ABSTRACT
Increasing levels of common mental health problems and musculoskeletal disorders are the major causes of employee sickness absence in Britain (Black, 2008). These trends are not dissimilar to those in other developed countries and have become a challenge in today’s workplaces. Tackling these problems requires a more comprehensive approach to the management of psychological risks to workers’ health than a traditional approach can offer. In this chapter, we discuss what a comprehensive perspective may encompass, and endorse a multi-faceted, multi-level, positive, and integrated approach. First, we examine recent research into health and well-being that suggests that job characteristics should be considered from a multi-faceted perspective (interplay between work factors and individual differences) and that processes that impinge on workers’ health at multiple levels (i.e. individual, group, and organization) should be taken into account. Second, we discuss a facet of job characteristics which has been overlooked in the literature, that of the positive job features that foster individuals’ mental capital and in turn empower individuals to protect and maintain their health and well-being. Third, given that many diseases (i.e. high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease) are directly linked to lifestyle factors (i.e. smoking, drinking and obesity) (Black, 2008), we advocate that the management of psychosocial risks needs to be integrated with the promotion of health-related behaviours. This integration has also been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the European Agency for Safety & Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The success of this comprehensive approach is dependent upon several conditions, one of which is the development of an occupational health climate. We conclude this chapter by considering some of the necessary components of such a climate.
