You can get FREE online access to SAGE journals 1999-2010 here until Oct 15 2010.

Thanks to Paul Barrett for the link

The Zimmers, the UK rock band with an average age of 82, continue their bid for world domination… or at the very least some recognition that older folks can continue to play a part in society and deserve to be heard.

This is Positive Ageing at its best, and the second example I’ve come across in the past few weeks -  the other is Dr Lilli Hvingtoft -Foster, the President of the Open University Psychological Society, which she was instrumental in establishing in 1974. The Grande Dame doesn’t reveal her age, but she must be 80 if she’s a day. She opened the recent OUPS Psychology of Well-Being Conference – her passion for her subject was immediately obvious, over the three days she attended all the lectures – a brilliant example of how life-long learning can help keep you young.

The Zimmers, who created a storm a month or so ago with their recording of The Who’s My Generation, and whose next single, a cover of The Prodigy’s 1996 song Firestarter, is due out in October, have taken a much more in your face approach to Positive Ageing. I loved the first documentary that the award-winning journalist Tim Samuels made about them; firstly it showed how mistaken we are to ignore older people, or to write them off as being somehow past their prime – and more importantly how we can continue to have fun and make a difference in the world whatever our age.

In a follow-up programme tonight on the UK’s BBC 2 at 10pm , we see The Zimmers conquering America, being interviewed by the world’s media and making appearances in front of the camera as if they were all born to it. They have their own Myspace page now, as well as an entry in Wikipedia, and numerous videos on Youtube made by admiring fans, plus hundreds of mentions in blogs world-wide.

It goes without saying that in the UK’s increasingly individualistic culture we need to treat older people with more respect. And what I really hope the Zimmers achieve through this new media spotlight is to make people realise that ageing positively is not a myth: retirement can be just as enjoyable, exciting and rewarding a time as your youth or middle age. The world is still your oyster whether you’re 28 or 82.

How does your business define employee well-being? Perhaps you think of it in terms of physical health, providing healthy menus in your staff restaurant, health screening or private health insurance. Or maybe you help employees manage stress or give up smoking? These types of support are common in many larger organisations, and for many HR and OD managers, this is what employee well-being is all about.

But what about the importance of psychological well-being or mental health in the work-place? In their recently published Change Agenda – What’s happening with well-being at work?, the CIPD’s examples of mental health at work are: work-life balance targets, conflict resolution training and relaxation techniques (p7). I think this is really missing the point.

The CIPD’s definition of well-being is ‘creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation’. The question we need to answer is whether work-life balance targets, conflict resolution training or relaxation techniques really achieve this.

I would suggest that they are only half the story. Research shows that psychological well-being can be enabled through developing traits like resilience, optimism and self-awareness in employees, focussing on strengths and through fostering meaning at work, for example by building new organisational communities through volunteering programmes. What is essential for employees to flourish is an organisational culture which actively and positively promotes it.

I think it would be beneficial for organisations to view employee well-being in terms of an integrated model, which not only takes into account physical, psychological and spiritual well-being, but which places specific emphasis on developing the positives. I’ll be returning to this integrated model and the importance of a positive focus in later posts.

If you still haven’t broken your New Year Resolutions yet [ ... of course you haven't, just teasing...] you might be interested in taking part in some scientific research which is being undertaken at University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

It was reported in the Guardian on Friday 30th December (“Psychologists seek key to successful new year resolutions”) that Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University, is hoping to get around 10,000 people to take part in this on-line experiment. The point of the research is to find out what are the best ways of motivating people to keep to their resolutions.

So, even if you don’t succeed, you’ll still be providing some useful input to the research! If you want to take part, simply log on to newyearscience.co.uk.