The origins of employee wellbeing in Brazil: an exploratory analysis
| Pages | 312-321 |
| Published date | 24 April 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450910946497 |
| Date | 24 April 2009 |
| Author | Douglas Renwick |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
The origins of employee
wellbeing in Brazil:
an exploratory analysis
Douglas Renwick
Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to detail the origins (or antecedents) of employee wellbeing
(EWB) in Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines and analyses historical data in diachronic
mode to reveal the origins (antecedents) of EWB in Brazil, and details factors from them arising.
Findings – Numerous factors emerge regarding the origins of EWB in Brazil, including, inter alia,
traditions of landed estates employing slaves and countryside workers; historical social protest
movements; a lack of free association for labour movements and rights associated with them; union
recognition providing freedoms and protections in the employment relationship; pro-worker political
institutions emerging; worker campaigns for better quality of working life; a history of exclusion of
worker interests by state bodies (and worker resistance to it); a need for worker representatives to gain
political office to increase worker-related discourse; contradictory results arising from relatively recent
government policies; and new concerns, and enabling/restricting factors in EWB.
Research limitations/implications – The paper provides a backdrop within which the context of,
and future prospects for, EWB in Brazil can be assessed. Limitations are issues of cultural translation
apply to the Brazilian context.
Originality/value – Historical data to contextualise EWB in Brazil, an under-researched topic, is
provided in the paper.
Keywords Employees, Brazil,Human resource management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The definition and meaning of employee wellbeing (EWB) is emergent, with a number
of competing meanings of it, making a precise definition of it open, and that it can take
different forms. For example, EWB is specifically detailed by some to relate to the four
factors of anxiety, depression and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction (Holman,
2002, p. 35), and by others as having a broader scope which includes employee welfare,
stress, insecurity, exhaustion, wellness programmes, health screening, and employees’
physical, emotional and psychological states (Cully et al., 1999, p. 113; Woodall and
Winstanley, 2001, p. 39). Rationales from HR stakeholders in seeking to acknowledge
and satisfy EWB are that doing so may achieve greater employee commitment to work
organisations, improved business performance and a happier, more stable workforce
too (see Renwick, 2003, p. 356, for a discussion).
The 2000 census details Brazil as having a total population of approximately 170
million people, with 82 per cent living in urban areas, it being the world’s fifth largest
country (Manfredini et al., 2008, p. 1), and some recent survey data revealing job
satisfaction levels of 82 per cent (BBC, 2008). As such, Brazil could be assumed to be
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ER
31,3
312
Received 15 August 2008
Revised 4 November 2008
Accepted 10 December 2008
Employee Relations
Vol. 31 No. 3, 2009
pp. 312-321
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450910946497
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