Handbook of Psychology

Organizational Health 575

Statement of Purpose

To enhance both productivity and well-being.

To focus on prevention and organizational intervention.

To focus on the workplace as the area of intervention.

To provide a total, integrated workforce service.

Founding Goals

To improve working conditions through organizational intervention.

To provide information, education, and technical training.

To enrich health and support services for all workers.

To monitor psychosocial risk factors and disorders in the workplace.

Program Components

Services Coordination„Integrating Agent.

Organizational Consultation and Development„Or ganizational Assess-

ments, Team Development, Labor-Management Partnerships, Leadership

Development, Executive Coaching.

Information Broker„Communications Clearinghouse.

Specialized Program Management„W orkplace Violence, Suicide

Prevention, Con”ict Resolution.

Worksite Support„Employee Assistance, Workplace Health Promotion,

Peer Counselors, Behavioral Consultation.

Research, Surveillance, and Evaluation„Needs assessment, program

evaluation, integrated metrics.

Risk and

Protective Factors

Supporting ProcessesMediating, Moderating,

Health or Disease

Individual DomainOrganizational Domai

n

Contextual D

om

ain

Assessment

Surveillance/

Monitoring

Evaluation ...

Process and Impact

The Organizational Health Center

Mission Statement

... maximizing human potential and productivity through optimal health—physical, behavioral, and organizational.

We believe our most valuable resource is people. Therefore, in partnership with organizational and community agencies, we form an integrated, multi-disciplinary
team, presenting a single face to the human services and behavioral analysis user. We provide innovative and responsive support to the quality of worklife process
through measurable, long-range plans that emphasize current and future needs. We provide training and consultation in effective and ef“cient business practices
that empower our people to excel. Through our efforts we strive to magnify productivity, pride, and well being for our people and our organization.

Figure 24.1 Occupational Health Psychology Data-based Dimensions.

The process of risk identi“cation and assessment is fun-
damental to developing countermeasures to mitigate and
manage those risks. Following implementation, methods for
evaluating effectiveness and outcomes of policies and prac-
tices ensure that programs are implemented with “delity,
meet their intended objectives, and ultimately produce their
intended results or impact (Adkins & Weiss, in press). At all
times, continuous monitoring or surveillance of hazards,
risks, and capabilities enables control of and planned inter-
vention into emerging negative processes at work. All three
measurement strategies can be applied across OHP domains
and along the entire continuum of organizational health.
The basis for propelling psychosocial risks and the conse-
quent illnesses and injuries into the mainstream of occupa-
tional health and safety came from the component roots in
public health, epidemiology, and medical surveillance (Quick,
Quick, Nelson, & Hurrell, 1997; Sauter & Hurrell, 1999).

Information collected from large-scale national and interna-

tional surveys, such as the multiyear quality of employment

surveys “rst initiated in 1969 (Quinn & Staines, 1978) and the

1985 National Health Interview Survey (Shilling & Brackbill,

1987), as well as epidemiological studies conducted through

the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

(NIOSH; Caplan, Cobb, French, Harrison, & Pinneau, 1975),

prompted the recognition of psychosocial risk factors as

among the leading causes of occupational illness and injury

(Sauter & Hurrell, 1999). Similar lines of research placed psy-

chological disorders among the top ten illnesses associated

with job-related causes, including stress and other psychoso-

cial hazards. (Millar, 1984; Sauter et al., 1990).

The processes associated with, and the importance of,

assessment and evaluation arise from clinical and organiza-

tional psychology and organization development. While epi-

demiological data can be used to estimate problems in the