Rochelle Virginia Habeck

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.

The role of job strain on return to work after carpal tunnel surgery

Aims: To examine the impact of job strain (that is, high psychological job demands and low job control) on return to work and work role functioning at two months, six months, or both, following carpal tunnel release surgery. Methods: A community based cohort of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) patients from physician practices was recruited between April 1997 and October 1998 throughout Maine (USA). 128 patients at two months and 122 at six months completed all relevant questions. A three level outcome variable indicated whether patients had: (1) returned to work functioning successfully, (2) returned to work functioning with limitations, or (3) not returned to work for health reasons. Two job strain measures were created: one, by combining psychological job demands and job control; and two, by dividing demands by control. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify predictors of the three level work outcome variable. Results: After adjustment, workers with high demands and high control (active work) were less likely to successfully return to work (OR = 0.22; p = 0.014) at two months. Having a job with higher demands than job control (high strain) predicted not returning to work or returning to work but not successfully meeting job demands (OR = 0.14; p = 0.001), at six months. Conclusions: The findings underscore the role of psychosocial work conditions, as defined by the Karasek demand-control model, in explaining a worker’s return to work. Clinicians, researchers, and employers should consider a multidimensional and integrative model of successful work role functioning upon return to work. Moreover, since the evidence of the effects of work process changes on the reduction of CTS is very scarce, these findings point to the opportunity for collaborative workplace interventions to facilitate successful return to work.

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.

Functions and Knowledge Domains for Disability Management Practice: A Delphi Study.

The importance of job functions and knowledge domains to the practice of disability management was examined by systematically obtaining the opinions of a panel of 44 recognized experts in disability management. As proposed by Habeck and Kirchner (1999), disability management was conceptualized at two levels of practice. Level I (DM) was defined as administrative and managerial in nature, with an organizational focus. Level II (dm) was conceptualized as human-service oriented, involving the direct provision of services to individual clients. The results indicated that many functions and knowledge domains that appear to be generally important to disability management practice, while others appear to have greater or lesser salience depending on whether services are focused at the organizational or individual level of intervention.

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.

A Summary of Important Themes from the 1999 Mary E. Switzer Memorial Seminar on Disability Policy

Longmore refers to an apparent discrepancy throughout the history of disabilities activism in that &dquo;advocates have simultaneously called for both equal rights and exceptional treatment.&dquo; The answer to critics who complain that we cannot have it both ways in &dquo;claiming equal opportunity and equal social standing while demanding ’special’ privileges&dquo; is to reframe the assumption from which it is derived. Longmore suggests that moving beyond the dichotomy that characterizes