Creating safer and healthier workplaces: Role of organizational factors and job characteristics

Background A comprehensive understanding of workplace organizational risk f actors for illness and injury and interventions to alleviate these factors is important for workplace prevention efforts. Methods We summarize the evidence for the role of workplace organizational factors and work factors in occupational health and safety (OHS). To the ex tent possible, we concentrate on factors at the level of the workplace, rat her than the level of the individual. Results Three types of outcomes are considered: injuries, ill-health, and m usculoskeletal problems; and we note the evidence for their relationship to work. We review workplace interventions intended to alleviate each type of outcome and note methodological limitations of previous research. Conclusions Despite the methodological limitations, the balance of the lite rature supports the work-relatedness of the three types of outcomes, althou gh questions remain about exact mechanisms and the effectiveness of specifi c interventions. We discuss barriers to and incentives for creating safer a nd healthier workplaces. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.