Participation in Workplace Health Promotion Programs: The Contribution of Health and Organizational Factors
Abstract
Interest in workplace health promotion programs has raised important questions regarding these programs' ability to attract participants. Typically, participation has been examined as a function of personal characteristics of employees. But participa tion in a workplace health promotion program may be influenced as much by organi zational characteristics as by health-related characteristics of employees. This prelimin ary study, conducted at AT&T Communications, used path analysis, a statistical technique for controlling for the effects of causally prior variables, to develop a model of participation. The influence of three sets of factors was detected: (1) Sex of em ployee was significant, with women more likely than men to participate in the pro gram, (2) Increased perceived risk of illness led to decreased health satisfaction which in turn led to increased intention to change health habits culminating in increased participation, and (3) The organizational climate factor of perceived supportiveness of the supervisor contributed to participation. While several potential limitations require that these findings be replicated and extended, the study suggests that developers of workplace health promotion programs should attend to organizational work climate as well as personal health characteristics of employees in an effort to increase program impact.
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Perceived support from one's supervisor is associated with employees' participation in implementation.
“Consistent with transactional leadership (e.g., providing reinforcement or rewards for desired behaviors), perceived support from one’s supervisor is also associated with employees’ participation in implementation (Sloan & Gruman, 1988).”
From The Roles of System and Organizational Leadership in System-Wide Evidence-Based Intervention Sustainment: A Mixed-Method Study (2016) · cites this paper as Sloan & Gruman, 1988
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- Authors
- Sloan, R. P., & Gruman, J. C.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- American Cancer Society (US)
- ORCID
- Sloan, Richard P.
- Venue
- Health Education Quarterly
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1988-09
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 269-288
- ISSN
- 0195-8402 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2169211581
- Cited by
- 108
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 25.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Education Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health Promotion and Cardiovascular Prevention
- Keywords
- workplace health promotion, program participation, organizational climate, health satisfaction, supervisor support, sex differences
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude to Health, Community Participation, Female, Health Promotion, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Occupational Health Services, Organization and Administration, Organizational Culture
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