Search results

Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore a potentially high-impact solution – Health Codes of Conduct – for engaging and motivating employees to assume responsibility for their health.

This mixed methods study draws on interview and survey methodology with a sample of 149 working adults to examine the feasibility of Health Codes of Conduct. Descriptive and inferential statistics are calculated to understand reactions, characteristics of the companies likely to support the idea, and components of a Health Code of Conduct.

Nearly all employees offered moderate to high support for Health Codes of Conduct; this included overweight but not obese employees. Additionally, all demographic groups either moderately or strongly supported the policy when they included either monetary incentives (such as prescription discounts) or often overlooked non-monetary incentives (such as employee recognition). Some of the more popular features of Health Codes of Conduct included annual physical exams, exercise routines, and simply being encouraged to stay home when ill.

Health Codes of Conduct offer a surprisingly well-supported potential solution. Favorable reactions were observed across all examined segments of workers, even overweight (but not obese) employees. Using the specific features of Health Codes identified here, visionary companies can tailor their company’s Health Code of Conduct with the appropriate monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives.

What if the workplace could be a positive source of health and empowerment for valued employees? The authors show employee Health Codes of Conduct could be this empowering, engaging solution that has been missing.

This paper is the first to propose the concept Health Codes of Conduct and solicit feedback from employees on this novel idea. Furthermore, the authors identify both the monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives that employees believe would be most compelling.

Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore a potentially high-impact solution – Health Codes of Conduct – for engaging and motivating employees to assume responsibility for their health.

This mixed methods study draws on interview and survey methodology with a sample of 149 working adults to examine the feasibility of Health Codes of Conduct. Descriptive and inferential statistics are calculated to understand reactions, characteristics of the companies likely to support the idea, and components of a Health Code of Conduct.

Nearly all employees offered moderate to high support for Health Codes of Conduct; this included overweight but not obese employees. Additionally, all demographic groups either moderately or strongly supported the policy when they included either monetary incentives (such as prescription discounts) or often overlooked non-monetary incentives (such as employee recognition). Some of the more popular features of Health Codes of Conduct included annual physical exams, exercise routines, and simply being encouraged to stay home when ill.

This paper is the first to propose the concept of Health Codes of Conduct and solicit feedback from employees on this novel idea. Furthermore, the authors identify both the monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives that employees believe would be most compelling.

Changes in the nature of work, social policy, and concepts of disability allow increased potential for the integration of vocational rehabilitation (VR) in the workplace. Concurrently, workplace rehabilitation programmes are becoming more popular, as organizations see the value of VR in improving workplace culture and reducing insurance premiums. Investigates the opportunities for collaboration between rehabilitation and human resource management (HRM) at policy, planning and practice levels. Failure to integrate can lead to the VR programme being marginalized and needless duplication of activities. Concludes by calling for increased cross‐disciplinary training for both HR practitioners and VR professionals as a basis for effective integrated rehabilitation at the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether overweight and obese individuals are underrepresented among top female and male US executives and whether there is evidence of greater discrimination against overweight and obese female executives than male executives.

Estimates of the frequencies of overweight and obese male Fortune 100 CEOs and female Fortune 1000 CEOs were obtained using publicly available photographs and raters with demonstrated expertise in evaluating body weight. These “experts” then estimated whether the pictured CEOs were normal weight, overweight or obese.

Based upon our expert raters’ judgments, it is estimated that between 5 and 22 per cent of US top female CEOs are overweight and approximately 5 per cent are obese. Compared to the general US population, overweight and obese women are significantly underrepresented in among top female CEOs. Among top male CEOs, it is estimated that between 45 and 61 per cent are overweight and approximately 5 per cent are obese. Compared to the general population overweight men are overrepresented among top CEOs, whereas obese men are underrepresented. This demonstrates that weight discrimination occurs at the highest levels of career advancement and that the threshold for weight discrimination is lower for women than for men.

Weight discrimination appears to add to the glass ceiling effect for women, and may serve as a glass ceiling for obese men.

This paper uses field data, as opposed to laboratory data, to demonstrate that discrimination against the overweight and obese extends to the highest levels of employment.

An experiment was carried out to evaluate whether or not relevant and successful work experience would mitigate employment discrimination in cases involving women and overweight industrial salespeople. The study was conducted in a salesforce setting and used practicing sales managers as subjects. The results indicate that for obese salespeople, positive work experience improved their fit for a job assignment only when the job was less challenging. In the case of a more challenging assignment, successful experience did not seem to help; non‐obese salespeople, with and without successful experience, were both considered more fit than obese salespeople with successful experience. Men and women were found to be equally fit for both more and less challenging assignments.

The Malaysian lifestyle has been undergoing changes over time. With better socio-economic conditions, Malaysians tend to consume more food today than they did previously. Excessive intakes of high calorie foods combined with little daily physical activity have led to increased numbers of overweight and obese people in the population. The purpose of this paper is to compare the incidence of overweight and obesity in the population in Malaysia with other Southeast Asian countries.

Data for this research were based on secondary data of average weight, overweight and obese people for populations in the Southeast Asian countries. The analysis for this research focused on the population in Malaysia and compared it with populations from neighboring countries.

The population in Malaysia was ranked the second highest in the number of overweight and obese people in the Southeast Asian region. In addition, the rate of increase overweight and obese people in the population of Malaysia was found to be the highest in the region. Since the percentage of overweight and obese people had increased consistently from 2010 to 2014, there was a high possibility that the momentum would continue into the following few years.

Being overweight and obese was not desirable by the majority of people as it could lead to various health diseases and psychological problems. Unfortunately, the percentage of overweight and obese people in Malaysia seems to be increasing. Improved socio-economic conditions have increased the amount of food normally consumed by people. Although many people were found to be aware of the negative impact of being overweight and obese, the majority of them did not seem to take the initiative to reduce their body weight. This research is expected to create awareness of the alarming rate of increase in the number of overweight and obese people in Malaysia in order to encourage a healthier lifestyle.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Concentrating on the American workplace, the article details the legal requirements employers face when it comes to discrimination, noting that the obese are poorly protected. It asks whether or not discrimination based on weight is more acceptable than that based on gender or race, and considers what steps employers can make to fulfill their ethical as well as legal obligations.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

This paper aims to highlight an ethic of care approach human resource (HR) departments can use to address obesity in the workplace.

This paper is prepared by experts who add their unbiased views to a very pertinent topic.

This paper focused on an ethic of care approach to addressing obesity in the workplace and provides advice that HR departments can adopt to address this issue.

This paper addresses a pertinent topic in a succinct manner that saves time for practitioners and scholars alike. This paper addresses the topic of obesity in the workplace which is of a growing concern worldwide.

Considers the implications of the latest European Court of Justice ruling that obesity can be considered a disability.

Examines the background to the ruling and its possible consequences.

Emphasizes that obesity in itself is not a disability. However, following the ruling, it is clear that obesity could be considered a disability if it caused physical, mental or psychological problems that hampered a person’s ability to participate in work.

Highlights practices employers might like to follow in the light of the ruling.

Shows how society as a whole could “nudge” people into losing weight, just as it has done in nudging people to give up smoking.

Provides round-up of the implications of the European Court of Justice ruling on obesity at work.

Given the prevalence of obesity in society at large and ensuing weight discrimination in the workplace, the purpose of this paper is to bring to light the social stigma attached to obesity, stimulate the discussion around enacting better legislation to alleviate weight-based discrimination in the workplace and highlight the role of human resource (HR) departments in preventing such discriminatory actions.

This paper reviews current perceptions, trends, laws and consequences related to obesity and weight discrimination and discusses the implications for organizations and HR professionals.

Weight discrimination is a real problem in society as a whole and workplaces in particular. HR professionals have a key role to play in removing weight discrimination and creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

Although weight discrimination has significant professional and personal consequences, there is a lack of explicit laws and policies that provide strong protection to impacted individuals. This paper brings the issue to light and discusses the role of HR in eliminating such bias and discriminatory practices in the workplace.