Management of long-term sickness absence: a systematic realist review

Purpose
The increasing impact and costs of long term sickness absence have been well documented. However, the diversity and complexity of interventions and of the contexts in which these take place makes a traditional review problematic. Therefore, we undertook a systematic realist review to identify the dominant programme theories underlying best practice, to assess the evidence for these theories, and to throw light on important enabling or disabling contextual factors.

Method
A search of the scholarly literature from 1950 to 2011 identified 5,576 articles, of which 269 formed the basis of the review.

Results
We found that the dominant programme theories in relation to effective management related to: early intervention or referral by employers; having proactive organisational procedures; good communication and cooperation between stakeholders; and workplace-based occupational rehabilitation. Significant contextual factors were identified as the level of support for interventions from top management, the size and structure of the organisation, the level of financial and organisational investment in the management of long-term sickness absence, and the quality of relationships between managers and staff.

Conclusions
Consequently, those with responsibility for managing absence should bear in mind the contextual factors that are likely to have an impact on interventions, and do what they can to ensure stakeholders have at least a mutual understanding (if not a common purpose) in relation to their perceptions of interventions, goals, culture and practice in the management of long term sickness absence.

Workplace social capital and risk of chronic and severe hypertension: a cohort study

Objective: The association between workplace factors and the development of hypertension remains uncertain. We examined the risk of hypertension as a function of workplace social capital, that is, social cohesion, trust and reciprocity in the workplace.

Implementation of workplace-based smoking cessation support activities and smoking cessation among employees:the Finnish Public Sector Study

We investigated the relationship between implementation of workplace smoking cessation support activities and employee smoking cessation.

Workplace social capital and all-cause mortality:a prospective cohort study of 28,043 public-sector employees in Finland

We examined the association between workplace social capital and all-cause mortality in a large occupational cohort from Finland.

The justice-workplace health relationship:The mediating role of emotions

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediational effects of positive and negative emotions in the relationship between organisational justice and health. Design/methodology/approach - This cross-sectional research obtained data from 206 workers employed within the financial/banking, manufacturing, and retail industries in Barbados. Findings - Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that positive and negative emotions completely mediated the effects of relational justice (but not procedural justice) on overall health. Research limitations/implications - Research was cross-sectional, and relied on self-report measures. The findings suggest that employers must properly evaluate their health and safety policies and practices in the organisation to ensure that aspects of the psychosocial work environment are being properly implemented, managed, and monitored, to ensure that individuals' health and well-being are not at risk. Originality/value - The paper represents a first attempt to investigate the roles of positive and negative emotions in the justice-health relationship in a different cultural context such as the Caribbean. Justice has been rarely researched as a psychosocial work stressor. The study described in the paper focused on multiple health outcomes. Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.

An exploration of the attitudes and strategic responses of soleproprietor micro-enterprises in adopting information and communication technology

This article analyses longitudinal case-based research exploring the attitudes and strategic responses of micro-enterprise owners in adopting information and communication technology (ICT). In so doing, it contributes to the limited literature on micro-enterprise ICT adoption, with a particular focus on sole proprietors. It provides a basis for widening the theoretical base of the literature pertaining to ICT adoption on two levels. First, a framework is developed which integrates the findings to illustrate the relationships between attitudes towards ICT adoption, endogenous and exogenous influencers of these attitudes and subsequent strategic response in ICT adoption. Second, building upon this framework the article reveals the unique challenges, opportunities and implications of ICT adoption for sole-proprietor micro-enterprises. © The Author(s) 2012