For too long, organizations hiring employees have implicitly or explicitly endorsed job performance as the ultimate goal. Much of our recruitment and selection strategies are geared toward finding employees who can perform the best. Organizational training focuses on enhancing the knowledge and skills of employees so they can maximize their performance. While employee performance is fundamental to organizational success, this focus is too narrow. In this piece, my co-authors and I propose a broader vision of organizational success: well-being.
While naysayers think this contradicts organizational survival, this vision of well-being does not preclude performance. Indeed, research shows that employees who find meaning in their work and enjoy their work perform better than those who do not. There seems to be further evidence that this is a causal effect. Therefore, a complete vision of well-being encompasses performance because it is about functioning optimally at work and in life. Organizations seeking to promote well-being will care about not only performance but also ways to support employees and enable them to, in turn, foster the well-being of others within and outside the organization. With this vision, there will be emphases on the sustainability of performance balanced with mental health, a move away from the pure maximization of profit, and diversity and inclusion for its own sake without a need to justify it based on higher performance.
This view aligns with historical and current perspectives that point to the centrality of well-being in organizations and in society. Research shows that people place more value on well-being than money, and income has limits in promoting a personal sense of well-being. More countries and policymakers are recognizing we need to go beyond economics toward an economy of well-being. It begins with the businesses and organizations taking up the charge of pursuing well-being holistically.
The fascinating thing about pursuing well-being is that it complexifies what organizations seek to maximize. Instead of a unitary performance goal, we need to balance multiple goals and demands with varying levels of synergies and tensions. There are real questions that we seek to answer: How can we balance productivity and days off? How can we be authentic at work while respecting privacy? How do we enhance financial performance while protecting customer and environmental well-being? We believe this complexity adds increased rigor and realism that advances both organizational science and practice. We need to move away from simplistic solutions, univariate thinking, and single-track answers. As what it means to live life to the full — and for organizations to function optimally — changes over time, we expect more conversations and the inclusion of different perspectives to help advance this vision.
Organizations should focus on promoting well-being instead of just focusing on job performance. Research shows that employees who find meaning in their work and enjoy their work perform better than those who do not. Well-being encompasses performance and mental health, and organizations should prioritize sustainability, diversity, and inclusion for its own sake. This aligns with historical and current perspectives that people place more value on wellness than money, and more countries and policymakers are recognizing the need to go beyond economics. Pursuing wellness holistically requires balancing multiple goals and demands with varying levels of synergies and tensions. This complexity adds increased rigor and realism that advances both organizational science and practice. More conversations and the inclusion of different perspectives can help advance this vision.
Original Article: Tay, L., Batz-Barbarich, C., Yang, L., & Wiese, C. W. (2023, August 11). Well-Being: The Ultimate Criterion for Organizational Sciences. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/4v2y5
Louis Tay is the William C. Byham Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue’s College of Health & Human Sciences.
