Manufacturing health: Employee perspectives on problematic outcomes in a workplace health promotion initiative

Abstract

Workplace health promotion (WHP) advocates promote lifestyle campaigns as an inexpensive way to reduce health care costs and improve employee teamwork while pleasing workers through corporate benevolence. This study problematizes those assumptions by examining employee reactions to the development of a health and recreation center at a car manufacturer. The research provides evidence that depending upon how they are implemented, dominant approaches to health initiatives may actually produce resentment among employees towards the company, create divisions among employees, and alienate employees with differing perspectives about health. It is argued that WHP programs initiatives may be more beneficial for employees if they respond to employee needs by inviting participation early in the planning process, attending to issues of inclusion and exclusion that develop among participants, and respecting multiple approaches to health.