Dear Colleagues,

This research topic is particularly concerned with manuscripts that reflect on the wellbeing of workers, given the changes that are taking place in the work context. This Special Issue, therefore, focuses on both those changes motivated by the health, economic, the social consequences of the worldwide pandemic, and the other factors that are reshaping the jobs (e.g., robotization) with logical implications on the wellbeing, health, and productivity of employees and organizations. Finally, corporate social responsibility requires an exercise in transparency about working conditions and the promotion of decent work, because business plays a critical role in this promotion (Chay and Kern, 2020). Therefore, finding practical and reliable measurements of subjective wellbeing in CSR reports is a new challenge.

Dear Colleagues,

From the public health policies view, the promotion of subjective wellbeing is a must because it exerts a positive influence on employee health and longevity (Diener & Chan, 2013). The International Labour Organization (ILO) promotes changes to achieve decent jobs, and one of the main challenges is to mitigate the intense pressure to adapt workplace conditions to meet with new organizational goals (Muñiz et al. 2017; Ariza et al., 2017).

subjective wellbeing has been widely addressed in the literature. In 1999, Diener et al. reviewed three decades of work on this topic, and Danna and Griffith (1999) conceptualized previous research on wellbeing in the workplace. Twenty years later, Diener et al. (2018) quantify more than 170,000 articles and books concerning this topic published in academia.

The concept of wellbeing has been approached from different perspectives (Waterman, 1993; Keyes et al., 2002; Ryan and Deci, 2001 and 2008, Huta and Ryan, 2010). A subjective approach, called hedonic, which focuses on enjoyment, pleasure, and comfort, versus another psychological approach, called eudemonic, whose characteristic is meaning, and personal growth through more profound principles. From this point of view, Diener et al. (2010) developed an integrative proposal according to which three dimensions would integrate subjective wellbeing:

1. General with life (hedonic paradigm);
2. Positive and negative feelings (hedonic paradigm);
3. Flourishing (eudemonic paradigms), as a state of positive mental health.

Organizations invest plenty of resources in the recruitment of employees. If these workers experience poor health and less wellbeing, they will have lower performance, will make worse decisions, will be less disposed to absenteeism (Boyd, 1997) and, consequently, will decrease their contributions to the organization's performance (Price and Hooijberg, 1992). Analyzing cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, Warr and Nielsen (2018) have found a small-to-moderate relationship between wellbeing and performance. They highlight the role of moderating variables, such as personal discretion, professional-grade, or expected benefits for this correlation.

The world is going through convulsed times that are causing a profound revolution in the workplace for many jobs. One of the most visible and immediate changes is the generalization of e-working due to the health, economic, and social crisis caused by COVID-19. Claralampous et al. (2018) review e-working research and found that e-workers can benefit from a better work–life balance; however, adverse effects exist and are related to social and professional isolation or technostress, among others. Therefore, different factors, such as the preferences and personality of the employee, influence the impact of e-working on wellbeing. In this new workplace framework, the psychological contract between the organization and the employees must be adjusted. A second challenge comes from the robotization and computerization of jobs. In this sense, Frey and Osborne (2013) estimate that 47% of posts are at risk for these reasons. The role of smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms in the workplace will affect psychological wellbeing and the awareness of new technologies will decrease organizational commitment and career satisfaction and will increase depression and cynicism (Brougham and Haar, 2018). Finally, corporate social responsibility requires an exercise of transparency about the working conditions and the promotion of decent work, because business plays a critical role in this promotion (Chay and Kern, 2020). Therefore, a new challenge is to find practical and reliable measurements of subjective wellbeing in CSR reports.

Without a doubt, the work environment and jobs are being redesigned day by day to adapt to a new reality that, a few months ago, we did not even imagine. This tsunami has forced us to "quarantine" everything the academy knew about different personal, organizational. and contextual factors that determined the wellbeing of employees.

This research topic particularly concerns manuscripts that reflect on the wellbeing of workers, given the changes that are taking place in the work context. This Special Issue, therefore, focuses on both those changes motivated by the health, economic, and social consequence of the worldwide pandemic, and other factors that are reshaping jobs (e.g., robotization) with logical implications on the wellbeing, health, and productivity of employees and organizations.

This Special Issue is open, but not limited, to the following themes:

→ Wellbeing

→ Covid-19

→ Technostress

→ Job design

→ Health

→ Productivity

→ Technological innovation

→ Digital and robotic transformation

→ New forms of employment

→ Work organization

→ Work-life balance

→ Work-related health outcomes

→ Future of work

→ Working conditions

→ Decent work

→ Corporate Social Responsibility

→ Occupational safety and health

→ Future work skills

→ Future personal resource

→ Sustainability

Prof. Dr. Horacio Molina-Sánchez
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Giorgi
Dr. Dante Castillo Guajardo
Prof. Antonio Ariza-Montes
Guest Editors

References:

1. Ariza-Montes, A.; Leal-Rodríguez, A.L.; Rodríguez-Félix, L.; Albort-Morant, G. Can an Internal Locus of Control and Social Support ReduceWork-Related Levels of Stress and Strain? A Comparative Study Between Spanish Owners and Managers. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2017, 59, 903–912.
2. Boyd, A. Employee traps-corruption in the workplace. Manag. Rev. 1997, 86, 9–10.
3. Brougham, D.; Haar, J. Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms (STARA): Employees’ perceptions of our future workplace, Journal of Management & Organization, 2018. 24, 2, 239–257
4. Charalampous, M.; Grant, C.; Tramontano, C.; Michailidis, E., Systematically reviewing remote e-workers’ well-being at work: a multidimensional approach. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2018, https://0-dx-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1541886
5. Chia, A., Kern, M.L. Subjective Wellbeing and the Social Responsibilities of Business: an Exploratory Investigation of Australian Perspectives. Applied Research Quality Life. 2020. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1007/s11482-020-09846-x
6. Danna, K.; Griffin, R. W. Health and wellbeing in the workplace: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Management, 1999, 25, 3, 357–384
7. Diener, E.; Lucas, R. E.; Oishi, S. Advances and Open Questions in the Science of Subjective Well.-being. Collabra Psychol. 2018, 4, 1. Doi:10.1525/Collabra.115.
8. Diener, E.; Wirtz, D.; Tov, W.; Kim-Prieto, C.; Dong-won, C.; Oishi, S.; Biswas-Diener, R. New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Soc. Indic. Res. 2010, 97,143–156.
9. Diener, E.; Chan, M. Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Appl. Psychol. Health Well Being. 2011, 3, 1–43.
10. Diener, E.; Wirtz, D.; Tov, W.; Kim-Prieto, C.; Dong-won, C.; Oishi, S.; Biswas-Diener, R. New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Soc. Indic. Res. 2010, 97, 143–156.
11. Frey, C. B.; Osborne, M. A. The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation? 2013. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf.
12. Muniz, N.M.; Ariza-Montes, J.A.; Leal-Rodríguez, A.L. A purposeful approach for implementing preventive measures among European teaching professionals: Bullying, deteriorated organizational factors and the mediating role of job dissatisfaction in poor health perception. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2017, 1–28.
13. Price, R.H.; Hooijberg, R. Organizational exit pressures and role stress: Impact on mental health. J. Organ. Behav. 1992, 13, 641–651.
14. Warr, P.; Nielsen, K. Wellbeing and work performance. In E. Diener, S. Oishi, & L. Tay (Eds.), Handbook of well-being. 2018. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers.

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• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Covid-19
• Creating shared value
• Cyber-physical systems
• Decent work
• Digital and robotic transformation
• Digital transformation
• Future of work
• Future personal resource
• Future work skills
• Health
• Job design
• New forms of employment
• Occupational safety and health
• Positive Organizational Psychology
• Productivity
• Psychosocial risk
• Social adaptation
• Sustainability
• Technological innovation
• Technostress
• Wellbeing
• Work organization
• Working conditions
• Work-life balance
• Work-related health outcomes