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Work Design and Wellbeing

Code: ULMS881

Credits: 20

Semester: Semester 1

This module aims to equip students with the foundation skills, knowledge and understanding needed by a practitioner Occupational Psychologist working to design work more effectively and manage and promote well-being. The module takes a multi-level perspective, starting with a focus on the individual in the workplace, understanding occupational health psychology and how jobs and work environments can be best designed to foster work motivation, engagement, positive job attitudes, work-life balance, and positive organisational outcomes. The topics of stress in the workplace, and how to manage it, along with the implications for promoting resilience, workplace health and safety, risk management and the psychology of human error are also critically examined. The module then moves to the group level of analysis to explore how individuals’ function in groups, examining psychological theories of group processes and team effectiveness, before moving to the organisational level of analysis, exploring major theories relating to organisational structure, design, and culture. The module concludes with a critical consideration of the changing nature of work, work design and work environments, including dispersed, hybrid and virtual working, and the application of theory to practice through the consulting cycle.