Food for Thought: Linking Organizational Factors and Well-Being Through Eating Behavior

Abstract

Understanding how organizational factors influence employee well-being through healthy and unhealthy eating habits is essential for promoting and sustaining healthier organizational environments. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, self-regulation theory, and salutogenic model, this study examined how job demands (emotional demands, workload), job resources (workplace health promotion), and personal resources (self-control) influence employee well-being, with healthy and unhealthy eating habits as potential mediators. A total of 134 working adults completed an online survey measuring all constructs using mostly validated scales. PROCESS mediation analyses (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrapped samples were conducted. Self-control was positively associated with well-being (β = .35, p < .001), and emotional demands is negatively related to well-being (β = –.28, p = .004). Workplace health promotion (β = .18, p = .038) also showed a positive association. Contrary to expectations, workload was positively related to well-being (β = .22, p = .020). Mediation analyses revealed neither healthy nor unhealthy eating habits mediated the effects of the relationship between all the independent variables (workplace health promotion, emotional demands, workload and emotional demands) and employee well-being . These findings indicate that although these determinants are independently related to employee well-being, their influence does not function through eating habits as previously hypothesized. The findings highlight the intricate and occasionally unexpected routes by which workplace factors influence health outcomes, indicating the necessity for holistic interventions that support both individual and organizational resources.