The representations of well-being and expectations among academic and administrative staff in the post-Covid phase: An Italian case study

Scientific literature reports quite scarce attention to university employees’ well-being. The majority of studies focus instead on students’ well-being and learning. Moreover, several theoretical perspectives confirm that when talking about individual well-being, there is a need for a multidimensional and ecological definition. This study aims to explore how university clerks and scholars perceive and describe their personal, professional, and community well-being. Twenty-one university workers were interviewed using a narrative approach. The Grounded Theory Methodology was used to analyze the textual corpus with the support of Atlas 8.0 software. From the textual data, 195 representative codes were defined and grouped into seven categories that reflect the main dimensions related to well-being, considering both the work context and the community environment. Results suggest that well-being in this post-pandemic scenario is perceived by clerks and scholars as a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon that is shaped by individuals’ experiences and contexts. The implications of these findings for promoting well-being among clerks and university scholars are discussed with a specific focus on the potential role of academic institutions in fostering community well-being.