[Professor Rob Briner] Psychological wellbeing is quite an interesting term because it's only already come into play, I'd say, in the last 20 or 30 years or so in the workplace. Previously people used to talk about things like job satisfaction or job stress, or, more recently, employee engagement. And I think psychological wellbeing is more of a kind of umbrella term that refers to all those things and more. Essentially, it refers to how people feel, going from just ordinary everyday moods and emotions, right through, I guess, to also clinical conditions like depression. So I think it's really best thought of as umbrella term for a range of feelings that people might experience at work. Managers I think should care about psychological wellbeing at work. I mean, for all kinds of reasons. One I think is an ethical reason. I think managers and organizations have a responsibility to look after the wellbeing of their employers, both in law and I think morally as well. So I think that's one reason they should care. I think the other reason they should care is because certainly it is the case that there are some evidence that how people feel at work affects their performance. Now these links are not obvious, but they are there. The better evidence does suggest there are some links, particularly around performance such as going an extra mile or what people sometimes call organizational citizenship behavior, which is where people go out of their way to actually help other people and help the organization. So there are links between how people feel and those kind of behaviors certainly. So I think both for practical moral reasons, There's good evidence I think to pay attention to, yeah. I think if you're trying to think about how psychological wellbeing is affected by organizations and managers, I think one of the most useful concepts is the psychological contract. And, essentially, what that means is the implicit agreement between employers and their employees which says this is the kind of real deal that if you do this stuff, we'll give you this good stuff in return. And, for me, one of the most telling things when psychological wellbeing is either going up or enhanced, or is going wrong or declining in some way, is that there's something wrong with that contract. Most typically what organizations do, either deliberately or accidentally, is they break promises. They imply to individuals, for example, that if they work hard, they keep their nose clean, they do the right kind of thing. Then, in return, for example, get promoted or get a pay rise. Now, if that does not materialize, the individual may feel that that deal's being broken in some way, they may feel angry, they may withdraw efforts and so on. So I think for managers, in particular, understanding what the people they manage want and what they want to give and what they want in return is a very important basis for thinking about how employees feel and what managers can do to shape that. For managers to try and manage the psychological contract, and this is not easy, I'm not saying it's an easy thing to do, but I think what they need to do is really try and understand better what they asz, an individual manager, and what the organization can give, and what their team members can give back in return. And that requires really paying a lot of attention to what people are doing and also talking to them. And this is something managers typically often want to avoid for all kinds of reasons. But actually trying to understand each person they work with as an individual. Because the other really striking thing about the psychological contract is often people want quite different things. They want to give different things at work and they wanna get different things back. And I think, for a manager, if the more they can understand that, the more they'll be able to manage that deal and I think the more they'll be able to manage the wellbeing of their employees. If the psychological wellbeing of employees gets really significantly eroded at work, I think you are moving there probably into clinical psychology territory where people may be depressed or have actual clinical sort of conditions. But moving perhaps a bit above that, as it were, to just sort of normal everyday very negative feelings. I think the main things that can happen are around withdrawal of effort. I think what individuals do when they feel unhappy is they don't wanna try anymore, they think, "Why should I bother trying?" So that's one key, I guess performance issue. The other thing, that people particularly are angry, for example, and I think it is important to talk about specific feelings here, not just general psychological wellbeing. If people are angry, they may be thinking about retribution, getting their own back, re-addressing the balance in some ways. So I think, when we are considering the impact of reduced psychological wellbeing, we have to think about specific emotions and specific feelings 'cause they will be different and have different kinds of effects. So, again, it's really back on the manager in a way to watch this and understand how the people they're managing, are actually reacting to things and what that means for their behavior. I think, if you're a manager right now who wants to try and understand more about the psychological wellbeing of the people they're working with and the people they manage, I think this sounds a bit odd, but I think the first thing is to actually think about how you are feeling yourself. I think a lot of managers are clearly under pressure to do things, they're under pressure from the people that manage them and often the way they are being individually managed obviously has trickle down effects in the way they manage other people. So, I think, understanding how you as a manager are actually feeling about yourself, your work, your organization is a very important starting point. Because the chances are if you feel upset, or happy, or excited, or whatever by different things, so are the people you're working with. So I think that's the first start. I think the second thing you can do is actually through conversations with people, talking to them about what they want to get out of work, the things they aspire to do, where they see themselves in a few months or years time, whether they're happy, whether they want other things to be happening at work for them. I think that's another very important way of understanding feelings. Generally saying to people, "How are you feeling?" Isn't a great way of finding out how people are feeling. I think if you say to people, "What do you want? "What are you getting? "What are you not getting that you think you might want?" I think is a much better way of getting in and tapping how people are feeling about the work they do and the organization they work in. © 2022 Mind Tools by Emerald Works Limited.