Occupational harmony: Embracing the complexity of occupational balance

Abstract

Occupational balance is a central concept in occupational science, but it is complex and lacks an agreed-upon definition. Further, the concept has not been given significant attention by scholars outside Western societies. Building upon traditional Chinese culture and Chinese scholars’ Human Complex System Theory, this article presents a proposed Model of Occupational Harmony, offering an Eastern understanding of how the orchestration of everyday occupations relates to health and well-being. The notion of occupational harmony highlights harmonious human-environment transactions as the essence of the phenomenon and integrates multiple perspectives in previous occupational balance literature, including activity patterns, time use, occupational characteristics, need satisfaction, and biological rhythms. It is asserted that occupational harmony can be characterized as complex equilibria among three pairs of two-sided occupational characteristics and achieved via harmony among five dimensions of occupational engagement and coherence across multiple levels of human-environment transactions. This article is a beginning theoretical conceptualization of occupational harmony, allowing occupational scientists to embrace the complexity of the orchestration of occupational engagement.