Werner Sattmann-Frese PhD Well-being and ‘ill-being’ at work: How can spirituality help us survive the pressures of the global market place and contribute to the creation of a sustainable world? Spirituality, Leadership, and Management (SLaM) Conference 2010

1. Well-being and ‘Ill-being’ at Work
How can spirituality help us survive the pressures of the global
market place and contribute to the creation of a sustainable
world?
Dr Werner Sattmann-Frese
Spirituality, Management, and Leadership Conference 2010

2. I am currently working as a Senior Lecturer
and Program co-manager at the Jansen
Newman Institute – Think Education Group in
Sydney.
To share your feedback, please contact me at
slse@bigpond.net.au

3. Employee well-being is good for everyone
Employee well-being is a key
factor in determining an
organisation's long-term
profitability. Many studies
show a direct link between
productivity levels and the
general health of the
workforce
( http://www.workandwellbei
ng.com/)

4. Well-being: Organisational fitness
Organisational fitness promotes sustainability by
providing a workplace that’s healthy for the people who
work in it, and for their clients. “We need to look
beyond products and services for profitability, to the
feelings and the quality of life satisfaction that
organisations are creating for the people who work with
and for them,” he [Dr Grant] says.
http://www2.agsm.edu.au/agsm/web.nsf/Content/AGS
MMagazine-AnthonyGrant

5. So why, then, is the health of workers
deteriorating?
If this is true, why do many organisations continue to
risk the health and well-being of their workers through:
 Long working hours
 Downsizing
 Outsourcing
 Undermining the powers of unions
 Compromising OHS principles and practices?

6. Ill-being: Long work hours
In relation to potential negative outcomes for workers
themselves, Spurgeon, Harrington and Cooper (1997)
suggest that long work hours may impair personal health
and jeopardise safety both directly and indirectly. They
may operate as a direct stressor in that workers need to
continue performing adequately despite any
accumulating fatigue. In addition, long work hours may
increase stress indirectly by prolonging workers'
exposure to other sources of job stress.
http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/respaper/rp35.h
tml#literature

7. Treat work injury, illness like road toll:
union
More than 7,000 Australians are estimated to lose their
lives due to workplace injuries or disease every year - a
number four times higher than the annual road toll.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow says "When you think
that ... we invest every effort to keep that national
road toll as low as possible, then we've got to do the
same for workplace injury and death."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/11/2565
991.htm

8. Ill-being: Conflict at the work place
Definition of OHS:
“The general area of concern in employment
which covers the physiological and
psychological well-being of persons engaged
in work. Employers have a common law duty
to take reasonable care to guard their
employees' health and safety at work”
(http://www.redgoldfish.co.uk/viewglossary.as
p?gid=138).
In practice, population health has so far
shown comparatively little interest in the
health effects of conflict at work.

9. The impact of conflict in the workplace can be devastating to the parties involved, to colleagues and teams, to clients,
and to the business as a whole. Some of the results of
unresolved conflict in the workplace include:

10. And more conflicts:

11. Causes of ill-being: downsizing
 “It is notoriously difficult to get accurate
statistics on downsizing. Sociologist
Richard Sennett (1998, p.49) scanned the
literature covering 1980-1995, and found
a low estimate of 13 million workers, and
a high estimate of 39 million. Statistics
from the U.S. Department of Labor show
from 1992 through 1997, 16.4 million
people lost their jobs to permanent
layoffs …”
 http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qs
t;jsessionid=LjpMJF8hm7DXtn1hvQphLtzK3
Zl4pSSfwhtDvsk2CDDtyRJrWYb2!1196327867!1517079229?
docId=5001885522

12. Causes of ill-being: downsizing
 “Many terminated workers suffer changes in their mental
health. They may experience a high level of depression,
anxiety, stress, and loss of self-esteem and identity.
Physical health complaints are most prominent during the
period of anticipation. Physiological changes suggest an
increased likelihood of coronary disease, diabetes, peptic
ulcer, gout, arthritis, and hypertension. Job-related stress
and life stress are related to workers' physical health and
illness (Tang & Hammontree, 1992)”.
 http://www.allbusiness.com/management/changemanagement/546933-1.html

13. Common stress reactions during downsizing
may include:

14. Stress reactions after downsizing may
include homicide and suicide
A vice president of HR with 20 years' professional
experience wrote HR Magazine anonymously about a
company reorganization that resulted in major layoffs.
This HR VP, responsible for carrying out the downsizing
activities, received numerous death threats and was
physically attacked twice. Within the company,
employees were fighting, and suicides at home and at
work were becoming common.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-12461473.html

15. Ill-being at work: lack of power
“No one feels secure in his or her job, as they can be
replaced at any moment by a younger and more
efficient person willing to do the same work for a lower
salary. […] Workers feel as if they were chess pieces
that can be moved according to the will of their boss.
They all feel replaceable and disposable.”
 Nélida Rodriguez Feijóo, 2004, Job Insecurity and Stress Level,
Interdisciplinaria, número especial, Centro Interamericano de
Investigaciones Psicólogias y Ciencias Afines, Buenos Aires, pp. 249 –
257.

16. Ill-being at work: outsourcing
 “A growing body of research indicates that
changes to work organization associated with
outsourcing adversely affect occupational health
and safety (OHS), both for outsourced workers
and for those working alongside them. This study
assessed the OHS implications of the shift to
home-based workers in the Australian clothing
industry by systematically comparing the OHS
experiences of 100 factory-based workers and
100 outworkers. The level of self-reported injury
was over three times higher among outworkers
than factory-based workers undertaking similar
tasks”.
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10079399

17. Causes of ill-being at work: exploitation
U.S. inspectors found [on the island of Saipan Chinese
workers whose passports had been confiscated and who
were working 84-hour weeks at subminimum wages (cf.
McMichael, 2004, p.95).
“The International Labor Organization estimates about
80 million children younger than age 14 working across
the world in conditions hazardous to their health […].
Many of these children work 14-hour days in crowded
and unsafe workplaces” (McMichael, 2004, p.96).
 McMichael, P, 2004, Development and Social Change: A Global
Perspective, Sage Publications, London.

18. The new corporate cultures
“Corporate cultures […] have changed dramatically and
too often nor for the good. Employees are confused as
to their purpose at work, distrustful of most everyone,
and motivated to pursue self-interests (as do their
bosses). They feel isolated, reactionary, and afraid.
They are detached, disillusioned, and prone to gather in
underground subcultures (Deal & Kennedy, 1999: 175).
Deal, DE & Kennedy, AA 1999, The New Corporate
Cultures, Perseus Publishing, New York

19. Health Factor: Poverty through
exploitation and loss of work

20. What, then, are the drivers of these
unsustainable practices?
There are, of course, many different views:
Marx: The inherent dynamic of the capitalist system
Spencer: “Might makes right” (Social Darwinism)
Reich: Sexual repression creates a willingness to be
exploited by others
Buddhism: Greed, hatred, and ignorance

21. Spiritual aspects
In this presentation we focus on the
spiritual aspects of health, well-being- and
change.

22. The three poisons
“In Buddhist teachings, greed, hatred, and delusion are
known, for good reason, as the three poisons, the three
unwholesome roots, and the three fires”.
http://www.naljorprisondharmaservice.org/pdf/ThreeP
oisons.htm

23. The alternatives to these three poisons
To antidote and overcome greed, we learn to cultivate
selflessness, generosity, detachment, and contentment.
To antidote and overcome hatred, we learn to cultivate
loving-kindness, compassion, patience, and forgiveness.
To antidote and overcome delusion, we cultivate
wisdom, insight, and right understanding.
http://www.naljorprisondharmaservice.org/pdf/ThreeP
oisons.htm

24. What is spirituality?
“spirituality (SPIR-ih-choo-A-lih-tee) Having to do with
deep, often religious, feelings and beliefs, including a
person’s sense of peace, purpose, connection to others,
and beliefs about the meaning of life”.
http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary/?CdrID=441265

25. Spirituality at work
 More and more people are asking questions about the meaning of
their work and life, the quality of their relationships, and the
impact of their work on their inner self and spirit.
 However, the growth and vitality of the company will depend on
the quality of relationships and issues to do with: how people are
treated; how decisions are made; the level of commitment of
the employee which flows from their sense of purpose and
meaning of their work and the quality of the company culture – is
it life giving or life threatening? Is it in harmony with the spirit?
 http://svc203.wic019v.server-web.com/about-ethics/ethicscentre-articles/ethics-subjects/business-ethics/article-0293.html

26. The need for a paradigm shift
The creation of a healthy
and psychosocially and
environmentally
sustainable society will
be dependent on our
willingness to embrace a
paradigm shift in regards
to our perceptions,
values, and behaviours.

27. A paradigm is really a paradigm
(as much as the unconscious is really unconscious - Freud)
“A scientific account of the
world is no more and no less
than an explanation proffered
at a particular place and time
that is judged by a particular
community of researchers to be
true” (Oelschlaeger, 1995, p.
4).

28. This paradigm shift will require moving from categorised
to storied consciousness, from a horizontal to a vertical
worldview (Dethlefsen and Dahlke)
 Conventional medical science seeks to detect commonalities in
people’s illnesses and categorises signs and symptoms.
 It frequently confuses the pathophysiological mediation
mechanism of illness with its emotional, psychosocial, and
environmental background (cause).
 Holistic science seeks to understand a person’s illness (dis-ease)
as expression of his or her life story and views the symptoms as
“body-languaged” guides to hidden conflicts and wounds and as a
response to physically or emotionally unhealthy conditions.
 In such a spiritual view of illness, pathological signs and symptoms
are regarded as the language of our struggling souls.

29. Ruediger Dahlke writes:
 In our society, disease is not considered to be a language, or
a pathway, or even to have any form of sense. It is not
recognised as being something central to our existence, but is
rather seen to be an abundance of objectionable, more or
less coincidental setbacks in life. For this reason we find it
normal to refer to "diseases" in the plural, although this in
itself makes no more sense than to refer to "healths". In
contrast, the majority of major religions and their esoteric
traditions always consider disease to be a fundamental part
of our being.
 http://www.alternative-medicine-naturopathy.com/ruedigerdahlke-disease-as-the-language-of-the-soul.html

30. And Eckhard Tolle remarks:
“The return movement in a person’s life, the weakening
or dissolution of form, whether through old age, illness,
disability, loss, or some kind of personal tragedy, carries
great potential for spiritual awakening – the disidentification of consciousness from form” (Tolle,
2005:284).
Tolle, E 2005, A New Earth, Penguin Books, Camberwell,
VIC, Australia.

31. What are the questions that we have to ask
ourselves if we get sick at work or elsewhere?
Am I being myself?
Am I more a ‘human doing or consuming’ than a human
being?
Are my current goals worth living for?
What is this, my life, really about?
Is there a balance in my life between giving and taking,
resting and being active, being responsible and having
pleasure, and …?

32. Leadership for well-being
 Helen S. Astin writes about leadership:
 Leadership is concerned with fostering change in contrast to
the notion of management which suggests preservation or
maintenance
 Leadership is inherently value-based since it is intentional and
purposive
 Since efforts to initiate change can come from anyone in the
institution, all people are potential leaders
 Leadership is a group process, a collective effort, rather than
the actions of a single individual.
 http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/newsletter_new/past_pdf/volum
e_1/vol_1_Issue_4/Helen_Astin.pdf

33. Inspired leadership
 Inspired leadership has five dimensions. Ethics is at its centre.
‘Self awareness’ and ‘mindfulness’ are necessary for us to become
more conscious of the choices we make. If only we were to pay
attention by invoking our own consciousness, we would become
aware of the consequences of our ways of living. This would make
us attract people in our organisation who are genuinely diverse
and bring multiple intelligences of creativity and spirituality. The
five pillars of ‘inspired leadership’ are ethics, mindfulness,
compassion, ecological well being and diversity.
 Anil Sachdev http://timesascent.in/article/79/20090804200908041223001407e2
28efa/The-five-pillars-of-%E2%80%98inspired-leadership
%E2%80%99-are-ethics-mindfulness-compassion-ecological-wellbeing-and-diversity.html

34. ‘Purplewashing’
Considering that shareholders of corporate companies
have the legally enshrined right to maximise their
return on investment – and do exercise this right - how
can inspired leadership really reduce exploitation of
workers and thus enhance well-being and environmental
sustainability?
Is the spirituality at work debate not much more than
an exercise in ‘purplewashing’, similar to the spin and
greenwashing maneouvres used by companies to
maintain the status quo and to secure maximum profits?

35. Questions
How will we know that enlightened leadership has
created lasting and deep changes?
How will we see that a shift from ego-self consciousness
towards an eco-self consciousness has taken place?