| Brief guides to the Psychology of: | Subject |
| Attentiveness |
Attentiveness is the single most important behaviour in building and sustaining personal performance, psychological wellbeing, commitment of others in you, trust of others in you, and your personal status in the eyes of others. |
| Positive Work Cultures |
Creating a Positive Work Culture is a major step towards increasing wellbeing and performance of individuals and organisations. |
| Psychological contract |
The psychological contract is a personal and intellectual unwritten contract between an employee and his or her employer. It is based on a sense of fairness; that the employer is treating the employee fairly in all the circumstances. |
| Career development |
Career development programmes are a key ingredient for gaining commitment and trust between employees and their organisation, and in achieving better business and service performance. They show interest in the individual and demonstrate attentiveness to the needs of staff. |
| Change at work |
Change is a constant feature in our lives. Psychologically we cope with change according to our personality type, and the processes of change that take place. Change is about uncertainty over the future, and our need to survive in the face of uncertainty. Different personality types deal with uncertainty in different ways. |
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| Commitment and trust at work |
Many organisations fail to establish a clear purpose with the consequences of ‘luke warm’ commitment by staff. Such organisations perform below their optimum and carry a heavy cost in replacing and supporting staff whose level of commitment results in under personal performance. Such situations place organisations at risk. |
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| Conflict, bullying and harassment at work |
Conflicts, bullying and harassment at work cause significant psychological distress to those involved and may create a ‘ripple effect’ of psychological distress for those working adjacent to the conflicting parties. Sickness, absence and staff turnover increases, and the general level of staff performance deteriorates. |
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| Dignity at work |
Organisations that promote Dignity at Work have a clear, unambiguouse purpose; an atmosphere of confidence; staff who behave respectfully towards each other; staff who go the extra mile; staff who are challenged and staff who are personally driven. |
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| Diversity and equality at work |
Case study. A multi professional organisation located in a community of mixed races, genders and religions undertook a staff survey recently. One of the results was an expression of outrage that the most senior positions in the organisation were largely filled by white males which didn’t reflect the balances in the surrounding community. The question was asked – why? |
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| Employee engagement |
Employee engagement is central to the success of all organisations. It is achieved by embedding the principles of Psychological health and wellbeing at work. It leads to organisational success. Stress levels, sickness, absence and staff turnover are all significantly reduced; quality and financial success are significantly greater. |
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| Growth and expansion at work |
Every time an organisation expands it creates a ‘new’ organisation. The implication is that top management needs to review "the purpose","the architecture", "the ‘rules’ for running the new organisation" and "training required to implement the ‘rules’". |
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| Management encouragement |
Managers at all levels are role models for others. They, therefore, need to be capable of managing people, and strong enough to provide trainees with a broad range of opinion and views about every management challenge including challenges to their own management capability. |
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| Management performance |
The behaviour of leaders in their relationship with staff is critical in the promotion of psychological health and wellbeing at work. Leaders who cause psychological distress also cause poor performance in staff, as well as themselves, and contribute to costly staff sickness, absence and turnover. |
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| Manager - employee relationship |
The manager-employee relationship is at the heart of creating and sustaining psychological health and wellbeing at work. A breakdown at this level is the major contributor to sickness, absence and staff turnover. Creating positive relationships based on trust significantly eliminates the risk of psychological distress. |
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| Mergers |
Mergers normally result in ‘new’ organisations being created. This requires an approach that establishes Psychological health and wellbeing at work – clear purpose, flat structure, new ‘rules’ for the new organisation, and training for staff in how the ‘rules’ should operate in practice. Merging organisations should be provided with the opportunity of ‘grieving’ for the loss of former organisations. |
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| Organisation design |
Organisation design has a major and significant impact on psychological health and wellbeing of people at work. The flatter the design the more involved staff become and the greater their commitment. The flatter the structure the less management overhead is needed to achieve peak performance and the staff commitment to the organisation is greater and more effective. |
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| Organisational citizenship |
Organisation citizenship is reflected in the positive manner in which the needs of clients and customers are identified and satisfied. Organisation citizenship exists where all members of the organisation believe themselves to be ambassadors for the organisation, have a strong sense of ‘ownership’ and support each other in promoting the organisation in the best possible way. |
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| Recruitment |
In a recruitment process there are always two or more people involved – the person with the vacancy and the person seeking to fill it. They always have contrasting expectations and perceptions of the job. These contrasts need to be exposed, discussed and resolved. |
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| Redundancy |
Redundancy is a public process conducted in private. All employees become aware of redundancies taking place, and are particularly concerned about their own position in the company. Communication (not broadcasts) about the situation conveyed to all employees is essential to maintain the highest levels of Psychological wellbeing in such circumstances. |
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| Staff retention |
Staff are more likely to remain at work if the organisation embeds Psychological health and wellbeing at work. Psychological health and wellbeing is achieved in organisations that adopt the principles of commitment and trust. |
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| Staff turnover |
Organisations that have a strong culture of commitment and trust between employees and their employer have lower staff turnover, less costs, higher productivity and compete more effectively. Providing opportunities for career development within the same organisation, or secondment to another, increases commitment and trust and reduces staff turnover. |
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| Team working |
Some teams are not what they appear. They may suffer from ‘groupthink’ a situation where the team is so tightly bound together (for whatever reason) that it fails to respond to changes taking place around it, and fails to absorb information to which is should respond. Teams should be comprised of individuals with complementary skills, knowledge and experience which, when working well, creates a team with effectiveness that is ‘greater than the sum of its parts’. |
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| Training and development |
Training and development opportunities are key to creating and sustaining commitment and trust between staff and their employing organisation. Most people seek to acquire new skills and expand their knowledge and understanding of their subject. It is the ‘seed corn’ for the future of all organisations and demonstrates the value placed by the organisation in its staff development. |
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| Work life balance |
Work life balance is more than providing a framework that enables employees to balance home and domestic commitments and working arrangements. It is about the culture of the organisation in relation to unexpected, but critical, events that almost everyone experiences at some time in their working lives. |
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| Organisational Health - The story so far |
Since organisations began they have been the ‘showcase’ for man’s inability to get along with his fellow workers. Instead of organisations existing to be greater than the sum of their parts, (which is why they exist in the first place) many organisations experience some parts or workers by-passing or ignoring others for a peaceful time – in other words, avoiding psychological distress in order to survive. The result is damaging to the organisation with under performance; under-achievement; personal misery and financial cost. |
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| Embedding Psychological health and wellbeing at work - Getting started |
The first step is to facilitate a round table discussion with senior managers, HR managers, Occupation Health and Employee Assistance staff to examine issues around psychological health and wellbeing as they apply to their own organisation, its purpose, location and staff. |
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| Embedding Psychological health and wellbeing at work - Programmes and services |
Programmes and services to embed psychological health and wellbeing should include: Corporate Programmes that focus on the organisational context and cultures. Programmes that focus on the behaviours and performance of leaders and managers. Programmes and Brief Guides that focus on Psychological ‘hot spots’ at work. |
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| Programmes to improve leadership behaviours at work |
The leadership programme is based around 5 modules. These can be delivered in several ways, but the most effective is a combination of workshop, learning set and a project where the skills, knowledge and experience can be applied in practice with appropriate support. |
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| Stress, health, wellbeing and performance management - Training programme |
Research into stress management in the workplace indicates that symptoms can be temporarily relieved, but without 'transformation of the workplace culture' through delivery of effective manager behaviours, the stressed employee becomes demotivated, ineffective, careless and then takes sick leave and ultimately quits his employment at huge cost to the employer. |
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| Psychological distress at work - Causes and solutions |
Primary causes: Leaders, managers and people Secondary causes: Change, adverse life events, mergers, acquisitions, growth, downsizing, collapse, uncertainty Tertiary causes: Harassment, bullying, autocratic leadership, intimidation, insecurity, lack of personal control, loss or bereavement, excessive demands |
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| 3 Steps to embed Psychological health and wellbeing at work |
Step one – assessment. Step two – a strategy to embed Psychological health and wellbeing at work. Step three - implementation |
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