After much developing of theories, designing of studies, collecting of data, and analysing of outcomes - I’m happy to report we’ve cracked wellbeing!
A few caveats. When I say ‘we’, I mean researchers in psychology. When I say ‘cracked’, I mean have an improved understanding. And when I say ‘wellbeing’, I am amused at the squiggly red line insisting that it’s a word requiring a hyphen. Well, I dissent. Life’s too short for hyphens.
In a paper published in Personnel Psychology titled A Review on Health and Well-being at Work: More than stressors and strains (Sonnentag et al., 2023), the authors compiled findings from previous research on wellbeing interventions. Through discussion of how wellbeing predicts both perceived work characteristics and behaviour at work, they highlighted ways it could be fostered at work based on their review of the literature from the past 25 years. Helpfully, the authors pointed out exemplary actions based on the strong evidence from previous research. I strongly recommend reading the entire paper, as this blog post is merely a selection of activities I felt would be available to most readers.
Individuals as active agents
Perhaps it’s always easiest to start with ourselves as that circle of control tends to be bigger. Let us consider some actions an individual can take to foster their wellbeing at work.
Engage in and encourage prosocial behaviors
This is similar to what is described in Org Psych research as Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB), and it includes things like altruism, courtesy, and sportsmanship. OCB functions as an aggregate of individual behaviours that are discretionary, not formally rewarded - and ultimately promote the effective functioning of an organisation (Organ, 1988).
Altruism is helping colleagues in small ways. Courtesy is polite actions and words. Sportsmanship is a gendered term for bearing minor inconveniences without appeal or protest - playing fair and showing integrity.
Example: A client I once coached had been temporarily promoted and was going to a different building for meetings on their first day. They arrived at the building and by chance met one of their new direct reports crossing the parking lot. My client mentioned they weren’t familiar with the building and weren’t sure where to go. Their direct report shrugged and said they always take a side exit, turned on their heel, and went off alone.
That is an example of poor OCB. As an exercise, re-imagine the example and apply altruism, courtesy, and fair-play. Can you think of an example from your own experience?
Engage in and encourage boundary setting between work and non-work life
Generally speaking, people who psychologically detach from work during non-work time feel better. Additionally, detaching from work tends to be felt quickly with studies reporting participants feeling better immediately and maintaining the benefits of that feeling until the next day (Sonnentag, 2018). Research suggests that relaxation activities, activities which promote a sense of mastery, and physical activities help workers to recover best (Bennett et al., 2018).
Example: Employee X has worked a full day - meetings, spreadsheets, and writing another report which will hopefully be skimmed by their supervisor. They leave the office space to have dinner, but keep thinking about unread emails. They think, “I’ll just pop online for a minute and get caught up.” They do this regularly and feel tired almost all the time.
That is an example of poor boundary setting. As an exercise, re-imagine the example and apply recovery actions. Can you reflect on your own boundaries - what do you see?
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Work place design to promote and protect well-being
If you, dear reader, are in a managerial role - do consider how you can shape the promotion and protection of wellbeing for your team. Consider the following actions that have been highlighted as exemplary for achieving such a goal.
Increase job control
In WEIRD populations, increased job control (i.e., job autonomy) shows up in research as essential for wellbeing at work. As a manager, consider how to increase autonomy through work scheduling, decision-making, and work methods based on Morgeson and Humphrey’s Work Design Questionnaire (2006).
Work scheduling
allow direct reports to make their own decisions about how to schedule their work
allow them to decide on the order in which things are done on the job
allows them to plan how they do their work
Decision-making
give direct reports chances to use their personal initiative or judgment in carrying out the work
allow them to make a lot of decisions on their own
provides team with significant autonomy in making decisions
Work Methods
allow direct reports to make decisions about what methods they use to complete their work
give them considerable opportunity for independence and freedom in how they do the work
allow team to decide on their own how to go about doing their work
You may also find it useful to ask the questions on the WDQ to your team to get a better sense of how much autonomy they feel they have - and consider how you need to adjust to improve in that management area.
Provide Opportunities for Learning and Development
Learning is important because it provides a space for people to (eventually) experience mastery and competence. Learning will happen informally, so it is worth putting some shape around informal learning by considering how to leverage it and align it with broader strategic goals.
Encourage/Insist that your team has an hour blocked off each week for ‘learning’. It is a block of time that will be filled with learning activity, and will be discussed at least monthly with colleagues.
When discussing individual goals during performance check-ins, allocate time to Learning Goals: What are they? What is the learning activity that will support them? How is it progressing? How is it being applied to the direct report’s daily tasks?
Consider a workshop rota whereby team members deliver a short session on recent learning activity they’ve completed (e.g., a short online course on Effective Communication in the Workplace). This effectively makes the student the trainer to help consolidate their learning, but also promotes a learning culture on your team.
Support and promote learning by pursuing opportunities to loan/borrow colleagues from other teams, encouraging secondment where possible, talking about your own learning activity, etc.
Final thoughts
We are fortunate in that research has helped us to recognise how organisational actions can enhance, protect, and maintain employee well-being, generating positive outcomes (Sonnentag, 2018). Optimistically, organisational leads would take charge in designing and promoting activity which facilitates wellbeing. Where that is lacking, engage in spaces where you can direct activity be it individually, or with your team. Don’t let 25 years of good research go to waste.
Further Reading
Cambell Pickford, H. & Joy, G. (2016) Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: definitions and dimensions. Mutuality in Business, Briefing Number 1. Said Business School, University of Oxford.
Sonnentag, S. (2018). Job-stress recovery: Core findings, future research topics, and remaining challenges. Work Science Center Thinking Forward Report Series. Atlanta GA: Georgia Institute of Technology.
Bennett, A. A., Bakker, A. B., & Field, J. G. (2018). Recovery from work‐related effort: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(3), 262-275.
Morgeson, F. P., & Humphrey, S. E. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1321-1339.
Garvin, D. A., Edmondson, A. C., and Gino, F. (2008). Is Yours a Learning Organization? Harvard Business Review, hbr.org.