Special Issue: People – the next sustainability frontier

SHINE is pleased to announce that the quarterly online journal Merits (ISSN: 2673-8104), which focuses on contemporary research issues related to enabling people at work to thrive, will publish a special issue on “People—the Next Sustainability Frontier,” Guest Edited by Merits Editor-in-Chief and SHINE Affiliated Research Scientist Prof Dr. Wendy Purcell. Researchers are invited to share their studies, insights, and considered views through Merits to illustrate how business and organizations…

New Paper – Differences in well-being among factory workers in six countries

A new paper in Applied Research in Quality of Life examines cross-cultural comparisons of well-being among factory workers, as measured by the six well-being domains of happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material stability.  Differences in Multi-Dimensional Well-being Among Factory Workers: Evidence from Six Countries, authored by Piotr Bialowolski, Matthew T. Lee, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Ying Chen,…

SHINE Joins Human Flourishing Program

We are pleased to share the news that SHINE has joined the Human Flourishing Program at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University to advance a systematic approach to human flourishing at the organizational level. “It is exciting to welcome the SHINE research team into the Human Flourishing Program,” says Tyler VanderWeele, Director of the Human Flourishing Program, “as the work that we’ve been able to do together…

New Podcast – What does flying do to my body?

SHINE Executive Director Eileen McNeely, Principal Investigator of the Harvard Flight Attendant Health Study, is interviewed by BBC News World Service’s Caroline Steel on the health impacts of air travel. Compared to the entirety of human existence, our history of flying in aeroplanes is very short indeed. So what does this fast form of travel do to bodies that have evolved for land-based living?  That’s what listener Sofia wants to…

New Podcast – Is working from home unhealthy?

A new podcast, Is working from home unhealthy? from Better Off at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explores the upsides and downsides of working from home.  SHINE’s Executive Director Eileen McNeely is interviewed by Better Off’s Anna Fisher-Pinkert. Working from home has its perks: Better coffee, easy commute, no fluorescent lighting. But, as any home office worker can tell you, there are also downsides: No more office…

New Paper – Working from home associated with greater productivity and satisfaction

A new paper in PLOS ONE explores how working from home (WFH) impacts work engagement, performance and job satisfaction.  “Working from home and subsequent work outcomes: Pre-pandemic evidence,” authored by Ying Chen, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Matthew T. Lee, Piotr Bialowolski, Richard G. Cowden, Eileen McNeely and Tyler J. VanderWeele looked at longitudinal data collected before the Covid-19 pandemic (July 2018 – July 2019).  The study aimed to examine the associations between…

New Paper – Psychological caring climate at work associated with individual work outcomes and employee well-being

A new paper in Social Science & Medicine explores caring climate at work and its impact on work outcomes and employee well-being. “Psychological caring climate at work, mental health well-being, and work-related outcomes: Evidence from a longitudinal study and health insurance data,” authored by Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Matthew T. Lee, Richard G. Cowden, Piotr Bialowolski, Ying Chen, Tyler J. VanderWeele and Eileen McNeely, looked at longitudinal evidence on the associations of…

New Paper – Associating the importance of well-being with the experience of well-being

A new paper in Sustainability explores whether the importance assigned to well-being domains may be associated with actual self-reported well-being in these same domains.  “Associations between the Importance of Well-Being Domains and the Subsequent Experience of Well-Being,” authored by Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Matthew T. Lee, Piotr Bialowolski, Eileen McNeely, Ying Chen, Richard G. Cowden and Tyler J. VanderWeele, looked at longitudinal data from 1209 employees to examine the associations between the…

New Paper – Associations of suffering with facets of health and well-being at work

A new paper in Scientific Reports explores suffering and its consequences for health and well-being.  Although suffering is a ubiquitous part of the human experience, the extant empirical literature on suffering is characterized by a disproportionate focus on Western samples and older adults living with physical illness. Such evidence has provided some insight into the antecedents, experiences, and consequences of suffering that are relevant to clinical populations of adults who…

New Paper – On cosmic radiation exposure in flight

A new paper in Frontiers in Public Health examines the radiation exposures which accumulate over time for flight crews. Flight attendants (FA) and pilots are consistently exposed to a complex variety of physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial stressors. Physical exposures during flight include cosmic ionizing radiation (CIR), decreased oxygen levels, high noise and vibration levels, radiofrequency radiation, electromagnetic fields, and potentially ultraviolet radiation (UV). Chemical exposures in the aircraft include…