APA Recognizes Five Organizations for Healthy Workplace Practices

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test whether supportive workspace design, cultivation of high-quality leader–member relationships and vision alignment explain incremental variance in job satisfaction, work engagement and overall life satisfaction beyond antecedents identified in an earlier model of healthy workplace practices. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports the results of a survey study with a diverse sample of 214 employees. Findings In a series of regression analyses, the findings revealed that supportive workspace design, cultivation of high-quality leader–member relationships and vision alignment each explain incremental variance in one or more outcome variables (job satisfaction, work engagement and overall life satisfaction) beyond that of antecedents identified in an earlier model of healthy workplace practices. Research limitations/implications The present study identifies additional important variables to consider when conducting future research on healthy workplace practices. Future research could use longitudinal or experimental designs to further investigate the causal direction of the relationships identified in the present paper. Practical implications Managers can implement the practices identified in this paper to improve employees’ work engagement, job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. Social implications This paper offers insights about how to improve employees’ lives, and thus, the potential impact is far-reaching and meaningful. Originality/value This paper empirically assesses workplace variables that were not included in tests of the prior healthy workplace practices model.

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The Importance of Organizational Climate in Healthy Workplaces: Considerations for Disability Management

International Journal of Disability Management ◽

10.1017/idm.2020.2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Gabrielle McHugh

Keyword(s):

Organizational Climate ◽

Work Environment ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Phase 1 ◽

Social Climate ◽

Psychological Injury ◽

Full Potential ◽

Current Application ◽

Healthy Workplace ◽

Workplace Practices

Abstract Background: In 2013, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) released national, comprehensive guidelines for psychological health in the workplace. Nevertheless, follow-up surveys report poor uptake of the guidelines, particularly within the manufacturing sector, despite recent Workplace Safety and Insurance Tribunal (WSAIT) decisions that place greater responsibilities on employers to protect employees from psychological injury. Hence, this program of research has focused on the context of the work environment with a goal to better understand and inform current application of healthy workplace practices and policies. The overarching premise is that the full potential of a healthy workplace is optimised when set within a specific climate that values the health of workers. Therefore, Phase 1 reported the development of a workplace scale measuring a domain-specific climate for healthy practices in the workplace. Phase 2, reported here, tests the differential influence of culture, leadership and social climate on workers’ perceptions of healthy workplace practices and occupational bond. Method: Self-reported measures of culture, leadership social climate, healthy workplace practices and occupational bond from 162 participants were analysed to test the organisation’s culture, climate, leadership and practices as internal processes that influence the development of a healthy workplace Results: Adequately powered (N = 162), the mediational analyses demonstrated the significance of the proximal work environment of climate over the distal influence of culture and leadership. The key results demonstrate that the proximal environment has a significant influence on how workers perceive their workplaces. This has implications for the implementation of the guidelines for healthy workplaces.

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