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Healthy Individuals in Healthy Organizations: The Happy Productive Worker Hypothesis

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The Positive Side of Occupational Health Psychology

Abstract

The individual is the primary constituent of and the driving force behind an organization. Sickness, health-related issues, presenteeism, and sickness absenteeism could become a threat for the organization in terms of increased costs and production loss (Boles, Pelletier, & Lynch, 2004; Burton et al., 2005). On this basis, occupational health has focused on the negative aspects of working life (Christensen et al., 2012; Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004). Over time, this negative focus has been more important than the focus on health promotion and the positive factors in the working life. This is not necessarily always appropriate since workers who do well both mentally and physically also appear to be more healthy and productive (Fisher, 2003). Based on this, we will take a closer look at which factors are preventive and which are promotional for the workers experience of the psychosocial working environment, as well as at the connection between positive factors in the working life and productivity.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

    Marit Christensen

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  1. Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

    Marit Christensen

  2. Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

    Per Øystein Saksvik

  3. Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Maria Karanika-Murray

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Christensen, M. (2017). Healthy Individuals in Healthy Organizations: The Happy Productive Worker Hypothesis. In: Christensen, M., Saksvik, P., Karanika-Murray, M. (eds) The Positive Side of Occupational Health Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66781-2_13

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