Exploring Selective Exposure and Confirmation Bias as Processes Underlying Employee Work Happiness: An Intervention Study

Abstract

Employee psychological capital (PsyCap), perceptions of organizational virtue (OV), and work happiness have been shown to be associated within and over time. This study examines selective exposure and confirmation bias as potential processes underlying PsyCap, OV, and work happiness associations. As part of a quasi-experimental study design, school staff (N = 69) completed surveys at three time points. After the first assessment, some staff (n = 51) completed a positive psychology training intervention. Results of descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses on the intervention group provide some support for selective exposure and confirmation bias as explanatory mechanisms. In focusing on the processes through which employee attitudes may influence work happiness this study advances theoretical understanding, specifically of selective exposure and confirmation bias in a field study context.

The Role and Reprocessing of Attitudes in Fostering Employee Work Happiness: An Intervention Study

“…However, less is understood about mechanisms that underpin these relationships. Previous research has found some support for the processes of selective exposure and confirmation bias as underlying mechanisms for these associations (Williams et al, 2016a). The purpose of the current study is to explore the iterative reprocessing of attitudes as a possible underlying mechanism.…”

“…The Inside-Out Outside-In model (IO-OI) (Williams et al, 2016a) proposes that factors “inside” the employee (e.g., internal attitudes) and factors “outside” the employee (e.g., organizational culture) influence work happiness, which is defined by Fisher (2010) as employees' perspectives on their engagement with work, commitment to the organization, and job satisfaction (For a full discussion on this model of work happiness, see Williams et al, 2016a). …”

“…For example, an employee may feel engaged with their work when they assess that they feel proud and happy in their role. We suggest that in addition to positive attitudes toward work, employees may also have positive attitudes at work, which are not specifically related toward their work, e.g., an employee with an optimistic attitude has positive expectations about the future (Williams et al, 2016a). We further suggest that employee positive attitudes at work may support more positive attitudes toward their work (Williams et al, 2016b).…”

“…PsyCap is proposed to be a “resource bank” that enables individuals to succeed in multiple life domains, including work, relationships and health (Hobfoll, 2002). Williams et al (2016a) propose that PsyCap may also be considered a set of attitudes, due to a number of common processes and mechanisms between the two, including the cognitive, affective, and conative processes through which PsyCap influences wellbeing (Luthans et al, 2010; Youssef-Morgan and Luthans, 2014). …”

“…After the first assessment, 51 of the staff members completed a training program that focused on developing PsyCap, with the remaining staff members constituting a control group. Williams et al (2016a) found that the intervention successfully developed PsyCap (positive employee attitudes in Figure 1). The current study focuses on the 51 employees who completed the training (i.e., the intervention group) to examine underlying processes to foster work happiness and specifically, whether through the development of implicit and explicit positive attitudes (PsyCap), the iterative reprocessing of attitudes was triggered.…”