The Restorative Quality of the Work Environments: The Moderation Effect of Environmental Resources between Job Demands and Mindfulness

Abstract

In the work context, employees must cope with everyday demands, which deplete psychological resources (e.g., direct attention and concentration). The environment’s perceived quality (i.e., perceived restorativeness) helps people recover from job demands by restoring the psychological resources depleted during working hours. Therefore, this study examines the possible moderating effect of restorativeness (i.e., fascination and compatibility dimensions) between job demands (i.e., cognitive demands and work overload) and a specific form of attention, such as mindfulness, within the Job Demands–Resources Model. To achieve this aim, a cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 210 Italian employees working in five different sectors. They completed a self-report questionnaire in their work context. The hypotheses were verified with linear regression analyses, including age, gender, and hours per day worked as control variables. The findings show that cognitive demands are significantly and negatively correlated with mindfulness and that the demands–mindfulness relationship is weaker among employees who perceived greater restorative quality regarding “compatibility” with the work context. Conversely, work overload is not significantly correlated with mindfulness. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering the levels of restorativeness (i.e., compatibility) in the work context for indirectly enhancing mindfulness. In particular, a work environment with compatible characteristics can help employees recover from job demands.

Keywords

• restorative environments
• resources
• mindfulness
• cognitive demands
• work overload