Edited by Mental Health Deepi Hooda Risks and Resources NovRattan Sharma Publish by Global Vision Publishing House

Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital Kaveri Chauhan, Nov Rattan Sharma and Amrita Yadava

It is assumed that an individual, who is well, is a healthy being. Wellness can have varying, widely accepted meaning as it’s conceptualization depends on the context. Wellness should be the focus when considering the human being (employee) in a balanced entity, aiming at reaching optimum well-being, satisfaction and gainfully employed. There is a need in the field of organizational psychology, human resource management, sociology and those researching and applying wellness in the workplace to have a common conceptualization for wellness ( Satisfaction, subjective well- being and gainful employment), where these concepts are integrated by using an holistic approach (Chauhan, 2013). Thompson (1997) defines wellness as “an attitude characterized by a strong sense of personal responsibility that is also characterized by the intentional choice of healthier life and balance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health”. According to Reardon (1998) wellness can be defined as “a composite of physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, occupational, and social health; health promotion is the means to achieve wellness” A review of literature provides many different definitions of wellness. Wicken (2000) defines wellness as “….an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful

Kaveri Chauhan, Junior Research fellow, RAC, DRDO, New Delhi. [email protected] Akbar Husain, Professor & Head, Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Amrita Yadava, Professor, Department of Psychology, M. D. University, Rohtak [email protected] 112 Mental Health: Risks and Resources existence”. Reese (2001) refers to wellness as… “a self awareness process of health and altering behavior, aiming towards a healthier physical, mental, emotional, psychological, occupational and spiritual state”. Thus, in concrete terms, wellness can be considered as an individual’s ability to bounce back and to cope with day to day challenges. In the work sector, employees’ wellness can be considered as the centre of lifestyle choices and form the basis of new work style where employees expect their employers to provide them with options and services in terms of increasing their well-being, satisfaction with job, information and training, varieties in duty, promotion and also gainful employment.

COMPONENTS OF WELLNESS It is clear from the definitions that wellness of a person can be related to so many aspects of health such as, physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional and occupational wellness. In the context of employee wellness, two main components of wellness are the emotional (well-being) and occupational ( and gainful employment) health of the employee. These variables can be taken into consideration for measuring and studying employees’ wellness.

Job Satisfaction Generally people spend almost half of their life at the workplace without a feeling of satisfaction with their work. Sometimes job is an obligation for them, as they have to work for their livelihood. Job satisfaction can be used to describe and conceptualize the meaning of wellness in the context of employment. Employees bring intellectual and physical abilities and time to their . Many individuals try to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others through working. A salary cheque is not the only motive for wanting a job. Jobs can be used to attain special goals. When a job meets or exceeds an individual’s expectation, the individual often experiences positive emotions. These positive emotions represent job satisfaction. The term job satisfaction, which could be considered Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital 113 as individuals’ attitudes towards their jobs, has been examined not only by organisational scientists as a human behaviour influencing organisations, but also psychologists and social psychologists because these occur in society and affect communities. The end product of job satisfaction is self described , also called subjective well-being. Since the dawn of civilization great thinkers have discussed the quality of human existence and “the good life.” To some individuals the ideal state is one of wealth, to others, having significant relationships, while some report helping those in needs is central. These individuals vary in external circumstance, yet they may share a subjective feeling of well-being. The term “subjective well-being” refers to people’s evaluations of their lives - including cognitive judgments, such as life satisfaction; and affective evaluations (moods and emotions), such as positive and negative emotional feelings. Subjective well-being as potential psychological capital encompasses one’s perception and feelings of emotional well-being which includes positive and negative affects, life satisfaction, and happiness; psychological well-being i.e. self acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life (Hooda, Yadava, Sharma, (2010). Diener (1984) used the term subjective well-being to describe individuals’ overall experience in life and suggested that it essentially reflected employees’ self-described happiness. The meaning of happiness is used to denote the preponderance of positive affects such as joy, interest, and pride over the negative affects such as sadness, anxiety, and anger (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). Subjective well-being is composed of several major components, including global life satisfaction, contentment with specific life domains, the presence of frequent positive affect (pleasant moods and emotions), and a relative absence of negative affect (unpleasant moods and emotions). The major components are reduced into more specific elements. Positive affect is commonly divided into joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness and ecstasy. Negative affect is separated into guilt and shame, sadness, anxiety and worry, anger, stress, depression, and envy. 114 Mental Health: Risks and Resources

Gainful Employment Sigmund Freud was the first person who used the bold statement that a healthy life is one in which a person has the ability to love and to work (O’Brien, 2003). Snyder (2007) coined the term gainful employment to study this kind of concept. Simply defined gainful employment is the work one can do for income, and income drives the livelihood and purchasing power with a few exceptions. An employment would be regarded as gainful if an individual is engaged in it with a wish, expectation and purpose of obtaining remuneration or benefit in return for services or hard work. It is in fact paid for services performed, whether or not there is any desire expectation or intention of obtaining compensation. Gainful employment is also called worthwhile or profitable employment; an occupation that pays an income. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the Gainful Employment Rule “requires schools to provide their students with an education adequate enough for them to pay their college loans back” so that they will be gainfully employed after they graduate from college. In October 2010, the Barack Obama administration designed a set of rules to provide aid for the educational institutions. They expect this funding to protect students from inappropriate recruiting practices and increase information about the quality and effectiveness of college and training programs. Income apparently appears to be the primary extrinsic motivation for undertaking a job, as it is instrumental in meeting the basic needs of an individual. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs provides a theoretical basis for understanding the concept of gainful employment. Initially the quest of an individual is to satisfy physiological needs which include food, drink, and shelter, without fulfillment of which the other basic needs of life cannot be met. Employment provides the means to maintain a satisfying lifestyle. The next level is the need for personal and psychological safety i.e. protecting oneself and one’s family. This need is met through job security, benefits, on the job safety and the potential for advancement and minimal stress at work. The need for belongingness, affiliation, acceptance, and feeling fulfilled and appreciated is also met by the Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital 115 way a person feels and the things they do to ensure their, and their family’s happiness and the need for co-workers to interact and relate to one another. The next step is the need for a positive self- esteem which is important in the quest of self-actualization as it is associated with the employee’s abilities, confidence, and loyalty and is dictated by the frequency of positive recognition, additional responsibilities, and the possibility of high status within the company. This need hierarchy is reflected in the nine benefits of gainful employment proposed by Snyder and Lopez (2007) which are as follows: 1. Variety in duties performed 2. Safe working environment 3. Income for family and oneself 4. A purpose derived from providing a product or service 5. Happiness and satisfaction 6. Positive engagement and involvement 7. A sense of performing well and meeting goals 8. Friendships at work 9. An environment that respects and appreciates diversity Thus, gainful employment is based less on one’s external work environment and more on one’s perspective of employment as either a job (focus on financial rewards and necessity), a (focus on advancement), or a calling (focus on enjoyment of fulfilling, socially useful work). Individuals who view their work as a calling experience overall increased satisfaction.

WELLNESS AT THE WORKPLACE Three major types of interventions of wellness have been delineated by Price water house Coopers (2008), the world’s largest multinational professional services firm headquartered in London. These are: 1. Occupational fitness and security requirements (e.g. interventions designed to protect individuals from 116 Mental Health: Risks and Resources

occupational risks based on government policy and legal requirements) 2. Supervision of poor health (e.g. ‘reactive interventions’ including return to work schemes, disability management, and rehabilitation) 3. Prevention and promotion (e.g. health promotion activities i.e. good nutrition, physical activity, smoking cessation, healthy environment i.e. wellness teams, policies, physical environment including provision of showers/lockers, gym facilities, etc., work/life balance, time/stress management schemes, etc.). An organisation is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, controls its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its environment. There are a variety of legal types of organisations, including: corporations, governments, non- governmental organisations, international organisations, armed forces, charities, not-for-profit corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, and universities. A hybrid organisation is a body that operates in both the public sector and the private sector, simultaneously fulfilling public duties and developing commercial market activities. As a result the hybrid organisation becomes a mixture of both a part of government and a private corporation. A better understanding and beginning empirical scrutiny of the newly emerging concept of psychological capital would be particularly relevant when Indian organizations are preparing to compete in the global economy. Although recognized through the years, recently renewed attention has been given in the field of organizational behaviour to the important role that placing emphasis on the positive nature and strengths of individuals can have on their wellness. “The study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement,” —Luthans (2002) Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital 117

Mount, Barrick, and Stewart (1998) stated that most of the research attention has been given to testing the relationship of positively-oriented self-evaluation traits such as self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and emotional stability as well as to personality and performance. Researches on the impact of positive psychological states on wellness (Gainful Employment: Sense of performing well and respect for diversity) have been almost ignored by the field of organisational behaviour. In recent times using a positive organizational behaviour approach largely based on positive psychological states (Luthans, 2003).

DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL There are four main positive capacities of positive psychological capital explained as under: • Confidence: According to Craig (2007) self confidence can be taken as ‘Being certain in your own abilities….and about have trust in people, plans or the future’. No doubt, confidence (self-efficacy) is explained in the PsyCap model as “believing in one’s ability to mobilize cognitive resources to obtain specific outcomes”, (Luthans & Youssef, 2004). Therefore, it illustrates on earlier work (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998) and especially that of Bandura who defined perceived self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments”, (Luthans, 1997). In simple words, confidence offers a person beneficial cognitive process and certain openness to challenge, and a willingness to apply effort in the pursuit of a successful result even though the person expects a positive return on that investment. • Hope: This state is illustrated in PsyCap model as “having the willpower and pathways to attain one’s goals”, (Luthans & Youssef, 2004). In fact hopeful people experience more positive feelings than those who have a more miserable approach towards life. This description is derived from 118 Mental Health: Risks and Resources

Snyder et al. (1991), who described hope to be a motivational state whereby two elements as goal-directed strength of mind and planning to achieve those goals interact. Hope is both the existence of wish to attain goals or aims which imply an effect on or relationship to motivation and the capability to conceive a strategy for attaining those goals or aims. Hopeful people are not rigid but they are likely to be flexible thinkers’ look for substitute pathways to achieve their goals. • Optimism: It illustrated in PsyCap model as “explanatory style that attributes positive events to internal, permanent and pervasive causes, and negative events to external, temporary, and situation- specific ones”, (Luthans & Youssef, 2004). It represents the definition employed by Seligman (2002), who described two dimensions of optimism in terms of the degree of durableness one perceives in a variable, and pervasiveness. For example, optimists will see a negative event as momentary and a positive event as everlasting. Optimists will see a negative basis, for example, as specific to an event and not to all events, and will see a positive cause in the reverse fashion. No doubt, optimistic individuals are appeared also to be future-focused, whereby the optimist is more likely to expect that future events will be positive in nature, regardless of present circumstances. • Resiliency: Another positive attribute is resilience, a person’s ability to overcome and often flourish from some substantial life events. Resilience in the PsyCap model is defined as “having the capacity to bounce back from adversity, failure or even positive but seemingly overwhelming changes such as increased responsibility”, (Luthans & Youssef, 2004). Resilience has been given the least attention in organisational literature. Such events are often shocking: tragedy, disaster, accident, breakdown, failure, loss, or catastrophe causes an individual to confront and cope with a situation that often psychologically Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital 119

negatively affects others. Previous work in the area of child psychology suggests that resilience is an observable fact. A large number of research studies have been carried out in context of psychological capital and wellness. In the following pages, pertinent investigations have been reviewed on positive psychological capital and wellness.

Positive Psychological Capital and Wellness The technology changes have resulted in a loss of control over working shifts, in an increasing sense of job insecurity. Ryff & Singer (1998) traced philosophical writings of wellness and concluded that the key dimensions in life central to positive mental health are having purpose in life, quality connections to others, self-regard and mastery. Ryff & Singer define human well-being as a multi- dimensional process that involves intellectual, social, emotional and physical health. This definition implies that health is regarded as the presence of the positive in the mind as well as in the body. The assessable and manageable nature of these capabilities is most critical to developing relevant research by focusing on those factors that can be thus affected. Positive organisational behaviour presents a clear authorisation for the development of tools that respond directly to the requirements of practitioners. Perhaps the principle contribution of the positive research framework and positive organisational behaviour lies in the fact that the approach is generative. It avoids pursuit of the root of dysfunction, looks instead for the root of distinction, and seeks to build that distinctive potency as a sustainable asset. Cole, Daly & Mak (2009) examined the relationship between work, well-being and psychological capital. Research shows that negatively affects a person’s well-being, which in turn can impair their ability to regain employment. Many organisations have implemented practices that try to reduce costs and increase productivity lead to a mentality that favours profitability over the welfare of people. There is a prominence 120 Mental Health: Risks and Resources role of, healthy living, well-being, gainful employment and job satisfaction to strike a balance between life at workplace and personal life. Consider that impact of wellness will have on the workforce cannot be denied and there should be no change to the mind sets of workers and the way in which organisations deal with these issues. There are factors such as happiness, well-being, satisfaction, and health, positive communities and institutions that foster good lives and gainful employment, economic, and environmental policies that promote harmony and sustainability. Practical applications of positive psychological capital include helping individuals and organisations identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain their respective levels of wellness. Luthans (2002a) stated that the value of to organisations and organisational research is most evident. According to Fredrickson (1998) the long-established focus on the negative marginalises emotion and affective states, particularly those such as joy, hope, interest, and love. A number of notable researchers support the positive research trend, arguing that psychologists have little knowledge of the valued subjective experiences that contribute to desired outcomes and psychological health (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Wright (2003) agrees that the emphasis on negative aspects of human nature is one reason why much applied psychological research is seen to have little relevance to organisational research. Building on the foundation laid by Seligman, Luthans contends the need for an examination of positive organisational behaviour (Luthans, 2002b) that moves beyond the popular style of self-help publications for practicing managers towards research-backed, theoretically sound solutions to real-world problems. Thus, positive organisational behaviour is defined By Luthans (2002a) as “The study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement.” Sun, Zhao, Yang & Fan (2011) provided empirical evidence on the relationships between psychological capital, job embeddedness and performance Wellness and Positive Psychological Capital 121 of 1000 nurses. These findings suggest that higher psychological capital increases the self-reported job embeddedness and performance of these nurses. Present economy is in a sliding phase, rising unemployment, worries about future job loss, lack of access to affordable fitness care, burnout, absenteeism, pessimism are among some of the challenges creating noticeable stress in the lives of individuals, their families as well as in society. These stressors are having some impact on the day to day lives of people in the workplace. Positive psychology plays a vital role in helping people to cope more effectively and unlock their feelings and minds to move ahead with spanking confidence, resilience, determination, hope, and vision for a better future. The concepts of positive psychology can help individuals and their organisations to create a more positive and proactive workplace that bridges economic and personal wellness. Wellness of employee at workplace can boost morale, improve health and fitness and increase productivity in the organisation. Rewarding individuals’ accomplishments is another way to keep them excited, living with positive attitude and healthy lifestyle. Mortazavi, Yazdi & Amini (2012) studied that healthy organisations such as hospital have found out the importance of quality of work life of their personnel. A test based upon a sample of 207 nurses of four hospitals reveals that Psychological Capital has positive impacts on quality of work life. Through wellness organisations try to promote a work environment that encourages healthy behaviours and by providing the tools, resources, and education necessary to support healthful living of individuals which may lead to improvement in psychological capital. In sum, psychological capital or positivity lead to wellness in the physical, emotional, spiritual, occupational, intellectual and social areas of life. On the other hand decrement in positivity lead to stress, anger, jealousy, turnover, absenteeism, burnout, dissatisfaction, ignorance, lack of goal orientation, unhappiness, lack of interest, boredom, unworthiness, biased etc. Psychological capital, when applied correctly can provide individuals with a greater opportunity 122 Mental Health: Risks and Resources to use skills and vary work duties efficiently and lead to better performance resulting in healthy work environment. Though, it is important to remember that changing work conditions and roles can lead to stress amongst individuals if they are not properly supported by organizations or society in their venture.

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