Affect Employee Health Research Articles

A European Framework to Address Psychosocial Hazards

Over the past decades, emphasis has been placed on the changing nature of work and new forms of risk that could negatively affect employee health and safety. These are mainly associated with new types of occupational hazards that have been termed psychosocial. Issues such as work-related stress, bullying and harassment are now receiving attention on a global basis and efforts have been made to address them at the workplace level. However, it has been acknowledged that despite developments of policy in this area, there still appear to be a broad science-policy gap and an even broader one between policy and practice. The WHO Network of Collaborating Centers in Occupational Health has, since the late 1990s, been supporting a dedicated program of work on psychosocial factors and work-related stress. Part of the Network's work is currently focusing on the translation of existing knowledge into practice in the area of psychosocial risk management. This program has identified that the optimum way forward lies in the development of a European framework for psychosocial risk management. This framework will serve as the basis for coordination of research activities and preventive action with an emphasis on evidence based interventions and best practice on an international basis.

Positive Social Interactions and the Human Body at Work: Linking Organizations and Physiology

Human physiological systems are highly responsive to positive social interactions, but the organizational importance of this finding largely has been unexplored. After reviewing extant research, we illustrate how consideration of the physiology of positive social interactions at work opens new research questions about how positive social interactions affect human capacity and how organizational contexts affect employee health and physiological resourcefulness. We also address the practical implications of integrating physiological data into organizational research. Our paper invites a fuller consideration of how employees' bodies are affected by everyday work interactions and, in so doing, encourages a stronger tie between human physiology and organizational research.

Positive Social Interactions and the Human Body at Work: Linking Organizations and Physiology

Human physiological systems are highly responsive to positive social interactions, but the organizational importance of this finding has been largely unexplored. After reviewing the extant research, we illustrate how consideration of the physiological effects of positive social interactions at work opens new research questions about (a) how positive social interactions affect human capacity (e.g., work recovery, engagement) and (b) how organizational contexts (e.g., practices, culture and leadership) affect employee health and physiological resourcefulness. Finally, we address the practical implications of integrating physiological data into organizational research. Overall, our paper invites a fuller consideration of how employees' bodies are affected by everyday work interactions, and in so doing, encourages a stronger tie between human physiology and organizational research.

Critters in the cube farm: Perceived psychological and organizational effects of pets in the workplace.

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study examining the perceived functions and psychological and organizational effects of pets in the workplace. Participants were 193 employees from 31 companies allowing pets in the workplace who completed anonymous questionnaires. Results indicated that participants perceived pets in the workplace to reduce stress and to positively affect employee health and the organization. Participants who brought their pets to work perceived greater benefits than participants who did not bring their pets to work and participants who did not own pets.

Health Promotion Services and Evaluation in the Workplace

1. Nurses in the workplace can positively affect employee health and wellness, which ultimately affects productivity and profit. 2. Evaluative research about health promotion services provides useful data about programs and cost effectiveness. 3. Knowing the issues and variables affecting the provision of health promotion services and the evaluation of program outcomes helps nurses plan appropriate services and programs as well as valid and reliable research projects. 4. Major issues include: system entry, management support and commitment, environmental context, ethical considerations, program variables, research design, instruments and equipment, program sites and times, type of program/services, and recordkeeping.