Recovery from Work in a Broader Perspective: Conceptualizing the Organizational Climate for Recovery

This contribution highlights the role of organizational context in facilitating or hindering recovery from work and introduces the concept of Organizational Climate for Recovery (OCR), defined as employees’ shared perceptions of the extent to which recovery activities are expected, supported and encouraged within the organization. This paper is a conceptual study with exploratory qualitative evidence. Description of recovery and organizational climate theories is complemented with semi-structured interviews involving 22 employees from different productive sectors. Interviews allowed to refine the construct of OCR and identify five organizational factors characterizing a recovery climate: management of workload, social support, autonomy, availability of recovery resources, and leadership support. By conceptualizing OCR, this paper contributes to the literature on employee well-being and offers practical recommendations for organizations to foster recovery-supportive climates. Future research should focus on developing measurement tools, assessing the impact of OCR, and designing interventions to enhance employee well-being and productivity.