The Human-Animal Interaction at Work Scale: Development and psychometric properties

This study aimed to develop and validate the Human-Animal Interaction at Work Scale (HAI@WS). This instrument is designed to measure human-animal interactions during work time. We conducted four studies to achieve this goal. First, we developed the scale, followed by a study to explore its factorial structure (N = 1013). The third study analyzed the scale's internal validity and reliability (N = 253). The fourth study was a daily-diary investigation that assessed the criterion validity of the HAI@WS by examining its within-person correlations with measures of performance, satisfaction, and work engagement (N = 145 x 5 = 725). The findings revealed that the three-item scale represented a single factor and is a reliable measure of human-animal interactions in the work context. Additionally, the results indicated that the scale was significantly related to measures of performance, satisfaction, and work engagement at the within-person level. This study fills a research gap by providing a validated measure for assessing humananimal interactions in the workplace, an area previously lacking such tools. The HAI@WS is valuable for managers seeking to evaluate how the presence of pets at work-whether during teleworking or in the office-and the resulting interactions with employees can satisfy biological and psychological needs, thereby promoting positive outcomes such as work engagement and positive affective work-related experiences. This research advances our understanding of human-animal interactions and their impact on individuals and organizations. (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).