Opportunities and Constraints in Designing Well-Being Programs Supported by Wearable Technologies in Organizations

This chapter delineates opportunities and constraints in the development of a wearable technology for enhancing employee well-being as part of a corporate initiative. It elucidates the complexities involved in the concurrent design of a well-being device and its integration within a real-world organizational framework. Subsequently, the discussion transitions to demonstrate how the resultant device embodies a notion of well-being that is delimited by various contextual factors, including work structure and coordination, as well as the power relations among the stakeholders engaged in the technology’s creation. Through this exploration, the chapter extrapolates implications for the HR function concerning the formulation and governance of well-being strategies in workplaces that are increasingly becoming digital. Moreover, it invites reconsidering technology design in different ways.