Wellbeing and the Social Environment of Work

Transcription

1 Wellbeing and the Social Environment of Work Kevin Daniels Employment Systems & Institutions Norwich Business School UEA & Work & Learning Programme What Works

2 Structure and Objectives What is wellbeing in the workplace Wellbeing, policy and public priorities Why and how social environments matter What can be done What do we still need to know The importance of workplace social environments for wellbeing. The importance of workplace social environments for performance at work. How workplace social environments contribute to wellbeing and performance, both directly and through building resilience. The activities and actions that organisations can take to improve workplace social environments. Much of the material for this webinar is based on work summarised here: The full scientific report is here with references to source material where appropriate: Some additional material is work in progress with the Centre or from a scientific report published here: Other material is acknowledged as appropriate

3 Wellbeing for public policy Office for National Statistics There is growing recognition that the measures of a country s progress need to include the wellbeing of its citizens... (Lord O Donnell and others, Wellbeing and Policy, Legatum Institute, 2014) How are we doing as a nation? Anything that s good? Anxiety Happiness Life satisfaction Meaning and purpose In practice they cluster together although they are not the same thing

4 Wellbeing for public policy Pragmatic decision to focus on life satisfaction Captures wellbeing for all Captures wellbeing across the life course Enables prediction of future and cross-generational effects Enables us to evaluate policies in terms of wellbeing costs and benefits But raises problems Converting different measures to a common measure Conversion rates across measures Conversion rates across domains (job life) Is that all there is to wellbeing?

5 What did our stakeholders tell us? Life satisfaction & mental health prominent Aspiration/meaningfulness/competence /autonomy Wellbeing as being part of a community Wellbeing as linked to economic activity Including employment in good jobs

6 Social environments at work & wellbeing #1 Perceived organizational support Belief that the organization values workers contributions and cares for their well-being Three reviews of between 112 and 170 studies but not deliberate actions to improve social environment Overall: Strong to moderate relationships with wellbeing Weak to moderate relationships with various performance indicators 6

7 Social environments at work & wellbeing #2 Organizational climate Covers many things, including perceptions of support and relationships, communication, participation, social recognition Three reviews of between 14 and 165 studies but not deliberate actions to improve social environment Overall: Moderate to strong associations with wellbeing and performance indicators 7

8 Social environments at work & wellbeing #3 Social identity Integration of workplace membership into social identity sense of belonging to a community Two reviews of between 58 and 149 studies few on deliberate actions Overall: Strong to moderate relationships with wellbeing and performance indicators Stronger relations with positive indicators (happiness) than negative indicators (anxiety) 8

9 Social environments at work & wellbeing #4 Organizational justice Fairness in the workplace Distributive; procedural; interpersonal; informational Seven reviews of between 9 and 413 studies but not deliberate actions to improve social environment Overall: Weak to strong relationships with wellbeing and performance indicators Stronger with wellbeing 9

10 Social environments at work & wellbeing #5 Managers General agreement that managers are key to fairness, climate and can provide support Much evidence that good management is related to worker wellbeing: But management development has to be done properly Some evidence that managers can improve working environment but insufficient to be definitive Evidence management development plus improvements in work and other employment practices See and Daniels, K. et al (2017) Job design, employment practices and well-being: a systematic review of intervention studies, Ergonomics, 60:9,

11 Social environments at work & wellbeing #6 Fostering resilience Workplace support helps people: to solve problems to take time away from problems Long Term View to express emotions to Some evidence this is linked to innovation, better learning and performance as well as wellbeing Review Learn & Share Overcoming Problems and Challenges Time & Space Preliminary evidence you can train people to get better at seeking support Right Person See e.g. Daniels, K. (in press). Job characteristics and problem-solving. In C.L. Cooper (ed.) Key Issues in Work and Organizational Psychology. London: Routledge. 11

12 An illustration: Social identity and wellbeing during the recession WERS, Δ c. 600 organisations Manager rated performance Collective identification Recessionary actions e.g. Reduced hours Few recessionnary pressures and low idenitifcation Few recessionnary pressures and high idenitifcation Performance Recessionnary pressures and low idenitifcation Wellbeing Recessionnary pressures and high idenitifcation 12

13 The Business Case Wellbeing and Productivity are Mutually Compatible not Mutually Exclusive You ve got to do it : Legal case An employer owes a duty to his employees not to cause to cause them psychiatric damage by the volume or the character of the work they are required to perform Mr Justice Coleman, 1994 You ought to do it : Moral case Corporate Social Responsibility You ll be glad you did it : Business case Stress accounts for 40% of work-related illness in UK The Government should want to you to do it : Taxation case Lost corporation and personal tax, increased social and healthcare spending Well-being and productivity 73 studies Work unit satisfaction performance Moderate relationships Partially through better social relationships and helping Whitman, D. S., Van Rooy, D. L., & Viswesvaran, C. (2010). Satisfaction, citizenship behaviors, and performance in work units: A meta analysis of collective construct relations. Personnel psychology, 63,

14 What Can be Done? Important to assess what can be done for two reasons Assessing deliberate organisational actions is practically important It is important for demonstrating causation & therefore knowing why something works (theory) Surveys and asking people are not sufficient Need to demonstrate changes in wellbeing and performance after an intentional change Preferably with some sort of control so you know what would have happened if nothing changed Workplace A Workplace B 14

15 Organisations as Communities Over 900 studies demonstrating an association or in the lab. We found only 8 studies of intentional organisational efforts 6 on shared activities support, identity, cohesion 2 on fairness performance management monitoring not enough evidence 15

16 Organisations as Communities Actions to improve social environments in workplaces through shared activities may improve well-being and a range of performance-relevant outcomes. Such actions require some input external to the workgroups concerned, favourable worker attitudes prior to the intervention and several different components out of 16

17 What we don t know Why so little on fairness? Legally mandated Fairness is a goal in itself It may not need justification through wellbeing benefits More and better studies For more confidence and better knowledge of specific actions Comparisons between different groups Specific mechanisms e.g. social identity versus social resilience The right combination of components 17

18 Specific actions It doesn t have to be big or complex. Examples included: workshops internal mentoring programmes action planning groups based around specific issues social events. An 8-month-long programme of in a 13 strong multiethnic cleaning team in Denmark Danish lessons for migrants Technical training including group work Workshop on job satisfaction and teamwork Increased frequency of staff meetings Increased focus on collaboration Social events, including a summer party Technical training and workshop were facilitated by external providers. Before the start of the activities, most of the cleaners were positive about the planned activities. At the end of the eight months, the cleaners reported increased collaboration, communication, trust in colleagues, job satisfaction and the meaning of work. The cleaners supervisor had noted more collaboration and more initiative. 18 Hardman Smith, L.., Hviid, K., Frydendall, K. B., & Flyvholm, M. A. (2013). Improving the psychosocial work environment at multi-ethnic workplaces: A multi-component intervention strategy in the cleaning industry. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10,

19 Conclusions There is a wealth of evidence that workers have better wellbeing, health, attitudes and perform better in workplaces characterised by positive and supportive social environments. There are many ways in which positive social environments can enhance wellbeing for example, a sense of belonging to a workgroup has a direct effect on wellbeing and can also foster greater resilience to adversity. There is promising evidence that relatively simple and cost effective actions and activities can enhance social environments in workplaces, performance and wellbeing. 19

20 THANK YOU! ESRC grant ref: ES/N003586/1