Positive work environments can be defined as those workplaces where there is trust, cooperation, safety, risk-taking support, accountability, and equity.
Julie A. Mari, a student in English 235, hoped “to provide strategic recommendations for the organizational changes necessary to create a healthier workplace,” using surveys and interviews as well as secondary peer-reviewed scholarly sources, conducted over a five-week period.
As she says, “Businesses that have a positive environment will not only boost the morale of their employees, but they will be able to run their businesses more cost-effectively.”
Her thesis is that “There is a pervasive workplace toxicity that is happening around the world.”
Her expectation is “to provide strategic recommendations for the organizational changes necessary to create a healthier workplace.”
Mari did two types of original primary research: 1) interviews with upper management and an educator that provided knowledgeable information into successfully securing a healthy workplace by dissecting both adequate and inadequate workplaces; and 2) a survey with a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions.
She also conducted secondary research, locating peer-reviewed scholarly journals through ProQuest, video sources through YouTube, articles through Harvard Business Review, an article from the New York Times and the Washington State State Labor and Industries website, all to be used in obtaining crucial information to support the research results provided, she says.
Mari employed pie charts and graphs to illustrate her data survey results, and she added easily readable colored illustrations to denote some of her main points.
The structure of her presentation followed the common format for a research article:
Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References, all using American Psychological Association style.
Some books in the WCC library that may be useful on this topic include:
“Workplace well-being: how to build psychologically healthy workplaces,”
“Workplace communication,” and “The Routledge handbook of social work ethics and values.”