Purpose: Research describing unsuccessful and failed organisational health interventions (OHIs) tend not to be published in scientific journals as often as successful interventions demonstrating effectiveness. However, valuable knowledge could be drawn from these studies. Therefore, the purpose of this literature review is to identify and analyse explanations and lessons learned from studies reporting of non-effective OHIs.
Design/Methodology: A literature search of OHIs aiming to improve employee health at the organisational level (e.g. change of work organisation) was conducted. Four databases were used (e.g. Web of Science), and the search terms related to ‘OHI’, ‘implementation’, ‘failure’, and similar terms. The literature search was limited to original studies in peer-reviewed journals, published in English-language between 1996 and 2016 (June).
Results: Ten OHI studies are included in the review. The preliminary results show that explanations reported are related to implementation failures, and attributable to lack of employee participation and ownership. Lack of managerial support, competing projects, and organisational change are other explanations reported.
Limitations: The literature search resulted in a limited number of studies indicating the scarcity of “unsuccessful” OHI studies in scientific journals. Another limitation is that grey literature is not included in this review.
Research/Practical Implications: The findings contribute to expanding researchers’ and practitioners’ knowledge regarding development and implementation of OHIs based on lessons from unsuccessful studies, thus providing implications for future OHI studies.
Originality/Value: This literature review takes a non-traditional perspective and aims to identify and analyse lessons learned from OHI studies not demonstrating clear effects on employee health.
2017.
18th Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, EAWOP 2017, Dublin, Ireland, May 17-20.