WELLNESS AND PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Dissertation Title: Wellness and Productivity in Public Sector Organizations of Pakistan Purpose – Mechanics of modern stressful life are making man short of time to pay attention towards achieving a balanced life thereby creating severe health and productivity deficits. Philosophy of wellness can help people lead more satisfying, happy, and productive lives. Healthy lifestyles are being widely recognized as sustainable ways of attaining holistic well-ness. Need for comprehensive wellness in the workplace context is much acknowledged now than ever before due to its association with healthcare costs and organizational outcomes that are most valued by the employers. Literature indicates a gap for diversified wellness research across different organizational and cultural contexts. This study endeavored to empirically test association among five latent variables; stage of lifestyle change, personal wellness, personal productivity, organizational productivity, and organizational wellness measures to understand how employees‘ wellness and workplace productivity could be harnessed in the context of public sector organizations for efficient and effective public service delivery in Pakistan. Methodology – One shot field survey was conducted in a non-contrived setting using a ques-tionnaire. Stratified disproportionate random sample of 565 public sector managers (supervi-sory, first line, middle, and top level) participated from 105 organizational units belonging to 24 selected; 12 anticorruption and 12 regulatory organizations based at Islamabad, Rawalpin-di, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta. Hypotheses statements were tested through corre-lational and regression analyses and accepted as empirical evidence for proposed WAP model. Findings – Only a small proportion of participant‘s reported good level of lifestyle change (25%), personal wellness (37%), personal productivity (50%), organizational productivity (29%), and organizational wellness measures (29%) indicating a lower or marginal level by rest of the majority. Significant positive correlations were found among these variables of proposed model. Mediation analysis revealed that significant total effect of stage of lifestyle change (b=.256) on organizational productivity reduced to significant smaller direct effect (b=.097) indicating partial mediation through personal wellness and personal productivity. Mediated model significantly explained 33% variation in organizational productivity. Condi-tional process analysis indicated a significant moderating role of organizational wellness measures. Overall moderated-mediated model significantly explained 58% variation in organ-izational productivity indicating that wellness lifestyles directly and indirectly affect personnel and organizational productivity varying with the level of organizational wellness measures. Results suggested a need of workplace wellness initiatives for mutual excellence; enabling employees to achieve their fullest potential and enjoy best possible quality of life through healthy ways of living, and engaging them at work to the best of organizational excellence. Originality/value – This was an original research based on data collected from key public sector organizations in Pakistan. It provided insights as to how employees‘ lifestyles, well-ness, and productivity could be harnessed for efficient and effective public service delivery. This opened avenues for workplace wellness research in Pakistan and diverted organizational attention towards employee wellness as a component of their business strategy and corporate social responsibility. Key words – Lifestyle change, wellness, productivity, workplace wellness measures, human capital, organization development, public sector management, Pakistan.