The paradox of employee psychological well-being practices: an integrative literature review and new directions for research
Loon, Mark ; Otaye-Ebede, Lilian ; Stewart, Jim
International Journal of Human Resource Management
2019
30
1-2
January
156-187
well being ; occupational psychology ; work performance ; human resources
Occupational psychology and sociology
https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1479877
English
Bibliogr.
"It is well established that many HR practices aimed at increasing employees' psychological wellbeing (PWB) and organisational performance conflict and even contradict one another. We address this long-standing issue by undertaking an innovative integrative literature review using the paradox metatheory as a lens. Unlike the contingency approach, a paradox perspective deems real-world tensions as normal, which can also be harnessed, and benefit employees and the organisation. We make three contributions; firstly, we identify contradictory employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices; secondly, we offer a solution in addressing the inherent tension between PWB and organisational performance by developing a new sensemaking conceptual framework; and thirdly, we offer a more nuanced perspective of prevailing arguments by distinguishing endogenous factors that organisations can influence to enhance the synergies between employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices. The intended impact of this paper is to instigate a paradigm shift and shape a new trajectory of thinking about how employee PWB and organisational performance practices can exist side-by-side."
Paper
The ETUI is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ETUI.