Brief positive psychological interventions within multi-cultural organisational contexts: a systematic literature review

Applications of brief positive psychology interventions (BPPI) within organisational contexts have soared within the last decade; yet academic literature on its effectiveness is limited. However, critics have raised concerns about the applicability, replicability and generalizability of those BPPIs published within academic literature; especially when applied within multi-cultural contexts. Given the ever-increasing diversity of the workforce due to factors such as globalization, migration and immigration, it is imperative to consider cultural context to design effective and meaningful BPPIs. While present literature addresses specific BPPIs in clinical samples and monocultural contexts, limited research exists with respect to the design of BPPIs applicable to multi-cultural organisational contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide a systematic literature review on multi-cultural BPPIs within organisational contexts and to present an overview of advances to date. We conducted a systematic literature review in Medline and PsycINFO using a comprehensive list of relevant search terms (2000–2018) to identify studies on multi-cultural BPPIs within organisational contexts. Findings provide support for the short-term effectiveness of various types of BPPIs in multi-cultural organisational contexts, however, the statistical power and long-term effects of these studies are questionable. Specifically, it seems that workplace mindfulness-based training, (web-based and multi-modal) stress management, and acceptance and commitment therapy mitigate consequences like stress and burnout, though more evidence is needed to support that BBPIs actively promote positive psychological outcomes. This chapter presents an overview of advances made to-date and aims to encourage researchers to consider multi-cultural aspects when developing BPPI interventions.KeywordsBrief positive psychological interventions Multi-cultural contexts Intervention research Systematic literature review