Company efforts to improve occupational health? The case of the Norwegian electric energy sector in a restructuring period

During the 1990’s the individual employees have experienced changes in job content and increased demands on flexibility and learning. In the same period the psychosocial work problems and sick leave have increased. The aim of this study was to identify company initiated interventions to improve occupational health during a restructuring period, to study the effect of these interventions and to compare company departments with a positive versus a negative development in occupational health in the defined intervention period. The study was part of the project “Restructuring the electric energy industry: Work design, productivity and health” funded by the Norwegian Research Council as part of the “Health in Working Life” program. The sample consisted of 13 electric energy companies in Norway. Survey data from two measurements and qualitative interview data were used. In contrast to the findings in the literature where most of the interventions were individual and concentrated on reducing the effects of stress, rather then its sources, most of the company initiated interventions in this study fell in the work-oriented group as either primary or secondary interventions. In reporting on the improvement activities carried out, the managers and supervisors only with rare exceptions discriminated between primary and secondary/tertiary interventions. Performance appraisals, HES agendas and safety auditions were among the most common interventions. For the respondents that reported that they had participated in intervention, the occupational health interventions had a positive, but limited effect on commitment, job satisfaction, efforts, skill discretion, decision authority and organizational climate variables