27
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 12:
Line 12: − + Line 19:
Line 19: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Yoga and Ayurveda Perspective on Workplace Well-Being (view source)
Revision as of 17:55, 3 September 2020
, 17:55, 3 September 2020Adding content, references and editing
The spiritual view of happiness emphasizes the internal orientation that aims at the freedom from external sources of pain and pleasure and accepting the world with all its beauty and distortions.<ref>Ricard M (2013), A buddhist view of happiness, David SA, Boniwell I, Ayers AC (eds), Oxford handbook of happiness, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp 344–356.</ref> Venerable to the spiritual view of happiness, Haidt<ref name=":1">Haidt J (2006), The happiness hypothesis: finding modern truth in ancient wisdom, New York: Basic Books.</ref> explains that one has to delve internally, and the external world cannot bring more than momentary happiness. He also mentions that there are some externals (relationships, work, the degree of control) that matter and are worth striving for to enhance the level of happiness. Haidt reconsiders happiness and states that it engenders from the link between self and others, self and work, and self and the beyond which is something bigger than the self.
The spiritual view of happiness emphasizes the internal orientation that aims at the freedom from external sources of pain and pleasure and accepting the world with all its beauty and distortions.<ref>Ricard M (2013), A buddhist view of happiness, David SA, Boniwell I, Ayers AC (eds), Oxford handbook of happiness, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp 344–356.</ref> Venerable to the spiritual view of happiness, Haidt<ref name=":1">Haidt J (2006), The happiness hypothesis: finding modern truth in ancient wisdom, New York: Basic Books.</ref> explains that one has to delve internally, and the external world cannot bring more than momentary happiness. He also mentions that there are some externals (relationships, work, the degree of control) that matter and are worth striving for to enhance the level of happiness. Haidt reconsiders happiness and states that it engenders from the link between self and others, self and work, and self and the beyond which is something bigger than the self.
Flourishing as a concept is associated with happiness<ref name=":1" /> and high levels of well-being<ref>Hone LC, Jarden A, Schofield GM, Duncan S (2014) , Measuring flourishing: the impact of operational definitions on the prevalence of high levels of wellbeing, Int J Wellbeing 4(1):62–90.</ref> and is defined as a state of complete or maximal well-being coupled with optimal functioning.<ref name=":2">Keyes CL (2002), The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life, J Health Soc Behav 43:207–222.</ref> It is a holistic and broader representation of well-being comprising of intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Seligman ME (2011), Flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, (1st free press hardcover ed). New York: Free Press.</ref>
Flourishing as a concept is associated with happiness<ref name=":1" /> and high levels of well-being<ref name=":3">Hone LC, Jarden A, Schofield GM, Duncan S (2014) , Measuring flourishing: the impact of operational definitions on the prevalence of high levels of wellbeing, Int J Wellbeing 4(1):62–90.</ref> and is defined as a state of complete or maximal well-being coupled with optimal functioning.<ref name=":2">Keyes CL (2002), The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life, J Health Soc Behav 43:207–222.</ref> It is a holistic and broader representation of well-being comprising of intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">Seligman ME (2011), Flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, (1st free press hardcover ed). New York: Free Press.</ref>
As noted, work is one of the determinants of well-being and a potential means to flourish. Also, as per the report by World Health Organization (WHO) (1995), workplace constitutes a premise where individuals spend a substantial amount of time. Therefore, it is pivotal that individuals thrive and flourish at the workplace.
As noted, work is one of the determinants of well-being and a potential means to flourish. Also, as per the report by World Health Organization (WHO) (1995), workplace constitutes a premise where individuals spend a substantial amount of time. Therefore, it is pivotal that individuals thrive and flourish at the workplace.
The aim of this article is to understand well-being in the context of the traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda and how the underlying philosophy and practices in these two ancient traditions have implications at the workplace and in management scholarship.
The aim of this article is to understand well-being in the context of the traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda and how the underlying philosophy and practices in these two ancient traditions have implications at the workplace and in management scholarship.
== Health, Well-Being and Flourishing<ref name=":0" /> ==
The conclusion of World War II that left the world in suffering and distress initiated the need to systematically study better life and multifold well-being.<ref name=":5">Keyes CL (2006), Mental health in adolescence: is America’s youth flourishing? Am J Orthopsychiat 76(3):395–402.</ref> The initial studies of Jahoda<ref>Jahoda M (1958), Current concepts of positive mental health, New York: Basic Books.</ref> and Gurin et al.<ref>Gurin G, Veroff J, Feld S (1960), Americans view their mental health, New York: Basic Books.</ref> that are seminal works on mental health have made way for subsequent research on mental health through the study of subjective well-being.<ref name=":5" /> Furthermore, the study of hedonic<ref name=":6">Diener E (1984), Subjective well-being, Psychol Bull 95(3):542.</ref><ref>Diener E, Suh EM, Lucas RE, Smith HL (1999), Subjective well-being: three decades of progress, Psychol Bull 125(2):276.</ref> and eudaimonic<ref name=":7">Ryff CD (1989), Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being, J Pers Soc Psychol 57(6):1069.</ref><ref>Keyes CL, Shmotkin D, Ryff CD (2002), Optimizing well-being: the empirical encounter of two traditions, J Pers Soc Psychol 82(6):1007.</ref> aspects of well-being has formed the pillars that define flourishing.<ref name=":2" /> This section presents an overview of health, happiness, and well-being literature and its connection with flourishing.
=== Health and Well-Being ===
Considering the concept of health, Keyes<ref>Keyes CL (2007), Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: a complementary strategy for improving national mental health, Am Psychol 62(2):95.</ref> notes that throughout our history, health has been defined with respect to three paradigms. Namely,
# Pathogenic ie. health as absence of disability, disease and premature death.
# Salutogenic ie. health as presence of positive human capacities and functioning.
# Complete state that is derived from ancient word for health, hale, denoting whole and strong.
Historically, the pathogenic approach has been dominant as earlier curing illnesses took precedence. However, the focus of the healthcare system to improve health by merely curing-preventing illnesses has come short of addressing the notion of complete health.
If we look at well-being, two schools of thoughts exist :
# Subjective well-being (hedonic) that includes happiness, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect.<ref name=":6" />
# Psychological well-being (eudaimonic) that consists of a sense of purpose or meaning, personal enhancement, and so on.<ref name=":7" />
Subjective well-being refers to an individual’s evaluations of one’s own life comprising of both affective and cognitive aspects.<ref name=":8">Diener E (2000) Subjective well-being: the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index, Am Psychol 55(1):34.</ref> An individual with high subjective well-being experiences more pleasant than unpleasant emotions, more pleasures than pains, is engaged in interesting activities, and is (generally) satisfied with one’s life. Although numerous facets underlie a valuable life and mental health, the subjective well-being view emphasizes the individual’s own evaluations of one’s life.
Some of the human qualities such as kindness, humility, and forgiveness have a universal positive appeal for the very reason that they represent morally virtuous behavior and strength of character.<ref>Peterson C, Seligman ME (2004), Character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification, vol 1. Oxford: University Press.</ref> This perspective directly links to the eudaimonic view of well-being that stresses on the principles of expression and achievement of highest aspirations and inner potentials of an individual. Research highlights the strong association of specific values (hope, zest, gratitude, love, curiosity) with happiness and life satisfaction for both youth and adults.<ref>Park N, Peterson C, Seligman ME (2004), Strengths of character and well-being, J Soc Clin Psychol 23(5):603–619.</ref><ref>Park N, Peterson C (2006), Moral competence and character strengths among adolescents: the development and validation of the values in action inventory of strengths for youth, J Adolescence 29(6):891–909.</ref>
=== Flourishing ===
The research done on health, happiness, and well-being has served as the foundation to conceptualize flourishing. Flourishing as a term, in contemporary psychology, appears in the work of Corey Keyes<ref name=":2" /> where he defines the continuum of mental health, separate from the continuum of mental illness, as comprising of a state of complete well-being (flourishing), moderate mental health, and languishing (incomplete mental health). Emphasizing the point that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness, Keyes<ref name=":2" /> (2002) defines complete mental health as a state where an individual is free of all mental illness and is flourishing. There are four conceptualizations of flourishing by
# Keyes<ref name=":2" />
# Huppert and So<ref>Huppert FA, So TC (2013), Flourishing across Europe: application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being, Soc Indic Res 110(3):837–861.</ref>
# Diener et al<ref>Diener E, Wirtz D, Tov W, Kim-Prieto C, Choi DW, Oishi S, Biswas-Diener R (2010), New wellbeing measures: short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings, Soc Indic Res 97(2):143–156.</ref>
# Seligman<ref name=":4" />
They highlight that flourishing has been operationalized in different ways. However, there exists a similarity with respect to two aspects.
* Firstly, flourishing is associated with high levels of subjective well-being.
* Secondly, well-being represents a multidimensional construct that cannot be adequately measured using single-item assessment.<ref name=":3" />
The primacy of flourishing in the various domains of life is evident from the research that indicates that happy people when compared to those who are less happy tend to function competently in life; they are relatively more productive, seek more social engagement, and tend to earn higher incomes.<ref name=":8" /><ref>Judge TA, Thoresen CJ, Bono JE, Patton GK (2001), The job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review, Psychol Bull 127(3):376.</ref>Also, people who experience higher happiness or subjective well-being than those low in subjective well-being exhibit a more self-enhancing and enabling attributional style, and this suggests the key role of positive emotions in engendering positive cognitions, which consequently promotes further positive emotions.<ref>Ryan RM, Deci EL (2001), On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, Annu Rev Psychol 52(1):141–166.</ref>
There are examples in experimental social psychology that specify the benefits of positive emotional experiences such as the influence on people’s perception and how they interpret social behaviors and initiate social interactions.<ref>Forgas JP (ed) (2001), The handbook of affect and social cognition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Mahwah.</ref> <ref>Isen AM (1987), Positive affect, cognitive processes and social behaviour, Berkowitz L (ed) Advances in experimental social psychology, vol 20. Academic, New York, pp 203–253.</ref> Other upsides of experiencing positive emotions include people making positive evaluations (for both themselves and others) and lenient attributions, expressing more confidence, optimism, and being more accommodative in social relationships.<ref>Forgas JP (2002), Feeling and doing: affective influences on interpersonal behavior, Psychol Inq 13(1):1–28.</ref><ref>Forgas JP (ed) (2006), Affect in social thinking and behaviour, New York: Psychology Press.</ref><ref>Sedikides C (1995), Central and peripheral self-conceptions are differentially influenced by mood: tests of the differential sensitivity hypothesis, J Pers Soc Psychol 69:759–777.</ref>
== References ==
== References ==
<references />