The Impact of Workplace Health Promotion Programs Emphasizing Individual Responsibility on Weight Stigma and Discrimination

Abstract

Over time, there has been a steady increase of workplace health promotion programs that aim to promote employees' health and fitness. Previous research has focused on such program's effectiveness, cost-savings, and barriers to engaging in workplace health promotion. The present research focuses on a downside of workplace health promotion programs that to date has not been examined before, namely the possibility that they, due to a focus on individual responsibility for one's health, inadvertently facilitate stigmatization and discrimination of people with overweight in the workplace. Study 1 shows that the presence of workplace health promotion programs is associated with increased attributions of weight controllability. Study 2 experimentally demonstrates that workplace health promotion programs emphasizing individual rather than organizational responsibility elicit weight stigma. Study 3, which was pre-registered, showed that workplace health promotion programs emphasizing individual responsibility induced weight-based discrimination in the context of promotion decisions in the workplace. Moreover, focusing on people with obesity who frequently experience weight stigma and discrimination, Study 3 showed that workplace health promotion programs highlighting individual responsibility induced employees with obesity to feel individually responsible for their health, but at the same time made them perceive weight as less controllable. Together, our research identifies workplace health promotion programs as potent catalysts of weight stigma and weight-based discrimination, especially when they emphasize individual responsibility for health outcomes. As such, we offer valuable insights for organizations who aim to design and implement workplace health promotion programs in an inclusive, non-discriminatory way that benefits all employees.

Corporate Well-Being Programme in COVID-19 Times. The Mahou San Miguel Case Study

“…Fourth, workplace well-being programmes impact on some employees' health aspects, improving their muscle tone and general physical condition [36,37], their perception of health and general health [38][39][40][41], reducing health risks [42], improving psychophysiological and social parameters related to the relief of musculoskeletal pain [23], a reduction of overweight [43], improving the body mass index, body weight, fat mass, cholesterol, fitness and quality of sleep [44], and enhancing the ability to control weight [45]. Furthermore, previous physical activity training with high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness is probably immunoprotective in patients who contract COVID-19 [46].…”

Employer perspectives concerning the self-management support needs of workers with long-term health conditions

“…This might not be true of workers' views and abilities. In fact, attributions of personal accountabilities for LTCs could induce stigma and discrimination (Täuber et al , 2018) by giving the impression workers are themselves responsible for health and work outcomes.…”

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“…Factors that may create emotional or mental stress in the workplace are known as stressors (Quick & Konstantinos, 2014). Poor work organization, poor organizational culture, lack of policies and practices related to dignity and respect for all workers, harassment and bullying, gender discrimination, stigmatization due to HIV status, intolerance for ethnic or religious diversity, and lack of support for healthy living are all typical examples of psychosocial hazards (Täuber et al, 2018). In contrast to physical job risks, psychosocial hazards are usually discovered and evaluated via surveys or interviews.…”