EAWOP SGM Nottingham 2012 Call for submissions

Improving organizational interventions for stress and well-being: Addressing process and context issues

24-25 May 2012, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

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The International Process Evaluation Partnership (IPEP) is being supported by the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) to hold a small group meeting entitled "Improving organizational interventions for stress and well-being: Addressing process and context issues", on 24th and 25th May 2012 in Nottingham, UK.

The need for this meeting is reflected in two important observations: (1) that there is growing evidence that attention on context and processes issues are strongly linked to successful organizational interventions, and (2) that too little is known about how to assess processes and context issues in interventions and integrate them with outcome evaluation. One of the key aims of this meeting is to advance progress on these two areas. In order to understand why and how interventions succeed or fail more attention needs to be paid to the context and processes by which they are developed, implemented and evaluated.

The aim of the meeting is to advance knowledge on why and how organizational interventions succeed or fail to produce the intended outcomes. More specifically, this small group meeting aims to bring together researchers and practitioners in this field in order to:

a. Help to improve the development, implementation, and evaluation of organizational interventions for stress and well-being;
b. Share existing practices on intervention process evaluation;
c. Strengthen existing and foster new partnerships between researchers and practitioners and promote international collaborations;
d. Initiate a reflection about the key processes and contextual factors influencing organizational interventions for stress and well-being.

We invite colleagues to attend and/or present their work at the meeting. The outcomes of the IPEP meeting will be published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. The possibilities for putting together a special issue and an edited volume on interventions will also be explored with the participants.

The meeting will include presentations on the emerging knowledge and best practice in the area, identification of common areas of work, and development of ways forward for organisational interventions and specifically processes and context issues.

IPEP organizing committee and contact person

Caroline Biron (Assistant Professor, Laval University, Canada; contact person)
Henna Hasson (Senior Researcher, Medical Management Centre, Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
Maria Karanika-Murray (Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University, UK)
Karina Nielsen (Professor, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark)
Raymond Randall (Senior Lecturer, University of Loughborough, UK)
Sturle Tvedt (PhD Research Fellow, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway)

Call for submissions

We invite submissions and propositions clustered around the aims of the meeting and the types of activities involved. Participants are invited to present their work in a 10-15 minute presentation at the small group meeting.  Presentations can be focus on methodological, conceptual, or empirical issues related to organizational interventions and specifically process and contextual issues.

• What to send? An abstract of no more than 300 words
• When? 1 May 2012
• To whom? caroline.biron@fsa.ulaval.ca

If you are interested in presenting and/or attending please contact us early, as the total number of participants at the meeting is limited to 25. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 20th April, so that participants can confirm their attendance at the meeting.

Further resources

Biron, C., Gatrell, C., & Cooper, C.L. (2010). Autopsy of a failure: Evaluating process and contextual issues in an organizational-level work stress intervention. International Journal of Stress Management, 17(2), 135–158. doi: 10.1037/a0018772

Biron, C., Karanika-Murray, M., & Cooper, C. (Eds.) (in press). Improving organizational interventions for stress and well-being: Addressing process and context. Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-84872-056-5

Cox, T., Taris, T., & Nielsen, K. (2010) Organizational interventions: Issues and challenges. Work & Stress, 24(Special Issue), 217–218.

Cox, T., Karanika, M., Griffiths, A., & Houdmont, J. (2007). Evaluating organisational-level work stress interventions: Beyond traditional methods. Work & Stress, 21(4), 348-362. doi: 10.1080/02678370701760757

Egan, M., Bambra, C., Petticrew, M., & Whitehead, M. (2009). Reviewing evidence on complex social interventions: appraising implementation in systematic reviews of the health effects of organisational-level workplace interventions. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 63(1), 4-11. doi: 10.1136/jech.2007.071233

Hasson, H., Gilbert-Ouimet, M., Baril-Gingras, G., Brisson, C., Vézina, M., Bourbonnais, R., & Montreuil, S. (2012). Implementation of an organizational-level intervention on the psychosocial environment of work– comparison of managers’ and employees’ views. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 54(1), 85–91. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0b013e31823ccb2f 

Murta, S.G., Sanderson, K., & Oldenburg, B. (2007). Process evaluation in occupational stress management programs: a systematic review. American Journal of Health Promotion, 21(4), 248-254.

Nielsen, K., Randall, R., & Albertsen, K. (2007). Participants, appraisals of process issues and the effects of stress management interventions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28, 793-810. doi: 10.1002/job.450

Randall, R., Nielsen, K., & Tvedt, S.D. (2009). The development of five scales to measure employees appraisals of organizational-level stress management interventions. Work & Stress, 23(1), 1-23. doi: 10.1080/02678370902815277

Semmer, N.K. (2006). Job stress interventions and the organization of work. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 32(6), 515-527. doi:10.5271/sjweh.1056

Tvedt, S.D., Saksvik, P.Ø., & Nytrø, K. (2009). Does change process healthiness reduce the negative effects of organizational change on the psychosocial work environment? Work & Stress,23, 1,80 -98. doi: 10.1080/02678370902857113

Saksvik, P.Ø., Tvedt, S.D., Nytrø, K., Andersen, G.R., Andersen, T.K., Buvik, M.P., & Torvath, H. (2007). Developing criteria for healthy organizational change. Work & Stress, 21(3), 243-263. doi: 10.1080/02678370701685707