Identify a real-life organization you may analyze. Find a contact within the organization you have picked. This person cannot be yourself, and must be someone in a management or human resources position.

The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program, part of the American Psychological Association (APA), is a program that rewards employers for engaging in practices that promote a psychologically healthy workplace. Specifically, organizations are recognized for practices that promote: 1) employee involvement; 2) work–life balance; 3) employee growth & development; 4) health & safety; and 5) employee recognition.

The purpose of this paper is for you to apply your knowledge of I/O psychology to a real–life organization. More specifically, this project will give you the opportunity to examine the organizational practices of a specific company of your choice that makes it a “psychologically healthy workplace.”

Background Work
• Read the document Introduction: Building a Psychologically Healthy Workplace provided in this module to learn more about the determinants of a psychologically healthy workplace.

• Visit the below URLs to learn more about the PHWA and some companies that have won this award:
o https://www.apa.org/applied–psychology/phwa–2019–winners
o https://www.psychologists.bc.ca/content/psychologically–healthy–workplace–awards
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2__qb0sOOac

• Identify a real–life organization you may analyze.

• Find a contact within the organization you have picked. This person cannot be yourself, and must be someone in a management or human resources position (i.e., someone who clearly knows about the organization’s policies and practices). If you have been or an employee of this organization, you may include your own personal experiences in the
paper, but this should not be the primary perspective (see bullet below).

• In addition to the management/HR contact, you must utilize at least one other source to gain information about the organization. This may include, but is not limited to: news articles, press releases, the organization’s employee handbook, an employee in the organization (this can be yourself), etc.

• Create a list of questions that you will ask your contact(s).

The Write–up
• Your paper should include five sections: 1) description of the organization; 2) discussion of organizational practices and policies as they pertain to each of the five psychologically healthy workplace criteria; 3) recommendations on how the organization may improve their practices and policies to be more psychologically healthy; 4) references; 5) appendix. Below are more details regarding each section:

2. Analyze whether the organization meets any of the determinants of a psychologically healthy workplace. You must include all five criteria in your analysis. In describing the practices/policies of the organization, do not merely include verbatim the responses of your contact person. Discuss what they shared with you in your own words, by incorporating into this section to describe the organization. Discuss whether the organization meets each criterion for being a psychologically healthy workplace. Be very specific about any practices that you include. For example, do not merely state that the organization provides opportunities for employee growth; instead, describe what it is that the organization does (e.g., provides employees tuition reimbursement). Your analysis of the organization should be based upon research (see #4 below).

3. Provide recommendations on how to make the organization more psychologically healthy. Recommendations should be specific (i.e., a specific organizational practice or program) and based upon research (see #4 below).

4. You must back up your analysis and recommendations with research from peer– reviewed journal articles. Each “healthy workplace” criterion must include at least one reference; therefore, there must be a total minimum of five references included in your paper. The research articles must come from the research journals listed on p. 18 of the Aamodt textbook; those listed under Bridge Publications and Trade Magazines and the textbook may be used but will not
count toward the five required references. Failure to include references will result in deduction of points. Use APA style for your reference section.

5. Appendix should include the name, position, and phone number or email address of the person(s) whom you contacted for your paper. Remember, the primary contact must be someone in management or human resources. I may contact this individual to verify the information you have provided. Appendix should also include the questions you created and used to ask your management/HR contact about the organization. Failure to include this will result in zero points on this paper.

Other requirements:
• Final paper should be approximately 10–15 pages (not including appendix and references), double–spaced, Times Roman Numeral, 12–point font. Page length is provided more as a guideline; I will grade based upon quality, not quantity. Bear in mind that papers that fall short of this guideline will likely not have enough content, but do not “fluff” up your paper to make them longer. I will not deduct points for papers that fall shy of the page guideline.

• Completed work should be submitted as a Word (.doc) or PDF on the Canvas course site.