Key Organizational Characteristics for Integrated Approaches to Protect and Promote Worker Health in Smaller Enterprises

McLellan, Deborah L.; Williams, Jessica A.; Katz, Jeffrey N.; Pronk, Nicolaas P.; Wagner, Gregory R.; Caban‐Martinez, Alberto J.; Nelson, Candace C.; Sorensen, Glorian

doi:10.1097/jom.0000000000000949

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Furthermore, we are aware of only one study that assessed health promotion and safety leadership support amongst small businesses. They found that small business leaders who advocate for TWH have higher integration scores than leaders who do not [ 44 ]. However, this study did not define TWH leadership support or describe the ways in which TWH leaders advocate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Total Worker Health: A Small Business Leader Perspective

Thompson

Schwatka

Tenney

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Total Worker Health® (TWH) frameworks call for attention to organizational leadership in the implementation and effectiveness of TWH approaches. It is especially important to study this within in the small business environment where employees face significant health, safety, and well-being concerns and employers face barriers to addressing these concerns. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how small business leaders perceive employee health, safety, and well-being in the context of their own actions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 small business senior leaders and used a qualitative coding approach to analyze the transcripts to determine the frequency with which leaders discussed each code. When we asked leaders about their leadership practices for health, safety, and well-being, leaders reflected upon their business (65%), themselves (28%), and their employees (7%). Leaders rarely discussed the ways in which they integrate health, safety, and well-being. The interviews demonstrate that small business leaders care about the health of their employees, but because of the perceived value to their business, not to employees or themselves. Thus, they may lack the knowledge and skills to be successful TWH leaders. The present study supports a need for continued small business TWH leadership research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Total Worker Health: A Small Business Leader Perspective

Thompson

Schwatka

Tenney

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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“…The following variables were examined, workplace size (four categories; small and without a Joint Health and Safety Committee, JHSC (reference category)), union status (unionized, non-unionized (reference category), don’t know), industry sector (eight sectors; manufacturing sector (reference category)). Workplace culture factors previously found to be associated with OHS and wellness implementation [19,23] were examined using a measure of workplace health and safety leadership (lowest = 1 (reference category), highest = 4), and a measure of people-oriented culture (lowest = 1 (reference category), highest = 4) (Supplementary Table S1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the manufacturing sector reports a higher number of OHS and wellness activities than other sectors [15,16], and smaller workplaces are likely to offer fewer OHS and wellness programs than larger organizations [15,17,18]. Examining workplaces in the US Midwest, McLellan et al found leadership support and having an OHS committee to be important contributors to implementing integrated approaches [19]. Tremblay et al examined Massachusetts employers and found a high degree of coordinated activities among unionized workplaces and in construction, healthcare, manufacturing, and entertainment industries [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tremblay et al examined Massachusetts employers and found a high degree of coordinated activities among unionized workplaces and in construction, healthcare, manufacturing, and entertainment industries [18]. These and other studies are limited in their focus on small workplaces [17,19] and sampled few larger workplaces [18]. A greater focus on medium to large in addition to smaller workplaces can further uncover factors enabling integrated activities as larger workplaces are likely to have more resources to support these activities [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Larger Workplaces, People-Oriented Culture, and Specific Industry Sectors Are Associated with Co-Occurring Health Protection and Wellness Activities

Biswas

Severin

Smith

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Employers are increasingly interested in offering workplace wellness programs in addition to occupational health and safety (OHS) activities to promote worker health, wellbeing, and productivity. Yet, there is a dearth of research on workplace factors that enable the implementation of OHS and wellness to inform the future integration of these activities in Canadian workplaces. This study explored workplace demographic factors associated with the co-implementation of OHS and wellness activities in a heterogenous sample of Canadian workplaces. Using a cross-sectional survey of 1285 workplaces from 2011 to 2014, latent profiles of co-occurrent OHS and wellness activities were identified, and multinomial logistic regression was used to assess associations between workplace demographic factors and the profiles. Most workplaces (84%) demonstrated little co-occurrence of OHS and wellness activities. Highest co-occurrence was associated with large workplaces (odds ratio (OR) = 3.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.15–5.89), in the electrical and utilities sector (OR = 5.57, 95% CI = 2.24–8.35), and a high people-oriented culture (OR = 4.70, 95% CI = 1.59–5.26). Promoting integrated OHS and wellness approaches in medium to large workplaces, in select industries, and emphasizing a people-oriented culture were found to be important factors for implementing OHS and wellness in Canadian organizations. Informed by these findings, future studies should understand the mechanisms to facilitate the integration of OHS and wellness in workplaces.

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“…A few methods and implementation tools have been published recently by Nobrega et al [12]. However, even fewer methods have been published to date for specifically assessing an organization's readiness to implement a participatory TWH program [2,7,10,13].…”

Section: Total Worker Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of organizational readiness for participatory occupational safety, health and well-being programs

Robertson

Tubbs

Henning

et al. 2021

WOR

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BACKGROUND: Organizational readiness for change measures were reviewed to develop an assessment tool for guiding implementation of an occupational safety and health program based on Total Worker Health (TWH) principles. Considerable conceptual ambiguity in the theoretical and empirical peer-reviewed literature was revealed. OBJECTIVE: Develop and validate an assessment tool that organizations can use to prepare for implementation of a participatory TWH program. METHODS: Inclusion criteria identified 29 relevant publications. Analysis revealed eight key organizational characteristics and predictors of successful organizational change. A conceptual framework was created that subject matter experts used to generate prospective survey items. Items were revised after pretesting with 10 cognitive interviews with upper-level management and pilot-tested in five healthcare organizations. Reliability of the domain subscales were tested based on Cronbach’s α. RESULTS: The Organizational Readiness Tool (ORT) showed adequate psychometric properties and specificity in these eight domains: 1) Current safety/health/well-being programs 2) Current organizational approaches to safety/health/well-being; 3) Resources available for safety/health/well-being; 4) Resources and readiness for change initiatives to improve safety/health/well-being; 5) Resources and readiness for use of teams in programmatic initiatives; 6) Teamwork; 7) Resources and readiness for employee participation; and 8) Management communication about safety/health/well-being Acceptable ranges of internal consistency statistics for the domain subscales were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Development of a conceptual framework for organizational readiness for change guided item generation for an assessment tool. Items were then refined based on cognitive interviews with specified end users. Initial internal consistency was demonstrated following administration at multiple organizations prior to implementation of a participatory Total Worker Health ® program.

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Key Organizational Characteristics for Integrated Approaches to Protect and Promote Worker Health in Smaller Enterprises

Abstract: Smaller enterprises in one U.S. region have relatively low levels of implementing integrated safety and promotion approaches. Having a safety committee and leadership support for HP may be important contributors to implementing integrated approaches in smaller enterprises.

Cited by 13 publications

References 30 publications

Total Worker Health: A Small Business Leader Perspective

Total Worker Health: A Small Business Leader Perspective

Larger Workplaces, People-Oriented Culture, and Specific Industry Sectors Are Associated with Co-Occurring Health Protection and Wellness Activities

Assessment of organizational readiness for participatory occupational safety, health and well-being programs

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