Van preventie naar amplitie: interventies voor optimaal functioneren

Abstract

E. Ouweneel, W. Schaufeli & P. Le Blanc, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 22, June 2009, nr. 2, pp. 118-135 The recent rise of positive organisational psychology has laid out the theoretical foundation for research into positive work-related well-being. Now the time has come to translate this theoretical knowledge into practical positive work-related interventions. To that end, we introduce the term amplition in this article, after the Latin word amplio, meaning to enlarge, increase, or magnify. Interventions focused on amplition aim to enhance positive work-related well-being. This kind of interventions have hardly been designed, let alone tested among employees. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the essential ingredients for these interventions are basically at hand. It is suggested to use the existing empirical knowledge on happiness interventions and on validated implementation techniques to compose work-related interventions focused on amplition. We conclude that work-related interventions should not focus exclusively on employees who are stressed or burned-out, but also on employees who are functioning well, but not yet optimally.