Undergraduate Course: Workplace Health & Well-being (BUST10171)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Understanding how workers experience health and well-being at work has never been more important. Employers are currently experiencing an increase in internal and external pressures to support employee well-being. The number of employees signed off with ill health in the UK is at an all-time high (11 million sick notes were issued in 2023, double the number from 2015/16), and 300,000 employees leave work each year due to ill-health, many of which are preventable.
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of reciprocal influences of health and well-being with how people work. The course will provide a theoretical frame of learning through the following: Defining Workplace Health & Well-being; Context of Workplace Health & Well-being, Working environment; Management, Human Resources and Occupational Health; Age and Workplace Health & Well-being across the lifespan; Gender differences of Workplace Health & Well-being; Individual differences of Workplace Health & Well-being; Strategic planning for Workplace Health & Well-being; Operational delivery of Workplace Health & Well-being.
Students will have the opportunity to engage in practical workplace interventions to support Workplace Health & Well-being in case studies and real-world settings.
Students will engage in interactive weekly lectures.
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| Course description |
This course is theoretical.Theories will cover the psycho-social-organisational theory spectrum including individual-level theories (e.g. Conservation of Resources) to organisational theories (e.g. Multiple Stakeholder).
This course is also practical. It is important that students also come away with a practical understanding of why supporting occupational health and well-being is so important now and will be increasingly so in the future as they enter the workforce to becoming employees, managers and employers themselves. This course is designed to have impact on the next generation of managers who must have a greater understanding of the reciprocal relationship of health and work.
Outline content
SECTION 1: MACRO/MESO LEVEL FACTORS
1. Defining Occupational Health and Well-being (and why its important for Management and HRM). Employee recruitment, retention and development. Human-centred business management. Introducing aspects of health and well-being that influence how people work. Minority groups and protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010) discussed throughout.
2. Context. Understanding how the context of macro, meso and micro factors can influence strategic and operational Workplace health and well-being initiatives. Introducing some of the key theories used in researching H&WB and how these have and can inform policy at macro and meso level and influence behaviour at micro level.
3. Working environment. Introduce the reciprocal relationship between Work and H&WB. Presentation and evaluation of workplace supports for H&WB. How H&WB can be managed effectively at work.
4. Management and HR/OH. Whose responsibility is it to support Health and Well-being at work? Role of Human Resources (HR) and Occupational Health (OH). There is an increasing expectation on Line Managers to fill organisational gaps in supporting employee H&WB, often without consideration to the H&WB of the LM. Self-employed context also explored.
Theories included throughout this section: Motivation/Social Exchange, Workplace Support, Multiple Stakeholder approach and Sustainable HRM.
SECTION 2: MICRO LEVEL FACTORS
5. Age across the lifespan. Managing different experiences of H&WB at different age and stage of life of working-age individuals. How accumulated (dis)advantage of socio-economic differences influence the reciprocal relationship of work and H&WB, and how this is managed differently. Generations/generational differences and related assumptions.
6. Gender differences. How gender influences how H&WB is experienced at work. (see note on gender/sex difference above)
7. Individual differences in workplace health disclosure. Understanding reasons behind (non)-disclosure of H&WB. Including the role of psychological safety, the psychological contract and expectations of neoliberal health behaviours versus expectations of organisational support.
Theories included throughout this section: Perceived Organisational Support, Identity/Life-course, Disclosure Decision Making, JD-R, Conservation of Resources.
SECTION 3: APPLICATION
8. Strategic planning: Building a business case for developing a workplace H&WB strategy. Introducing concepts of Strategic HRM including the role of leadership in motivating employees (building on lecture 4) and employing strategic thinking in relation to the internal and external environment.
9. Operational delivery: Implementation and measuring the impact of supporting H&WB. Introducing vertical and horizontal delivery of workplace H&WB supports.
10. Summary of course.
Student learning experience
9 weeks (from Week 1 to 10 in the teaching block, excluding reading week) x 2-hour lecture (recorded) = 18 hours Plus Presentation sessions (3 x 2 hours in weeks 10, 11) in-person = 6 hours.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 50 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 18,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 6,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
30% Reflection (Individual) - 1,000 words - Assesses course Learning Outcomes 1,2,4
70% Presentation (Individual) - 3 minutes plus 2,000 word report - Assesses all course Learning Outcomes |
| Feedback |
Formative: Formative feedback will be provided to students. There are no assessment items that do not count towards the final grade. Summative feedback on Assessment 1 should be delivered in time for this to inform Assessment 2 writing, as such this is also formative.
Summative: Summative feedback will be provided on both Assessment 1 and Assessment 2 to enable students to take learning about the topic and writing style into future learning and assessment. This is timely for the UG4 dissertation, both in terms of writing experience and in relation to the content material should students wish to expand on this in their UG4 dissertation. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the importance of health and well-being at work.
- Critically appraise the role of the Organisation/Employer in Workplace health and well-being.
- Critically appraise theoretical frameworks used to explore how workers experience health and well-being.
- Identify internal and external factors to consider in Workplace health and well-being.
- Develop learning to practical use in real-world situations beyond their studies.
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Reading List
Vanderstraeten, A. (2018). Strategic HRM and performance: a conceptual framework. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hesketh, I., & Cooper, C. (2023). Wellbeing at work: how to design, implement and evaluate an effective strategy. Kogan Page Publishers. CIPD endorsed publication
Ryan, L. (2023). Revolting Women: Why midlife women are walking out, and what to do about it. Practical Inspiration Publishing.
Wilcock, A., & Hocking, C. (2024). An occupational perspective of health. Taylor & Francis. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Work with a variety of organisations, their stakeholders, and the communities they serve - learning from them, and aiding them to achieve responsible, sustainable and enterprising solutions to complex problems.
Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Convey meaning and message through a wide range of communication tools, including digital technology and social media; to understand how to use these tools to communicate in ways that sustain positive and responsible relationships.
Cognitive Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Be self-motivated; curious; show initiative; set, achieve and surpass goals; as well as demonstrating adaptability, capable of handling complexity and ambiguity, with a willingness to learn; as well as being able to demonstrate the use digital and other tools to carry out tasks effectively, productively, and with attention to quality.
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of contemporary organisational disciplines; comprehend the role of business within the contemporary world; and critically evaluate and synthesise primary and secondary research and sources of evidence in order to make, and present, well informed and transparent organisation-related decisions, which have a positive global impact.
Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly.
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| Keywords | Well-being,Health,Work,Occupations,Organisations |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Belinda Steffan
Tel:
Email: Belinda.Steffan@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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