The Staff Oasis: The role of staff break rooms for hospitality employees' wellbeing and performance

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K13805
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Management
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
• Principal Investigator: Saito Hiroaki 立命館アジア太平洋大学, 国際経営学部, 准教授 (30794812)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: Employee well-being / Breakroom / Emotion

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study sought to understand the role of staff break rooms in creating a restorative environment to help employees cope with their work related stress. With the JSPS grant, I could conduct a thorough literature review, complete the data collection (both interview and survey data) from both Japan and Australia, analyse the data, and prepare a manuscript. The manuscript was submitted to a top-tier international journal, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, which is currently under review. The study results suggest that there are five main dimensions in the staff breakrooms that affect employees’ restoration, which include sensory, functional, social, cultural and natural components. These dimensions foster employees’ certain recovery activities and experiences during their breaktime. The research ideas and preliminary findings were presented at three international conferences and were well received.

Free Research Field

Hospitality Management

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

This research was unique and innovative as it focuses on the role of an organisation’s restorative spaces as one way to mitigate the negative impacts of emotional labour, promote employee wellbeing and increase employee performance in customer service.