MM5271 Wellbeing at Work
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Sem 1 2026/27MM5271 Overview
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Semester 1, 2026/27
- Postgraduate subject
- Management
- Journals, participation and project
What this subject is actually asking you to do
Wellbeing at Work is a postgraduate subject in the Department of Management and Marketing, taught as a highly interactive class across ten topics.
- Assessed by Two reflection journals worth 20% each, individual participation worth 25% and a ten-page individual project worth 35%.
- The skill being graded Insight: connecting a named concept to a specific experience and showing what changed because of it.
- Hardest step Persuading an organisation, not just diagnosing it: the project must say how you would convince the organisation to adopt the proposal.
- Where to confirm Deadlines and submission points are controlled by the subject site, which dates both journals differently from the syllabus.
How MM5271 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Reflection Journals | 40% | Two journals of under two single-spaced pages, 20% each, on any two topics after the first |
| Individual Participation | 25% | Interactive in-class activities and discussion, digitally recorded |
| Individual Project | 35% | Ten-page double-spaced paper on one workplace wellbeing issue, with at least ten research references |
The subject syllabus lists these three components and they total 100%; the first lecture slide shows the same split. Each reflection journal carries 20% and covers any topic after the first. The syllabus sets each journal due within a week of the lesson it reflects on and states that late journals will not be considered, while the subject site currently dates both journal submission points 3 December at 18:30, so confirm which deadline applies. The project paper is due 6 December 2026 at 23:59, an outline by email is recommended on or before 8 November 2026, and a late paper loses one sub-grade per day. The site page for the project shows it as a 35-point item but also carries a line saying it is excluded from the final grade calculation; this guide follows the syllabus weight, and you should confirm the grade book setting on the subject site.
Assessment structure
Segment widths reproduce the published percentage weights and total 100%.
Current MM5271 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 8 November 2026 | Individual project outline (recommended) | The syllabus recommends emailing an outline of the paper on or before this date. |
| 3 December 2026 | Personal Reflection 1 and 2 submission points | Shown on the subject site at 18:30; the syllabus instead sets each journal within a week of the lesson it reflects on. |
| 6 December 2026 | Individual Project | Due 23:59, stated in the syllabus and on the subject site. |
Dates are as published in the subject syllabus and the assignment pages on the subject site for this offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What MM5271 covers
Ten chapters follow the published reading list from the myths of the great workplace through meaning, motivation, attention, stress and burnout, emotions, self-compassion and inclusion to incivility, wellness programmes and flourishing.
Workplace Wellbeing, Its Myths and Its Business Case
Wellbeing intelligence at self, team and organisation levels · Satisfaction and performance correlations · Five myths of the great workplace · Stress, anxiety and sick days02Money, Meaning and Job Crafting
Income and two kinds of wellbeing · Four sources of meaningful work · Task, relational and cognitive crafting · Quiet quitting and after-hours limits03Incentives, Motives and the Growth Mindset
Personal bonuses and perceived sincerity · Matching incentives as the boundary · Fixed, growth and false growth mindsets · Rewarding learning over effort04Attention, Information Overload and Boundaries
Cost of task switching · Focus, filter and forget · Interrupting a colleague well · Negotiating and resetting boundaries05Stress, Recovery, Sleep and Burnout
Stress curve and recovery habits · Stress Risk Thermometer and its costs · Sleep, leadership and nap rooms · Six areas of worklife and burnout06Emotions and Difficult Conversations at Work
Self-immersed versus self-distanced reflection · Recounting versus reconstruing · Distancing is not avoidance · Preparing a difficult conversation07Perfectionism, Self-Compassion and Resilience
Three components and their opposites · Self-compassion versus self-esteem · Mastery and avoidance goals · Coping after a failure08Inclusion, Empathy and Authenticity at Work
Facades of conformity · Four values of inclusion · Storytelling and perspective-taking · Psychological safety for honest dissent09Incivility, Social Support and Forgiveness
Hidden costs of everyday rudeness · Community as a buffer · Apology before forgiveness · Red flags in a prospective employer10Wellness Programmes and Flourishing at Work
I-frame versus S-frame programmes · Carewashing and modifiable health drivers · Concern about happiness and meta-emotions · Generosity and trust in apologyIts published description starts from a simple observation: people spend a large share of their waking lives at work, so a lack of wellbeing there is associated with serious health risks, while investment in it is related to productivity, engagement, innovation and resilience.
The subject treats wellbeing as a complement to conventional performance management, and its stated objectives are to understand common mental health issues and their link to organisational performance, to consider management solutions that could underpin a positive workplace, and to add a new set of tools for modern pressures of pace, technology and psychological distance.
Every graded component asks you to use these ideas, either on your own working life or on an organisation.
Workplace Wellbeing, Its Myths and Its Business Case
The opening topic separates wellbeing from momentary good mood and sets out the business case, including the correlations the first lecture presents between employee satisfaction and measures of firm performance.
It introduces wellbeing intelligence at the level of the self, the team and the organisation, and works through the myths of the great workplace: that everyone is always happy, that conflict is rare, that mistakes are few, that cultural fit means similarity and that fun perks are what matter.
Money, Meaning and Job Crafting
Income raises how people evaluate their lives but, beyond a point, not how they feel day to day.
The chapter builds on that distinction to discuss disengagement and the golden handcuff, the sources of meaningful work and why managers avoid talking about meaning, and job crafting: reshaping the tasks, relationships and way of thinking about a job from the inside.
Incentives, Motives and the Growth Mindset
A reward can change how an action is read by others, and a study on fund-raising shows personal incentives making an appeal seem less sincere.
The chapter compares that effect with crowding out, then sets fixed, growth and false growth mindsets side by side and asks what it means to reward learning and progress rather than effort alone.
Attention, Information Overload and Boundaries
Switching between tasks costs time and accuracy, and constant connectivity adds stress of its own.
The chapter covers focusing, filtering and forgetting as habits, why a team has to agree its attention norms together, how to interrupt a colleague well, and how to negotiate and reset personal boundaries after a crisis.
Stress, Recovery, Sleep and Burnout
Taught over two weeks, this topic treats stress as a response that is healthy when followed by recovery and harmful when chronic.
It covers stress as a measurable business risk, the effect of lost sleep on judgement and leadership, the debate over workplace napping, and burnout as a mismatch between people and six areas of their working life.
Emotions and Difficult Conversations at Work
Also taught over two weeks, this topic asks why upsetting experiences linger and how to reflect on them without ruminating.
Research on self-distancing shows that looking at an event from a step back tends to produce reconstrual rather than a replay of the hurt, which is useful preparation for a difficult conversation.
Perfectionism, Self-Compassion and Resilience
Self-compassion is defined through three components and their opposites and kept distinct from self-esteem.
The chapter connects it to how people set goals, how they cope with a failure that has already happened, and how high standards can be kept without the self-criticism that often comes with them.
Inclusion, Empathy and Authenticity at Work
A representative team can still exclude people.
The chapter covers intergroup bias, a values-based approach to inclusion, storytelling and perspective-taking as routes to empathy, and the facades of conformity people adopt when authenticity feels unsafe.
Incivility, Social Support and Forgiveness
Everyday rudeness carries hidden costs in withdrawn effort, turnover and customer experience.
The chapter covers microaggressions, how incivility spreads from leaders through teams, community and social support as a buffer, repair through apology and forgiveness, and how to spot a toxic employer before accepting an offer.
Wellness Programmes and Flourishing at Work
Wellness spending has not reliably reduced burnout, and one assigned reading attributes part of the problem to a focus on individual fixes rather than the systems around the employee.
The closing topic sets those frames against each other, looks at the drivers of holistic health, and ends with research on how pursuing happiness too anxiously can backfire.
How to use this guide
Read the chapter for a topic before its class, because participation depends on having thought the concepts through in advance. Work the practice items by writing your own answer first.
Use the practice chapter to plan the individual project from issue to proposal, and the closing chapter for the last checks before any submission.
Evidence and assessment control
Assessment labels, weights and dates follow the published syllabus for this offering and the assignment pages on the subject site.
The syllabus publishes rough grade guidelines for each component and two lateness rules, which this guide reproduces; check the subject site for any further requirement that applies to passing. Teaching explanations, worked examples and practice items are independently authored and are not University assessment material, and any marks shown on them are an AskSia study allocation.
Confirm deadlines and submission settings on the subject site, which currently dates the journals differently from the syllabus.
Turn a journal audit into a reflection that shows a change
- 2Replace the general mood with a dated, countable observation of your own behaviour.
- 3Name the concept from the topic that explains the pattern, precisely.
- 3Report what you changed, for how long, and what you noticed, including what did not work.
Key terms
- Wellbeing Intelligence
- A learnable set of managerial skills for recognising, diagnosing and improving one's own and other people's wellbeing. It operates at the individual, team and organisational levels.
- Job Crafting
- The physical and cognitive changes an employee makes to the task or relational boundaries of their own job, usually without formal redesign by the organisation.
- Crowding Out
- A process in which an external reward displaces a person's own reason for doing an activity, so that motivation or effort falls once the reward is introduced.
- Information Overload
- A state in which the volume of messages and data reaching a worker exceeds what they can process well, lowering the quality of learning and decisions.
- Optimal Stress
- A level and rhythm of stress that energises performance and growth because it alternates with genuine recovery, rather than being eliminated or endured.
- Self-Immersed Perspective
- A way of recalling and analysing an experience from inside it, seeing events through your own eyes. In the research it is linked with rumination and stronger emotional reactivity.
- Self-Compassion
- An emotional stance toward yourself in failure that combines kindness toward yourself, recognition of common humanity and mindful awareness of painful feelings. It does not depend on rating yourself favourably against others.
- Values/Principles Model
- A framework from Beach and Segars that defines inclusion through four values, representation, participation, application and appreciation, reached through seven guiding principles.
- Workplace Incivility
- Low-intensity disrespectful behaviour at work, such as ignoring, undermining or publicly belittling a colleague. Its harm comes from accumulation rather than from any single act.
MM5271 FAQ
How is the grade made up?
Three components total one hundred per cent: two personal reflection journals worth twenty per cent each, individual participation worth twenty-five per cent and an individual project paper worth thirty-five per cent. The same split appears in the syllabus and on the first lecture slide, and deadlines are managed on the subject site.
Which topics can a reflection journal be about, and when is it due?
Any two topics covered during the semester except the opening one. Each journal is under two single-spaced pages, briefly audits your own wellbeing and then reflects on how the learning helps you improve it. The syllabus says each is due within a week of the lesson it reflects on and that late journals are not considered; the subject site dates both submission points 3 December, so confirm which deadline governs.
What does the individual project paper have to cover?
One specific workplace wellbeing issue, the problems behind it, how you would suggest the organisation tackle it and how you would convince the organisation to adopt the proposal. It runs to ten double-spaced pages in Times New Roman excluding tables, figures and references, needs at least ten research references in a consistent academic style, and is graded on application of concepts, logic, originality and structure.
How is participation assessed?
The class is designed to be highly interactive and in-class participation is digitally recorded. The published guideline grades it in bands, from insightful, critical contributions at the top to passive participation, unexcused absence or disruption near the bottom. Preparing the reading or pre-assigned exercise before each class and reflecting on it afterwards is what the syllabus itself recommends.
What happens if written work is submitted late?
The two rules differ. A reflection journal submitted late will not be considered, on the stated reasoning that there are many chances to make the next deadline. The project paper is accepted late but loses one sub-grade, for example from B- to C+, for each day it is late. Only electronic copies submitted through the drop box are accepted.
Can I use generative AI for the written work?
Yes, within stated limits. The subject encourages it for generating ideas for projects, but any assignment where it was used must carry the declaration footnote given in the syllabus, describing how it was used, and you remain responsible for factual accuracy and ethical concerns. Writing an assignment in another language and translating it directly with such a tool is not allowed.
What topics does the subject cover?
Ten topics: the myths of the great workplace, money and meaning at work with job crafting, incentives and the growth mindset, attention and boundaries, stress, recovery and burnout over two weeks, emotions and difficult conversations over two weeks, perfectionism and self-compassion, inclusion and authenticity, incivility and social support, and wellness programmes and flourishing.
How to prepare for the assessments
Keep a two-line wellbeing log from the first class: what drained you each day and what restored you. When a topic lands, read your log against its concepts before writing a journal, and write the change you will test before the class ends, so that the journal can report what happened.
For the project, start a shortlist of organisational problems in week two and add the reading that explains each one, so that by November you are choosing between researched issues rather than searching for one.
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