Symposium: Organizational Health Intervention Research: Current Empirical Developments

This symposium is one of three symposia submitted by the "International organizational health intervention research partnership". The aim of this symposium is to present new empirical developments based on participatory intervention models. All five studies have developed and applied intervention models in various settings with the aim to initiate and implement organizational level preventive changes. It applies to all studies that they put a strong focus on collective change: it's about triggering discourse, collective reflection, mutual support, collective learning and changes in teams or networks of employees. The intervention process is designed to involve the most effective set of stakeholders (leaders, management, experts, co-workers) and connect them to an efficient network of change agents. For this, the current interventions offer models, handbooks and indicators that inform and support this collective, health-oriented change processes.

At this symposium the researchers will present and critically discuss their perspectives and results of their research:
• In the first study, Ipsen and her colleagues have applied and tested a participatory multi-level intervention model – POWRS, in four Danish SMEs. The project taps into above mentioned issues and the findings suggest that the model enables SMEs to address problems and implement work-related changes by using in-house employee facilitators without support of an external consultant.
• In the second contribution, Tafvelin and her colleagues present the first findings from the PROCOME project that aims to integrate process and outcome data on health interventions in order to compare the significance of various implementation components across program types and settings. The study has been conducted in Sweden and Denmark and focuses on the change process and implementation factors and highlights the impact on program effects such as employees’ health.
• The third contribution by Jenny and his colleagues focuses on measurement of psychosocial factors to trigger discourse and change and have developed a simple index the “Organisational Health Index”. The study, conducted in Switzerland, shows that the index predicts sick leave, stress symptoms, work engagement and self-rated productivity.
• The fourth contribution Torsten Holstad and his colleagues present their summative evaluation of a tailor-made training program focusing on health-promoting leader-follower interaction in German companies. The findings show that leaders have become more authentic and the team-climate is perceived to be more participative.
• Finally, the fifth study by Busch et al. is another comprehensive project with focus on low qualified work. The research team has evaluated the intervention program ReSiDu in Germany and the results show that the health of low qualified workers improves due to the intervention and that program activates natural helpers and enhance supervisor support.

Through this symposium we aim to demonstrate that the understanding of participatory and multi-level interventions has come far with substantial results by the use of various tools and models.