Cross Cultural Perspectives On Well Being And Sustainability In Organizations

This book explores a new area of psychology of sustainability and sustainable development with specific focus on organizations, and introduces a range of advanced perspectives for healthy business, harmonization and decent work. Split into two parts, the first half presents cross-cultural contributions that study in depth the benefits and drawbacks of sustainability, while the second half discusses theoretical approaches and empirical research that offer new prospects for innovation in prevention science. Gathering research from leading scholars and researchers from around the globe, this book offers an essential reference guide that will benefit researchers, professionals, students, and policy makers interested in promoting better business harmony and sustainability.

This book explores a new area of psychology of sustainability and sustainable development with specific focus on organizations, and introduces a range of advanced perspectives for healthy business, harmonization and decent work. Split into two parts, the first half presents cross-cultural contributions that study in depth the benefits and drawbacks of sustainability, while the second half discusses theoretical approaches and empirical research that offer new prospects for innovation in prevention science. Gathering research from leading scholars and researchers from around the globe, this book offers an essential reference guide that will benefit researchers, professionals, students, and policy makers interested in promoting better business harmony and sustainability.

Wellbeing in the workplace is an essential element in fostering a worker’s sense of being valued, ensuring their engagement, and ultimately leading to higher levels of productivity and organizational performance. This important book specifically adds to the discussion by taking a global perspective, and evaluates wellbeing in the workplace in different countries, identifying both universal issues and specific cultural issues. Chapter authors have been drawn from across five continents and eleven countries to provide ground-breaking research in wellbeing from different regional perspectives, looking at both developed and developing world scenarios. What is clear throughout the book is that organizations that are not people-centered undermine their capacity to attain and maintain quality standards, high performance, and competitiveness. Organizational concerns about workers' wellbeing are growing exponentially due to the global VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment. In this environment, organizational success is no longer simply based on short-term revenue maximization, capital investments, or sales, but increasingly depends on people’s wellbeing, human capital, and the development of human talent to ensure sustained and sustainable growth and performance. This book presents a collection of studies that address current and forthcoming organizational challenges and offer realistic solutions to support leaders and managers seeking to balance and value the contribution of people with long-term organizational performance.

Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing: Theories, Histories and Policies examines and assesses the interdependence between sustainability and wellbeing by drawing attention to humans as producers and consumers in a post-human age. Why wellbeing ought to be regarded as essential to sustainable development is explored first from multifocal theoretical perspectives encompassing sociology, literary criticism and socioeconomics, second in relation to institutions and policies, and third with a focus on specific case studies across the world. Wellbeing and its sustainability are defined in terms of biological and cultural diversity; stages of advancement in science and technology; notions of citizenship and agency; geopolitical scenarios and environmental conditions. Wellbeing and sustainability call for enquiries into human capacities in ontological, epistemological and practical terms. A view of sustainability that revolves around material and immaterial wellbeing is based on the assumption that life quality, comfort, happiness, security, safety always posit humans as both recipients and agents. Risk and resilience in contemporary societies define the intrinsically human ability to make and consume, to act and adapt, driving the search for and fruition of wellbeing. How to sustain the dual process of exploitation and regeneration is a task that requires integrated approaches from the sciences and the humanities, jointly tracing a worldwide cartography with clear localisations. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers interested in sustainability through conceptual and empirical approaches including social theory, literary and cultural studies, environmental economics and human ecology, urbanism and cultural geography.

This volume answers calls for improving sustainability and sustainable development in organizations from a psychological point of view. It offers a range of perspectives on the current research in the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development to highlight effective ways of improving well-being and healthy sustainable development in organizations. Section 1 introduces the concept of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development as well as macro topics of related issues in organizations. Section 2 focuses on themes traditionally recognized in organizational psychology literature, such as performance, negotiation, leadership, resistance to change, innovation, and digital transformation. Section 3 presents variables to enhance sustainability and sustainable development in organizations and considers levels of prevention. Topics include humor awareness as a primary prevention resource in organizations, intrapreneurial self-capital as an individual preventative strength, compassion within organizations, perfectionism as an inhibitor in organizational contexts, and job crafting from individual to collaborative to organizational, meaningfulness and sustainable careers. With a clear psychological focus on the topic of leading sustainability efforts, this book will be of great interest to students and academics who want to learn more about corporate sustainability. It is also a useful resource for business executives, team leaders and managers.

​This book explores the historical, foundational, and applied elements of sustainability theory and practice as relevant to the leadership, management, and innovation of organizations, companies and enterprises. It provides analytical and critical reviews of the current evolution of sustainability for people, planet, prosperity, innovation and impact. Divided into four parts, the work offers an integrated model of development for creating and delivering sustainability values at the personal, organizational, societal and environmental levels. The different sections examine sustainability leadership (focusing on of ethics, values, and purpose), sustainability management (focusing on organizational effectiveness and stakeholders’ wellbeing), sustainability innovation (focusing on social and environmental entrepreneurship), and sustainability impact (focusing on resilience, interconnectedness, consciousness, systemic thinking, and cosmic empathy for the common good and common future). Combining theoretical and practical applications that give the reader a deeper, scientific, and critical understanding of the urgent, complex, and necessary values for a sustainable future for all, this comprehensive text is a must-read for researchers and students alike, providing a framework for effective globally responsible leadership.

The labor market is evolving very rapidly in recent years, in Europe and worldwide. The fast and deep changes brought a brand-new context of challenges and occupational risks to the attention of stakeholders. The current global financial crisis has increased the economic pressures on companies and they in turn have intensified the effects on employees, particularly in terms of new competition contexts and a lot of stress and mental health issues. Concurrently, social, political, and environmental problems generate under-employment, over-qualification, over-education, low wages for skilled workers, and unmet demand for education. Consequently, both high skilled and low skilled immigrant workers are increasing. In addition, workplaces are continually changing in step with the introduction of new technologies, materials, and work processes, together with the changes in the labor market, the new forms of employment, and the new work organizations. These changes lead to new opportunities for employees and employers – but also to new risks or re-actualization of old organizational risks. According to the EU-OSHA, the key points that describe the evolution that is currently ongoing in the world of work are globalization, the technical innovation, and the aging population. On one hand, some older potential risks are reappearing in organizations: intensive fear and worries, organizational anxiety, boredom, physical violence, alienation, segregation, loneliness, and isolation. On the other hand, re-emerging perceived organizational features seem vital for organizations and more important today than ever. Central constructs in the study of organizational behavior and organizational health such as perceived organizational support, commitment in organizational context, socialization processes, change capacity of organizations, perceived organizational justice, ergonomics, and motivation, nowadays seem increasingly important and renewed.

Filling a significant gap in the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary literature within the field of Pasifika (Polynesian) and Maori identities and mental health, this volume focuses on bridging mental health related research and practice within the indigenous communities of the South Pacific. Much of the content reflects both differences from and relationships with the dominant Western theories and practices so often unsuccessfully applied with these groups. The contributors represent both experienced researchers and practitioners and address topics such as research examining traditional and emerging Pasifika identities; contemporary research and practice in working with Pasifika youth and adolescents; culturally-appropriate approaches for working with Pasifika adults; and practices in supervision that have been developed by Maori and Pasifika practitioners. Chapters include practice scenarios, research reports, analyses of topical issues, and discussions about the appropriateness of applying Western theory in other cultural contexts. As Pasifika cultures are still primarily oral cultures, the works of several leading Maori and Pasifika poets that give voice to the changing identities and contemporary challenges within Pacific communities are also included.