Integrated Workplace Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Systems Framework for Behavioural Health
Authors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55121/abhp.v1i1.1261Abstract
Workplace health is increasingly shaped by complex interactions among physical, psychosocial, and organisational factors, challenging traditional occupational health models that primarily emphasise hazard identification and control. Although such approaches have contributed to reductions in physical risk, they remain limited in addressing behavioural and psychosocial determinants, including stress, cognitive load, and organisational dynamics. This study proposes an integrated conceptual framework that reconceptualises workplace well-being as a systemic outcome emerging from interactions within a behavioural health system. Grounded in the biopsychosocial model and systems thinking, the framework integrates physical, psychological, and social determinants across multiple levels, including individual, team, and organisational contexts. It positions behavioural processes such as perception, stress appraisal, and coping as central mediating mechanisms linking workplace conditions to health and performance outcomes. In addition, the framework incorporates feedback dynamics to explain how reinforcing and balancing processes shape behavioural responses, well-being, and organisational functioning over time. By extending established occupational health and psychosocial risk frameworks, including ISO 45003 and Total Worker Health perspectives, the model provides a structured systems-based lens for integrating behavioural health into workplace design and management. The framework contributes a unified conceptual structure that enhances understanding of multi-level interactions and offers a foundation for future empirical validation and application. It has practical relevance for improving employee well-being, organisational resilience, and sustainable performance in increasingly complex and dynamic work environments.
Keywords
Behavioural Health, Biopsychosocial Model, Occupational Health, Systems Thinking, Workplace Well-Being, Work-Related StressReferences
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