Organisational interventions

Abstract

Within developed economies, work-related psychological stress represents a significant burden to employees, organisations, and society. In light of these substantial costs, there is a clear requirement for comprehensive stress prevention and management programs. Despite this acknowledged requirement, there is a disproportionate focus on interventions targeting individual workers, relative to interventions targeting organisational sources of stress, in the published research literature. Furthermore, published examples of organisational interventions have been predominantly conducted in Europe and the US, where labour conditions differ markedly from those within the Asia-Pacific region. This chapter will provide an overview of organisational intervention research, with a specific focus on issues relating to the development, implementation, and evaluation of organisational interventions within the Asia-Pacific region. Two case studies reflecting successful organisational intervention programs conducted in Japan and Australia will be presented. Finally, challenges associated with implementing organisational interventions will be discussed, with a specific focus on potential solutions for overcoming these challenges and directions for future research within the Asia-Pacific region.