If the "professionalisation" of psychologists in the business arena is a priority for all of us who are committed to employee wellbeing at work, then so too is applying the understanding that a sea-change is taking place in the way that many people regard their working lives.

Dr Emma Bell researching at Warwick University Business School has described this as the "spiritualisation" of work. Work, seen from the days of Karl Marx as the source of alienation of the people, or in the 1960's as an 'uncool' interruption of one's leisure pursuits, or in the 1980's as the opportunity (for some) to make 'loadsamoney', is now seen with new eyes. It is of course - and always has been - a cornerstone in the psychological development of the individual.

However as organisations have delayered, restructured, downsized, reengineered their processes, refocused their strategic priorities rebuilt their customer-facing channels to market - in short, dislodged and sacked people from the jobs they were once doing, a more realistic, less subservient appreciation has emerged of what work means to people.

For many, work is no longer either an activity to be tolerated which pays the mortgage and feeds the children, or a lifetime of forelock-tugging and political manoeuvring in an indifferent organisation, but is explicitly acknowledged to be one of a number of important sources of personal meaning and social development.

For these people, and I meet more and more of them, especially those under 30, the meaning of work has shifted from either a necessary evil or the primary source of their self-identity, to simply one of a number of very important places where their personal values, expectations, beliefs and assumptions are affirmed, challenged and re-built on a daily basis.

Put plainly, if these individuals' expectations aren't being met about what work should give to them and mean to them, then they'd suffer. Their suffering will manifest itself as stress, dysfunctional behaviour, or sickness, all symptoms of a deeper psychological lack, and cultural malaise in the organisation. However, by recognising that these symptoms originate in a systemic organisation failure to understand and manage effectively the psycho-social context, cultures and practices of the business, then a route to a cure - or at least, significant improvements suggests itself.

Such a 'cure' centres around practitioners in employee health and wellbeing having the professional credibility and psychological insight to work with the Board and key stakeholders of an organisation. The challenge is to help them develop and implement values, processes, practices and structures that are flexible and sensitive enough to meet the diverse needs of people in the organisation and robust enough to sustain commercial viability in difficult market places.

It means that practitioners need to make a great effort to apply psychological insights into business to educate, support and guide managers and staff to enable them to incorporate, as a first principle, the ethos of employee health and wellbeing as a strategic imperative in all aspects of their commercial dealings - rather than simply a legal requirement.

Dr Brian Baxter was the first Chairman of the Association of Business Psychologists and a former partner in KPL.. His areas of professional interests include organisational culture, wellbeing at work and facilitation of Board-level decision-making. Contact email:bbaxter@kpl.co.uk.