Managerial style and health promotion programs

Abstract

Organizational correlates of worksite health promotion programs were isolated and interpreted within a diffusion of innovation framework. A sample of managers from California (U.S.A.) 500 organizations were interviewed via telephone on their corporate management styles and health care strategies. Organizational management style was found to be related to prevalence of health promotion programs and future plans for health promotion programs. Specifically, this study found that organizations with democratic management styles are more likely to plan, adopt, and/or implement worksite health promotion programs when compared to organizations with authoritarian management styles. An additional contribution of this study was the development and validation of the Organizational Management Style (OMS) scale. These results have important theoretical and practical implications. For example, these findings explain why some organizations are more or less likely to adopt health promotion programs. Both diffusion of innovation and social control explanations are used to interpret the results.