Measuring the impact of organizational behaviors on work disability prevention and management

Increased rates of work disability and its associated costs have prompted b usinesses to develop innovative approaches to managing the health and produ ctivity of the workforce. The paper I) provides practitioners with the resu lts of research that demonstrates the importance of employer organizational factors in preventing and resolving work disability, and 2) provides resea rchers with measures that call efficiently assess organizational factors an d advance clinical research by incorporating contextual factors involved in occupational rehabilitation. Data from a series of studies in Michigan are reviewed and it is concluded that employer reports of organizational polic ies and practices (OPPs) are important in reducing the number of work-relat ed disabilities and their consequences for the employee and for the company . We test the hypothesis that employee reports of OPPs are reliable and val id. To test the reliability arm validity of an employee version of the same instrument we used data from a prospective community-based study of 198 wo rkers with carpal tunnel syndrome. Forts OPPs were identified as important: people-oriented culture (alpha = .88), safety climate (alpha = .88), disab ility management policies and practices (alpha = .88), and ergonomic practi ces (alpha = .88). These four scales were shown to have strong rest-retest reliabilities and predictive validity. It was concluded that the conceptual model guiding the research in Michigan was supported with research from an other State, Maine, using an individual-level measure of OPPs.