Neil Thompson - Promoting Workplace Well-being: A Critical Approach

Promoting Workplace Well-Being

Also by Neil Thompson

COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE (Palgrave Macmillan)

LOSS AND GRIEF (Palgrave Macmillan)

PROMOTING EQUALITY, second edition (Palgrave Macmillan)

PEOPLE PROBLEMS (Palgrave Macmillan)

PROMOTING WORKPLACE LEARNING (The Policy Press)

POWER AND EMPOWERMENT (Russell House Publishing)

THE CRITICALLY REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER, with Sue Thompson (Palgrave Macmillan)

LOSS, GRIEF AND TRAUMA IN THE WORKPLACE (Baywood)

PEOPLE SKILLS, third edition (Palgrave Macmillan)

Edited by

Neil Thompson and John Bates

Selection and editorial content Neil Thompson and John Bates 2009 Individual content contributors 2009

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First published 2009 by
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ISBN: 9780230221925 hardback

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The idea that an organizations most important resource is its human resource its people is a long-standing one, although it often remains at a rhetorical level without being translated into practice. The development of the notion of workplace well-being is part of an attempt to take seriously the idea that people are indeed important. This monograph explores the significance of addressing peoples occupational welfare needs as part of developing a more sophisticated, critical approach to human resource management. Drawing on contemporary research and theorizing, it adopts a problem-solving, empowering approach to workplace well-being issues.

Workplace problems, such as: stress; bullying and harassment; conflict; loss, grief and trauma; mental health problems; drug and alcohol problems and so on are generally dealt with in one of three ways (or a combination of them):

The ostrich approach. This involves trying to pretend that the problems do not exist or that they are not important. This is a very dangerous strategy that can seriously backfire.

The occupational health approach. This involves seeing the problems in predominantly if not exclusively medical terms. While there may indeed be a medical dimension (ill health as a result of stress, for example), a primary focus on occupational health presents a narrow and distorted view of the situation (for example, by neglecting key issues, such as power).

The psychological approach (workplace counselling and employee assistance programmes). Again there is clearly a psychological dimension to workplace problems, but there are dangers involved in privileging the psychological dimension (for example, by assuming that counselling is the appropriate response in the vast majority of cases), as this too presents a narrow and distorted view of a much more complex field of study by failing to recognize the significance of the wider social and political context.

The book provides a platform for developing a critical understanding of a range of workplace problems without making the mistakes of these three approaches. It seeks to develop a holistic approach based on a multidisciplinary understanding of the complex issues involved.

In particular, the book aims to:

Establish the importance of dealing effectively with human relations problems in the workplace in order to:

Maximize organizational effectiveness;

Promote the health, safety and welfare of employees;

Contribute to broader family and community welfare issues (work-place problems carry over into broader family and community arenas);

Reduce the risk of industrial relations problems; and

Reduce the need for litigation, tribunals and other such costly and potentially stressful processes.

Provide a multidisciplinary critical analysis of the problems commonly encountered in the workplace.

Explore strategies for dealing with such problems as part of the development of a critical approach to workplace well-being.

The book does not, of course, provide all the answers, but it should at least provide a platform for further discussion, debate and development.

Neil Thompson is a director of Avenue Consulting, a company based in Wales offering training and consultancy in relation to various aspects of well-being (www.avenueconsulting.co.uk). He has held full or honorary professorships at four UK universities and has been a speaker at conferences and seminars in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Norway, Greece, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, India, Hong Kong, Australia, the United States and Canada. He has over 100 publications to his name, including several best-selling books. Neil is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Society of Arts (elected on the basis of his contribution to workplace learning) and a Life Fellow of the Institute for Welsh Affairs. He currently edits the US-based international journal, Illness, Crisis & Loss and the quarterly e-zine, Well-being (www.well-being.org.uk). His website is at www.neilthompson.info.

John Bates EdD is an associate professor and the head of department of Social Work, Care and Justice at Liverpool Hope University. He has spent many years working in the human services and has a long-standing interest in adult learning. Recent research has focused on globalization and its impact on training and education in the human services. He has spoken at conferences in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Latvia and the United Kingdom. John is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is the author of a number of scholarly articles and book chapters, and is co-editor of a book on child protection. He is a member of the editorial board of