Branching Out: The Nonwork Nature and Employee Outcomes (NEO) Model

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brossoit RM ; Leslie JJ
• Description:
  Nature is considered a basic human need, with a large and growing body of literature demonstrating the advantages of exposure to nature and natural environments. Yet, this line of research has been largely disconnected from the organizational sciences, despite the widespread potential benefits that nature can have for employees. Emerging organizational scholarship has emphasized nature exposure in the work domain, and we argue that it is important for scholars to realize the relatively untapped potential of nonwork nature exposure for promoting positive employee outcomes. We integrate theories and research across environmental psychology and organizational science disciplines and introduce the nonwork nature and employee outcomes (NEO) model. The NEO model explicates how exposure to nature in the nonwork domain can impact employee outcomes related to health and well-being, job performance, job attitudes, and interpersonal interactions. Nonwork nature exposure is expected to exert a greater influence on employee outcomes than nature exposure at work and is theorized to enable a serial mediation process of facilitating recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, control, mastery), followed by the replenishment of potential energies (i.e., cognitive, emotional, physical, and prosocial energies), which in turn relate to employee outcomes. Key resources (i.e., perceptions of restorativeness) are presented as moderators. Macro resources (i.e., nature exposure at work, workplace benefits and support, physical safety, accessibility of nature, and culture) and other suggestions for future research are also discussed. The NEO model presents unique opportunities to advance interdisciplinary research, theory, and practice. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Nature Employee Satisfaction Energy Interpersonal Interactions Job Attitudes Job Performance Occupational Psychology Organizational Design Outdoors Recovery Well-being Wellbeing Work Organization

  More +
• ISSN:
  2367-0134
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Birmingham Region [OSHA] ; Dallas Region [OSHA] ; Denver Region [OSHA] ; Louisiana ; Oregon ; San Francisco Region [OSHA] ; Texas ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  29-56
• Volume:
  9
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070711
• Citation:
  Occup Health Sci 2025 Mar; 9(1):29-56
• Contact Point Address:
  Rebecca M. Brossoit, Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Sewell Hall 468, Houston, TX, 77005
• Email:
  rbrossoit@rice.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Performing Organization:
  Portland State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational Health Science
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5987c4791fe8f4e77e7360c2dac8edad37fb54ca2f8d80e014c626ade1c8e374b105febe6238ddad92f01069e70e30dbb8078da3cd4e70d66afd678a61f8efbf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208883/cdc_208883_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.32 MB ]