Human Resource Management and Positive Psychology at NAOT: Building a Flourishing and High-Performing Supreme Audit Institution through the PERMA Model

Abstract

Human Resource Management (HRM) has traditionally focused on correcting workplace problems, while positive psychology asks what allows people and organizations to thrive. This article applies that lens to the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT), whose auditors work from headquarters in Dodoma and from working stations dispersed nationwide. Drawing on Dr. Umar Hassan’s wellbeing framework and Seligman’s PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment — it shows how individual-level wellbeing findings can reshape NAOT’s recruitment, training, performance management, and leadership practices, and how each PERMA pillar maps onto daily audit operations. The article examines practical challenges, including measurement, cultural diversity, toxic positivity, and NAOT’s parliamentary reporting calendar, and closes with recommendations for embedding PERMA into NAOT’s core HR systems to build flourishing, high-performing working stations nationwide.