Abstract:

This study explains how workplace loneliness translates into employee health impairment and reduced wellbeing. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, the paper conceptualizes workplace loneliness as a condition of social resource loss that initiates a cognitive shift toward learned helplessness. It proposes that when employees perceive relational deficiencies as persistent and uncontrollable, they develop diminished agency, which subsequently increases anxiety and insomnia, intensifies somatic symptoms, and undermines life, psychological, and workplace wellbeing. Learned helplessness is positioned as the central mediating mechanism linking loneliness to these outcomes. Further, inclusive leadership is proposed as a buffering contextual resource that weakens the progression from loneliness to helplessness by restoring a sense of belonging and perceived control. Data collection is currently underway among Indian civil police officers, a high-stress occupational context where relational resources are particularly salient. The study contributes by integrating loneliness research, learned helplessness theory, and multidimensions of wellbeing within a unified resource-based framework.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Organisational Psychology

Keywords: Employee Health, Safety and Well Being at Work    ;Employee Attitudes and Motivations   ;Individual differences in organisations   

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Dr. Bindu Gupta