Understanding the Psychology of Occupational Health PDF

Chapter 1 Understanding the Psychology of Occupational Health Christopher J. L. Cunningham and Kristen Jennings Black This chapter provides readers with a foundational understanding of the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) and its reason for existence. Professionals in OHP focus on prote...

Chapter 1 Understanding the Psychology of Occupational Health Christopher J. L. Cunningham and Kristen Jennings Black This chapter provides readers with a foundational understanding of the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) and its reason for existence. Professionals in OHP focus on protecting and improving worker health, safety, and well-being (WHSWB). We review this field of OHP and show at a high level, how OHP professionals fit within a broader network of professional disciplines with expertise relevant to the protection and promotion of WHSWB. In this chapter we explain what OHP is and how OHP is most effective as part of a multidisciplinary approach to managing WHSWB. In addition, we highlight and briefly describe a number of organizations and initiatives that promote and support OHP-related research and practice. When you are finished reading this chapter, you should be able to: LO 1.1: Describe the history and origins of the field of OHP. LO 1.2: Describe the current state of OHP as a research and practice discipline. LO 1.3: Explain why and how addressing WHSWB requires multidisciplinary efforts that include psychology. LO 1.4: Identify various institutions and organizations that support ongoing education and dissemination of OHP knowledge. Overview of OHP As you are reading this chapter, we can only assume that you are interested in better understanding what OHP is all about and how the theories, methods, and findings from OHP research and practice can be used to benefit workers, organizations, and maybe society more generally. By definition, OHP is a field of study and practice in which behavioral and social science theories, principles, and evidence are used to protect, promote, and generally improve worker health, safety, and well-being (WHSWB). For most OHP professionals, these three areas are broadly defined and multifaceted. Health is typically conceptualized along multiple continua pertaining to physical, psychological, social, and emotional forms (see Hoffmann & Tetrick, 2003 for an excellent discussion of different ways health has been operationalized). Safety is often focused on physical risk situations, with the goal of preventing physical harm, injury, or even death. However, safety for OHP professionals may also include psychological forms of safety. Finally, worker well-being is related to health and safety, but often conceptualized even more broadly and in a multi-dimensional way to include dimensions of positive health along with the availability of essential resources that support health (e.g., shelter, food, security) and a sense of purpose and meaning (Bennett et al., 2017; Chari et al., 2018). Together, these elements contribute to the very broad concept of general wellness (e.g., Adams et al., 1997), which is also linked to a variety of salutogenic or health-causing factors (Antonovsky, 1979). These ultimate objectives of WHSWB are met not only when health-related symptoms are reduced, but when workers are able to positively and adaptively function in emotional, social, and cognitive ways that support thriving and even flourishing (cf., Fredrickson, 1998; Ryff & Singer, 1998). The focus for OHP researchers and practitioners is primarily on the ways in which experiences at work, exposures to work tasks, and associated environmental factors impact WHSWB. Because worker health transcends the boundaries of a work domain, OHP professionals also often consider cross-domain (i.e., work-to-nonwork and nonwork-to-work) phenomena and effects. This crossover and spillover of health-related influences and outcomes between work and nonwork domains means that promoting and protecting WHSWB is important for workers, organizations, and society more broadly. Defining OHP When attempting to define a construct, phenomenon, or, in this case, professional discipline, it is helpful to not only describe or delineate what it is, but also what it is not. When it comes to OHP, this is easier said than done, because the knowledge, skills, and abilities of well-trained and experienced OHP professionals is often so broad. OHP supports and is influenced by many professional disciplines that target occupational health, including occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, and public health (Macik-Frey et al., 2007). OHP professionals can amplify, facilitate, and enhance the work of professionals with more domain specific KSAOs by leveraging expertise in designing and conducting research and interventions to promote and protect WHSWB. We share the hope of many in this arena that in the coming years we will see an increase in the amount of interdisciplinary collaboration on research and practice efforts to address WHSWB challenges (cf., Sauter & Hurrell, 2017). Most OHP professionals are trained to be scientists and practitioners, which can mean a variety of different things. In our interviews with OHP professionals (noted in the Preface), we asked how a scientist-practitioner model applies to their OHP-related work. The overarching theme from these responses (more detail in Table 1.1 is that OHP research and practice are strengthened and better aligned with actual WHSWB issues because of this underlying scientist-practitioner perspective. Table 1.1 OHP Professionals’ Perspective on Being an OHP Scientist-Practitioner Key Themes Essential Elements Science informs best practice and • Understanding underlying provides solutions with high mechanisms of a tool, program, likelihood of success or activity • Developing interventions based on what is known • Removing need for expensive consultants Science and practice inform and • Theories and empirical evidence support each other help identify what is happening and why • Practice identifies key issues and real-world problems • Practice provides real-time and real-world experience • Practice helps translate science into application Scientist-practitioner model helps to • Teaches research-minded to ensure comprehensive always think about the “so what” development of graduate students and application potential and early career professionals • Challenges practitioner-minded to seek understanding and explanation through data and theory Most OHP professionals are not licensed or otherwise certified to provide direct healthcare or clinical services to individuals. Our ability to fully address WHSWB issues is contingent on our ability to collaborate and coordinate with other occupational health professionals. For example, epidemiologists may be very effective at monitoring and describing health- related phenomena, but may struggle to explain why workers are behaving in certain ways. Likewise, industrial hygienists might be able to identify significant exposure risks in a work setting, but be more effective at addressing these risks with OHP assistance in designing, implementing, and evaluating psychologically, socially, and behaviorally oriented interventions targeting the worker in addition to the work environment. Figure 1.1 illustrates how OHP knowledge and methods can amplify other types of efforts to improve WHSWB. The left panel in this figure is a simple representation of how various professional disciplines and silos may attempt to improve WHSWB in a general and perhaps not fully direct way. The dotted lines indicate that these efforts may be less than fully effective. The right panel in this figure illustrates how these general efforts can be amplified or strengthened when OHP knowledge and methods are included, ensuring that critical psychological and social factors are taken into account. In other words, OHP professionals can complement and supplement work by other occupational health professionals, by improving depth of understanding, deepening and broadening systems thinking about WHSWB issues, and strengthening WHSWB intervention delivery and evaluation strategies. A Multi- and Inter-Disciplinary Imperative The broad class of WHSWB issues targeted by OHP professionals is understandably complex and multifaceted. It should not be surprising, therefore, that these issues cannot be addressed from a single perspective or set of knowledge, skills, or competencies. For OHP professionals to be as impactful as possible, we need to learn to think and work in a multidisciplinary fashion (Adkins, 1999). This means understanding and collaborating with professionals in a variety of different domains that all have expertise pertinent to the challenge of managing WHSWB challenges. This includes but is not limited to the professional disciplines summarized in Table 1.2. The definitions and societies referenced are by no means comprehensive, but high-level examples of the work done in these diverse areas to understand and address WHSWB issues. Even from just a psychological perspective, there are many different pathways and approaches to OHP-related work. Obviously, there is a strong representation of professionals with psychology training in OHP most specifically. All occupational health professionals, however, must understand and appreciate the need to work with professionals in other related occupational health and applied psychology disciplines to actually understand and address complex WHSWB challenges (Sauter & Hurrell, 2017). OHP as a Lens or Hub A really important and powerful way of thinking about OHP is to treat it as a lens through which we can more fully see, understand, and ultimately impact WHSWB issues. Using this lens can lead us to make and advocate for better choices and decisions in the many situations where WHSWB is likely to be affected. This applies to just about all of us, regardless of the positions we may hold in organizations. For example, any talent management professional has frequent opportunities to apply an understanding of OHP to inform decisions and take actions that keep workers healthier and safer, regardless of organizational context. We can also think of OHP as a sort of hub science, which can help to connect and amplify work that is done to protect and promote WHSWB from many different functional areas (as represented in Figure 1.2)1. 1 Thanks to Jake Zerner, Modupe Omotajo, and Jeff Martin for contributing to the development of this broad concept map of areas in which OHP can have an impact. These perspectives were also strongly endorsed by the panel of OHP professionals we interviewed for this book. Developing and Supporting OHP What we identify as OHP today is a relatively new area of specialization for those who are primarily trained in some branch of applied psychology (as discussed in the next section). As noted in an informative early review by Quick (1999a), however, the field of OHP has evolved over a long history, which can be traced back at least as far as the late 1800s and the work of early occupational health focused researchers and practitioners such as Hugo Münsterberg (1913), and showing up in later work by other well-known researchers such as Kornhauser (1965; see also Zickar, 2003), Herzberg (1964), and Lazarus and Folkman (1984), among many others. The current profession of OHP really started taking shape in the late 1990s. The use of the OHP label for this area of specialization is traced back to an article by Raymond, Wood, and Patrick (1990), in which a model was outlined for OHP as a doctoral-level specialization. Around this same time, the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) had initiated a bi-annual conference series now known as the International Conference on Work, Stress, and Health. This ongoing conference series continues to be an important forum for researchers and practitioners interested in WHSWB topics. Table 1.2 Summary of OHP-Related Disciplines Specialization (example professional organization) Focus and relevance of OHP research and practice Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology www.siop.org http://www.eawop.org I-O Psychologists apply principles of psychology to work and organizations. They study details of workplace functioning, including recruiting, selection, training/development, retention, and succession planning. They can provide insight on how workplace dynamics and workforce planning decisions could be affected by or contribute to WHSWB. Health Psychology Health Psychologists apply https://societyforhealthpsychology.org psychological principles to understand health and illness. https://ehps.net They can provide a broad perspective on the interplay between biological, social, and psychological factors that affect an individual’s health. Clinical/Counseling Psychology https://www.div12.org Clinical or Counseling psychologists are trained to diagnose and treat psychological and emotional disorders. Through one-on-one work with individuals and consultations with OHP professionals, they can recommend strategies for coping with stress and work-related accommodations for someone managing a psychological health concern. Positive Psychology https://www.ippanetwork.org http://www.div17pospsych.com Positive psychologists are focused on human flourishing and well-being. Through their focus on building positive and sustaining positive states, they add to practices often centered on reducing negative states. They may develop broad interventions to be administered in groups or work one-on-one with clients. Ergonomics and Human Factors Psychology https://www.hfes.org.home https://iea.cc Human Factors Psychologists and Ergonomists are trained to evaluate and design environments to maximize human well-being and the performance of a given system. They may be particularly helpful for OHP work involving adapting the physical environment to improve health and safety. Industrial Hygiene https://www.aiha.org https://www.assp.org https://www.aioh.org.au Industrial hygienists or occupational safety technicians often work directly with organizations to develop and administer safety programs that prevent or correct issues with the work environment. Because they are directly involved in workplace safety initiatives, they often have detailed knowledge on specific safety risks and intervention strategies. Preventative/Occupational Medicine https://www.iomsc.net https://acoem.org Occupational medicine is a form of preventative medicine, which focuses on understanding risks and support strategies for the workplace. They may be involved in population-based healthcare for a particular group of workers, as well as efforts for prevention of disease and disability among atrisk workers. Occupational Therapy https://www.wfot.org https://www.aota.org Occupational therapists help individuals with injuries, diseases, or disabilities build skills for daily functioning. This includes vocational skills for returning to work or continuing to work with a chronic condition. Physical Therapy https://www.isprm.org https://www.apta.org Physical therapists help individuals to improve their mobility, relieve pain, or increase strength that results from disease of injury. They focus on helping individuals physically adjust from an injury or chronic condition. Employment Law https://www.eela.org https://www.leraweb.org Those who work in employment law (e.g., labor relations, equal opportunity representatives) help employees and employers by managing worker disputes or ensuring legal compliance within an organization. Employment law professionals can provide insight into how workplace programs in general affect the rights of workers, particularly those who are members of protected groups. Economics http://www.iea-world.org https://www.aeaweb.org Economists conduct research to understand trends and address financial and economic problems. They can help to model and predict the financial costs associated with worker health, both the costs associated with poor health and safety and potential gains from positive health and safety. Public Health and Health Education https://www.apha.org Public Health researchers and educators are involved with identifying community needs, providing resources to support health, and providing education to encourage healthy lifestyles. They focus on health trends, challenges, and opportunities for larger groups (e.g., the world, a country, a community). These individuals can help to understand the broader social context around a health or well-being concern. Note: Descriptions were informed by professional societies of the different disciplines as well as O*NET documentation of typical job tasks for each (https://www.onetonline.org ). To be clear, there has been interest among philosophers, and behavioral and social science researchers in the psychological and social effects of and opportunities provided by work for at least the last couple of centuries. Going back even further, the notion of work as an important component to protecting and demonstrating human dignity is a component to the teachings of most organized religions. Much of this is discussed in the excellent and detailed historical overview of OHP provided by Schonfeld and Chang (2017). In addition to being aware of this background, it is also essential that we understand the role of many corresponding occupational health specialties that have also contributed to the development of what we now know as OHP (for an excellent summary, see Sauter & Hurrell, 2017). A detailed timeline of key events in the development and life of the OHP field is available in the summary of the history of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology (SOHP; http://sohp-online.org/field-of-ohp/history-ofohp/). Education and Training in OHP Although the focus of this book is on OHP primarily as a form of applied psychological research and practice, most WHSWB issues are complex and multi-faceted. An implication of this, as we have discussed, is that an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach is often needed to best address and manage the factors that influence WHSWB outcomes, including environmental factors, organizational policies and procedures, and broader societal norms and forces (Adkins, 1999). This being the case, there is not just one way to pursue and obtain an education that will set you up for a career in which OHP knowledge will be pertinent. As you will see perhaps most clearly in the Professional Profiles we have included in each chapter of this book, there are many ways to develop yourself into an OHP researcher, educator, and/or practitioner. Even if you are not trained in psychology, the material in this book and the research and practice done by OHP professionals is important to understand, as it helps to illustrate how and why people do what they do, not just what it is that people are doing (which is commonly the case in other occupational health professions). Generally, OHP professionals tend to have at least a master’s level degree and often some form of doctoral level training in an area of psychology (e.g., industrial-organizational, health, clinical, social) or another relevant specialty area, including public health, human factors, epidemiology, sociology, industrial hygiene, etc. There is no universal standard for education in OHP, though there have been attempts to provide best-practice guidance when it comes to curricular elements and applied training (Houdmont et al., 2008; Schneider et al., 1999; Westlander, 1994). Formal, structured opportunities for education and training in OHP did not exist prior to the middle 1990s, when APA and NIOSH jointly sponsored a set of funding opportunities for post-doctoral training. Seven individuals were able to expand their graduate training by diving more deeply into OHPfocused topics. Later in the 1990s, APA and NIOSH again teamed up to support the development of graduate-level training programs for OHP. The first training programs were largely supported by special training funding and grant-supported research, and as such, were located in larger institutions that had a solid research footprint. It was through these early training mechanisms that the first recognized graduate level training programs were established. Details on these early days of OHP education are wellpresented by Adkins (1999) and Quick (1999a, 1999b). It is important to note that many of the original doctoral programs to offer OHP-related training continue to do so, and many additional doctoral and master’s level opportunities have emerged since then, throughout the world. Common curricular elements to OHP-related training and education programs include behavioral and social science research methods, statistical analysis techniques, applied psychological theories, and translation of empirical research to practice. If you are interested in finding graduate education opportunities in OHP, a good place to start are dedicated professional society websites, through SOHP (http://sohponline.org/resources/graduate-training-in-ohp/) or the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (EA-OHP; http://www.eaohp.org/education-and-training.html). Training in OHP often begins with formal education, but learning does not stop there. As the number of OHP researchers and practitioners continues to grow, there is more and more opportunity to benefit from lessons learned by established professionals, peers, and newcomers with fresh perspectives. An important mechanism for international sharing of knowledge and experience is through the annual series of international conferences focused on WHSWB issues. The list of possible conferences is vast and one of the best ways to see what is happening and available is to access the list of such events managed by the International Coordinating Group for OHP (http://www.icg-ohp.org/), which is composed of representatives from a variety of related professional OHP-related societies worldwide (many of which are noted in the next subsection). Maintaining global connections and perspectives in our education, training, research, and interventions are essential to OHP’s ability to impact universal WHSWB issues. Rounding out this section, Table 1.3 presents a rank-ordered list of recommendations to students interested in pursuing an OHP-related career. These recommendations come from our panel of OHP professionals noted earlier; think of this information as collective advice you might obtain from working with multiple top-notch OHP mentors. Although we both share much of this advice with our students now, we both wish we had heard all of this advice before we get started about OHP as a possible career direction. Table 1.3 Recommendations to Students Interested in Pursuing OHP as a Career Main Recommendations Specific Strategies Get Experience • • • • • • Applied projects Research efforts Multidisciplinary engagements Take every opportunity available Get out and do it! Use your valuable resources Network • • • • • Find mentorship Seek people with similar values Stay connected to academia Talk to employees Talk to professionals in the field or related industries Understand/Explore OHP • • • • Attend OHP conferences Join relevant societies Know OHP is interdisciplinary Read/stay current on research Succeed Academically • Do well in school • Get relevant education • Work hard Know Yourself • Know your values, motivation, interests • Maintain your integrity Develop Skills • Communication • Writing • Research methodology Work Well with Others • Respect your coworkers • Collaborate • Work well with others Follow Your Interest • • • • Focus on what interests you Have a desire to learn Have a passion for the field Have a passion to help others Other • • • • Fix one problem at a time Always ask questions Have fun Focus on making a difference Supporting Institutions and Organizations Most OHP research and practice efforts are supported by the educational and training resources already discussed, and by a number of funding sources (typically national/state/provincial level governments and other non-profit/philanthropic groups that target these issues). The availability of funding to support this type of work is limited and competition for this funding is increasingly strong. This is especially true in the case of application-oriented work (e.g., intervention studies, pilot programs), which sometimes are funded directly by organizations directly. Being successful as an OHP professional, however, requires more than good training and funding. As any OHP professional will tell you, it is also critically important to be engaged with other professionals in this domain and to maintain an active and rich professional network that can provide support and help to generate collaborative research and practice opportunities. In this section, we outline five general forms of organizations that provide both formal and informal support that can contribute to your success as an OHP professional. Professional Societies and Associations Professionals with a background in psychology or at least an appreciation for the value and importance of behavioral and social science principles when working to understand and address WHSWB challenges have a professional home within SOHP. This organization is relatively young but has sustained and grown its membership steadily since its founding in 2004 and 2005. The mission of SOHP is to help improve worker health, safety, and well-being, while also facilitating their productivity in work environments. This organization works towards these goals by promoting research associated with WHSWB issues, encouraging and facilitating the translation of this work into practical advice and guidance, and supporting and improving OHP-related education and training opportunities. Membership options are available at a variety of levels, including students and international affiliates. Full details about SOHP and its membership benefits are available through SOHP’s website (http://www.sohp-online.org). In a more global sense, there are other professional organizations similar in some ways to SOHP, but with more of a country- or region-specific focus. This includes organizations such as the EA-OHP (http://www.eaohp.org/). As a professional organization representing all psychologists, the APA is the largest, with more than 118,000 members, representing all manner of psychology specializations and subdisciplines. When it comes to issues of WHSWB, this organization also has a lot to offer. From the early days of OHP, several key leaders at APA helped to support and encourage the development of this profession. Two of the most visible ways in which this support is still evident today is in the ongoing International Conference on Work, Stress, and Health and the highly respected Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. In recent years, the APA Office of Applied Psychology has helped to emphasize the importance of applying psychology to improve workers’ experiences at work as well as organizational functioning. The majority of OHP professionals who are members of APA are also members of APA’s Division 14, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. This organization also supports many OHP-related initiatives through its publications and annual conference. More details about these two professional organizations are available on their websites (https://www.apa.org and https://www.siop.org) . Government-Supported Organizations Government funding and support for OHP-related work varies quite a bit in form and function across different countries and regions of the worlds. Some governmental resources to support WHSWB exist at a state or provincial level, or perhaps at a regional level. More common, however, are country-level governmental resources such as those found in many Western European (e.g., https://osha.europa.eu/en) and Nordic countries, as well as Canada (e.g., https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-socialdevelopment/programs/health-safety.html), Japan (https://www.jisha.or.jp/english/), and Australia (e.g., https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/. These countries and a few others have established strong policy and procedural frameworks, guidelines, and oversight through agencies or government offices to protect and promote WHSWB. In contrast, many more recently industrialized and still developing economies have essentially no worker protections in place. Many of these countries also lack an established and sufficient set of OHP-related professionals who can address WHSWB issues. In between these two ends of the spectrum are several of the largest countries of the world, including the USA, China, and India. Within the USA, NIOSH, a division of the American Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is the main governmentally funded research and practice organization associated with OHP. As a resource to OHP professionals, NIOSH is incredibly valuable—it is not membership-based, and its employees are continually focused on applied research targeting critical WHSWB priorities that apply to just about every occupation. A tremendous amount of valuable information is available to researchers and practitioners through the NIOSH website (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/index.htm). In particular, you can find reports published by NIOSH on some unique case studies and interventions that are not published in research journals yet are extremely valuable for learning about risks factors or techniques for specific industries. The work that NIOSH does is guided by its National Occupational Research Agenda NORA (see https://www.cdc.gov/nora/). This agenda is periodically updated with input from councils composed of stakeholders representing a wide variety of professions involved in efforts to understand and improve WHSWB. An early version of this concept of a national agenda for research in this area was shared with the broader psychology community in an article by Sauter, Murphy, and Hurrell (1990). These authors, the first of whom is featured in a professional profile in this chapter, outlined the need for a “comprehensive national strategy to protect and promote the psychological health of workers” (p. 1146). The current NORA guides the work of NIOSH as well as researchers and practitioners all over the world. To further increase its impact on addressing WHSWB issues, in recent years NIOSH has put strong emphasis behind development of a Total Worker Health® (TWH) initiative. This effort is designed to increase the scope and impact of efforts up to this point to improve and sustain WHSWB. More details about this initiative are available at NIOSH’s dedicated website to this topic (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh/default.html) and in a clearly presented review by Schill and Chosewood (2013). Within the USA, government support for addressing WHSWB issues is fairly limited. Actual laws, policies, and other forms of worker protections are sparse and not strongly supported with strong oversight powers. The main forms of governmental support for OHP-related work are through various grant and contract mechanisms designed to fund applied research efforts. Several government-related organizations support OHP research because of WHSWB concerns related to a specific worker population. For instance, the Department of Defense (https://www.defense.gov/) offers a variety of funding opportunities to support the health, safety, and well-being of military personnel. Related to this, the Department of Veterans Affairs supports efforts to help reintegrate veterans to civilian life, often including a return to civilian employment. This is indeed a great opportunity for collaboration among OHP practitioners. There are also quite a few funding and collaboration opportunities with specialized organizations that seek to understand unique WHSWB issues pertaining to their workforces. For instance, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supports work that addresses WHSWB issues among the unique population of astronauts, with emphasis recently on those who will engage in long-duration space exploration missions. These workers are likely to experience a number of task-related, social, and personal challenges that can benefit from the expertise of OHP researchers and practitioners. Similarly, the Association for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) often supports OHP research, as their goal to deliver quality and safe health care hugely depends on the health and safety of their workers. Most of these formal funding opportunities, particularly those affiliated with government agencies, can be found through the American federal government’s main grants resource website (https://www.grants.gov/). Finally, the American Occupational Safety and Health Administration (https://www.osha.gov/), housed within the U.S. Department of Labor, is perhaps most known among business owners and practitioners as the federal agency charged with monitoring and enforcing safety at the federal and state level. In addition to such enforcement, OSHA provides resources for education and training materials that are targeted toward specific risks (e.g., slips, trips, and falls) and specific industries (e.g., mining, construction). OHSA also provides support for work that targets worker safety, funding efforts to train and educate workers on safe practices (e.g., Susan Harwood Training grants) and working with organizations to create policies and procedures that support worker health. OSHA particularly encourages work targeting vulnerable work populations, such as those engaged in hazardous occupations or those with low-income jobs. Additional funding opportunities for work that addresses WHSWB issues in risky occupations can often be found through the United States Department of Labor’s grants website (https://dol.gov/general/grants/howto). Non-Governmental Organizations Other country-spanning and global influence pertaining to WHSWB comes from non-governmental agencies that provide best-practice guidance and other forms of support to organizations and communities working to protect WHSWB. Examples of such organizations include the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/health-topics/occupational-health), International Labor Organization (https://www.ilo.org/global/), and various international standards organizations such as the International Standards Organization (ISO; https://www.iso.org/home.html), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI; https://www.ansi.org/). In addition to providing regulations and general guidance related to a number of WHSWB matters, these organizations serve as a major resource for understanding a variety of broad occupational and societal health topics. They also serve as rich sources of work-related health data (e.g., https://ilostat.ilo.org/). Local and global assistance with WHSWB challenges is also provided by for-profit consulting organizations and industry-specific groups, which are often contracted by organizations to address these issues (typically as a response to some sort of WHSWB incident). These organizations tend to specialize in particular segments of the WHSWB puzzle (e.g., safety, incivility, environmental controls), but generally tackle these issues with a combination of applied psychology, sociology, and organizational change management principles and techniques. There are ongoing efforts to coordinate and collaborate across cultures through the preceding societies. One such effort, mentioned earlier, is the International Coordinating Group for OHP (http://www.icg-ohp.org/), which works to connect professional organizations of OHP professionals into a global network. Doing so helps to improve research collaboration and dissemination, and provides a forum for generating best-practice recommendations to address global WHSWB issues. Coordination through this type of network may also help with advocacy efforts to raise awareness and increase funding support for OHP-related initiatives. Knowledge Dissemination Outlets Research and practice-oriented information pertaining to WHSWB matters is shared by OHP and other occupational health and safety professionals through a number of well-respected and peer-reviewed journals and edited book series. Preparing for this book, we compiled more than 900 OHP-related intervention research reports and applied research manuscripts and found that these manuscripts are published across an extremely diverse set of journals. To illustrate the multidisciplinary reality of OHP research and practice, just the roughly 300 intervention-related articles we identified came from more than 150 different peer-reviewed journals, with only about 20% of these publications coming from three of the most highly regarded journals connected to the OHP domain (i.e., Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, and International Journal of Stress Management). The rest of these intervention studies were published in a variety of other occupational health focused outlets (e.g., Work and Stress, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Occupational Health Science) and discipline-specific journals (e.g., Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, The Prison Journal). In addition to these types of journal outlets, there are technical reports sometimes made publicly available from governmental and governmentrelated agencies (e.g., NIOSH, RAND, the Defense Technical Information Center [DTIC]) that provide helpful and often application-oriented information. Finally, and as mentioned earlier, a great deal of continuing education, professional networking, and knowledge sharing happens at multiple international conferences targeting WHSWB issues. Present Challenges for OHP Considering the relative newness of OHP as a professional domain or specialization, the amount of education, research, and practice to-date in this area is impressive. That said, this field and the broader population of professionals working to address WHSWB face several major challenges. Some of these are seemingly perpetual and have affected workers and organizations since even before the era of industrialization. Other challenges are newer, brought on by technological developments and changes to the way many of us work. Most WHSWB challenges are connected to multiple areas of occupational health-related research and practice. For this reason, a first ongoing challenge for OHP professionals is figuring out how to increase collaboration and coordination within this discipline and with professionals from other related disciplines such as industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, and human factors. As just one example, the increasing presence of robotics and other forms of automation in many work environments challenges workers’ sense of meaning and purpose, while also presenting new opportunities for safer operations, and new risks for exposures and injuries. Effectively working to understand and protect WHSWB as the nature of work changes will require OHP professionals to be more actively engaged in multidisciplinary collaborations. A second ongoing challenge for OHP professionals is figuring out how to demonstrate, qualify, and quantify the impact and effects of OHP- related work in terms that are meaningful to business owners and others who respond most strongly to economic indicators of effect. Positive steps have already been made toward addressing this challenge (Goetzel et al., 2004; Naydeck et al., 2008; Ozminkowski et al., 2004), but there is not a consistent and widely used approach for demonstrating economic impact that works for all types of stakeholders. There are also entire areas of OHP research and practice for which connections to financial and economic impact have never been made (though see Novotney, 2017 for examples of positive steps in this direction). A third challenge involves engaging OHP professionals, workers, and organizations to more fully explore how to best leverage OHP-related research and theories to address the most persistent WHSWB challenges. There are some who argue that the best mechanism for this is through policy changes, often at the level of a national government or international guiding coalition. There are others who feel strongly that the best approach to addressing OHP-related issues is directly through the work organizations, with changes being made to the practice of work driven by market and economic forces rather than policy mandates. A blended approach is likely to be most effective in most situations, but there are dramatic differences in relevant factors to consider by country, culture, and industry. Stated more simply, this major class of challenge pertains to how we can best and most effectively translate OHP knowledge into practice and actual change. Finally, there is an ongoing challenge regarding the identity of OHP researchers and practitioners. In the USA especially, a large proportion of folks who identify with OHP are primarily trained in I-O psychology and many other occupational health and safety professionals have no training in psychology. Because addressing WHSWB issues requires a multidisciplinary approach, the challenge here is to effectively facilitate interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations that begin with education (e.g., blended curricula and other mixed training opportunities) and extend into our research and practice efforts (e.g., developing and managing multidisciplinary research and intervention teams). This blending is likely to lead to more comprehensive research and ultimately interventions, though it may also lead to further challenges in defining what OHP really is (and is not). Our experience tells us, however, that most OHP and other occupational health and safety professionals are less concerned with professional identity than with using their knowledge, skills, abilities, and general competencies to positively impact WHSWB. This is one reason why this field attracts so many professionals with a real concern for optimizing work experiences for people and society more generally. Concluding Thoughts and Reality Check Congratulations for working your way through this first chapter. The material we presented here provides an orientation to the breadth of OHP research and practice. We also presented a general overview of interests, challenges, and opportunities associated with WHSWB and discussed the wide variety of ways in which professionals from various disciplines can get involved with OHP. It is no small feat to protect and promote safety and a sense of meaning for workers, while simultaneously ensuring organizations function well and remain competitive. As noted throughout this chapter, there are many professional disciplines that address elements of this challenge. Professionals with OHP training can play a major role in making this all happen. Throughout the remainder of this book, we will explore many ways in which OHP contributes to WHSWB and is important to workers, organizations, and society more generally. In most of the remaining chapters, we will directly address this issue of importance as it pertains to the topic of each chapter. For now, it is sufficient to note that although focusing on the health, safety, and well-being of workers seems like the “right” thing to do for most people, too often this argument is ignored unless presented with concrete illustrations of how/why such a focus is also financially good for the organization. For OHP professionals to succeed in getting others to appreciate the importance and value of our research and practice efforts, we have to do a better job of not just understanding specific and isolated WHSWB issues. We have to challenge ourselves to go further and understand these issues within a broader context, which includes causal factors, conditioning variables, and outcomes at the worker level, but also includes contextual details within specific work environments. This might include the costs associated with promoting and protecting worker health using available tools and strategies. This might also include understanding more fully how long it will take for OHP-informed intervention efforts to have an impact that is noticeable on the organization’s bottom line. In other words, our challenge is to demonstrate the importance of OHP research and practice with data and evidence that matter to workers, organizations, and society more generally. We take up these matters more in Chapter 2. Media Resources • News article examining the toxicity of work environments: http://nyti.ms/1KVRnAT • Blog post exploring costs of difficult workers: https://blog.careerminds.com/the-true-cost-of-toxic-workers • Trade publication article discussing the importance of “good” occupational health: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/reflecting-on-the-role-andvalue-of-good-occupational-health/ Discussion Questions 1. What is OHP and how is it related to personal, occupational, and organizational health? 2. How/why does it make sense for scientists and practitioners in any field to concern themselves with psychological and physical health in and out of work settings? 3. Pick one of the disciplines in Table 1.1 and explore the website for one of the professional societies. What are two or three unique perspectives this field brings to understanding WHSWB? How might the work of professions in this field be supported or facilitated by an OHP professional? 4. What is the role of government organizations in protecting and promoting WHSWB? How can OHP professionals help to improve governmental support for WHSWB in all occupations? Professional Profile: Steve Sauter, Ph.D. Country/region: United States of America (USA) Current position title: Senior Consultant with AECOM N&C Technical Services, LLC and NIOSH Background: I have been working to improve the health, safety, and/or wellbeing of workers for 43 years. I received my Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Center for Environmental Toxicology. I am a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Occupational Health Psychology and a Fellow of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology. I was fortunate to find a graduate mentor at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Psychology with a focus in occupational safety and health. I subsequently secured a Post-Doc in a medical school department with specialization in occupational and environmental health (Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Wisconsin Medical School) where I gained practical experience and added to my credentials in occupational health. I was then recruited by NIOSH to head their program in work, stress, and health. Collectively, these experiences have prepared me well for independent practice as a consultant in occupational safety and health field. I now work primarily as a consultant to the Office of the Director at NIOSH, providing support on workplace psychosocial factors and health to the NIOSH Total Worker Health® Program and to the NIOSH Healthy Work Design Program. The primary focus of this work has been to provide guidance to the Total Worker Health® Program and to the RAND Corporation in a joint NIOSHRAND project to develop a new survey instrument to assess worker wellbeing. How my work impacts WHSWB: Historically, occupational safety and health and sister disciplines (e.g., workplace health promotion, wellness) have occupied different organizational silos. My work with the NIOSH Office of Total Worker Health has helped to foster the integration of these programs in organizations, leading to improved safety, health, and well-being outcomes. These efforts and positive outcomes have been documented in a 2019 volume co-edited by me and published by the American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4316192). I will comment briefly on three activities over the course of my career to help illustrate the breadth of applications in OHP. First, early in my career I worked with occupational health professionals in the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Preventive Medicine to uncover significant neuropsychological deficits among fumigant-exposed grain workers, resulting in both compensation to affected workers and workplace reforms to reduce these exposures. In subsequent work at the Department of Preventive Medicine and at NIOSH I was able to show that the organization of work and workplace psychosocial conditions contributed significantly to the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in office work, and I worked with government authorities and industry to help optimize these conditions to reduce the risk of MSDs in office workplaces. Most recently, I have been working with NIOSH and the RAND Corporation to develop a new, comprehensive measure of worker well-being that will be used by organizations and governmental agencies to gauge the overall health of workers and to target interventions to safeguard worker health. My motivation: My career in what has become known as OHP has been fueled by: (1) recognition of the burden of occupational illness and injury, and job stress in particular, on workers, their families, organizations, and society; (2) constantly evolving needs and opportunities for application of theory and practice in psychology within the occupational safety and health field, and by receptivity and recognition of this need among occupational safety and health researchers and practitioners; and (3) the satisfaction and rewards of working together with occupational health and safety professionals to mitigate work-related hazards and protect the health and safety of working people. Professional Profile: Arla Day, Ph.D. Country/region: Canada Current position title: Professor, Occupational Health Psychology at Saint Mary’s University; Director, CN Centre for Occupational Health & Safety; Director, EMPOWER Partnership Background: I have been working to improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of workers for over 25 years. I have a B.A. in Arts from the University of Manitoba. I went on to complete both my M.A.Sc and Ph.D. in I/O Psychology from the University of Waterloo. After my Ph.D., I accepted a faculty position at Saint Mary’s University. In addition to teaching and conducting research, I also started consulting with organizations. My current work involves a mix of conducting research (e.g., developing and validating Occupational Health and Safety intervention programs), teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, and consulting with workers and organizations (e.g., giving workshops and coaching as part of Occupational Health and Safety interventions). How my work impacts WHSWB: I conduct research to develop and validate programs that aim to create psychologically healthy workplaces by (1) supporting individual workers; (2) strengthening work groups; and (3) developing leaders. These programs involve both educational and skill development components to improve the physical and psychological health of workers. I examine the impact of individual and workplace factors on workers’ health and wellbeing, and I help develop students so that they can create and run validated OHP programs (e.g., train-the-trainer sessions). One particularly meaningful project for me is my work with the EMPOWER Partnership. This partnership involves bringing together researchers, organizations, and other stakeholders to help identify how to best support all workers, including those with chronic physical and mental health issues and/or who have chronic caregiving demands. These initiatives are designed to help individuals develop skills to manage chronic demands, help group members develop skills to manage interpersonal relationships and convey respectful behaviors at work; and help leaders develop skills to lead healthy workplaces and support the efforts of individual workers and groups. I have several precursors of EMPOWER, including ABLE (Achieving Balance in Life & Employment), which demonstrated effectiveness in improving the health and wellbeing of participants, and LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness through Accountability and Development), which used phone and web-based coaching to help develop leaders. The positive reaction to these programs from participants was overwhelming. ABLE participants reported that it helped them deal with work and life challenges and led to noticeable positive behavior changes. They argued that all employees should be able to have the opportunity to participate in this program. LEAD participants found the program helpful and would recommend it to others. The LEAD study also highlighted the importance of supporting the leaders when they are asked to engage in behavior change to help others. My motivation: As cliché as it may sound, I got into OHP to help people. I like to inspire people in workplaces to create environments that are physically and psychologically healthy. Work is a great medium through which to help people. 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