Exploring Occupational Health Professionals Understanding and Needs in Regard to Total Worker Health (TWH)

Background: Occupational health professionals (OHPs) are in a unique position to impact the health and well-being of employees at work and outside of work. One way of achieving this holistic health goal is to integrate the concept of Total Worker Health® (TWH) into the organization’s culture. It is critical for OHPs to develop the ability to incorporate TWH into their practices, yet there are gaps in our understanding of OHP’s attitudes toward change and toward TWH, their level of TWH knowledge, and the number of OHPs who have adopted TWH. Methods: An electronic survey was administered to a national sample of 4,777. This cross-sectional study used Qualtrics to record survey responses measuring knowledge of TWH, attitude toward change, resistance to change, transformational leadership ability, perception of organizational readiness, and leadership commitment. Findings: The total sample size was 253 (5.3%). Most respondents were bachelors prepared nurses (75.1%) with greater than 10 years’ experience (71.5%) and employed in manufacturing (42.6%). Approximately 74% ( n = 125) of respondents knew about TWH, but did not have a program in place or were unsure of the existence of one. A high percentage (74.0%) were open to implementing TWH, had favorable attitudes toward change ( M = 3.9 on a 5-point Likert-type scale), but needed education on how to move forward (56.0%). Conclusions/Application to Practice: Findings suggest that most OHPs know about TWH, but generally have not adopted the TWH concept at their worksites. However, they are open to implementing TWH programs and have favorable attitudes toward change.

TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARD CHANGE IN NATIONAL SCHOOLS AT PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

The study aims to identify the level of Teacher Attitudes Toward Change (TATC) among teachers in National Schools (NS) at Peninsular Malaysia. In particular, this study aims to identify TATC levels based on Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral dimensions. This study applied a quantitative method using a survey approach. A total of 384 teachers of NS were involved in this study. The study employed descriptive statistics by obtaining the mean score and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that the TATC’s level as a whole was located in the quadrants of Acceptance (Mean=4.38, SD=.57). In addition, the findings of the study showed that the Cognitive (Mean=4.53, SD=.71), Affective (Mean=4.18, SD=.68), and Behavioral dimension (Mean=4.43, SD=.59) of TATC were also located at the quadrant of Acceptance. The study contributes to the teachers' understanding of the importance of their attitudes toward changes in the school. The findings of the study also provide information to the related parties to plan appropriate training programmes to enhance TATC in school.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Primary Care Practice Characteristics and Healthcare Professionals’ Behavioral Responses to Change

The recent decade brought major changes to primary care practices. Previous research on change has focused on change processes, and change implementations rather than studying employee’s feelings, perceptions, and attitudes toward change. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between healthcare professionals’ behavioral responses to change and practice characteristics. Our study, which builds upon Conner’s theory, addresses an extensive coverage of individual behaviors, feelings, and attitudes toward change. We analyzed survey responses of healthcare professionals (n = 1279) from 154 primary care practices in Virginia. Healthcare professionals included physicians, advanced practice clinicians, clinical support staff, and administrative staff. The Change Diagnostic Index© (CDI) was used to measure behavioral responses in 7 domains: anxiety, frustration, delayed development, rejection of environment, refusal to participate, withdrawal, and global reaction. We used descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analysis. Our findings indicate that professionals had a significantly lower aptitude for change if they work in larger practices (≥16 clinicians) compared to solo practices ( P < .05) and at hospital-owned practices compared to independent practices ( P < .05). Being part of an accountable care organization was associated with significantly lower anxiety ( P < .05). Understanding healthcare professionals’ responses to change can help healthcare leaders design and implement successful change management strategies for future transformation.

You change, I change: an empirical investigation of users' supported incremental technological change in mobile social media

PurposeThe intense competitive and dynamic environment in mobile social-media market forces service providers to introduce incremental technological changes to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what and how the user attitude to change influences members' behavioral support for incremental technological change in mobile social media service.Design/methodology/approachUsing the tripartite model of attitude, this study examines the influence of the cognitive aspect (empowerment with change), affective aspect (arousal with change) and behavioral aspect (habit to change) of attitude toward change on members' behavioral support for incremental technological change. Drawing on the commitment to change theory, we assessed the underlying mechanism by which attitudes toward change influences behavioral support for incremental technological change through the two components of commitment to change (i.e. affective and normative commitment to change). We tested the model using structural equation modeling on the data collected from the popular mobile social media services in China.FindingsOur results indicate that the effect of empowerment with change, arousal with change and habit to change varies with different dimensions of commitment to change and significant influence of commitment to change on members' behavioral support for incremental technological change.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study contribute to better insights for services providers for implementing incremental technological change strategies.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theory of incremental technological changes by empirical examination of the impacts of users' attitudes toward change on members' behavioral support for incremental technological change in mobile social media. The paper extends the commitment to change theory with the discussion of the mediating effect of commitment to change in the continuing members' behavioral support for incremental technological change in mobile social media.

Employees’ attitudes toward change with Lean Higher Education in Moroccan public universities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of higher education employees to the change with Lean at public universities in Morocco in order to determinate the factors of resistance to change and to look for the motivating factors that encourage these employees to participate in change project with Lean. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire sent to all administrative and technical staff of higher education at five public universities in Morocco during year 2019. This study has analyzed both a person-oriented approach and a variable-oriented approach and characterized by using Lewin’s change model to manage change with Lean. Findings The results show that individual, organizational and group factors have a positive impact on employees’ attitudes toward change with Lean but individual factors are more important than other factors. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to universities in Morocco and mainly public universities. It is only interested in the first stage in the change process with Lean (unfreezing). Understanding employee attitudes, determining motivation factors and the causes behind resistance to change before embarking in change journey with Lean Higher Education (LHE) enables the public universities in Morocco (management) to better prepare for change by reducing resistance to change to create a favorable climate to implement LHE. Originality/value The majority of research works to date focus on implementation of LHE without giving interest to the preparation of the organizational change, this last is very much requested to determine the driving and restraining forces in order to reduce the resistance to change that is the main reason of failure of many change programs. This paper attempts to determinate the factors of resistance to change which allows to the public universities in Morocco to overcome them before moving to the changing stage.