Master’s Thesis Strategic Human Resource Leadership ‘’What is the effectiveness of the Roadmap as an intervention to decrease workload and increase work related happiness and what intervention characteristics determine this effectiveness?’’
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2021-08-31
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en
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The Roadmap: ''Work pressure in academia'', is an intervention in which, together in a team, aspects surrounding workload and work-related happiness must be made discussible and is aimed at reducing workload, creating more work-related happiness, ownership and stimulating action. It is an intervention that is still in its infancy. The use of a Roadmap as an intervention has been studied before (Eimers, 2018; Hekezen, 2017), but the Roadmap of this study is quite new, which made it an interesting intervention to study its effectiveness. The aim of the study was to gain insight into both the short- and medium long-term effects of the roadmap in terms of ownership and stimulating action as well as reducing workload and creating work-related happiness. The central question related to the objective of the study is: ‘’What is the effectiveness of the Roadmap as an intervention to decrease workload and increase work related happiness? And what intervention characteristics determine this effectiveness?’’ In this study, which was conducted within the HAN (University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen), a mixed method approach has been used, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, as the Roadmap is an unexplored phenomenon and I found it necessary to use multiple data collection methods to create the richest and most reliable data set possible. Therefore, I used surveys (a pre-measurement, a post-measurement just after playing the Roadmap and a post-measurement five weeks after playing the Roadmap), interviews to hear experiences about playing the Roadmap and observations, in which I was present during the Roadmap sessions. The 'workload monitor' (Schouteten, 2020) was used for the surveys. Based on the results, it appeared that not all intended goals of the Roadmap were achieved. Five weeks after playing the Roadmap, it cannot be clearly stated that playing the Roadmap reduced workload and created more work-related happiness. These intended goals have therefore not been achieved. The other goals of creating ownership and stimulating action were not achieved either, because the Roadmap has not ensured that more ownership has been created about workload and work-related happiness and the stimulation of action has not changed five weeks after playing the Roadmap. Despite the fact that the goals have not been achieved, I am convinced that a well thought-out implementation of the Roadmap, in which people are sufficiently informed beforehand and have a clear grip afterwards in order to continue the Roadmap, can be proven effective. Therefore, advice has been given for future research, in which it would be interesting to map the long-term effects of the Roadmap within the HAN. Furthermore, HAN University of Applied Sciences should consider letting several teams play the Roadmap (physically if necessary) with the experiences of this research in mind, in order to optimize the use of the Roadmap.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen