The ‘What’, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Employee Well-Being: A New Model

Abstract

This paper examines the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of employee well-being. Beginning with the ‘what’ of well-being, the construct
of mental health was explored with the aim of building a model of employee well-being. It was proposed that employee well-being
consists of three core components: (1) subjective well-being; (2) workplace well-being and (3) psychological well-being. Following
this, the ‘why’ of employee well-being was investigated; that is, why employee well-being should be an important matter for
organisations. It was argued that employee well-being is an important precursor to organisational well-being, as indicated
by its links to employee turnover and performance. The next section was concerned with the ‘how’ of employee well-being; that
is, how well-being can be reliably enhanced. Drawing on two models of strengths and a practice model of psychological assessment,
it was asserted that strength-based development can reliably enhance employee well-being. A solid framework for understanding
and measuring employee well-being is offered in the hope that it will foster a more integrated approach to assessing and optimising
employee well-being.

Full text

The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being: A New Model
Author(s): Kathryn M. Page and Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick
Source:
Social Indicators Research,
Vol. 90, No. 3 (Feb., 2009), pp. 441-458
Published by: Springer
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Soc Indie
Res (2009)
90:441-458
DOI 10.1007/sl 1205-008-9270-3
The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of
Employee Weil-Being:
A New
Model
Kathryn M. Page Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick
Accepted: 27 May 2008 / Published online: 1 July 2008
? Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract This paper examines the 'what', 'why' and 'how' of employee well-being.
Beginning with the 'what' of
well-being, the
construct
of
mental health
was explored
with
the aim of
building a
model of employee well-being. It
was proposed that
employee well
being consists of three
core components: (1) subjective
well-being; (2) workplace well
being and (3) psychological well-being. Following this,
the 'why' of employee well-being
was investigated; that is,
why employee well-being should be an important
matter for
organisations. It was argued that employee well-being is an important precursor to
organisational
well-being, as indicated
by its
links
to
employee turnover
and performance.
The next section
was concerned
with the 'how' of
employee well-being; that
is,
how
well
being can be reliably
enhanced.
Drawing on two
models of strengths
and a practice
model
of psychological assessment, it
was asserted that
strength-based development can reliably
enhance employee well-being. A solid framework for understanding and measuring
employee
well-being is
offered in
the
hope that it will foster
a
more integrated
approach to
assessing and optimising employee well-being.
Keywords Mental health Employee well-being Performance Turnover
Strengths Subjective well-being Psychological well-being Positive psychology
1 Introduction
Mental health,
defined here
as the
presence of
well-being rather than the
absence of illness,
has become an increasingly important consideration for both researchers and practitioners
working in clinical and health contexts over the last several decades. More recently, the
positive
mental health
movement has extended
beyond clinical settings
and has also found
an important
place in
work settings.
Notable developments linking well-being with
organisational factors are positive organisational behaviour, which aims to foster positive
K. M. Page D. A. Vella-Brodrick (El)
School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Caufield Campus,
Australia
e-mail: dianne.vella-brodrick@med.monash.edu.au
? Springer
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442 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
phenomena such as hope and resilience among employees (e.g., Luthans 2002; Luthans
and Youssef 2004, 2007), and positive organizational scholarship,
which is the
study
of
what is
positive, flourishing
and life-giving,
at the
organisational level (e.g.,
Cameron and
Caza 2004; Cameron et al. 2003). However, whilst the study
of well-being within the
discipline of
psychology has been guided by comprehensive, research-based models (e.g.,
Diener 1984;
Keyes 2002; Ryff 1989), research
on employee well-being has been limited
largely because of its near exclusive focus on the measurement of employee job satis
faction (Wright and Cropanzano 1997). The aim of this paper is to address this
shortcoming by examining the 'what', 'why' and 'how' of employee well-being and
proposing a
model that
goes beyond job satisfaction.
Beginning with the 'what' of
well-being, a comprehensive
model of employee well
being
will be created
by drawing on the mental health and
well-being literature.
We posit
subjective and psychological well-being as key criteria
for
employee mental health.
To
apply this
model specifically to the domain of
work, we add two context-specific
con
structs; namely work-related positive and negative affect and job satisfaction. Next, the
'why' of
well-being will be discussed; that
is,
why employee well-being should be a key
consideration for
organisations. It is proposed that
promoting and preserving employee
mental health leads to improvements in employee performance and turnover, which
demonstrates the importance
of the
construct.
Finally regarding the 'how' of employee
well-being, it is
argued that
strength-based
employee development is
a reliable strategy
for
enhancing well-being.
2 The 'What' of Well Workers: A Review of the
Mental Health Construct
In the 50 years since Jahoda's (1958) seminal report
outlining the
complexity
of
defining
mental health, significant
progress has been made towards the
definition
and conceptu
alisation of this important concept. One noteworthy development was the turn away from
definitions of health as the absence of disease (Keyes 2006). Later this
was cemented by
the work of authors such as Diener (1984), Ryff (1989),
Waterman (1993) and
Ryff and
Keyes (1995). Essentially they
argued that
mental health should be defined
as the
presence
of Wellness rather than the absence of disease.
A comprehensive example of the Wellness approach is
Keyes' (2002, 2005, 2007) com
plete state
model of
mental health.
Keyes' definition of mental health
requires
that
individuals
possess symptoms
of both
positive feelings
and
positive functioning.
These criteria mirror the
symptoms
of
Major Depressive Episode (MDE), as classified
by the
Diagnostic Statistical
Manual (DSM). To be diagnosed as
mentally healthy, individuals
must show: (1) symptoms
of
hedonia,
or
positive feelings
about one's life
(as
opposed to
?medonia
in
diagnoses of
MDE)
and; (2) symptoms
of
positive psychological functioning
in
life
(as
opposed to
psychological
impairment
or
ma/functioning).
Within this
model, those
who meet the criteria
for
complete
mental health are classified as
flourishing. Individuals who report an absence of mental health
(but not necessarily the presence of mental illness) are classified as languishing. Keyes'
model is based on the finding that
measures of mental health and mental illness are separate
but correlated dimensions.
Keyes (2005) tested
this
hypothesis using
nationally representa
tive data drawn from
the
Midlife in the
United States (MIDUS) study (N
= 3,032; age
range = 25-74 years). Mental illness was measured by the Composite International Diag
nostic Interview Short
Form (CIDI-SF) which detects symptoms
of four
clinical disorders;
namely:
Major Depressive Episode (MDE), generalized anxiety
disorder,
panic
disorder
and
alcohol dependence during the last 12 months. Four scales were used to indicate the presence
? Springer
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 443
of mental health: (1)
positive
affect
(feeling
cheerful,
'in
good spirits',
extremely happy,
calm
and
peaceful, satisfied and 'full of life'); (2) life
satisfaction
(when
combined,
positive affect
and life satisfaction created the
global construct
of
hedonia); (3) psychological well-being
(self
acceptance, positive relations with others,
personal growth,
purpose in life,
environ
mental mastery and autonomy) and; (4) social well-being (social acceptance, social
actualisation, social contribution, social coherence and social integration). Results of struc
tural
equation
modeling showed that the best
fitting
model was one
where
measures of mental
health
and
mental illness
were separate
but
correlated
(?.53) factors.
Keyes interpreted
these
results
to
mean that the
constructs
of
mental illness
and mental health
are
not
bipolar
opposites
as had been previously assumed.
Keyes' (2002, 2005, 2007) diagnosis of mental health as both positive feelings and
positive functioning unifies two previously disparate streams of well-being research. The
first
of these
streams
focuses
primarily
on the
hedonic approach to
happiness.
According to
the hedonic approach, happiness stems from efforts to
maximise pleasure and minimise pain
(Waterman 1993).
The primary
focus in
this
research stream
is the
construct
of subjective
well-being. Subjective well-being (SWB), known colloquially as happiness, is
described as
a positive state
of mind that involves the whole life
experience. SWB contrasts
with the
eudaimonic approach to
happiness.
This latter
approach views
well-being as a derivative of
personal fulfillment and
expressiveness (Waterman 1993), self-actualisation
(Maslow 1968)
and self-determination
(Ryan and
Deci 2001). A core construct
within this
approach is
Ryff s (1989) notion of psychological well-being (PWB) which identifies
positive psy
chological functioning
as the
key
mark of good mental health.
We are proposing that
subjective
and psychological well-being should
be viewed as core components
of
employee
mental health and represent
positive feelings
and positive functions
respectively.
2.1 Mental Health Criteria 1
:
Positive Feelings
2.1.1 Subjective Well-Being (SWB)
Research suggests that SWB has three
core components:
high levels of
positive affect,
low
levels of negative affect and a cognitive evaluation of one's satisfaction with their life as a
whole (Diener et al. 1999, see also Busseri et al. 2007 for
a recent
validation of this SWB
model).
The set-point theory
of
happiness
which espouses that
individual levels
of
SWB are not
free to vary but are held at a 'set-point' has dominated several decades of research (see
Headey 2008 for a review). However, recent studies have shown evidence contrary to set
point theory.
For example, in
a large scale longitudinal study
Lucas et al. (2003) found
changes in marital status were associated with long-lasting changes in life satisfaction
when individual rather than average trends were examined. Similar results were found in
relation to unemployment (Lucas et al. 2004). Seligman et al. (2005) and Sheldon and
Lyubomirsky (2006a, b) assessed the
effectiveness
of five
positive psychology interven
tions using a randomly allocated, placebo-controlled design. They collected data using an
online assessment centre and a convenience sample of 577 males and females. Results
showed two
of the five interventions
(1) using signature
strengths
in
a new way and (2)
being aware of one's blessings, led to increases in happiness and decreases in depression
for at least 6 months.1 The 'gratitude visit' exercise led to large positive changes for one
Note: In this study, 6 months was the
final assessment period for
participants. Changes in
well-being and
depression may have lasted beyond this point.
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444 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
month post-intervention.
The two remaining exercises and one placebo control led to
positive but transient effects
on happiness and depression. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky
(2006b) assessed the effect
of a four-week
happiness intervention
(n
= 67) on positive
emotions, also using a randomised controlled trial.
Results showed that the
exercise of
imagining
one's best possible self led to lasting increases in
positive affect.
These latter
authors interpreted
these results
to
be supportive
of
Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) sustainable
happiness
model. This model asserts that
happiness is the result
of (a) genetic predispo
sition; (b) life circumstances and (c) one's intentional
activities. It
posits that the
essential
ingredient
for
achieving sustainable changes in
happiness is
one's volitional activities
and
habitual performance of appropriate strategies such as regular exercise, mediation and/or
counting one's blessings create sustainable increases in
happiness. Indeed, Sheldon and
Lyubomirsky (2006a) empirically support
this
latter assertion.
They found
that
participants
adapted
much more rapidly
to
changes in
life
circumstances (e.g., receiving
an unexpected
scholarship) than
changes in
intentional and effortful
activity
(e.g., taking
up piano lessons
or regularly working out at the
gym).
These more optimistic accounts of the
malleability of
well-being have led a number
SWB authors to challenge the set-point theory
of happiness (e.g. Diener et al. 2006;
Headey 2006, 2008; Huppert 2005; Norrish and Vella-Brodrick (2008)). Diener et al.
(2006), for
example, recommended five
key changes to
Brickman and
Campbell's (1971)
adaptation level theory
(an analogous set-point
theory; Headey 2008). The revisions
were:
(1) that
the set-point
of happiness is set at a generally
positive rather
than
neutral level
(e.g.,
Cummins 1995,1998); (2) there
are
considerable inter-individual
differences in
SWB
set-points,
largely
due to
genetic influences;
(3) different
components of
well-being (i.e.,
positive affect,
negative affect
and life satisfaction) can
move in
different
directions at
different
times,
allowing the
possibility
of
multiple individual
set-points;
(4) set-points
can
change under some conditions (e.g.,
Diener et al. 2006); and (5) inter-individual differ
ences exist in the
degree individuals adapt to objective life circumstances with some
individuals habituating less than
others.
Although these
post-hoc revisions help explain
recent empirical evidence, the necessity of such revisions suggests that the theory is
flawed. This point is
also made by
Headey (2008) on the
basis of longitudinal
data drawn
from
a large-scale
German (SOEP) panel study.
He highlighted
a large
minority
of indi
viduals whose well-being levels had changed significantly
during the
course of the
study
(commenced in 1984), some by as
much as two
standard
deviations.
On the
basis of these
substantial 'anomalies', Headey made strong arguments for the replacement of the set
point 'paradigm'. Such suggestions
bode favourably
for
those interested in
employee well
being, indicating that individuals, and thus
employees, can volitionally achieve long
lasting
upward changes in
well-being.
2.2 Mental Health Criteria 2: Positive Functioning
The second criteria
for
mental health, as posited by
Keyes' (2002, 2005, 2007) model, is
that
an individual reports
positive psychological functioning.
Although his criteria for
positive functioning
includes facets of
both
psychological and social
well-being (Ryff
1989
and Keyes 1998, respectively) only the six dimensions of psychological well-being are
included in
the model we propose later
in
this
paper, as
Keyes (1998) specific
measure on
social well-being has shown poor internal consistency (i.e., alpha coefficients <.70 for
each subscale). However, one dimension of the Scales of Psychological Well-Being,
"Positive Relations with Others" assesses social well-being, hence, this important aspect
of
mental health
will not
be omitted
altogether.
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 445
2.2.1 Psychological Well-Being (PWB)
One of the first
attempts
to
explore what is
meant by positive psychological functioning
was that of Jahoda (1958). Jahoda reviewed and integrated
various perspectives,
mostly
clinical, on well-being and
mental health. She unearthed six healthy psychological pro
cesses: (1) acceptance of oneself; (2) accurate perception of reality; (3) autonomy; (4)
environmental
mastery; (5) growth and development; (6) integration
of personality.
Although Jahoda's conceptualisation of
mental health
was a significant
contribution
to
the
field, the
concept was not developed further
due to
her inability
to
produce a measure
(Peterson
2006). This omission was addressed with
Ryffs (1989) work on psychological
well-being (PWB).
Ryffs (1995) definition
of
PWB was heavily influenced
by Jahoda's (1958) work. PWB
includes six core well-being dimensions: self
acceptance, purpose in life,
environmental
mastery, positive relations with others, autonomy and personal growth. Taken together,
these six
dimensions "encompass a breadth of
Wellness that includes
positive evaluations
of one's self and one's life, a sense of continued growth and development as a person, the
belief that life is
purposeful and
meaningful, the
possession of good relationships
with
other people, the capacity to
manage one's life and the surrounding world effectively, and a
sense of self-determination"
(Ryff 1989,
p. 99).
Although there has been some vigorous debate about the
validity
of the
PWB construct
as measured by Ryff and Keyes (1995) particularly
relating to the
abridged scale (e.g.,
Abbott et al. 2006; Springer and H?user 2006; Springer et al. 2006), some studies have
demonstrated the
validity
of the PWB construct.
For example, Keyes et al. (2002) found
that
PWB was distinct from the construct
of SWB. They modelled the latent
structure
of
the two
well-being constructs using a national sample of 3,032 Americans (aged 25
74 years). Factor analysis revealed two correlated (.45) but empirically distinct factors.
While none of the SWB facets (life satisfaction,
PA and
NA) loaded on the PWB factor,
three
PWB dimensions loaded
on both factors
(self-acceptance,
environmental
mastery and
positive relations with others). These findings
make sense; possessing self acceptance,
environmental mastery and positive relations could reasonably be expected to create
feelings
of
both
hedonic pleasure and eudemonia. In
contrast,
the
dimensions of
purpose in
life, autonomy, and personal growth are more existential in nature, thus fitting more closely
to the notion of personal fulfilment or eudemonia.
The relationship
between subjective and psychological well-being was also assessed by
Ring et al. (2007). These authors used a sample of 136 students to assess the relative
impact
of SWB and
PWB on individuals' quality
of life
(QOL) assessments.
An additional
aim was to replicate Keyes et al.'s (2002) findings. Their results confirmed Keyes et al.'s
model and explained just
over
40% of the
variance in
participant's individual
QOL ratings.
They also extended
Keyes et al.'s results
with the
finding
that SWB mediated the
effect
of
PWB on
QOL assessments.
Despite some overlap between the constructs of PWB and SWB, some results support
their
distinctiveness. This is evidenced through
their
having differential
patterns
of cor
relations with socio-demographic factors (e.g., age, education), and personality. Keyes
et-al. (2002) found adults
with high levels of both SWB and PWB were more likely than
adults
with low scores on both scales to
be highly educated and older. Individuals who
were high on SWB but not on PWB were likely to
be older, but
were not significantly
different from those scoring low on both variables in terms of education. In contrast,
individuals
high on PWB but low
on SWB were more likely to
be highly educated, but
were not necessarily older.
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446 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
2.3 Additions to
Keyes' Complete Health Model: Context-Specific
Measurements of
Employee Well-Being
Having reviewed
what is
meant by subjective and psychological well-being, an important
question remains: to what degree do such judgements reflect our well-being at work?
2.3.1 Subjective
Well-Being at
Work
The degree to
which one's satisfaction
with their
job contributes to their overall life
satisfaction
has been an important
and
well-researched topic
within the
psychology liter
ature. Some speculation surrounds the causal ordering of these two constructs; some
believe life satisfaction is a determinant
of job satisfaction (whereby
overall life satis
faction 'spills over' into satisfaction with life domains) whilst others believe job
satisfaction is
one of the determinants
of overall life satisfaction (Rode 2004). Although
intuition
would support the two being strongly
and positively related (much like the
contentious happy/productive worker thesis which is discussed later), results have gener
ally found
only a
modest correlation
between the two (e.g., Judge
and Watanabe 1993;
Rode 2004). For example, Rice et al. (1980), in
a meta-analysis of 23 studies, found a
correlation
of .30.
Whilst this
work
may be criticised in
terms
of its
exclusive focus
on the
cognitive component
of SWB (the
correlation
between the
two
would perhaps increase if
affect was also considered), it lends preliminary support to the assertion that overall
happiness is not an adequate representation of happiness at work. Therefore, whilst SWB is
likely to
contribute
unique variance to
employee well-being (most
probably due to their
mutual dependence on positive and negative affect), additional variance may be explained
if such scales were partnered with those specifically measuring well-being at work.
The assertion that context-specific measures of well-being are necessary to capture the
subtleties, complexities and variation of employees' cognitive and affective experiences at
work has been made by several authors
(e.g.,
Daniels 2000;
Warr 1990) and aligns
with the
Abstract-Specific Hypothesis which claims that
what respondents
attend to
when asked
questions concerning the
quality of their
lives is
dependent on how abstract
or specific the
mode of
measurement is (Cummins et al. 2002; Davern et al. 2007; Schwarz and Strack
1999).
People do not thoroughly
evaluate all aspects of their life when answering
global or
abstract questions such as 'How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?' Instead, they
make relatively fast decisions via cognitive short
cuts called heuristics (Tversky and
Kahneman 1974). For example, Schwarz and Strack found
that
people tend
to
rely
on their
current mood when responding to well-being assessments. As the level of question spec
ificity
increases, however, individuals
may attend
more specifically to the domain in
question, such as that of work, and rely less on heuristic judgements, such as current mood.
As such, utilising
both work-related and general well-being measures is likely to
yield
more accurate assessments of employee well-being than when using SWB measures alone.
A number of context-specific measures and models exist that specifically assess hap
piness at work. These models, however, represent competitive rather than complementary
measures of the construct. The historical approach, for example, has been to assess
employee job satisfaction, either globally, or as a summation of satisfaction with various
job domains (see Spector (1997) for
a review).
However, this
approach has recently
been
criticised as being an inadequate operationalisation of happiness at work (e.g., Wright and
Cropanzano 1997, 2004). These latter authors argued that researchers should replace
typical job satisfaction
measures with
measures of
dispositional affect.
Warr (1987, 1990)
4y
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 447
and Daniels (2000) have adopted a similar approach to
Wright and Cropanzano (1997,
2004). Rather than
measuring employees' general or dispositional affect, however, they
assessed employees' work-related affect. They asserted that such a measurement was a
more specific assessment of well-being at work than measures of general affect. In recent
years, authors such as Cotton and Hart (2003) have employed a multi-measure approach.
Cotton and Hart operationalised employee well-being as consisting of both positive and
negative affect
(termed
morale and distress respectively)
and cognitive evaluations of job
satisfaction.
We therefore argue that employee well-being be measured through SWB (conceptua
lised as life
satisfaction,
positive and negative affect),
PWB, work-related affect,
and job
satisfaction.
Although a large
body of research has not supported job satisfaction
as a
valuable predictor of positive organisational criterion such as performance (e.g., Judge
et al. 2001), a recent study
by Wright et al. (2007), who were originally some of the
strongest
critics of job satisfaction,
gives a more optimistic account of its predictive
validity. Taking a new approach to the happy/productive worker thesis, these authors found
that job satisfaction was a valid predictor of performance. However, this effect was
moderated by employee well-being, which they operationalised as context-free affect.
Taken together,
these results
provide preliminary
support
for the inclusion
of job satis
faction as one of the dimensions of employee well-being.
Evidence suggests that work-related affect would also aid the
prediction of employee
well-being. Two work-specific
models of
affect have been posed by
Warr (1987, 1990) and
Daniels (2000). Warr's model of affect describes affective
well-being in terms
of two
diagonal axes of the circumplex model; that is, anxious-content (tense, uneasy, worried,
calm, contented, relaxed) and depressed-enthusiastic (depressed, gloomy, miserable,
cheerful,
enthusiastic,
optimistic).
The job-related items
were preceded by the
question:
"Thinking
of the
past few
weeks, how
much of the
time
has your
job
made you feel each of
the following?"
Warr (1990) argued that
his model of affective
well-being was more
relevant
to
the
context
of work than the
PANAS due to
the
specific
focus
of the
preface and
the item content.
Warr also criticised the
PANAS for covering only two of the four
circumplex quadrants (this criticism was also subsequently made by other authors, for
example,
Wright and Cropanzano 1997).
Warr tested his model of affective
well-being
using an occupationally diverse sample of working adults (n = 1,686). Patterns of cor
relations with demographic and occupational factors revealed evidence of construct
validity. For example, higher occupational levels were correlated positively with depres
sion-enthusiasm but negatively with anxiety-contentment. That is, higher occupational
levels showed
more positive and negative arousal, perhaps reflecting
the
higher level of
cognitive requirements for these jobs.
However, we argue that Warr's (1990) model is limited
by his decision not to include
the arousal dimension of affective well-being. Examining only a subset of employees'
affective well-being does not make substantive sense; employees are likely to experience a
diverse range of emotions at work, each of which is potentially important for the prediction
of valued organisational outcomes. As such, we argue that Warr's model may not have
strong predictive validity.
A more comprehensive
model of affective
well-being is Daniels' (2000) approach to
work-related affect. His model depicts five axes on the circumplex model; namely: anxi
ety-comfort, depression-pleasure, bored-enthusiastic, tiredness-vigour and angry-placid
(six-items per axis). Items were prefaced with a similar question to that used by Warr
(1987, 1990). However, participants in
Daniels' study were asked to report work-related
affect from the past week, rather than the past few weeks. Daniels used confirmatory factor
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448 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
analysis to assess four alternative structures of the scale. Two samples were utilised: social
workers (n
= 871) and university
workers (n
= 1915). Both samples supported a five
factor solution (i.e., one factor per axis). Second-order factor analysis revealed two
superordinate
factors
which corresponded
with negative and positive affect. These higher
order factors accounted for the relationships amongst the five first-order factors. Internal
reliabilities
of the
subscales ranged
from .79 to .88 in
the
two
samples.
Therefore,
Daniels'
model, in addition to job satisfaction,
would complement measures of SWB in an
employee well-being model. Together, job satisfaction and work-related affect may con
stitute
an employees' workplace well-being (WWB).
2.3.2 Psychological Well-Being at
Work
As yet, no comparable scale or construct exists that assesses positive psychological
functioning
in the
workplace. Although it would be useful to tailor
Ryff s (1989) PWB
scale to apply specifically to the workplace (e.g., sense of purpose at work, positive
relations with colleagues etc.), substantial validation would be required. However, intui
tively
all the
domains of PWB could plausibly be filled through
work. Therefore it is
proposed that
PWB may be sensitive to
changes in
employee well-being. This proposition,
however, should be tested in future research.
3 The 'Why' of Well Workers: Employee Well-Being and its
Link to
Turnover and
Performance
It is argued that
promoting and preserving employee mental health leads to
marked
increases in
organisational health, as indicated
by both performance and turnover.
This
aligns with Cotton and Hart's (2003) occupational health
model which espouses that
employee well-being, operationalised as both positive and negative affect, is strongly
linked to
organisational health via an interaction
between individual
and contextual vari
ables. The links
between well-being and both retention and performance
will now be
briefly
reviewed.
3.1 The
Well-Being-Retention Link
Turnover is an important
issue for
organisations today, largely
due to its significant
business costs.
According to
Cascio's (2003) formula,
the
cost of losing
an employee can
range between 1.5 and 2.5 times the departing employee's annual salary. Objective
measurements of turnover are generally achieved through an assessment of company
turnover
statistics,
with 15% being the
generally accepted benchmark (Steel et al. 2002).
Retention
may also be assessed subjectively
by asking employees about their
intention
to
leave an organisation.
A large-scale meta-analysis by Steel and Ovalle (1984) found a
weighted average correlation of .50 between intentions to and actual turnover. However,
irrespective of whether intention to leave predicts actual turnover, employee's who harbour
such
attitudes
are
not likely
to
exhibit
high levels
of
motivation or
performance
at
work.
As
such, a healthy organisation is likely to
be one in
which employees intend
to continue
rather than cease their employment.
A growing body of evidence suggests that
employees' intention
to
turnover
is
related to
the absence of work-related PA (i.e., languishing) rather than the presence of work-related
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 449
NA (i.e., ill-being). In a controlled laboratory
study,
Shoenfelt and
Battista (2004) found
that
positive job satisfaction and mood states reduced turnover
intentions in
a sample of
154 undergraduate students. This relationship
was not observed in relation to
neutral
or
negative
mood states/satisfaction.
In a sample of
police workers,
Hart and
Cooper (2001)
found that
employee PA, which they
called morale, was negatively and
moderately cor
related
with
withdrawal intentions
(r
= ?.38). Employee NA, however,
which they
termed
distress, was not related to withdrawal intentions.
In
a
more recent
study,
Wright and
Bonett (2007) assessed the
relationship
between job
satisfaction, well-being and voluntary turnover in a sample of 112 managers. They hy
pothesised that well-being, operationalised as employees' general affect, would moderate a
relationship
between job satisfaction
and job performance.
Specifically, they expected that
individuals
with low levels
of
well-being would be
more likely
to leave their
organisation
as a result
of job dissatisfaction. This prediction
was supported. In addition, both job
satisfaction and well-being showed significant main effects on employee turnover (r = ?
.25
and ?.39 respectively). Similarly, Judge (1993) found that
employees' affective
dis
position moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and voluntary turnover; as was
noted earlier, research suggests that
well-being is
primarily
driven
by one's dispositional
affect.
However, in
contrast
to
Wright and
Bonett's findings,
the
relationship
between job
satisfaction
and turnover
was strongest
for
individuals with a positive disposition.
That is,
employees' who were pre-disposed to
view life
positively
were
more likely
to
quit their
job
when they
were dissatisfied with it. Such findings
lend further
support
to the inclusion
of
both work-related affect and job satisfaction (WWB) as dimensions of employee
well-being.
3.2 The
Well-Being-Performance Link
The presumption that
happy workers are productive workers, often termed the
happy/
productive worker thesis, has spanned several decades of organisational psychology
research and practice (Staw 1986). Until the late 1990's this
hypothesis
was operationa
lised and tested
by correlating
measures of job satisfaction
and performance.
Although
conceptual evidence seemed to support a relationship between these two constructs, meta
analyses only weakly supported the
hypothesis (e.g., Bray
field and Crockett 1955; Iaff
aldano and
Muchinsky 1985; Judge et al. 2001). The largest
and most rigorous
meta
analysis on the topic
was conducted by Judge
et al. (2001). They reviewed correlations
from 312 samples (N
= 54,417), finding
a true
score correlation
of just .30 between job
satisfaction and job performance.
The 1990s saw a new wave of happy/productive worker research. This movement
contended that
researchers
had not found correlations
between job satisfaction
and per
formance because of the erroneous belief that job satisfaction equates to happiness
(Cropanzano and
Wright 1999;
Wright and Bonett 1997;
Wright and
Cropanzano, 1997,
2000, 2004; Wright and Staw 1999).
Wright and
Cropanzano (1997) argued that 'happi
ness' be assessed through an employees' sense of well-being, as measured by Berkman's
(1971) psychological well-being scale (described in
more detail shortly).
They tested
this
assertion in two separate samples (study 1: n = 47 human service employees; study 2:
n
= 49 public sector
professionals). Results supported their
hypothesis.
Well-being, but
not job satisfaction,
was correlated
with performance in
both studies (r
= .32 and .44 for
studies 1 and 2 respectively), when demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, tenure) were
controlled. In a later study using a sample of human service workers (n = 47) and a sample
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450 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
of juvenile probation officers (n
= 37),
Wright and Cropanzano (2000) also controlled
employees' level
of job satisfaction.
Results showed that SWB contributed
unique variance
to
the
prediction
of
job performance
over and above that attributable
to
job satisfaction and
demographic variables (r
= .32). Job satisfaction
was not related to job performance
(r = ?.08). In a subsequent study, the authors also showed that well-being predicted
performance up to a year after well-being was reported (r = .36).
Although Wright, Cropanzano and colleagues' findings
show some support
for
a rela
tionship between well-being and performance, the reported correlations are not markedly
higher
than
the true
score
correlation
found
by Judge
et al. (2001 ) in
their
meta analysis
of the
job satisfaction-job performance relationship. This calls into question whether their assess
ment
of the
relationship
is
a significant improvement
upon
previous conceptualisations
of the
happy-productive
worker thesis. One possibility
for the modest correlations
found
by
Wright,
Cropanzano and colleagues is that
their
conceptualisation of happiness at
work is still
not
sufficient. In each of their studies on the happy/productive worker thesis, these authors used
Berkman's (1971) eight-item
measure of
psychological well-being. This measure is
thought
to assess affective disposition via the unpleasantness-pleasantness dimension of the cir
cumplex
model (Wright
and Staw 1999). It
asks respondent's to
report
how often
they
have
felt very lonely or remote from other people", "depressed or very unhappy", "bored", "so
restless you couldn't sit long in
a chair", "vaguely uneasy about something without knowing
why", "particularly excited or interested in something", "pleased about having accom
plished something", and "on top of the world". This conceptualisation and measure does not
align
with the
vast SWB literature. As discussed earlier,
SWB is
generally
defined as the
presence of life satisfaction and positive affect, and the relative absence of negative affect
(Diener et al. 1999). In line with this
definition,
SWB research
generally captures SWB
through
both the Satisfaction
with Life Scale (Diener et al. 1985) and the
Positive and
Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS, Watson et al. (1988)). Whilst they
do not directly
account for their
departure
from
previous SWB literature,
Wright and colleagues do address
their decision not to
use the PANAS (see
Wright and
Staw 1999).
According to
these
authors,
a fundamental difference between Berkman's measure of psychological well-being and the
PANAS is that the two
measures assess different dimensions of the
circumplex
with the
PANAS focusing on activation and Berkman's measure focusing on pleasantness. In a study
that compared the effectiveness of these two approaches to
measuring well-being, they found
that the PANAS did not significantly predict job performance. Confirming their
previous
findings,
Berkman's measure did predict
job performance (Wright
and Staw 1999).
Although
Wright,
Cropanzano and
colleagues have found
significant
correlations between
well-being and performance (e. g.,
Wright and Staw 1999), we believe correlations would be
strengthened
if
well-being
was defined
more comprehensively
and included both
general and
work specific indicators.
It is
proposed that
both work-related affect (e.g.,
Daniels 2000
model) and job satisfaction also be assessed when examining employee well-being.
Whilst
there are currently no measures of an employee's positive functioning at work, Ryff s (1989)
psychological well-being model is likely to be relevant to the
workplace. As such, employee
happiness at
work
may be represented
by
employees' SWB, PWB and WWB (refer
back to
Fig. 1). In reference
to
Wright and Staw's (1999) argument
that
the
PANAS does not
ade
quately predict employee performance,
readers should be reminded that
Daniels' (2000)
measure of work-related affect includes all four quadrants of the circumplex. It also assesses
the two higher-order factors of positive and negative affect. As such, it is likely to provide a
more adequate representation of work-related affect than either the PANAS or Berkman's
(
1971
) scale.
Additionally, although
evidence has
historically
not
found
job satisfaction
to
be
a useful
predictor
of
performance,
a recent
study by
Wright et al. (2007) had shed
new insight
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 451
Fig. 1 Model of employee mental health, which consists of three core components: An employee's
subjective well-being, workplace well-being and psychological well-being. Notes: As per Ryffs (1989)
conceptualisation, PWB consists of six dimensions: self acceptance, positive relations with others,
environmental mastery, autonomy, personal growth and purpose in life.
For simplicity, these dimensions do
not appear in the
diagram. Both dispositional affect and work-related affect consist of positive and negative
components
into this
phenomenon. In a study
of 109
managers employed by a large
customer service
company, they
found that
job satisfaction did predict performance.
The key
difference from
past studies however (and
perhaps
an explanation for
previous non-significant findings)
was
that
job satisfaction
only predicted the
performance
of
employee's with
high levels of well
being (measured as dispositional affect).
That is,
employee well-being
moderated the
rela
tionship between job satisfaction and performance. Although this finding should be
interpreted
with
caution until
replicated in
a larger sample, it
provides additional support
for
the inclusion of job satisfaction in an employee well-being model.
4 The 'How' of
Employee Well-Being: The Strength-based Approach
to
Enhancing Well-Being
Although much research has been conducted into the causes and correlates of well-being,
very little
research
has focused on ways in
which well-being can be reliably enhanced
(Sheldon and Lyubomirsky 2006a). Still fewer researchers have specifically investigated
how to
enhance
well-being in
the
workplace (notable
exceptions are research
by the
Gallup
Organization; see Harter et al. (2003) for a review; and Cotton, Hart and colleagues; see
Cotton and
Hart (2003) for
a review).
An area that looks
particularly promising
as a
means
to enhancing employee well-being is the study of strengths.
4.1 Conceptual Evidence for
the
Utility of Strengths
Several theories support the conceptual link between strengths and well-being. One such
example is Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory. Research on self-determina
tion
theory
examines the
factors that
facilitate intrinsic
motivation, self-regulation
and
well
being. The concept of strengths
fits well with this
paradigm. Specifically, strength-based
employee development
may enhance employees' ability to
meet their
psychological needs
for competence, autonomy and relatedness; according to SDT, when behaviour is regulated
for the fulfilment
of these innate
needs, an individual is able to
achieve more effective
functioning, leading
to
psychological growth
and
well-being (Ryan
and
Deci 2000. Research
by Sheldon and
Lyubomirsky (2006a, b) on the
concept of self-concordant motivation also
supports strength-based development as an employee well-being enhancement strategy.
These authors assert that one is
more motivated to achieve goals that are congruent with one's
own values. As such, individuals whom primarily focus their effort on enhancing natural
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452 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
strengths
may be
more likely to feel the intervention
is self-concordant,
leading to
better
adherence to
the
intervention,
and
more positive
outcomes. Csikszentmihalyi's (2002) flow
theory
aligns
with this
concept.
This theory
asserts
that
optimally
balancing one's skills with
the
challenges of a task
creates feelings
of flow?an innately pleasurable state
characterised
by intense
feelings
of involvement.
Predominantly, research into the
utility
of strengths
has been guided by one of two
frameworks:
the
character strengths
and virtues (CSV) classification
by Peterson and Se
ligman
(2004) and the
Gallup Organization's strength
framework
(Buckingham and Clifton
2001). The CSV classification is based on the tenets
of positive psychology; a scientifi
cally-driven
field of research and
practice that
investigates
"the study
of
positive subjective
experiences, the
study
of
positive individual traits,
and the
study
of institutions
that enable
positive experiences and positive traits" (Peterson and Seligman 2004, p. 5). The CSV
framework
was developed to
answer questions relating
to the
second of these topics: the
study of positive character traits. It comprises 24 character strengths such as 'zest,
enthusiasm and energy', 'bravery and valour', and 'persistence, perseverance and indus
triousness'. Strengths are thought to exist ubiquitously across cultures and are associated
with feelings
of fulfilment
and eudemonia.
The Gallup strengths
framework
(Buckingham and Clifton 2001) is a more concrete
model of strengths
than the CSV and is believed to
represent
situational themes;
that is,
"specific habits that lead
people to
manifest strengths
in
a given situation" (p. 14) such as
work. Hodges and Clifton (2004) defined
a strength
as "the ability to
provide consistent,
near perfect performance in a given activity" (p. 218). Strengths, however, are not inborn.
Rather, strengths
are developed on the basis of the
development of talent.
Talents are
naturally occurring
patterns
of thought,
feeling
or
behaviour, and are represented
via the
34
themes (e.g., 'adaptability', 'command', 'positivity'). For a talent to become a strength,
however, it
must first be identified and then refined
and developed with the
appropriate
skills and knowledge.
A lesser known
model of strengths
that
may be useful in the
current
context is
Lopez
et al.'s (2003) practice
model. Rather than
setting
out a specific
strengths
framework,
these
authors
put forth
a practitioner
model which outlines how practitioners
can utilise clients'
strengths.
In contrast
to
both the CSV and the
Gallup strengths
framework,
these authors
posit that practitioners should consider clients' weaknesses as well as strengths. They also
assert that
behaviour should
be context specific
as the
environment
plays a role in
how a
strength manifests.
Although Snyder et al.'s (2003) model was developed within the
context
of clinical or
counselling psychology, their work is
highly relevant
to
organisational psychology
where
employees' are equally in need of
well-being interventions. Work by
Keyes (2002), for
example, found that nearly as many adults suffered from the absence of mental health (i.e.,
languishing) as the
presence of mental illness (12.1 and 14.1%, respectively).
Both groups
were related to
higher levels of work absenteeism, psychosocial impairment
and distress,
relative to
flourishing
individuals (i.e., those with complete
mental health). In the same
study,
just over 17% of the
population
met the
criteria
for
complete
mental health (i.e.,
positive feelings plus positive functioning).
The large majority of adults (52.4%) were
considered moderately mentally healthy. These figures were drawn from a nationally
representative
study
of
adults aged between 24 and 75 years (N
= 3,032), which provides
evidence for their
robustness.
Taken together,
these
findings
highlight the need for
well
being interventions
to target
languishing employees as well as those
with
mental illnesses.
Focusing on employee strengths, as well as problem areas, may prove a very useful means
to approach such interventions.
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 453
4.2 Empirical Evidence for the
Utility of Strengths
A growing body of
empirical evidence supports
the
use of strengths
to
facilitate
well-being.
For example, in their review of the
effectiveness
of positive psychology interventions,
Seligman et al. (2005) found that
participants'
directed to
utilise their
character strengths
in a new way, every day, for one week experienced increases in
well-being and decreases
in
depression for
up to
6
months. This finding is
congruent
with Peterson and Seligman's
(2004) initial
expectations that
exercising one's character strengths
leads to feelings of
fulfilment
akin to the notion of eudaimonic well-being. As previously described, eudai
monic well-being is thought
to stem from
feelings of being true to the self (Waterman
1993).
Given that one's character
strengths
are indicative of
one's authentic self (Peterson
and Seligman 2004) it is intuitive that
better
understanding
and utilisation
of one's sig
nature strengths
will enhance feelings of psychological well-being. Positive changes in
general and work-related affect may also be expected.
The Gallup strengths
framework
also has empirical support (e.g., Clifton and Harter
2003; Harter et al. 2002, 2003; Hodges and
Clifton 2004). These studies show strong
links
between strengths-based development and employee engagement (which Harter et al.
2003, described as being analogous to the
concept of employee well-being). Clifton and
Harter (2003), for
example,
meta-analysed the
findings
of 65 firms
involved in
employee
engagement interventions. Of these
organisations, four had utilised strength-based
inter
ventions (study
group) whilst the
remaining
61 had not (control
group). Results showed
substantial
support
for the association between utilising employee strengths
and employee
engagement
with the
study
group reporting
significantly
higher levels
of engagement than
those in the control
group from
year one to year two (d
= .65).
This effect
was further
enhanced from
year one to
year three
(d
= 1.15). Utility analyses showed an increase in
annual per
employee productivity
of
more than
US$1000 (i.e.
US$1 million for
a company
of 1000 employees). Research has also shown that
engagement is
a significant
predictor
of
employee turnover (p = ?.30) and business-unit performance (p = .38). Again assigning a
dollar value to these
effects,
utility analysis revealed that
highly engaged business units
accrued $80-$ 120
K more per
month than
the least
engaged business units (i.e., $960 K
per year) (Clifton
and Harter 2003).
4.3 An Important
Point
Regarding
Weaknesses in
Strength-based
Models
Positive psychology is
just
as focused on human illness,
disease and malfunction as it is
on
strengths,
virtues and fulfilment.
Rather than replace the illness-focused model of psy
chology, the positive psychology movement aims to provide a greater balance to research
and practice
within the
field,
whereby both health and illness are considered (e.g. Keyes
2002; Lopez et al. 2003; Ryff 1989; Seligman et al. 2005). An important
component of the
strengths versus weaknesses debate is their roots in positive and negative affect. Whilst
focusing on one's strengths is likely to engender positive feelings such as joy or happiness,
focusing on one's areas of weakness may engender negative feelings such as frustration,
anxiety or irritation.
According to research
by Fredrickson and Losada (2005), an indi
vidual's experience of affective (i.e., emotionally laden) events accrues over time. This
'build up' becomes sl
positivity ratio or a ratio of good to bad events. Their research suggests
that
a positivity
ratio
of between 7:1 and 3:1 predicts flourishing,
or
complete
mental health.
The effect of the positivity ratio on team performance indicators has also been inves
tigated.
Losada and
Heaphy (2004) observed the interactions of teams in team
meetings.
Sixty teams
of employees (eight
employees per
group)
were drawn from
a large
company.
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454 K. M. Page, D. A. Vella-Brodrick
Speech acts (i.e., phrases or sentences) occurring within each team were observed and
coded by the research team along three
bipolar dimensions: (1) positivity to
negativity
(e.g., encouraging versus disparaging remarks amongst team members respectively); (2)
inquiry
to
advocacy (e.g., exploring versus supporting
a proposal, respectively); (3) other
to self (e.g., speech act of group versus speech act of a speaker). Each team was then
independently
classified as being high-performers
(15 teams),
medium performers (26
teams) or low performers
(19 teams) on the basis of objective data such as profitably,
customer satisfaction and 360 degree evaluations. It was predicted that teams showing
higher positivity to negativity ratios, comparable inquiry to advocacy ratios and compa
rable
other to
self
ratios,
would fall into the
high
performing
category.
Teams who showed
higher negativity to
positivity ratios
and unequal inquiry
to advocacy and other to self
ratios,
were predicted to
fall into
the
low
performing
category.
All other teams
would fall
in the medium performer category. These hypotheses were supported. Specifically, results
suggested that
a 5:1 ratio
of
positive to
negative speech acts characterised
high
performing
teams.
Losada and
Heaphy inferred
that
positive speech acts in
team interactions broaden
emotional space allowing the possibility of action. In contrast, negative emotional acts
restrict emotional space and close possibilities for action. These conclusions further sup
port the
ideal
positivity
ratio
suggested
by
Fredrickson and
Losada (2005). Together, these
studies suggest that
an effective
well-being intervention
may be one in
which employees'
focus approximately 5:1 on developing strengths and weaknesses, respectively.
5 Summary and Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to expand the
mental health literature by reviewing the 'what',
'why' and 'how' of employee well-being. Specifically, three topics
were addressed: (1)
what it is that
constitutes
employee well-being; (2)
why employee well-being is important
for
organisations and; (3) how
well-being can be reliably
enhanced. First it
was argued that
employee well-being consists of subjective
well-being (life satisfaction
plus dispositional
affect),
workplace well-being (job satisfaction
plus
work-related
affect)
and psychological
well-being (self acceptance, positive relations with others, environmental mastery,
autonomy, purpose in life and personal growth).
Following this,
the 'why' of employee
well-being was examined. Two core criteria of organisational well-being were posed: low
employee turnover
and high employee performance (Cotton and Hart 2003). Strong,
negative correlations were found between well-being and turnover. Although moderate,
positive correlations were found between well-being and performance, it
was argued that
these correlations would increase if
well-being was conceptualised more comprehensively.
Specifically, it
was argued that
employee well-being should
be conceptualised on the
basis
of the model described here. The next section examined how well-being can be reliably
enhanced. It was asserted that strength-based employee development would provide an
effective means for fostering well-being. Such an intervention should focus on both
strengths and weaknesses with a positivity ratio of 5:1. This comprehensive operation
alisation of well-being in the workplace represents an integration and extension of what
previous researchers have undertaken in the field. Uniting various streams of research on
the topic may allow researchers to progress the area at a more rapid pace. It
may also lead
to greater agreement regarding the conceptualisation of employee well-being.
Employee well-being is an important
academic and practical pursuit
due to its links
to
performance and turnover and may prove to be a valuable tool for demonstrating return on
investment (ROI) for employee well-being enhancement programs. Furthermore, such a
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The 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Employee Well-Being 455
model, and its associated measures, may be used by practitioners to track employee
reactions to workplace changes in
management or HR policy. Thus, this paper may foster
increased
recognition
of the
importance
of employee
mental health. This should
not imply,
however, that the construct is not important in and of itself.
In the last several years, the world has seen a trend towards more socially-based
indicators. Similarly, social metrics, such as employee well-being, would also complement
more dollar-based metrics in the business world. Continual research on the causes, cor
relates
and consequences of
employee
mental health
will lead to
additional insight
into
the
factors that may enhance employee well-being. Such a task is socially as well as scien
tifically
valuable.
This paper examined one potentially important means to enhancing employee well
being?employee strengths. However, strength-based development is not necessarily the
only means for enhancing employee well-being. Others have also examined the potential
utility
of expressing kindness and gratitude (e.g., Norrish and Vella-Brodrick (2008)),
visualising best
possible self
(Sheldon and
Lyubomirsky
2006b) and savouring (Bryant
and
Veroff 2007). Authors working on positive organizational behaviour (e.g., Luthans and
Youssef 2007; Youssef and Luthans 2007) and positive organizational scholarship (e.g.,
Cameron and
Caza 2004) have also made significant
progress in
this
regard.
It is
hoped that
this
paper may add to
what is fast
becoming an 'upward spiral' of research aiming to
improve quality of life
by offering
a solid framework
for
understanding
and
measuring
employee well-being.
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