Abstract
The “wecoach” is a web-application that builds the capacities of team leaders to improve working conditions that are positively related to the psychological health and well-being of their team members. The web-application works through an automated, rule-based chat enhanced by machine learning. This so-called conversational agent guides the team leader through a systematic project cycle, providing a mind map of work and health, training materials, self-assessments, and online tools to conduct team surveys and workshops, as well as self-evaluation of progress and effectiveness. In this paper, we present the development process of this web-application, which resulted in (1) a comprehensive intervention approach, (2) the prototype, and (3) the implementation of an evaluation design for a multi-level, randomized controlled trial.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to present a web-application that builds the capacities of team leaders to create working conditions that are positively related to the psychological health and wellbeing of their team members
The WHO’s “International Classification of Health Interventions” (ICHI) lists “capacity building interventions targeting behaviors related to psychological health and wellbeing”: These are defined as “providing resources or initiating strategies to increase the ability of an organization (...) to address health issues by creating new structures, approaches or values in relation to patterns of behavior that may affect psychological health and well-being.” (VEL.VA.ZZ; see https://mitel.dimi.uniud.it/ichi/)
Combining team and leadership research with capacity building as outlined above, team leaders are advised to adopt a participatory approach, which is strongly recommended by intervention research [45, 46], and conduct the change process together with their team
Summary
The aim of this paper is to present a web-application that builds the capacities of team leaders to create working conditions that are positively related to the psychological health and wellbeing of their team members. The web-application presented in this paper combines both a digital and a team-level approach It builds the capacities of team leaders to assess and improve the working conditions of their team through a participatory team development process. We first present the background and development process of this web-application, which resulted in [1] a comprehensive intervention approach, [2] a prototype labeled “wecoach,” and [3] the implementation of an evaluation design for a multi-level, randomized controlled trial. At this point, empirical results of the evaluation are not yet available
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