Introduction
Psychology is applied academically in the study of mind, behavior and their underlying mechanisms, especially for the humans. Psychology has a tendency of focusing on negative issues in the human behavior, a characteristic which has been shown in organizations and individuals. Positive psychology refers to the scientific study of the well-being of man as he grows up to old age, what can be referred to as worthy living. This study therefore has revealed that positive well-being and happiness of the employee and the entire management are essential for good business prosperity as it is essential for any individual in the society. The aim of this study is to create an understanding that builds good relationship amongst people in various organizations. Well-being of the employees is becoming increasingly important to many organizations and it provides the link between happy, healthy staff and their long-term success. This has been shown by the ability of people in positive emotions, as having been more creative, deals better with complexity, diversity & stress and seen to be more flexible to any coming new situations. In addition, the study identifies what causes the absence of positive well being in many workers, and uses some sociological theories to explain how this positive well being may lead to the unleashing of the full potential of the employees, leading to better business performance. This brings to the realization that positive well being of employees carries significant benefits in their health. This can be done on different levels in organizations; extra-work activities may be set to allow harmonious interaction among employees and develop the spirit of positive well-being through morale boosting and better workplace relationships. In the other levels, the individual persons can be directed on training and developmental initiatives towards achieving these goals. Lastly, the management can be obligated to enhance the positive well-being of those they manage, to ensure good working environment between them and the sub-ordinates.
Concepts of applying positive psychology
Some theories have been developed to explain how this “positive psychology” can be achieved in the working environment particularly in the organizations in Singapore and thus leading to well-being of the employees, a thing that maximizes output. They include: Sustainable Happiness Model, broaden and Build theory of positive emotions and the self determination theory. Research has shown that, the key drivers of positive well-being at places of work are interest and challenge, the characteristics that have led to employees exhibiting commitment and satisfactory performance.
In the field of positive psychology the “Sustainable Happiness Model” theory indicates that happiness level is neither static nor beyond your control but you can not boost your own ‘happiness levels’ for only your own good, doing so will bring many benefits to you and the people around you. Workers in organizations should be taught on the strategies of sustaining happiness especially in the working place, since this boosts their health and morale while working. Different strategies (depending on the area a person is in), have been developed on ways in which to help individual employees achieve happiness. Prior to learning these strategies, you first have to see happiness as achievable and significant to you, before opening yourself to good health and high output in the daily working occupations plus the lives of the people around you. Some of the strategies include; getting clear about happiness, choosing happiness for your health, being happy and extending the same to people around you, committing acts of kindness, being optimistic and practicing joyful activities. Therefore, organizations in Singapore should make their workers happy, because we have seen that happy people view the world in a positive way and this can enhance the working morale of employees.
The other theory of positive psychology is, “The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions”. It gives the concept that positive emotions are comprised in the many forms of functional subsets such as love, contentment and interest factors that promote the ability of the individual to play, explore and integrate with other people in the immediate surrounding environment (what is referred as the “broaden mindset”). This theory has been viewed to be different from the tradition and specific action tendencies, which works better in describing negative emotions. This in the long run builds up individual’s personal resources and thus creates a good mindset to acquire physical, intellectual, social and psychological resources (the reserves for the improvement of survival and performance levels). The organizations in Singapore thus have to use the enhancement of positive emotions to improve the positive well-being of its employees. This can be achieved through creating the tools of positive emotions using strategies such as joy, love, interest and contentment. For instance, Joy can be brought to the employees by the virtue of understanding each other, rewarding the hardworking or through good relationship, which in turn will bring the spirit in workers to play roles and be creative towards their duties. Also interest and contentment is the other tools to be put in use by the organizations in Singapore as forms of creating positive emotions because this allows the development of the urge to explore and learn new information and experiences leading to increased performance. On the other hand, organizations can encourage the development of safe and close interactions or relationships within the employees and promoting the other strategies in the long-run (Fredrickson BL 2004). In practicing the above strategies, employees in these organizations in Singapore can gain creativity, improve their know-how; demonstrate resilience, socially integrated and healthy factors, consequently increasing output in their respective companies.
The other theory of positive psychology is the concept of “self-determination theory” (SDT). This is mainly concerned with how people undergo development and functioning of their different personality especially in the environment of work through their action engagements and social behaviors. As people strive to master and understand the daily work challenges and applying their experiences, they forget to develop their psychological growth in active engagement and thus personal development. Therefore in these concepts, lack of provision of the basic psychological needs usually leads to the lack of well-being of the employees and thus sub-optimal functioning. The mini-theories include: cognitive evaluation (which looks on the effects of social behaviors on intrinsic motivation), causality orientations theory (different ways people value self determined behavior and challenge orientation, basic need theory, which relates the availability of the basic needs to psychological health and lastly the organismic integration theory which specify the development of extrinsic motivation in relation to internalization (Richard and Edward, 2004). Thus if organizations in Singapore can identify this, then they will create a positive attitude in the employees and thus improve their final output.
Conclusion
The study of scientific principles of positive psychology can help improve the well-being of workers in the following ways: making the employees happy, provision of essential basic needs (e.g. through good pay), allowing development of good interaction and relationships in the organizations especially between the management and other employees and finally through enhanced self-determination among the employees.
References
Christopher Peterson, a Primer in Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press, In Stock (2006). Web.
Fredrickson BL. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Arbor, MI 48109-1109, USA.
Linda Gasser. Sustainability and well-being for Cornell employees: new efforts to help, Human Resource News, Office of Human Resource, Cornell university (2006). Web.
Richard Ryan, Edward Deci. Overview of Self-Determination Theory (2004).