ABSTRACT
The notion of employee well-being at work is growing in momentum as employment continues to change aiming to achieve higher performance, organisational success, and a safer, more satisfying and healthier working life. Whilst ‘well-being at work’ prescriptions are common in the literature, it is important to ascertain whether ‘one size fits all’ and whether the ‘best practice’ well-being philosophy used in the private sector can be advocated in the public sector. This research adopted a qualitative methodological approach and 27 semi-structured (60-90 minutes) interviews were conducted with managers and employees in a UK local government organisation in North West of England. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings reveal that although wellness management initiates were implemented throughout the organisation, managers and employees depicted that the material aspects of the employment relationship had to be developed further, as well as stressors from the NPM environment needs to be addressed first, before the well-being ideology can be considered and improved.
