Leading for change: line managers’ influence on the outcomes of an occupational health intervention

ABSTRACT

Line managers may play a central role in the success of occupational health interventions. However, few studies have focussed on the relationship between line managers’ behaviours and the outcomes of occupational health interventions. We examined the influence of both line managers’ attitudes and actions towards an intervention as well as their transformational leadership on the expected outcomes of the intervention (i.e. employee self-rated health and work ability). The intervention consisted of the implementation and use of a web-based system for occupational health management. A sample of 180 employees provided data for the analysis. Self-rated health and work ability were measured at the baseline (Time 1) and follow-up (Time 3), while employee ratings of line managers’ attitudes and actions, and transformational leadership were measured during the intervention process (Time 2). The results revealed that line managers’ attitudes and actions positively predicted changes in both self-rated health and work ability. The influence of transformational leadership was indirect and mediated through line managers’ attitudes and actions towards the intervention. Based on the results, we suggest using process measures that include aspects of both line managers’ attitudes and actions as well as their transformational leadership in future process evaluation.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformational leadership
• organisational change
• process evaluation
• intervention process
• line managers
• work-related stress
• health outcomes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the organisation and its employees who participated in the study. We would also like to thank Karin Villaume for invaluable work with data collection and administrative procedures throughout the study as well as system developer Jens Pettersson for invaluable support and development. Finally, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our funding sources.

Disclosure statement

The web-based system for occupational health management was commercialised by the fourth author in 2006, who is also married to the second author. However, neither the second nor the fourth author conducted the statistical analyses for this manuscript, and neither the project (Work With Flow) nor this specific research study has entailed any financial interest or benefit for the other researchers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) [grant 2012-0215] and the Karolinska Institutet Board of Doctoral Education [KID grant 3-1818/2013]. In addition, the second author was funded by ERA-AGE2, Future Leaders of Aging Research in Europe (FLARE)/FORTE [grant 2010-1849]. The third author was funded by Vinnvård [grant VF13-008]. The Swedish ESF Council [grant 2010-3010011].and AFA Insurance [grant 130058] funded the data collection.