Abstract
Ph.D.
Most people‘s future aspiration and dreams are closely linked to the work activities that they engage in on a daily basis. Work is a central theme in human evolution and plays a key role in the social and economic spheres of human existence (Blustein, 2006; Donkin, 2001; Fouad & Bynner, 2008). However, the vocational landscape has undergone prolific changes in recent times and the way in which work is organised and performed has changed dramatically from preceding eras (Chipunza & Berry, 2010). These changes have contributed to the production of highly stressful and pressured working conditions that adversely impact employees‘ overall wellness (Blouin, Chopra, & Van der Hoeven, 2009; Marmot, Siegrist, & Theorell, 2006).
Organisational responses to employee stress have historically been embedded in the pathogenic paradigm, which aims to minimise the direct financial cost of distressed and vulnerable employees through providing some form of prevention-based employee therapy (Wright, 2003). However, as organisations become increasingly dependent on employees who are willing to conduct multiple in-role and extra-role work activities they are shifting their focus towards the total wellbeing of their workers. Clearly, key organisational goals will not be achieved with a workforce that is simply healthy in the traditional sense of the word, implying that employees are symptom-free and do not suffer from physical illness (Ulrich, 1997). Instead, organisational goals will most likely only be achieved through the promotion of workforce wellness, which refers to not only counteracting the adverse impact of highly demanding work environments on employee health but also promoting engagement and flourishing at work.
Research on occupational wellness has a rich tradition of describing and measuring the ways in which job characteristics external to the person (e.g. job design, technology, and organisational structure) impact on employees‘ well-being (Briner, Harris, & Daniels, 2004; Mark & Smith, 2010). Although occupational wellness has largely been associated with organisational and environmental factors recent research suggests that perceptions of work wellness are equally influenced by employees‘ individual cognitive-affective tendencies (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Bakker & Derks, 2009). Work wellness can therefore be viewed as a function of the dynamic interaction between job characteristics and personal attributes, with personality potentially moderating the relationship between stressor and strain outcomes (Swider & Zimmerman, 2010; Van den Heuvel, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2010).