Why should I care?

HWB, culture and behavioursDr Wilson Wong

CREATING AND DEVELOPING A HEALTH AND WELLBEING CULTURE

Chester University 1st May 2013

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Today’s talk...• Main determinants of worker well-being• Changing behaviour – nudge?• Well-being culture?• Thoughts for the day

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Main psychological determinants of worker well-being

Psychological Contract Employment prospects

Choice Job characteristics

Support Tenure

Parties Employer obligations

Employee obligations

Elements

a. Content of PC

b. Fulfilment of PC

c. Violation of PC

d. Fairness & trust

a. Content of PC

b. Fulfilment of PC

a. Job insecurity

b. Employability

a. Contract of choice

b. Job of choice

c. Profession of choice

a. whether characteristics (e.g. Variety, standardisation, repetitiveness)

b. B. Individual difference

a. Organisational support

b. Supervisory support

a. Duration of contract

b. Time leftc. History of

temp working

d. Expectations of further work

e. Motives for temporary working

3adapted from Guest, Isaksson & de Witte, 2010

Nudges towards health

4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZKm9OsclNI

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Michie. Van stralen & West’s Behaviour Change Wheel

HWB culture?

We can think of culture as the accumulated shared learning of a given group, covering behavioral, emotional, and cognitive elements of the group members’ total psychological functioning. For such shared learning to occur, there must be a history of shared experience that, in turn, implies some stability of membership in the group. Given such stability and a shared history, the various shared elements to form into patterns that eventually can be called a culture.Edgar Schein2004

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Culture formation

8Group

Major concepts (associated with culture)

• Observed behavioral regularities in interactions (language, rituals)

• Group norms• Espoused values• Formal philosophy• Rules of the game• Climate• Embedded skills• Habits of thinking, mental models and/or linguistic paradigms• Shared meanings• “Root metaphors” or integrating symbols

• Culture implies structural stability and patterning or integration

Thoughts for the day• There are areas that are outside your control• Externalities matter (e.g. Income disparities only matter if

you are poorer Oishi, Kesebir & Diener 2011)• Treat employees as adults• When you make promises, Keep them • Have discipline of Job design, workload planning• Designer culture – caution, but if you must identify and

engage opinion leaders (Rogers, 2003)

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Thank youDr Wilson Wong

w.wong@cipd.co.uk@drwilsonwong

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References• Butterworth, P. Leach LS, Strazdins L, et al. (2011). The psychosocial quality of work determines whether

employment has benefits for mental health: Results from a longitudinal national household panel survey. Occup Environ Med. doi:10.1136/oem.2010.059030

• Department of HealthGuest, D. E., Isakson, K. & De Witte, H. (2010) (Eds.). Employment contracts, psychological contracts, and employee well-being: An international study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Michie, S., van Stralen, M. M. & West, R. (2011). The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Downloaded on 29.04.2013 from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186%2F1748-5908-6-42

• Oishi, Shigehiro, Kesebir, Selin, & Diener, Ed. (2011). Income inequality and happiness. Psychological Science, 22(9), 1095-1100.

• Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.) New York: Free Press.• Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. 3rd Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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