What Does Our Organization Do to Help Our Well-Being? Creating Healthy Workplaces and Workers
Karina Nielsen
Search for more papers by this authorKarina Nielsen
Search for more papers by this authorFranco Fraccaroli
Search for more papers by this authorMagnus Sverke
Search for more papers by this authorNik Chmiel
Search for more papers by this authorFranco Fraccaroli
Search for more papers by this authorMagnus Sverke
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
We discuss how organizations can foster employee well-being by developing respectful cultures, providing competent and supportive leadership, and implementing specific healthy workplace initiatives (e.g., to encourage a good life balance, create safe and healthy work practices, increase employee involvement, etc.). To provide a framework to examine how organizations can increase well-being, we use the term ‘psychologically healthy workplaces’. We identify not only how to reduce negative workplace factors (e.g., work overload), but also how to increase the positive factors (e.g., employee development). We provide examples of how organizations can create healthy workplaces through initiatives that target: (1) the way work is organized, designed, and managed (i.e., changing the organization itself); (2) the social relationships (i.e., the work groups); (3) the leaders or line managers who are responsible for worker well-being; and (4) the building of individual resources.
Suggested Further Reading
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Bauer, G., & Jenny, G. (2013). Concepts of salutogenic organizations and change: The logics behind organizational health intervention research. Dordrecht: Springer. You can find inspiration on how to develop organizational interventions in the Bauer and Jenny book, which provides examples of how organizational interventions can be developed that focus on promoting employee health and well-being and that ensure employees thrive in their jobs.
10.1007/978-94-007-6470-5 Google Scholar
- Biron, C., Burke, R., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.). (2014). Creating healthy workplaces: Stress reduction, improved well-being, and organizational effectiveness. Farnham, UK: Gower. Various interventions at the individual, group, leader/manager, and organizational levels are discussed in the Biron et al. book, emphasizing the importance of health and well-being not only in terms of the absence of ill health, but also in terms of promoting a psychologically healthy workplace.
- Day, A., Kelloway, E. K., & Hurrell Jr, J. J. (Eds.). (2014). Workplace well-being: how to build psychologically healthy workplaces. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The Day et al. book is an essential compendium to understanding and implementing the principles of a psychologically healthy workplace. Each chapter addresses a separate component of psychologically healthy workplaces as well as the contextual aspects to consider in developing healthy workplaces, focusing on both research and practice.
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