OPINION: Positive psychology at the workplace

By Mariam Nakimuli

Psychology is the study of human behaviour and mind state. Today, mental anxiety and stress are the most common problems affecting the state and behaviour of individuals. It is believed that these states and behaviours affect the individual’s performance and productivity.

In traditional psychology, the attention has been focused on recognizing the emotional well-being of individuals, and patients, such as depression and tackling the state with conventional methods and drugs. This is fundamentally essential for those facing psychological illness, it gives a deficient picture of emotional well-being.

Positive psychology is a generally new branch of psychology that shifts the concentration from what is clinically wrong, to the advancement of prosperity and the making of a satisfying life loaded with significance, happiness, delight, engagement, positive relationship and achievement.

The 21st-century workplace heavily depends on the advancement of technology, hence putting pressure on both the employees and the organization in terms of performance and productivity. In such an environment, organizations are working hard to find ways to improve employees’ performance and productivity. Empirical research proposes that both could be increased by building work policies which incorporate individuals’ positive traits.

To accommodate the fast-paced technological advances, organizations are expected to depend more on employees’ creativity and expertise. This is integral for overall organizational productivity. Individually, the identification of employees’ knowledge, expertise, well-being and happiness becomes part of the organizational aim and develops processes which insure cross-talk and adaptability, undertaking plans that take benefit of human capital, and a strategy to give the organization a special, competitive advantage. The quick changes in the world make huge vulnerability in business sectors, and this requires inventive arrangements and the capacity to decide to choose the organization’s direction.

Hence, this requires key choices that shape the objectives and mission of the organization, which influence the organization’s structure, human capital needs and so forth. Components that attempt to enhance physical health, knowledge, achievement and motivation among group members are to be suggested based on the assumption that a relaxed member engages more positively.

An individual spends a good part of their day at work i.e. almost 7 to 8 hours of his or her daily life where he/she works and performs the responsibilities assigned by the job or the organization. Spending such a long time of the day in the workplace reflects in different ways on the individual and exercises immense pressure on his/her mind.

Consequently, the environment at work must be stress-free and pleasant, otherwise, it will have a serious negative effect on the basic psychology of the employee which ultimately impacts his/her performance and hence, the overall productivity of the organization.

The research addresses the increase in employees’ performance from a positive psychology perspective. Three positive traits are identified and used as the basis for developing a framework which demonstrates the relationships between them and employees’ performance/productivity and hence organizational productivity. Research proposes that these traits are the roots of ensuring an environment which is stress-free, friendly and motivating for the employees.

The author; Dr Mariam Nakimuli is an Administrator Office of the National Chairman – NRM