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Wellbeing and the Global Workforce


Introduction Organisations success is consistently judged on its monetary performance and its capacity to provide excellent services over the period of time. In this competitive environment the financial health of an organisation totally depends on how an organisation and its members contribute effectively to achieve the goals of the organisation and adapt to the changing situation more effectively (Cartwright & Cooper, 2009). In recent times employee health and wellbeing has become a key driver and has been discussed in the human resource management of the organisations and occupational health professionals. If an organisation framework is reflecting the roles and responsibilities it provides a clear vision for the employees which considerably improve in worker well being and also it will contribute in the success of the organisation (Futrell et al., 1976) Definitions There may be various definitions of well being by different authors who believe that well being has to be initiated by organisations at work as it will help to keep the employees balance towards its work life and personal life which will help the organisation well being and also the individual well being. As per Danna and Griffin (1999) define well being as comprising the various life/non work satisfaction enjoyed by individuals, work related satisfaction and general health (p.368). CIPD (2007) also defines well being as creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation. Therefore employees working in the organisation show an aspiration of personal development and expect their work to be enjoyable, fulfilling and socially useful. Background of Well-Being In the early stage of industrial revolution employees were not given importance they were considered as interchangeable devices in large production machines (Baker & Green, 1991:5).Later in the year 1900 employment was booming and government regulations were emerging workers started taking legal actions against the employers who were following unfair and unhealthy working practises .However the workers earlier were not able to get support from the judicial but later on the legal community refined their approaches and were supporting the workers. During World War I there was an increase in the awareness about the relationship between the peoples working life and their well being. The year 1970 brought a major landmark where the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) came into existence and made sure that the workplace will be free from identifiable danger (Stellman & Snow, 1986).After the occupational health and safety act there is a growing volume related to health and wellbeing in the workplace.

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Human Resource Management practices towards Employee Wellbeing. To keep the workforce happy the human resource managers are looking at different ways to measure the levels of well being, to improve performance or give added benefits to employees for improving their health and wellbeing. As employee well being has become a very upcoming issue in the organisations HR managers are now developing strategic initiatives and considering it on high priority across their organisations (Douglas, 2003). If HR managers focus on employee well being in their organisations they can be true employee champions who care for their employees and can create a new organisational role for themselves (Ulrich, 1997, 1998). Human resource management ensures that the organisation achieve success through people keeping in the mind of their healthy well being. Adoption of human resource management practises has shown positive impact on employee wellbeing at work place. The practises adopted by HR managers are job design, direct involvement with the employees, employee assistance programmes, counselling, health screening, healthy eating options ,open culture at work which can relate to better performance and productivity, reduce absenteeism, flexible working hours etc. However the work satisfaction is also connected with employees when given equal opportunities, the environment at workplace as a family, training line managers to understand the importance of employee well being and anti harassment practices (Guest, 2002). Due to rising competition in the global market the dependency of work has become a burden over the working age people who have affected the health and the wellbeing of the workers negatively (MacDonald, 2005). As employees are the core element for the organisations success their psychological, physical and emotional wellbeing needs to be considered (MacIntosh, Mclean and Burns 2007). Psychological well being is very essential for the employees in the organisation. It may play a central role in delivering the results which lead to successful high performing organisations. The employer must ensure that the employee are valued, make them feel important and looked after if it is expecting the employee to be in the organisation for a longer period and produce high performance (Payne 2009). According to Wright and Cropanzo (2000) , people with higher levels of psychological well being perform better , are more enthusiastic than the people with the lower psychological well being hence it can be state that psychological well being also contributes to the employees performance. Guest and Conway (2004), identifies the key factors that the psychological contract of an employee is based on the trust , fairness and their belief towards the employer, to have a positive impact on the business performance the psychological contract should increase employee commitment and satisfactions. A Simplified model of the Psychological Contract
Inputs Employee Characteristics Organisation Characteristics HR Practices Content Fairness Outputs Employee Behaviour Performance Trust 2 Delivery

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Source: Adopted from Guest and Conway (2004). Importance of Well-being in Organisations. The issue of Health and well being has become an important topic of discussion in the communities and organisations. An employee spends more of his time at work which affects its individual well being (Harter et al., 2002). An organisation gave importance to well being when they faced serious increase in employee absenteeism due to sickness, accidents and injuries at work, mental stress ,employees going under depression due to the nature of work i.e. doing monotonous work , long working hours, employees taking stress resulting in low performance which also impacted the productivity (Kohn & Schooler,1982) .Due to these reasons the employee well being was implemented in the organisations to keep the workforce happy which will lead to employee satisfaction and increase in employee performance and productivity. The adaption of employee well being in the organisations has lead to positive outcomes for the organisation as well as for the employees. According to Kraybill (2003) there are different well being programmes leading to organisational and personal well being in the business which creates a higher frequency of positive feeling which is connected with open communication at the workplace, effective team work and communication between the employers and the employees, giving option of flexible working hours, giving clear picture to the employees and the purpose. These all factors can result in the low rate of turnover, low rate of absenteeism, reduce sickness, reduce resource allocation, increase employee satisfaction , customer loyalty, increase in productivity of the employee and in profit of the organisation. There are number of different theoretical models developed towards the job characteristics of the health and well being of the working people (Cooper 1998). Employee well being is an important element in building a good relationship between the line managers and the employees. If there is a good relationship between the manager and the employee then the level of well being is improved. The line managers must have that ability to identify the interests and concerns of an individual which will help to create an effective team and make an employee feel valued. According to Spectors (1997) if the employees are more satisfied with their work are more co-operative, help their colleagues at work, they are regular at work on time and have an aim to stay in the company for a longer period of time than the unsatisfied employees in the organisation. They ensure that the company sustains to be efficient and profitable. Also as per Tehrani et al. (2007) states that wellbeing at workplace is on priority list of employers as they recognise the importance and contribution that can be made after introducing wellness policies in the business. An organizing framework has been developed by Cooper and Marshall (1978), Smith, Kaminstein and Madhok (1995).The framework represents the interrelationship network between health and well being in the workplace. It is the core part of the structure and hence it has been shown in the centre of the framework. The model of well being has been seen in the broader terms which is comprising of various factors of life/non work satisfactions by the individuals and also work/job related satisfaction. This can be due to employees not been
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happy with their social life, family life, dissatisfy with the job, pay , promotion opportunities , not happy with the management and the co workers, job opportunities, promotions and personal health (Danna, 1999). As health is a part of well being in the work place, it comprises of mental, psychological and physical indicators such as anxiety, frustration, stress which leads to heart diseases and employers may also face health problems. Health and well being can also be affected by the number of antecedent factors such as work setting which leads to health hazards and safety hazards. If proper ergonomics and safety programmes are not conducted by the employers then it can affect the employees working conditions which can lead to negative impact on health among the workers which can result in no turning to work and increase in absenteeism which can affect the organisation as well the individual well being. The framework includes Personality traits such as Type A, locus of control and other traits can lead to an increase or decrease in the level of health and well being of the employees. Occupational stress can also have a direct impact on the health and well being of the employee. The framework identifies the other two major consequences which have a direct impact in the employee health and well being such as individual and organisational consequences. The first set of individual consequences includes physical, psychological and behavioural and the other set which includes the insurance costs, productivity and absenteeism and compensable disorders are more towards the organisational consequences. Quick et al., (1986), observed that occupational stress can cause problems such as behavioural, psychological and medical problems in the individuals. They explain behavarioul changes relates to stress and employees can increase intake of cigarettes and alcohol where as psychological problems can be related to less sleep, depression and family problems. These all factors have a direct impact on the health and well being in the workplace of the employees. For e.g.: If an employee is not physically fit will not be able to concentrate on the work which will have direct impact on the organisational level as it will produce low performance and productivity (Griffin,1999). Finally the organisations need to take preventive actions to increase the safety and working conditions in the workplace which can lead to employee satisfaction and they can perform well which can result in better health and well being in the workplace.

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A Framework for Organizing and Directing Future Theory, Research and Practise regarding Health and Well Being in the workplace.

Antecedents Work Setting

Consequences

Individual Consequences Health Hazards Physical Consequences Safety Hazards Other hazards and perils Well Being in the workplace Personality Traits Type A Tendencies Locus of Control Heath in the workplace Other Traits Mental/ Pyschological Physical /Physiological Occupational Stress Factors intrinsic to the job Role in organization Relationship at work Career Development Organisational structure and climate Home/work interface Other stress factors
Interventions

Psychological Consequences Behavioral Consequences

Life/Non Work Satisfaction Work /Job related satisfaction

Organizational Consequences Health insurance cost Productivity/Absenteeism Compensable disorders/lawsuits

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A report on employee well being approaches in a global organisation GlaxoSmithKline GSK is one of the worlds leading pharmaceutical healthcare companies. It employs 90,000 people in 114 countires worldwide. In GSK employee well being is a responsibility of every worker and manager which is supported by Occupational health and medical service. Their employment practices are designed in such a way that their employees are feel valued, respected, inspired and empowered which can result in healthy committed workforce. The company has a mission statement encouraging all the employees to do more, feel better, live longer. They offer employee health and well being programmes to enhance their working condition and contribute to improve productivity and performance (GSK, 2010). There are various actions taken by GSK to have a healthy and working environment between the employees and the organisation. They have global programmes which help them in managing the employee illness such as depression, non work related injuries, heart disease and stroke. Vaccinations are also provided to the employees for free and also in the year 2011 the seasonal flu vaccinations will be funded centrally to increase the access. The organisation also have travel health programmes for the employees who go on business trip which include vaccinations, medications and also healthy eating habits which help them to be productive and fit. All these programmes of GSK are supported by global network of 200 health professionals. The company also have flexible working hours policy for the employees and health programmes to improve the health of the employees and their families. Employee assistance is provided due to illness if the employee is suffering from long term diseases and want to go for treatment , need absence from work which give them time to report to work safely and healthy. Employee assistance programmes was again introduced in 2010 to provide emotional counselling, counselling related to work which lead to stress, employee dissatisfaction towards the work, environment, colleagues counselling was provided. In 2011 the company plans to expand employee assistance programmes where the employees will have access to emotional, mental and healthcare. It will be including of eight sessions of counselling by a qualified health professional. The company is also giving importance to the employees to give emotional support and provide counselling at the time of disasters, crisis or site downsizing. They have also come up with the Employee Resilience programmes which help the employees to be successful in facing high pressure, fast paced and adapting to the changing work conditions. This will help the employees in resulting good performance, help in preventing from mental illness which is due to stress which can lead to ill health and disability to work. The personal resilience programmes help the employees to increase their focus, energy and confidence and reduce tension. By adopting this programmes there are positive outcomes which the managers and the employees have identified such as successful team work, increase in empowerment and better performance. As per literature review GSK is following all the approaches for the employee health and well being. They are giving employees assistance due to site downsizing so that the
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employees remain in the organisation for the longer period by providing flexible options to the employees. As per Kozlowski et al., (1991) states that during downsizing the companies should bring new employment policies i.e. they should increase part time work and use labor in more cost effective way. Flexible working hours in the workplace have a positive impact in the family life which helps to balance the work life as well as the personal life and it also lead to reduce stress (Dunham et al.,1987) hence GSK has made sure that they had followed the flexible working policy for the employees so that they can balance their work life as well as personal life. Arthur (2002) state that the employees were facing metal illness and stress in the workplace hence they were guided towards the employee assistance programme. As per the selected business the organisation is providing the employees with the Employee assistance programmes to provide counselling if they were facing problems related to work and also emotional counselling was given to the employees. Suggestions Employee well being has become a major topic of discussion in the growth for the organisations hence they are adopting different well being policies for the beneficial of the organisation as well as for the employees. If the organisations give support and attachment to the employees it will give positive results. As suggested by Conrad (1988) introduction of the health and well being programmes initiated by employers have helped in improving the employee fitness, reduce absenteeism and turnover, increase morale of the employees, job satisfaction which result in increase in employees productivity and performance . Cooper and Cartwright (1994), suggests that the organisation health and financial profitability can increase if the well being factors are followed by the employers in the organisation. The employers should develop more well being practises between the line managers and the employees in the workplace so that the employees feel that their managers are concern about their personal as well as professional well being. They should have a feeling that they are been heard and the managers should have an open relationship with them which can help the employees to have a comfortable level. This well being between the managers and the employee will result in effective performance, reduce stress and increase in job satisfaction. Conclusion We can therefore conclude that the implications of employee well being will help the organisation in achieving their goals with the help of healthy and effective team which result in high performance and productivity. The above model explains the practises which the employer can apply in their organisations for effective health and well being in the workplace. It explain the core constructs relationship between the health and well being in the organisations and the factors related to work setting, personality traits and occupational stress. It also explains how individual consequences are inter- related with the organisational consequences.

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The report of the company GSK which is a pharmaceutical company shows how employee health and well being is important in the organisation. It explains the different programmes adopted to increase the morale of the employees to have happy global workforce hence it resembles the strategies adopted by the literature review on employee well being. During H1N1 influenza the company had taken major steps in giving the employees and their dependents medications which helped to reduce in the absenteeism at work hence the company has plan future actions by providing full information on the website to keep the employees update. The cost related to employee well being programmes can be considered as a benefit for the organisation in terms of cost saving. We can conclude that promoting employee health and well being in the organisations cant be without fun and excitement.

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MacDonald, L.A.C. (2005). Wellness at Work Protecting and Promoting Employee Wellbeing. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, cause and consequences. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Tehrani, N., Humpage, S., Willmott, B. and Haslam , I. (2007).Whats happening with Well being at work? Change Agenda. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Department, London. Ulrich, D. (1997). Human Resource Champions. Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Websites: CIPD, (2007). Change Agenda. Whats happening with Well-being at work? [Online]. Available at: <http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DCCE94D7-781A-485A-A7026DAAB5EA7B27/0/whthapwbwrk.pdf> [Accessed on 13th April 2011]. GlaxoSmithKline, 2010. Corporate Responsibility Report 2010. [Online]. Available at: <http://www.gsk.com/responsibility/downloads/GSK-CR-2010-Report.pdf> [Accessed on 12th April 2011.] Kraybill, K. (2003). Creating and maintaining a healthy work environment: a resource guide for staff retreats [online]. Available at: <http://www. Nhchc.org/Clinicians/ResourceGuideforStaffRetreats.pdf> [Accessed on 08th April 2011.] Payne, I. (2009). Well-being in the Workplace: Managing the Psychological Contract. [Online] Available at: http://www.well-beingzone.com/articles/59-workplace-well-being/103-wellbeing-in-the-workplace. [Accessed on 13th April 2011].

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