Search results

This paper aims to understand what it takes for an organization to transform itself into a great and healthy place to work. A comprehensive fivefold framework has been used to assess employees’ practices in the organization under study. This framework focuses on five aspects of a human being where he/she may like to satisfy his needs, i.e. physical, intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual. Organizations need to design various programs to address employees’ needs at these five dimensions to get their best and for making an organization a healthy and desired place to work at.

For collecting data for this study, a triangular approach peculiar to a survey research was adopted, i.e. the use of questionnaires, interviews and documented evidence. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Results from survey were supplemented with gaps identified through desk study. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to check the validity of the instrument.

A wider role of the human resources department is being envisaged by proposing to set up a separate “people management office”, which will be responsible for project people management and developing a “CONDUCIVE” culture. Further, innovative recommendations are proposed for making an organization a great place to work in.

This study has several important implications for the practitioners. First, this study developed a comprehensive five-fold framework, which focuses on five aspects or levels or dimensions of a human being, i.e. physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual. A person would have needs corresponding to each of these levels. This framework can be used to study employees’ practices in the organizations on these five crucial dimensions. Organizations can design various programs to address employee needs around these five dimensions to get their best and for making an organization a healthy and desired place to work. Second, the “CONDUCIVE” model proposed in this study for developing conducive culture adds a novel insight to the growing body of literature in this area. This model can be used by human resources managers to have better employee engagement, which in turn will make their organization a healthy workplace.

This paper makes use of a comprehensive five-fold framework developed by the author to study employees’ practices in the organizations on five dimensions. It is proposed to develop a “CONDUCIVE” culture, a model developed by the author with a number of activities. This model will enhance the employee engagement in an organization, which eventually will make the organization a healthy place to work in. As suggested, organizations can set up a people management office as well to harness people power.

El presente artículo aspira a entender como una empresa puede convertirse en un gran lugar de trabajo. Se emplea un modelo de cinco factores para valorar las prácticas de gestión de personas en la empresa estudiada. El modelo considera cinco factores que los individuos pueden considerar a la hora de satisfacer sus necesidades: físicos, intelectuales, emocionales, sociales y espirituales. Las empresas necesitan diseñar diferentes programas para evaluar las necesidades de los empleados en estas cinco dimensiones para extraer lo mejor de ellos y desarrollar una organización saludable y en la que deseen trabajar.

Combina información de cuestionarios, entrevistas orales y evidencia documental. Los datos se analizan mediante SPSS. Los resultados del análisis de encuestas se complementaron con información proveniente del análisis de la empresa. Se utilizó el análisis factorial confirmatorio para contrastar la validez de los instrumentos.

Se plantea un papel más amplio de los departamentos de RRHH proponiendo la creación de una oficina de gestión de personas (PMO) que sería responsable de la gestión de proyectos de personas (PPM) y de desarrollar una cultura “conducente”. Además se realizan recomendaciones innovadoras para hacer de la empresa un gran lugar de trabajo.

El estudio tiene importantes implicaciones prácticas. Primero, desarrolla un nuevo modelo de cinco factores que los individuos pueden considerar a la hora de satisfacer sus necesidades: físicos, intelectuales, emocionales, sociales y espirituales. Una persona puede tener necesidades en cada uno de estos niveles. Este modelo se puede emplear para estudiar las prácticas organizativas para con los empleados en estas cinco dimensiones clave. Las organizaciones pueden diseñar varios programas para analizar las necesidades en estas cinco dimensiones y generar un mejor lugar de trabajo. Segundo, el modelo “conducente” propuesto añade nuevas pistas a la creciente investigación en esta área. El modelo puede emplearse por parte de los gerentes de RRHH para conseguir un mayor compromiso por parte de los empleados y hacer de la empresa un gran lugar de trabajo.

El artículo presenta un modelo de cinco factores desarrollado por el autor para estudiar las prácticas de gestión de personas. Se propone desarrollar una cultura “conducente” que generaría un mayor compromiso de los empleados que a su vez haría a la empresa un mejor lugar de trabajo. Las empresas pueden crear oficinas de gestión de personas para aprovechar el poder de las personas.

Palabras clave Lugar de trabajo, Gestión de personas, Cultura organizativa

Artículo de investigación

Este artigo é um esforço para entender o que é necessário para uma empresa se transformar em um lugar saudável e ótimo para trabalhar. Um marco de referência de cinco fatores foi usado para avaliar as práticas dos funcionários na empresa estudada. Este marco de referência centra-se em cinco aspectos do ser humano, onde ele/ela pode satisfazer suas necessidades; física, intelectual, emocional, social e espiritual. As empresas precisam projetar vários programas para atender às necessidades dos funcionários nessas cinco dimensões, a fim de obter o melhor deles e tornar a empresa um local saudável e desejado para trabalhar.

Para a coleta de dados, se adotou uma abordagem triangular, ou seja, questionários, entrevistas e evidências documentadas. Os dados foram analisados com SPSS. Os resultados da pesquisa foram complementados com lacunas identificadas através da análise da empresa. A análise fatorial confirmatória foi utilizada para verificar a validade do instrumento.

Um papel mais amplo do departamento de RH está sendo planejado, propondo a criação de um “Escritório de Gestão de Pessoas” (PMO) separado, que será responsável pelo Gerenciamento de Pessoas do Projeto (PPM) e pelo desenvolvimento de uma cultura “CONDUTIVA”. Além disso, recomendações inovadoras são propostas para tornar a empresa um ótimo lugar para se trabalhar.

Este estudo tem várias implicações práticas importantes. Em primeiro lugar, este estudo desenvolveu um amplo marco de referência com cinco fatores que se centra em cinco aspectos ou níveis ou dimensões do ser humano, ou seja, físico, intelectual, emocional, social e espiritual. Uma pessoa teria necessidades correspondentes a cada um desses níveis. Essa estrutura pode ser usada para estudar as práticas dos funcionários nas empresas nessas cinco dimensões cruciais. As empresas podem projetar vários programas para atender às necessidades dos funcionários nessas cinco dimensões, a fim de obter o melhor desempenho e tornar a empresa um local saudável e desejado para trabalhar. Em segundo lugar, o modelo “CONDUCENTE” proposto neste estudo para o desenvolvimento da cultura condutiva, acrescenta uma visão inovadora a crescente literatura nessa área. Esse modelo pode ser usado pelos gerentes de RH para obter um melhor engajamento dos funcionários, o que, por sua vez, tornará sua empresa um local de trabalho saudável.

Este artigo usa de um amplo marco de referência de cinco fatores desenvolvido pelo autor para estudar as práticas dos funcionários nas empresas em cinco dimensões. Propõe-se desenvolver uma cultura “CONDUTIVA”, um modelo desenvolvido pelo autor com uma série de atividades. Este modelo de desenvolvimento da cultura condutiva levará ao engajamento dos funcionários, o que tornará a empresa um ótimo lugar para se trabalhar. Como sugerido, as empresas podem configurar o Escritório de Gestão de Pessoas (PMO) para aproveitar o poder das pessoas.

Palavras-chave Local de Trabalho, Gestão de Pessoas, Cultura Organizacional

Artigo de pesquisa

It is estimated that we spend at least a third of our working lives in the workplace and the duration of this, due to the extension of working lives through legislative changes and increased pension ages, is set to increase. Ageing of the workforce is a growing concern but health and safety issues cannot be used as an excuse for not employing older workers. A healthy workplace is one where the risks are managed and where workers and their managers work together to improve the work environment and protect the health of the workers. Furthermore, linking this to personal health resources and the local community can improve the health of all involved. Within the workplace this includes both the psychosocial and physical work environment. To create a healthy workplace there is a need to ensure risk management measures are in place and our older workers participation in risk assessment and risk reduction programmes. In addition to this, targeted occupational health promotion programmes may be beneficial. There are few integrated policies with regard to age and work but research does identify good practice, including participation of employees in change measures, senior management commitment and taking a life-course approach. While there are challenges in relation to age-related change, the work ability concept can improve understanding. The use of a comprehensive approach such as Age Management can help employers who have a critical role in making the workplace age-ready.

States that it seems self‐evident that a hospital should be a healing environment, a healthy place to work, should not harm the health of the environment and should contribute to and be a source of health in the community, but argues that hospitals have not paid a great deal of attention to many of these issues until recently. Suggests that in recent years, a new and broader understanding of health promotion has led to a re‐examination of the ways in which hospitals can be both healthy and health‐promoting. Begins by exploring the broader concepts of health promotion that lay the foundation for the creation of healthy and health‐promoting hospitals and provides some examples of how these approaches are being applied.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether healthy and successful organizations are working accordingly to Quality Management. The purpose is also to describe in more detail how they are working.

Three Swedish organizations that have shown excellence in leadership, internal partnership, working environment and profitability have been examined, to find out what methodologies they have used for their success. To discover whether these healthy and successful organizations are working accordingly to Quality Management, Deming's 14‐point list has been used as an analytical tool.

Identified methodologies used by the healthy and successful organizations are described. Viewed in the light of the analysis, a relationship between the three examined healthy and successful organizations and Quality Management is indicated.

Working with the methodologies described here, the three organizations have improved co‐worker health. Other organizations could probably adopt the identified and described methodologies to improve the health of their co‐workers and effectiveness in the organization.

Concerning the performance evaluation and the continuous improvement component in Quality Management, substantial contributions could be made to the health area by applying the tools that the quality area have used over a considerable period to improve the quality outcomes. Quality and health aspects have common success factors, and a focus on high quality could be seen as being positive for health outcomes.

Introduction Consider a hi‐fi loudspeaker manufacturing company acquired on the brink of insolvency by an American multinational. The new owners discover with growing concern that the product range is obsolete, that manufacturing facilities are totally inadequate and that there is a complete absence of any real management substance or structure. They decide on the need to relocate urgently so as to provide continuity of supply at the very high — a market about to shrink at a rate unprecedented in its history.

The University of Central Lancashire's ‘Health Promoting University’ initiative has adopted a ‘settings‐based’ approach to health promotion, aimed at embedding within the organisation an understanding of and commitment to holistic health and to development of its healthpromoting potential. Action to promote mental well‐being is one of the initiative's priority foci, overseen by a multidisciplinary inter‐agency working group. Experience to date suggests that the university is an important setting for the protection, promotion and maintenance of mental well‐being. It also suggests that the Health Promoting University offers a robust theoretical framework that can enable the practical development and implementation of a holistic, comprehensive and integrative approach to promoting mental well‐being. This paper provides an overview of the Health Promoting University initiative, describes work carried out on mental well‐being and explores the challenges and opportunities involved in seeking to use the Health Promoting University framework to promote mental well‐being.

This study aims to help quality professionals in following a precise framework that maintains a company’s performance during health pandemics. In many companies, all quality methods seem to produce performance improvement at different levels, but lean management and kaizen were superior in preparing manufacturing companies to have high readiness levels when faced with a health pandemic.

Which quality method can help businesses in performing well during a health pandemic? In order to answer this question and be able to provide specific recommendations toward performing well in all future health pandemics, 500 manufacturing companies were selected and surveyed. The selected companies are known to use at least one quality method such as lean management, ISO 9001, European foundation for quality management (EFQM) and Six Sigma.

EFQM comes second, then Six Sigma and ISO 9001. Lean creates a healthy workplace and enhances worker's health and well-being. This research helps quality professionals in following a precise framework that maintains performance during health pandemics. Whether the company uses lean or other quality methods, the framework helps in achieving pandemic readiness status. The framework is implemented in a company that does not currently use lean. Implementation resulted in significant improvement in pandemic preparedness, corporate performance and employee well-being.

After the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, all companies should start thinking of creating a workplace that functions well during pandemics. To do that, companies should start including sanitation and health pandemic preparedness as part of their performance measurements. Using lean management and kaizen helps organizations to create a healthy workplace; clean and equipped with smaller number of workers. If organizations choose to use other quality methods, it is okay, but they should enhance these methods with lean tools such as elimination of the seven wastes, gemba, 5S and visual management.

The potential for the foodservice industry to be part of a public health strategy has led to a new understanding of this sector’s role in a wider interdisciplinary health environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the foodscape on fruit and vegetable choice by staff in a higher educational setting.

Foodscape mapping of fruit and vegetable provision on campus was conducted to provide context. Two focus groups with staff and two interviews with foodservice managers took place to gain depth of understanding. Thematic analysis was conducted to allow for pattern and meaning to emerge.

Results demonstrate two main overarching themes; personal influence and food operator influence that impact on fruit and vegetable choice. In addition connectivity, perceptions of freshness, food quality and display seemed to be strong categories emerging from the data. Interestingly, this research indicated that consumers were more likely to eat fruit and vegetables when part of a composite dish than if served separately.

Providing a positive foodscape to enhance availability of fruit and vegetables may be challenging but helpful towards health promotion. Nevertheless, no “nudging” can control choice made by individuals, responsibility for healthy selection must always remain personal.

Knowledge gained by this pilot study will add to the body of literature and evidence base for further research while contributing to foodservice strategies which may promote increased fruit and vegetable consumption.

Companies are increasingly struggling with the costs of absenteeism due to their employees’ physical and increasing psychological illnesses. At the same time, employers should recognize the value of healthy employees in terms of greater productivity and the development of positive organizational attitudes. Many organizations have implemented workplace health promotion (WHP) programs; however, we still have limited knowledge about the effectiveness of various measures. The present study is an examination of 18 WHP activities and their effect on employees’ perceived health support and actual absence rates.

I organized 112 German companies into four groups based on their subjective (employee perception of health promotion) and objective (absence rate) performance. Applying multinomial regression analysis, I assessed a company’s likelihood of falling into one of the four clusters if a specific measure was not implemented in it.

I identified five measures that significantly differ between company clusters: healthy food offerings, sports offerings, having fitness rooms, systematically evaluating WHP programs and smoking cessation courses. Investing in occupational health management can be a strategic asset for organizations. The study results give companies recommendations on how to address WHP and how to implement these concrete measures.

The study’s originality lies in the incorporation of 18 concrete WHP measures and the comparison of their effects in objective and subjective terms. It shows that employers can enhance employee well-being by using simple WHP activities.

Numerous factors can influence an individual's eating behaviour, including the environment where food is purchased and consumed; this has been termed the foodscape. Settings where meals are consumed by the same people habitually, such as that of workplaces, can significantly impact individuals' overall diets, highlighting an opportunity to improve their health. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which the foodscape within a university influences consumer food choice, both students and staff.

A case study approach was taken where ten interviews were conducted with staff (n=5) and students (n=5) in a university establishment. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically. Codes were sorted into overarching research categories bringing meaning to the data, which could then be used in conjunction with outlet mapping.

Results demonstrate that generally consumers were fairly healthy conscious; however, their behaviour did not reflect this. Personal factors were identified and it was also felt that the environment was not supportive or encouraging of healthy eating practices.

The study concluded that while consumers are ultimately responsible for the lifestyle behaviour they lead, the environment has a significant opportunity to encourage healthy behaviour, a fact that is not always embraced by employers. There are a number of underlying or embedded issues in subjects which surfaced during the interview stage of the study. This work, therefore, contributes towards the body of knowledge in the understanding of the role of the foodscape within a workplace setting.