H. Allan Hunt

Measuring the Impact of Organizational Behaviors on Work Disability Prevention and Management

Increased rates of work disability and its associated costs have prompted businesses to develop innovative approaches to managing the health and productivity of the work force. The paper 1) provides practitioners with the results of research that demonstrates the importance of employer organizational factors in preventing and resolving work disability, and 2) provides researchers with measures that can efficiently assess organizational factors and 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 policies and practices (OPPs) are important in reducing the number of work-related disabilities and their consequences for the employee and for the company. We test the hypothesis that employee reports of OPPs are reliable and valid. To test the reliability and validity of an employee version of the same instrument, we used data from a prospective community-based study of 198 workers with carpal tunnel syndrome. Four OPPs were identified as important: people-oriented culture (α = .88), safety climate (α = .88), disability management policies and practices (α = .88), and ergonomic practices (α = .88). These four scales were shown to have strong test–retest reliabilities and predictive validity. It was concluded that the conceptual model guiding the research in Michigan was supported with research from another State, Maine, using an individual-level measure of OPPs.

Management and Employee Agreement on Reports of Organizational Policies and Practices Important in Return to Work Following Carpal Tunnel Surgery

This study’s purpose was to assess the agreement between management and employee ratings of organizational policies and practices (OPP) involved in the return to work process following carpal tunnel surgery. As a part of the prospective community-based Maine Carpal Tunnel II Study, 65 manager and employee pairs completed a questionnaire tapping four OPP dimensions: people oriented culture, safety climate, ergonomic practices, and disability management. It was hypothesized that managers and employees would agree on their assessment of the four OPPs and a composite organizational support index. Agreement was assessed using Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient. Employee and manager ratings were similar for the organizational support index (rhoc = 0.14, p = 0.08), and people oriented culture (rhoc = 0.25, p = 0.01) but not the other three OPPs. In larger companies (> 450 employees), ratings were also similar for safety climate (rhoc = 0.24, p = 0.09), disability management (rhoc = 0.22, p = 0.07) and ergonomic practices (rhoc = 0.35, p = 0.02). In unionized companies there was agreement for safety climate (rho = 0.44, p = 0.02), disability management (rhoc = 0.41, p = 0.01) and ergonomic practices (rhoc = 0.40, p = 0.06). These preliminary results suggest employees can report on certain OPPs and that an employee questionnaire can be used to assess organizational support. Given recent evidence that employee ratings of OPPs are predictive of injury/illness incidence, work disability and return-to-work outcomes, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Firm Characteristics and Workers' Compensation Claims Incidence

The research effort that underlies this chapter began with an intriguing discovery, namely, wide differences in litigation rates among the workers’ compensation case (WC) populations in different cities in Michigan that were demonstrated in a previous Upjohn Institute study (Hunt, 1981). The question of the possible WC cost impact of such differences became a policy issue in Michigan during the battle for the location of the new GM Saturn facility. Workers’ compensation costs in Michigan had risen significantly over the twenty years from 1958 to 1978, to the point that WC costs were a very significant negative element in the Michigan business climate (Burton, Hunt, and Krueger, 1985). If lower WC litigation rates in southwest Michigan could offset some of the cost disadvantage to a Michigan Saturn location, the Michigan Department of Commerce wanted to know about it.