Eight Voices on Capabilities at Work: Making Work More Human, Equitable and Meaningful

To mark the launch of Capabilities at Work: The Added Value of the Capability Model for Well-Being and Work (Cambridge University Press, 2026), edited by Prof. Jac van der Klink and Prof. Sebastiaan (Ian) Rothmann and published open access, we invited eight scholars and practitioners to speak — each on one facet of what the capability approach brings to working life.

The capability approach, rooted in the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, starts from a deceptively simple idea: what matters is not just the resources people hold or the income a job provides, but the real freedoms people have to be and to do what they have reason to value. The book captures this with the image of the cathedral builder — every worker should have the chance to contribute to something meaningful, provided the social, organisational and institutional context enables them to do so.

The eight short videos below each take up one "added value" of that idea — from its philosophical foundations to measurement, inclusion, culture and everyday practice. Watch them in order for a guided tour, or dip into the themes that speak to your work.

1. The foundation: from resources to real freedoms

Prof. Jac van der Klink — co-editor; Emeritus Professor, Tilburg University; Extraordinary Professor, North-West University

🎥 Watch — Prof. Jac van der Klink

Jac van der Klink sets the cornerstone. Work, he argues, should do more than pay a wage: it should enable people to achieve what they genuinely value. A work value becomes a capability only when three things line up — the person cares about that value, the context enables them to pursue it, and they are actually able to achieve it. This reframes "sustainable employability" away from a deficit-and-disease model toward a positive, values-led question: is this work letting this person flourish? It is the normative heart of the whole book.

2. The business and psychology case: capabilities, well-being and performance

Prof. Sebastiaan (Ian) Rothmann — co-editor; Professor of Industrial Psychology, North-West University (Optentia)

🎥 Watch — Prof. Sebastiaan Rothmann

Ian Rothmann shows that a capability lens is not only the ethical choice — it is the effective one. A capability-centric organisation focuses on what people are able to be and do, rather than merely the resources they hold; resources only matter for what they let people become. The lesson for leaders and HR: your task is to convert resources into valued functionings, and to pursue equity in capabilities (the freedom to achieve what one values) rather than a superficial equality of resources. Done well, this is where well-being, engagement and performance meet.

3. Inclusion and decoloniality: whose values count?

Prof. Blessed Ngwenya — Associate Professor, North-West University (Optentia); coordinator, Inclusion and Decolonial Praxis

🎥 Watch — Prof. Blessed Ngwenya

Blessed Ngwenya presses a question the capability approach is uniquely equipped to ask: whose values are we enabling? Drawing on inclusion and decolonial thinking, he warns against a Western "universalist" default that treats one culture's ways of working as natural and universal. Capability development, he argues, must reach diverse individuals across age, race, gender and disability — and must centre the voices and contexts of the Global South. Work becomes a site of justice and belonging, not just productivity.

4. Measurement and evaluation: how do we know it works?

Prof. Gert Jan van der Wilt — Emeritus Professor of Health Technology Assessment, Radboud University Medical Center

🎥 Watch — Prof. Gert Jan van der Wilt

Gert Jan van der Wilt brings the hard evaluative question: how do we actually tell whether an intervention expands people's capabilities? His work on assessment cautions against supply-driven "innovation" that never meets people's real needs, and insists that evaluation weave together empirical evidence and normative, value-laden questions — what is valuable, for whom, in which context. The lesson: capability is not a slogan to assert but an impact to demonstrate, and that takes methods built for facts and values.

5. From theory to the workplace: the capability conversation

Dr Jan Meerman — researcher and practitioner in sustainable employability

🎥 Watch — Dr Jan Meerman

Jan Meerman bridges science and daily practice. The approach lives or dies in the conversation between a worker and their organisation: identifying what someone values in their work, what enables it, and what stands in the way. His research on specific groups — such as gifted workers, whose strengths can also bring particular challenges — shows why one-size-fits-all rules fail and why tailored, values-led dialogue works. The takeaway for professionals: your role is to facilitate that dialogue and turn insight into concrete enablers.

6. Occupational health: enabling, not just managing illness

Prof. Margot Joosen — occupational health researcher, Tilburg University (Tranzo)

🎥 Watch — Prof. Margot Joosen

Margot Joosen brings the approach into occupational and mental health. Instead of asking only "what is wrong and how do we manage it," a capability lens asks "what does this person value, and what would enable them to achieve it at work" — a shift with real consequences for preventing dropout and supporting return to work. It moves occupational health practice from a reactive, illness-managing stance to a proactive one that sustains employability by expanding what people are genuinely able to do.

7. Disability and functioning: what can people actually be and do?

Prof. Patricia Welch Saleeby — Professor of Social Work, Bradley University; WHO Functioning and Disability Reference Group

🎥 Watch — Prof. Patricia Welch Saleeby

Patricia Welch Saleeby joins the capability approach with the WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Together they shift attention from a diagnosis or deficit to what a person can actually do and be in their real environment — and to the environmental and contextual factors that help or hinder them. For work, this underpins fairer, function-based employability assessment and genuine inclusion of people with disabilities. Her message in short: a diagnosis is a beginning, not a verdict.

8. Culture and norms: universality with genuine diversity

Prof. Jasper van Assche — social psychologist; researcher on diversity, norms and intergroup relations

🎥 Watch — Prof. Jasper van Assche

Jasper van Assche examines how culture and social norms shape which capabilities are valued and achievable. His idea of a "universally diverse" orientation holds the tension the whole book navigates: some human concerns are shared across cultures, yet what is valuable differs by person and setting. The practical implication is to move beyond token demographic representation toward workplaces where all workers can exercise voice, influence decisions and feel psychologically safe — so diversity becomes a source of empowerment rather than marginalisation.

What the eight lessons add up to

Taken together, the videos trace a single argument from principle to practice:

• Work should expand real freedoms, not just provide income — the normative core (van der Klink).

• It pays off, for well-being and performance, when organisations convert resources into what people value (Rothmann).

• Context and culture decide what counts — there is no one-size-fits-all, so inclusion, decoloniality and norms matter (Ngwenya, van Assche).

• Enabling is a shared duty of leaders, professionals, organisations and policy — through dialogue and tailored support (Meerman, Joosen).

• It must be inclusive across disability and difference, and grounded in what people can actually do in their environment (Saleeby).

• And it must be demonstrable — capability is something to measure and evaluate, not merely assert (van der Wilt).

The through-line is equity: work should reduce disparities and widen opportunity across gender, socio-economic and cultural divides — expanding freedoms, not just equalising outcomes.

Join the launch

Capabilities at Work is published open access by Cambridge University Press, so anyone can read every chapter for free.