Nudging flow through ‘SMART’ goal setting to decrease stress, increase engagement, and increase performance at work

Abstract

The construct of flow has been associated with a plethora of positive work outcomes such as performance, engagement, and reduced burnout. However, flow is understudied in the domain of work and there is a lack of empirical examinations of flow interventions. Additionally, until recently, the vast majority of research examining flow at work assumes that individuals are passive agents who only experience flow when their working conditions facilitate the state. Therefore, the study tested a ‘SMART’ goal‐setting nudge intervention for individuals, aimed at increasing flow at work and its positive outcomes. Results of a 5‐day experimental experience sampling study with 65 American MTurk workers (who work full‐time besides MTurk) indicate that those in the goal‐setting condition experienced more flow at work and subsequently experienced less daily stress, as well as higher engagement and subjective performance when compared to the control group. Exploratory analyses revealed that flow decreased later in the week within‐day for participants in the control group, whereas flow remained relatively stable within‐day for those in the goal‐setting condition. Moreover, certain categories of goals, such as mastery goals, resource acquisition goals, and understanding goals, were found to be significant predictors of daily flow. Practitioner points Flow at work predicted daily stress, daily performance, and work engagement. Self‐determination strategies (Occupat Health Sci, 1, 2017, 47), such as goal setting, can increase the amount of flow experienced at work and its subsequent positive outcomes. Nudges (Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness, Yale University Press, 2008) can provide reminders for individuals to engage in behaviors that help them to experience flow and its positive work outcomes. A proposed model was supported as a framework practitioners can use to better understand flow at work along with its antecedents and outcomes.

The Benefits of Being Proactive While Working Remotely: Leveraging Self-Leadership and Job Crafting to Achieve Higher Work Engagement and Task Significance

“…Meanwhile, self-goal setting had significant relationships with both social expansion and work organization at the within- and between levels, as well as the indirect relationships already discussed. These findings provide further support for the robustness of goal-setting theory ( Locke and Latham, 1990 ) for driving positive work outcomes such as work engagement ( Weintraub et al, 2021 ). These results support the notion that self-goal setting can help sustain more fluid variables such as work engagement by providing the self-motivation and self-direction needed to facilitate behaviors that may be necessary yet undesirable to accomplish work tasks ( Bakker and van Woerkom, 2017 ).…”

“…For example, with regard to rewards, some workers may have been providing big, expensive rewards for themselves while others may have rewarded themselves with smaller things, or even with different categories of rewards (i.e., monetary rewards vs. allowing themselves to eat a treat they enjoy vs. giving themselves time to relax). Likewise, the content of goals has been shown in previous research to have differential effects on downstream variables such as work engagement ( Weintraub et al, 2021 ). Therefore, future research should aim to utilize a mixed-methods approach in which quantitative and qualitative aspects of goals and rewards can be further examined.…”

“…For example, employees may be encouraged to meet with colleagues to discuss work tasks and how they might collaborate on projects. This encouragement could be communicated verbally by leadership or utilize mechanisms like nudges ( Thaler and Sunstein, 2008 ) in which goal-setting frameworks are introduced and encouraged via e-mail or app-delivered reminders ( Weintraub et al, 2021 ). Such strategies can teach individuals the skills needed to set goals for themselves while also preserving autonomy and the self-leadership aspect of this strategy.…”

Assessing the prevalence, sources and selective antecedents of organizational stressors among elite football players and coaches in the Ghana premier league: Empirical evidence for applied practice

“…For instance, short-term and long-term goals are usually set by coaches with the aim of achieving success for their teams (Burgess and Naughton, 2010 ; Paradis and Martin, 2012 ). However, coaches' inability to explicitly set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound goals may put a significant burden on them (Nicholls et al, 2016 ; Weintraub et al, 2021 ). Additionally, players who seem not to have developed after several training sessions or achieved their personal goals for their upcoming competitions due to time limitations, injury or biological capabilities may be dropped in matches or competitions until they prove otherwise.…”

Engagement in digital interventions.

“…Second, the delivery of a digital stimulus to engage individuals in a specific task is an important component of digital interventions. These digital stimuli may include “nudges” (Valle et al, 2020; Weintraub et al, 2021), which Thaler and Sunstein (2021) define as a subtle intervention designed to modify people’s behavior “without forbidding any options or significantly changing economic incentives.” Nudges can take various forms, such as text reminders (e.g., to take a walk), graphic warnings (e.g., about the impact of sedentarism), or making a specific option salient (e.g., highlighting the presence of a park nearby). However, digital stimuli used to promote engagement in digital interventions are not limited to nudges.…”