The study, con­duct­ed by Yolan­da Na Li, Bon­nie Hay­den Cheng, Bingjie Yu, and Julie N. Y. Zhu, explores the rela­tion­ship between autonomous moti­va­tion, dai­ly phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, job per­for­mance, and health. The researchers used the Con­ser­va­tion of Resources (COR) the­o­ry as their foun­da­tion. This psy­cho­log­i­cal frame­work sug­gests that indi­vid­u­als strive to acquire, main­tain, and pro­tect their valu­able resources. When peo­ple lose resources or invest heav­i­ly in main­tain­ing them, they may expe­ri­ence stress and burnout. On the oth­er hand, increas­ing resources can lead to bet­ter well-being and performance.

No motivation needed

The study’s hypothe­ses were test­ed in two expe­ri­ence sam­pling stud­ies that tracked employ­ees› phys­i­cal activ­i­ty across 10 work­days, using mul­ti­ple data sources, includ­ing self-reports, super­vi­sor eval­u­a­tions, and objec­tive mea­sures. The authors found that employ­ees who engaged in at least 20 min­utes of dai­ly phys­i­cal activ­i­ty expe­ri­enced var­i­ous phys­i­cal, affec­tive, and cog­ni­tive resource gains the next day, which sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tributed to their task per­for­mance and health. Mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for gen­er­at­ing gains in next-day task and cre­ative per­for­mance and health out­comes. Notably, these ben­e­fits were inde­pen­dent of employ­ees› moti­va­tion to engage in phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, sug­gest­ing that even employ­ees who dis­like phys­i­cal activ­i­ty or exer­cise for var­i­ous rea­sons can still reap the benefits.

«Impor­tant­ly, across both stud­ies, our sup­ple­men­tary analy­ses show that next-day ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty are inde­pen­dent of employ­ees’ moti­va­tion to engage in phys­i­cal activity.»

Employ­ees are encour­aged to engage in at least 20 min­utes of dai­ly phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, focus­ing on mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty exer­cise, to enhance their next-day task per­for­mance and health. Employ­ees with high lev­els of job self-effi­ca­cy stand to gain even more ben­e­fits from pur­su­ing dai­ly phys­i­cal activ­i­ty in terms of gen­er­at­ing rel­e­vant resources and pro­mot­ing next-day per­for­mance and health. Man­agers can sup­port their employ­ees by strength­en­ing their job self-effi­ca­cy through rel­e­vant train­ing and feed­back mechanisms.

Quick wins for managers and companies

Man­agers can also active­ly pro­mote phys­i­cal activ­i­ty among employ­ees by offer­ing work­shops that explain the resource gains in sleep, vig­or, and task focus attrib­uted to phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, which in turn pro­motes job per­for­mance and health. Oth­er mea­sures include imple­ment­ing var­i­ous pro­grams, pro­vid­ing employ­ees with access to fit­ness class­es or gym mem­ber­ships, or hav­ing on-site gyms for employ­ees to use at their con­ve­nience dur­ing the work­day. For indus­tries and job types that empha­size seden­tary work design, incor­po­rat­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty into employ­ees› dai­ly rou­tines can effec­tive­ly reduce somat­ic pains and increase per­for­mance. Man­agers might also con­sid­er ini­ti­at­ing reward sys­tems or gam­i­fy­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty pro­grams, where employ­ees can exchange points for var­i­ous rewards upon reach­ing a cer­tain lev­el of phys­i­cal activity.

«In this regard, man­agers can offer work­shops that explain resource gains in sleep, vig­or, and task focus attrib­uted to phys­i­cal activ­i­ty that, in turn, pro­motes job per­for­mance and health, knowl­edge of which may be appeal­ing to employ­ees in and of itself.»

In response to the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion’s call to increase phys­i­cal activ­i­ty world­wide, this study high­lights the poten­tial ben­e­fits of dai­ly phys­i­cal activ­i­ty for employ­ees› job per­for­mance and health. Engag­ing in reg­u­lar phys­i­cal activ­i­ty can gen­er­ate a vari­ety of resources, includ­ing improved sleep qual­i­ty, increased vig­or, and enhanced task focus, which con­tribute to next-day task per­for­mance and health.

Let’s get phsyical

Incor­po­rat­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty into our dai­ly rou­tines is not only fea­si­ble, but it can also have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on our job per­for­mance and health. As indi­vid­u­als, we can aim to incor­po­rate small peri­ods of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty into our work­day, such as tak­ing short walks or stretch­ing dur­ing breaks. As you reflect on your own work rou­tine, con­sid­er talk­ing to your man­agers and HR col­leagues about the ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty in the work­place and explore ways to imple­ment phys­i­cal activ­i­ty pro­grams or facil­i­ties. By spread­ing aware­ness and encour­ag­ing a cul­ture of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty in the work­place, we can all take small steps towards improv­ing our well-being and job performance.