Use of motivational interviewing to improve return-to-work and work-related outcomes: a review

Work-based return-to-work (RTW) interventions can help to reduce the duration and cost of work disability, and in turn, prevent the negative effects of long-term sickness absence. However, there are a number of complex cognitive, affective and behavioural factors that can impact an individual's confidence, motivation and willingness to RTW that need to be addressed to facilitate effective outcomes. This literature review investigates evidence for the use of motivational interviewing (MI) for improving return-to-work (RTW) and employment outcomes. Whilst evidence for the efficacy of MI in clinical settings to motivate health behaviour change is strong, more research is needed to determine whether MI can be usefully applied to improve RTW and other work-related outcomes. © 2014 The Author(s).

Passion in Jamie's kitchen : the vital ingredient in education and training for young workers?

In this paper we will sketch out and briefly analyse a recurring and central theme throughout the reality TV series Jamie’s Kitchen – that of passion:

• Passion for food;
• Being passionate as you construct and present yourself;
• Being passionate about your work;
• Having a go, getting passionate in a training environment which compresses years of training into months of training.

In this series the high profile celebrity chef Jamie Oliver set out to transform a group of unemployed young Londoners into the enterprising, entrepreneurial, ideal worker of 21st century flexible capitalism. This series, and its figure of the entrepreneurial, risk taking, small businessman (who in this instance is also a global celebrity brand) seeking to develop similar dispositions and behaviours in a workforce that initially does not display such character features, illuminates, and provides a means to explore, key features of new work regimes. The emphasis on passion in the analysis – which draws on Foucault’s later work on the care of the self - allows us to connect to discussions about education and training that highlight the passionate/pleasure dimensions of pedagogy. These elements of education and training very rarely get discussed in a vocational education and training environment which is largely driven by modules/competencies/outcomes.

'Don't be a smart arse': Young workers, individualization, and an ethic of enterprise in Jamie's Kitchen

In Jamie’s Kitchen the high profile celebrity chef Jamie Oliver set out to transform a group of unemployed young Londoners into the enterprising, ideal worker of 21st century flexible capitalism. The paper will argue that this reality TV series provides a means to explore key features of new work regimes. We will analyse particular aspects of the increasingly powerful individualising and normalising processes shaping the lifeworlds of young workers in a globalising risk society. Processes that require those who wish to be positively identified as entrepreneurial to do particular sorts of work on themselves; or suffer the consequences.
Drawing on Foucault’s later work on the care of the self, and the  individualization theses of the reflexive modernization literature, we identify and analyse the forms of personhood that various institutions, organisations and individuals seek to encourage in young workers; and the ways in which institutionalised risk environments increasingly individualise the risks and uncertainties associated with labour market participation. The paper argues that our understandings of what it means to be a worker of the world, are being rearticulated around the idea that we are free to choose. And we must exercise this freedom – reap its rewards, carry its obligations – as individuals.

Raising the profile of depression in the workplace

The prevalence of depression in the Australian workforce is unknown. Epidemiological surveys (e.g., the National Health Survey and National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing) do not routinely include a depression scale and within the mental health field, few studies focus on depression and employment groups specifically. Although the inclusion of a direct measure of depression in  national surveys is preferable, the prevalence of depression may be inferred from short screening scales of general mental health. In this paper, scores on the  General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) for a sample of employed persons were mapped onto the CES-D (Iowa) measure of depression. The results of this study indicate that the  recommended GHQ-12 cut-off point is appropriate for estimating work-related depression prevalence. However, the cut-off point on the K10 (the short-scale  currently used in Australian national surveys) may need to be substantially  reduced if scores on the K10 are to be used to identify workers at risk of  depression. The routine inclusion of a direct depression measure in national  surveys is recommended, particularly considering the number of employed persons in Australia and large proportion of the sample classified as depressed in this study.

The psychological and physical needs of workers impacting office design

Office design needs to be based on the needs of the most important producers of profit and value for any organisation – the workforce. Drivers affecting office design have been economics – space being often viewed as a cost-centre rather than a business enabler; and more recently, ideas that office design can impact organisational culture – resulting in the adoption of more collaborative working spaces in an attempt to force interaction. What is not always considered are the actual working styles
of the individuals and their motivations nor the requirements of the work itself. There is a need to profile not only the workforce, but also the work carried out. Recent research into space requirements for work is reviewed and reported with recommendations for better consideration of the psychological and physical needs of workers for office design.