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Making a healthy change: a historical analysis of workplace wellbeing
Management and Organizational History, Volume: 17, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 20 - 42
Swansea University Author:
James Wallace
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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/17449359.2022.2068152
Abstract
This paper looks at the precedents of current wellbeing programs, examining three historical modes of workplace wellbeing in order to analyze the way in which employees have become subjects of wellbeing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to illustrate the historical trajectory of the managemen...
| Published in: | Management and Organizational History |
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| ISSN: | 1744-9359 1744-9367 |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2022
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59937 |
| Abstract: |
This paper looks at the precedents of current wellbeing programs, examining three historical modes of workplace wellbeing in order to analyze the way in which employees have become subjects of wellbeing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to illustrate the historical trajectory of the management of employee health, exploring both its disjunctures and continuities. It is argued that workplace wellbeing can be characterized in two ways. First, as an intervention into the lives of employees, becoming a means of producing ‘fit for work’ subjects. Second, in terms of the legitimation of this intervention through its discursive positioning as a response to prevalent social concerns. It is noted that, while wellbeing has evolved over time in terms of its rationale and its practices, it has continued to be characterized by these two features. |
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| Keywords: |
wellbeing; wellness; subjectivity; Foucault; genealogy; paternalism; human relations |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council through a PhD studentship. |
| Issue: |
1-2 |
| Start Page: |
20 |
| End Page: |
42 |