Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2015), 88, 623–629
© 2015 The British Psychological Society
www.wileyonlinelibrary.com
Commentary
Resource-based interventions in the workplace:
Integration, commentary, and recommendations
Roy F. Baumeister
1,2
* and Nawal Alghamdi
2
1
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
2
King Abdulaziz University, Jedda, Saudi Arabia
We discuss this issue’s six articles regarding resource-based interventions in the
workplace. Despite some encouraging findings, overall these articles provide weak and
inconsistent support for the view that such interventions yield benefits. In particular, the
documented benefits are mostly confined to self-reports and lack objective evidence.
Future studies of such interventions might find better results by trying different research
methods (as some articles have proposed) and by trying different interventions. Tailoring
interventions to target populations and focusing emphasis on particular resources may
improve outcomes.
It is an honour to contribute a commentary on this set of thoughtful papers regarding
resource-based interventions in the workplace. In this brief article, we shall consider
briefly why resource-based interventions are important (and why research on them is also
important, which is not the same thing). Then, we shall survey the results from this
package of studies and try to integrate them into a picture of the current state of
knowledge. Last, we will seek some glimmers of hope and make suggestions for where
intervention practitioners and resource researchers might try putting their efforts.
Why perform resource-based interventions in the workplace?
One hardly needs to justify doing things to make people happier and healthier! But two
particular features of these interventions deserve to be pointed out. First, interventions for
the workplace may be especially valuable. Work takes up a major portion of waking life,
and moreover, work is often defined as doing things one would not choose to do for
pleasure. Indeed, many people find work stressful and aversive, or at best tedious. The
sheer amount of work means that interventions to improve the workplace would have the
potential for enriching life by a substantial amount.
Effects of work are also not limited to work. Stress at work can affect family life, mental
health, and many other aspects. Improving work can improve many aspects of life,
through extensive spillover effects.
Moreover, improving well-being at work may also improve the quality and quantity of
work. In this age of increasing global competition, success depends on improving
productivity. Not only might effective interventions raise workers’ subjective well-being
*Correspondence should be addressed to Roy F. Baumeister, Dept of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee,
FL 32306 USA (email: baumeister@psy.fsu.edu).
DOI:10.1111/joop.12130
623