Goal Pursuit in Organizational Health Interventions: The Role of Team Climate, Outcome Expectancy, and Implementation Intentions

Abstract

In taking a goal pursuit perspective into account, the present study examined associations between the context, process and outcome evaluation of an organizational health intervention (OHI) implemented within 29 teams in a hospital setting. In doing so, team climate for innovation as a context factor was measured at baseline (N = 529). Four to six weeks after baseline, N = 250 team representatives participated in a 4-day workshop. During the workshop employees formulated collective goals as action plans to be implemented in the nursing wards. Goal pursuit as a process factor was differentiated into (a) a motivational “goal setting” and (b) a volitional “goal striving” phase. The scale of outcome expectancy (measured after the fourth day of the workshop) was used as an indicator for the goal setting phase. For the operationalization of the goal striving phase, action plans were coded with regard to the proportion of formulated implementation intentions (“if-then plans”). After 6 months, the outcome of the intervention was measured on a retrospective impact scale (N = 385). The results of the multiple regression analysis and of the multilevel analysis show that both team climate and goal pursuit (outcome expectancy and the proportion of if-then plans) were positively related to the perceived impact of the intervention. Furthermore, the results show that the relationship between team climate and the impact of the intervention was mediated by outcome expectancy. The results highlight the contribution of goal theory within context-process-outcome research that leads to a better understanding of when and why OHIs are effective.

Development of a Generic Workshop Appraisal Scale (WASC) for Organizational Health Interventions and Evaluation

“…This high satisfaction is likely to strengthen their trust in the efficacy of the action plans, which becomes apparent in high outcome expectancies for the workshop. Lehmann et al (2019) showed for example that if-then plans -i.e., the workshop output in form of concrete action plans -were related to the perception of intervention success.…”

“…The results also support the assumption that participants who appraise a workshop as favorable also have high outcome expectancies. This relationship is partially mediated by satisfaction with the output developed during a workshop: Participants who rate a workshop as favorable are also more likely to be satisfied with the developed action plans, which in turn leads to high outcome expectancies: Outcome expectancies are known to be related to the perception of intervention success ( Fridrich et al, 2016 ; Lehmann et al, 2019 ). A study utilizing a preliminary, not yet-validated version of the WASC aggregated on team level revealed that outcome expectancies – rather than workshop appraisals – were directly relevant for changes in working conditions, but also indicated that positive appraisal of the workshops was related to changes in affective activation at work ( Füllemann et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Fridrich et al (2016) found that the outcome expectancy of a stress-management workshop is able to partly predict the perceived individual and organizational impact of the entire stress-management intervention in a 2-year follow-up. Similarly, both Füllemann et al (2016) and Lehmann et al (2019) showed that outcome expectancy -measured during workshops of an organizational health intervention -was related to follow-up perceptions of impact. Assuming that an individual's outcome expectancy reflects their assessment of whether changes triggered by an intervention element will influence their wellbeing, the outcome expectancy will influence the individual's decision to participate (or not to participate) in activities developed during the intervention element and thus, influence the intervention's impact.…”

“…This output plays an important role for the effectiveness and success of the intervention. A recent study showed that workshop output in form of if-then plans – together with outcome expectancies – predicted the perceived impact of an intervention ( Lehmann et al, 2019 ). This applies not only to the output’s form, but also its appraisal: Linna et al (2011) implemented a participatory intervention on organizational justice perceptions where various work groups developed and implemented tailored action plans according to their specific groups’ needs.…”

Strategic Self-Regulation in Groups: Collective Implementation Intentions Help Cooperate When Cooperation Is Called for

“…Increasing cooperation by forming cIIs could thus be highly beneficial in work contexts (Thürmer et al, 2015a;Gagné, 2018). Although limited data is available on this question (Lehmann et al, 2019), research on social dilemmas and social loafing has proven highly influential in organizational teams (Stouten and Liden, 2020), and II effects have been observed in organizational contexts, such as adherence to new workplace regulations (Holland et al, 2006) and making entrepreneurial decisions (Adam and Fayolle, 2015;van Gelderen et al, 2017). It is, therefore, likely that cII effects on cooperation generalize to organizational settings (Thürmer et al, 2015a).…”