Background: There is clearly a need for research in the field of occupational health service (OHS) for applying new perspectives. Proactive collaboration is needed between the OHSs and the companies. The customers of the companies using the services should be able to safeguard themselves from the health problems caused by the work environment through proactive collaboration with the OHSs.
Objective: The main purpose of this interdisciplinary study was to explore how the stakeholders reflected to create and agree on core values for future challenges in OHS, as seen from the perspectives of OHS professionals and customer companies.
Methodology: An action research process was conducted. This study was divided into three phases. In phase I, the data were collected from interviews and diaries of interdisciplinary occupational health professionals (n=12). A focus group that sampled the eight managers of the customer companies was also included. In phase II, a questionnaire was developed with 24 questions focusing on examining the future challenges for OHS. The questionnaire was sent to customer companies (n=116). In phase III, a scoping review was undertaken.
Results: Three categories emerged from the analysis: “Balancing complex situations” clarified the complexity regarding senior employees; “Working with a proactive approach” indicated the need for working with a new proactive approach supporting sustainable health; and “Collaborate internally and externally” showed good relationships between the customer and the OHS, which is a mutual responsibility to both the partners.
Conclusion: The results outlined that it is necessary to take action to apply new proactive health promotions, with a focus on workplace health promotion. The results also indicated that interventions for senior employees are of importance. This study was done in collaboration with the stakeholders from the occupational health care service center and the managers from the customer companies. The use of a participatory research design, including close collaboration with the participants, allows the researchers to see the challenges.
Background
Occupational health services (OHS) are often working from a pathogenic perspective, seeing the customer as a patient. To meet the future challenges in a more holistic way there is a need of changing perspective. The occupational health services must promote health and prevent the problems before they appear.
The study will answer the following questions: What experiences do the employees at an OHS have regarding their daily work? What experiences do the employers have regarding the OHS? What challenges do the employers see for the future and how can OHS be supportive?
Methods
This study included a three-stage process; the first stage included qualitative data from diaries, collected during one and a half year, interviews with occupational health professionals (n = 12) in an occupational health service center as well as focus groups interviews with managers of the customer companies affiliated to the occupational health service center. The second stage was a quantitative part with a questionnaire to managers of the customer companies (n = 116) and the third stage will be a review of existing literature in occupational health.
Results
Findings from stage 1, 2 and 3 are presented in three categories:
Balancing complex situations was e.g. about the difficulty between loyalty to the client and the company's profits and also that major changes in the workplace are leading to difficulties for many employees. Working with a proactive approach was e.g. about new approaches that are needed in the OHS. Collaborate internal and external showed e.g that more collaboration between companies, OHS and external actors was of importance.
Conclusions
a. Change and apply new perspectives in occupational health services.
b. There is clearly a need for research in OHS using a comprehensive approach to health promotion.
c. There must be interactions between the occupational health services and the management of the customer companies for designing new proactive health promotion interventions.
Key messages
It is significant for occupational health centers taking into account the importance of balancing complex situations, having a proactive approach and collaborating in working life
To change perspective and approaches in occupational health centers are of importance in order to meet future challenges in working life
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.
Background. Health is important in workplaces. A good organisational climate in a workplace plays a major role in the employees’ well-being at work and is also associated with increased productivity. Today, employees are expected to work into older age and it is a challenge for companies to promote health and well-being for this growing group. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore how to promote workplace health at present time and for the end of working life in the perspective of employees. Design/Methodology/Approach. The study had an explorative design, and a thematic analysis was chosen. The inclusion criteria were persons 50 years and older, working in the company and planning to continue working into old age. A total of 21 coworkers (14 men) participated in the study. Three focus group interviews were conducted. Findings. The results from the focus group interviews are presented in four themes: handle change in a changeable workplace, take responsibility for health concerns, get confirmation for feeling needed, and support and tolerance adapted for each employee. Practical Implications. Promoting health should be an urgent mission for employees themselves as well as for managers in order to support employees in working into old age. The health promotion must be suitable for each employee and should be designed in such a way as to avoid inequality in workplace health. Originality/Value. There is a need for more health-promoting behaviours, support, and activities for employees in order to work into old age.
We focus on how international research and development (R&D) teams of portfolio entrepreneurs and their management controllers can help to innovate and sustain entrepreneurial activities. An algorithmic decision-making model is implemented that indicates how such portfolio entrepreneurs build complex business structures and create a context for management accounting controllers’ information that is suggestive of R&D internationalization challenges. A case study is utilized to compare one large and one medium-sized business conglomerate. Open interviews were conducted with portfolio entrepreneurs and their management controllers. We found that the international R&D teams of portfolio entrepreneurs and their management controllers have different mindsets when assessing sustainable innovative approaches for the existing business and for future expansion through acquisitions. Our findings assert the importance of context when understanding the challenges of management controllers dealing with the internationalization of such R&D efforts. © 2021 The Author(s)
Changing the determinants of health also requires modifying aspects of the settings that has not been done sufficiently in occupational health service. The European Network for workplace health recommended a holistic approach in workplace health promotion including programs concerning individual’s lifestyle and safety management as well as psychosocial and organizational work factors. To this end, we utilize a decision making model that captures the key components of explain how the aging issues pertaining to healthcare employees employ their perception, information, and judgment on decision choices. We collected 116 questionnaire responses from affiliated to the occupational health care center in Sweden. We found that employees’ perception of health care challenges and staffing had a significant impact on their decision choices regarding whether to request, stimulate and collaborate on activities. Finally, our results indicated that aging options related to healthcare issues to request, stimulate and collaborate on activities influence employees’ decision choices.
Our economy has been moving towards an Information Age that relies upon intangible assets utilization that has not been fully captured in the financial statements of organizations. Between 1978 and the present, the non-book or intangible assets value of all companies rose approximately 70 % of market value (Rodgers, J Intellect Cap 8:205-215, 2007). Hence, today tangible asset value for companies in general reflects less than 30 % of market value. In this information/knowledge dominated environment, evidence on the employment of intangible or knowledge assets is becoming quite apparent. With the move of sophisticated economies from a resource-based to a knowledge-based production, many national governments have progressively more recognized âknowledgeâ and âinnovationâ as momentous driving forces of economic growth, social development, and job creation. In this context the elevation of âknowledge transferâ has increasingly become a theme of public and economic policy. Our economy has been moving towards an Information Age that relies upon intangible assets utilization that has not been fully captured in the financial statements of organizations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.
All kinds of fraud are costly for the people engrossed both financially and often in terms of the time needed to clear their name when illegal use has been made of their personal details. The relationship among ethics, internal control, and fraud is important in the understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This article uses an Ethical Process Throughput Modelembedded in the Fraud triangle in order to better understand the interconnectedness of ethical positions and internal control systems that handle fraudulent situations. Ethical positions are utilized to underscore how ethical behavioral control systems can be appropriately applied, which can provide unparalleled security, enhanced convenience, heightened accountability, better fraud detection and is very effective in depressing fraud, thereby improving CSR among organizations. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual financial analysis process model that depicts intangible assets for researchers and practitioners that can assist them to enhance their understanding of valuation issues. Design/methodology/approach - We propose an approach a theoretical/conceptual framework described as "The Throughput Model" Originality/value -This methodology puts in evidence the processes that decision-makers use to select different types of information, which supports their position, and have ignored other information, which does not support their position. Also, the model is useful in depicting latter stages of investment bankers and financial analysts' processes, such as judgment, that are implemented in supporting individuals' positions. Practical implications - The outcomes of the application of the Throughput Model helps uncover the observations and values that investment bankers and financial analysts rely upon when taking positions on issues.
Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to contribute to strategy theory by differentiating different types of top management narratives and trying to understand the interplay between them as well as the dynamics over time.
Design/methodology/approach: The study was designed from an interpretative narrative approach. Narratives were produced from deep interviews and organisational documents covering a period of more than 25 years.
Findings: Two kinds of narratives were detected – builders and cleaners. The builders' narratives illustrate how personal life‐stories are embedded in the strategic development processes but the cleaners' narratives are organisational stories without personal life‐stories and cover no actual development. The concept meta‐narrative helped to understand strategic changes over time and was embedded in the myth‐periods involved. The meta‐narrative identified was built on an idea of a going concern and on the role to produce physical large objects for long‐term use.
Research limitations/implications: Owing to the longitudinal design of the study a cyclical pattern with related managerial narratives were produced. The dichotomy builders and cleaners could be developed studying other longitudinal business strategies and also by connections to meta‐narratives derived from more general economic theories.
Practical implications: Builders and cleaners focus on either business or organisational/financial aspects but neither of both. Awareness of this, learning strategic management requires co‐operation between different actors.
Originality/value: The longitudinal design describes and analyzes a cyclical pattern of managerial patterns, while other studies based on narratives cover more limited organisational events in time and space.
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