s actual performance (Bohnet, van Geen, & Bazerman, 2016). Overall, researchers find sufficient evidence to suggest that effective strategies exist to mitigate bias in the hiring process. 

Clear & Unbiased Expectations for Career Advancement

Providing clear guidance and expectations for staff career advancement, and establishing detailed and accessible criteria for professional growth result in staff who feel valued, recognized, and supported. Unbiased staff review and advancement practices result in equitable, merit-driven career outcomes across groups. Formal and informal opportunities for staff to assess accomplishments and receive feedback are critical to institutionally shared expectations for career advancement. 

Researchers have identified gender and racial disparities to career progression at the salary, performance evaluation, and career-setting stages (Castilla, 2012; Correll et al., 2020). This has led scholars to examine interventions implemented by organizations that help to address discrepant outcomes incurred by certain demographic groups. Approaches for reducing disparities in career advancement include increasing transparency and accountability. Castilla (2015) conducted a longitudinal analysis of 9,000 employees at a large, private company before and after accountability and transparency were introduced into the company’s performance-based rewards system. They found that the adoption of these organizational procedures was associated with a reduction in the gender, race, and foreign nationality gap in merit-based pay rewards. Dobbin, Schrage, and Kalev (2015) found that employment reforms that increase transparency promote equity by diversifying the promotion pool and causing hiring managers to scrutinize their own behavior for signs of bias. In addition, researchers find that bureaucratization and formalized employment practices improves employment prospects for women (Baron et al., 2007). It is especially important to provide clear and unbiased forms of career progression for marginalized groups, such as women, as the effects of gender equity can have positive ripple effects. When women are promoted into leadership positions, this not only increases female representation in the upper echelon (Brunzell & Liljeblom, 2014), but it also results in fewer gender discrimination incidents (Konrad, Cannings, & Goldberg, 2010), reduces bias against female primary caregivers, (Hoyt, 2012), is associated with higher performance (McIntyre, Paulson, & Lord 2003), and decreases in the gender pay gap (Cook, Ingersoll, & Glass, 2019). 

References

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Baumeister, R. F., and M. R. Leary. 1995. “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation.” Psychological Bulletin 117(3):497–529.

Belle, Stuart M., D. L. Burley, and S. D. Long. 2015. “Where Do I Belong? High-Intensity Teleworkers’ Experience of Organizational Belonging.” Human Resource Development International 18(1):76–96. 

Bohnet, Iris, Alexandra van Geen, and Max Bazerman. 2016. “When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint vs. Separate Evaluation.” Management Science 62(5):1225–34. 

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Collins, Pauline M. 1994. “Does Mentorship among Social Workers Make a Difference? An Empirical Investigation of Career Outcomes.” Social Work 39(4):413–19.

Connerley, M. L. 2014. “Training to Avoid Hiring Biases Should Take Place before Recruiters Start Meeting.” Pp. 21–34 in The Oxford handbook of recruitment, edited by K. Y. T. Yu and D. M. Cable. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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