Symposium Summary:
The COVID19 pandemic has highlighted the ever-present need to address mental health and resiliency issues among individuals. While we recognize the importance of such efforts, our focus is on ensuring organizations exhibit strong mental fitness and resiliency practices that enable staff to be engaged, productive and thrive at work. It is well-known that work environments and workplace cultures impact staff wellbeing (Bridger et al., 2013; Demsky et al., 2019). There exists a wealth of interventions and resources available to improve workplace culture, psychological safety, resiliency, engagement and more. It is fair to say that organizations which implement interventions expect positive outcomes in the fastest time possible and that not all existing interventions and resources are equally effective at achieving this goal. To address this organizational need, our team developed the research-based Positive Workplace Framework (PWF) and its two accompanying inventories: the Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory (MFRI) and the Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI) which have both been used across Canada and in Latin America. We have also developed and implemented a suite of targeted resources that enable organizations to follow-up on their MFRI and PLI reports so that they can build on their strengths in their quest to improve their workplace culture.
The first presentation in this symposium will outline the scientific foundations which underpin the Positive Workplace Framework and its accompanying validated measures and resources. The second presentation will focus on the Mental Fitness and Resiliency (MFRI) report and explain how, using evidence from their report, organizations can focus on their strengths to maximize the impact of their efforts as they address their areas of concern. Finally, the third presentation will provide strong evidence of the impact that implementing the PWF in New Brunswick schools is having on teacher absenteeism and student performance.
Symposium Presentation 1 Proposal:
Title: The Positive Workplace Framework and its measures and resources
Presenter: Dr. Bill Morrison
Proposal:
Peterson and Morrison (2016, 2018) incorporated the basic psychological needs of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) with elements of team resiliency and positive leadership in the initial development of the Positive Workplace Framework (PWF). This presentation will outline each of the three domains (mental fitness, resiliency, and positive leadership) and 13 sub-domains which comprise the PWF. The PWF's two validated measures, the Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory, (MFRI) and Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI) will also be presented. The psychometric properties of the MFRI are known to be strong (Peterson et al., 2020) as are those of the PLI (unpublished results). Online targeted resources enabling organizations to follow-up strategically on their reports will be presented.
Symposium Presentation 2 Proposal:
Title: Identifying effective evidence-based areas of interventions from the Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory reports
Presenter: Viviane Yvette Bolaños Gramajo, PhD candidate
Proposal:
While it is necessary to ensure that the MFRI's psychometric properties are strong, having a validated and reliable questionnaire is insufficient in helping organizations improve their workplace environment. Equally important is the need for an informative, comprehensive, and comprehensible report which identifies an organization's strengths and areas of concern as well as an overall appreciation of the workplace environment such as is the case with the PWF’s workplace Wellbeing Index, WBI (Laurie et al., 2019). Such reports can then be relied upon to decide which evidence-based interventions should be implemented and which should be avoided. But how can organizations know which PWF sub-domains should be relied upon so that quick and sustainable improvements in their workplace environment can be seen, felt, and validated using objective measures? Based on quantitative analyses of data obtained in 56 schools during the 2018-2019 school year, this presentation will show how it is possible to identify the PWF sub-domains that have the biggest impact on those which an organization identify as needing to be improved. Importantly, the presentation will also explain how suggested follow-up interventions consider and maximize the organization's current strengths.
Symposium Presentation 3 Proposal:
Title: Evidence of positive outcomes from the implementation of the Positive Workplace Framework in New Brunswick schools
Presenter: Dr. Robert Laurie
Proposal:
Implementing the Positive Workplace Framework in organizations is carried out with the intention of embedding practices known to increase workplace wellbeing, engagement and performance. Embedding mental fitness and resiliency practices in schools is known to contribute to the creation of positive learning environments where wellbeing, engagement and flourishing behaviors are evident among students and staff. School environments that reflect such conditions are positively associated with increased student achievement (Dualy & Karadağ, 2017), decreased school bullying (Winnaar, 2018), and enhanced teacher collaboration (Debarbieux, 2015). This presentation will report the results of two studies carried out in New Brunswick schools. The first, is a longitudinal study which investigates the impact of implementing the PWF on teacher absenteeism during the 2014-2015 to the 2017-2018 school years inclusively. The second is a cross-sectional study which compares student achievement results on provincial assessments during the 2018-2019 school year in schools which are implementing the PWF and those that have yet to do so. Results from the longitudinal study suggest that implementing the PWF reduces teacher absenteeism by as much as five days per year. This supports the hypothesis that healthy school environments have a positive impact on teacher wellbeing, not to mention significant cost savings to the education system. Results from the cross-sectional study confirm those of previous studies suggesting that schools with positive learning environments are associated with increased student performance. In conclusion, results from both studies present strong arguments for the implementation of the PWF in schools across Canada and elsewhere. Using the PWF’s Workplace Wellbeing Index (WBI) as a key performance indicator is suggested as a means of monitoring wellbeing in schools.