Abstract
Evaluating the well-being at work research that was conducted with managers and employees at the local government organisation of North West of England relates to Terkel (1977: 1) depiction of work, which is likened unto violence to the spirit and the body, about ulcers, accidents, shouting matches, fistfights, nervous breakdown as well as kicking the dog around; it is about daily humiliations for the walking wounded among the great many of us. A mixed-method approach was adopted which was predominantly qualitative, conducting 27 semi-structured interviews, observations, documentary analysis of company and government policy documents, and the analysis of a questionnaire survey. The findings reveal that these public sector workers were not privileged to embrace or accept well-being ideology as the cost minimisation government strategy expected employees to produce more with less. This resulted in increased stress levels, workloads, anxiety, mental ill-health, workplace absence, tensions between teams, mistreatment and incivility behaviours and attitudes at work. Managers and employees’ depiction of well-being at work centred around dignity and fairness at work.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
AEGON. (2019). Financial well-being at work. https://www.aegon.co.uk/workplace/employers/support-for-employers/financial-wellbeing.html. Accessed March 20, 2019.
Alban-Metcalfe, R. J., & Alimo-Metcalfe, B. (2000). The transformational leadership questionnaire (TLQ-LGV): A convergent and discriminant validity study. Leadership and Organisation Development Journal, 21, 280–296.
Bakke, D. W. (2005). Joy at work: A revolutionary approach to fun on the job. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Baptiste, N. R. (2009). Fun and wellbeing: Insights from senior managers in a local authority. Employee Relations, 31(6), 600–612.
Barr, R. (2010). UK government details spending cuts. UK: The Associated Press.
BBC Business New. (2010). Public sector job cuts ‘to hit Wales and North’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11130269. Accessed August 31, 2010.
Canadian Centre for Management Development (CCMD). (2002). A fine balance: A manager’s guide to workplace wellbeing. Canada: CCMD Roundtable on Workplace Wellbeing.
Cartwright, S., & Cooper, C. L. (2009). The Oxford handbook of organisational wellbeing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
CIPD. (2007). Rewarding work—The vital role of line managers, change agenda. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.
CIPD. (2019). Health and well-being at work. Survey Report, April 2019, in partnership with Simplyhealth. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Clark, J., & Salaman, G. (1998). Telling tales: Management gurus’ narratives and the construction of managerial identity. Journal of Management Studies, 35(2), 137–161.
Cohen, A. (2003). Multiple commitments in the workplace: An integrative approach. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Cooper, C., & Robertson, I. (2001). Well-being in organisations: A reader for students and practitioners. Chichester: Wiley.
Currie, D. (2001). Managing employee well-being. Oxford: Chandos Publishing Oxford Limited.
Daniels, G., & French, S. (2006). Regulating work-life balance. UK: Centre for Industrial Relations, Keele University.
Danna, K., & Griffin, R. W. (1999). Health and wellbeing in the workplace: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Management, 25(3), 357–384.
Delle Fave, A. (2007). Individual development and community empowerment: Suggestions from studies on optimal experience. In J. Haworth & G. Hart (Eds.), Wellbeing: Individual, community and social perspectives (pp. 41–56). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Dundon, T., & Wilkinson, A. (2009). Employee participation. In T. Redman & A. Wilkinson (Eds.), Contemporary human resource management: Text and cases (3rd ed., pp. 405–416). London: Pearson Education.
Fineman, S. (2007). Understanding emotions at work. London: Sage Publishers.
Gould, S. (1979). Characteristics of planners in upwardly mobile occupations. Academy of Management Journal, 22, 539–550.
Grant, A. M., Christianson, M. K., & Price, R. H. (2007). Happiness, health or relationships? Managerial practices and employee well-being tradeoffs. The Academy of Management, 21(3), 51–63.
Grant, A. M., & Spence, G. B. (2010). Using coaching and positive psychology to promote a flourishing workforce: A model of goal-striving and mental health. In P. A. Linley, S. Harrington, & N. Garcea (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology and work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Green, F., & Tsitsianis, N. (2004). An investigation of national trends of job satisfaction in Britain and Germany. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 43(3), 401–429.
Guest, D. (2002). Human resource management, corporate performance and employee wellbeing: Building the worker into HRM. Journal of Industrial Relations, 44(3), 335–358.
Health and Safety Authority. (2007). Bullying at work. https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Bullying_at_Work/. Accessed May 20, 2010.
HM Government. (2008). Improving health and work: Changing lives, the government’s response to Dame Carol Black’s review of the health of Britain’s working-age population. November 2008. Cm 7492.
HM Government. (2010). Healthy lives, healthy people: Our strategy for public health in England. Available online at https://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthyliveshealthypeople/index.htm. Accessed 12th December 2012.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of careers (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Publishers.
Karasek, R. A., & Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. NY: Basic Books.
Keyes, C. L. M. (1998). Social wellbeing. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121–140.
MacDonald, L. A. C. (2005). Wellness at work: Protecting and promoting employee well-being. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Management Today. (2010). Cameron: UK’s problems even worse than we thought. June 7, 2010. https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/dailynews/news/1008288/Cameron-UKs-problems-even-worse-thought/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News. Accessed June 7, 2010.
Mathieu, J. E., & Zajac, D. M. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171–194.
Meechan, F. (2018). Compassion at work toolkit. https://researchgate.net/publication/322404395. Accessed May 30, 2019.
Merali, F. (2003). NHS managers’ views of their culture and their public image: The implications for NHS reforms. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 16(7), 549–563.
Moss, B. (2009). Spirituality in the workplace. In N. Thompson & J. Bates (Eds.), Promoting workplace wellbeing (pp. 141–153). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Namie, G., & Namie, R. F. (2011). The bully free workplace: Stop jerks, weasels, and snakes from killing your organization. Upper Saddle River, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Newell, S. (2002). Creating the healthy organisation: Wellbeing diversity and ethics at work. London: Thomson Learning.
Peyton, P. R. (2003). Dignity at work: Eliminate bullying and create a positive work environment. London: Routledge Publishers.
Putnam, L. (2015). Workplace wellness that works: 10 steps to infuse well-being and vitality into any organisation. New Jersey: Wiley.
Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organisational support: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 698–714.
Richardson, D. (2010). Austerity measures hit North West of England. World Socialist Web Site, International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) Publishers. https://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/nort-a18.shtml. Accessed August 2010.
Robinson, S. L., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 15, 245–259.
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An Introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5–14.
Silcox, S. (2007). Health work and wellbeing: Rising to the public sector attendance management challenge. ACAS Policy Discussion Paper, No. 6, May 2007.
Taylor, H., George, F., & Altman, Y. (2008). E-mail at work: A cause for concern? The implications of new communication technologies for health, wellbeing and productivity at work. Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, 5(2), 159–173.
Terkel, S. (1977). Working. Harmondsworth: Penguin Publishers.
Ulrich, D. (1997). Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Warr, P. (2002). Psychology at work. Suffolk: Penguin Group Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cvenkel, N. (2020). Evaluation of Workplace Well-Being Research: Developing Healthy, Resilient and Sustainable Organisation—A Public Sector Case Study. In: Well-Being in the Workplace: Governance and Sustainability Insights to Promote Workplace Health . Approaches to Global Sustainability, Markets, and Governance. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3619-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3619-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3618-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-3619-9
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)