Validation of the Restorativenessat work scale (R@WS)

The aim of this research is to build a scale, called Restorativeness at work scale (R@WS), to measure the perception of the restorative qualities of physical environments in work contexts, and to study its psychometric properties. Physical environments can affect the individual's ability to direct attention not only by consuming it, but by offering relief from mental fatigue through the so-called "restorative design”. The Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS, Pasini et al., 2014) has been widely used in organizational context. Nonetheless, a literature review suggests that this tool is not suitable for any work environment since the opportunities for restoration vary according to the type of job that an individual performs. Consequently, there is no scale that has already been validated from a psychometric point of view that allows us to profile the restorative abilities of the workplace. The aim is therefore to adapt the wording of the PRS so that it becomes universal and applicable in any organization. This work was carried out through different steps using a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative methods). First, 20 semi-structured interviews were carried out, administered to two types of workers: office and production. The questions were aimed at investigating and deepening the relevant elements in the workplace for the construct of restorativeness. the questions focused on the 5 dimensions formulated by Attention Restoration Theory (ART, Kaplan, 1989): Fascination (FA), Being Away (B-A), Coherence (COH), Scope (SCO) and Compatibility (COM). Second, we moved on to the construction of the items, taking the PRS items as a reference and taking inspiration from the themes that emerged in the first step. 27 potential items were identified to investigate 4 dimensions (FA, B-A, COH, SCO); it has been chosen to exclude Compatibility. A first version of the scale with 27 items was administered to 28 workers. Each participant underwent also a cognitive interview aimed at identifying any critical issues. Based on the results of previous step we refinement or excluded problematic items. A second version of the scale (17 items) was administered to 673 workers (61% female) and 238 of these (61% female) completed the scale also a second time after about one month. On this data psychometrics proprieties (factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability) will be verified.