Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Organizational Interventions

About this course

This course will focus on how we can develop, implement and evaluate organizational interventions. Organizational interventions aim to improve working conditions and employee health and wellbeing through changing the way work is organized, designed and managed. We will provide synthesis lectures on state-of-the-art of designing, implementing and evaluating organizational interventions.

The core of the course will be three case studies from Norway, Denmark and the US. We will use the three case studies as examples of how to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions. The three case studies differ in their approach, methods and tools used, but each follow the same principles of a systematic, structured participatory approach. Together they will provide different perspectives on how to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions.

Course objectives

• Understand critical issues in developing and implementing organizational interventions
• Demonstrate ability to work with implementation tools
• Demonstrate awareness of the challenges in evaluating organizational interventions
• Demonstrate ability to plan an evaluation strategy for how to evaluate a complex intervention combining qualitative and quantitative methods

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Main topics

Planning, implementing and evaluating organizational interventions: Tools and processes to plan and implement interventions, follow-up on implementation, including tools to equip change agents to handle change reactions and support the participatory process. Methods and analyses for qualitative and quantitative methods to measure context, process and content of interventions and how they interact to bring about intervention outcomes.

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Target groups

HR and occupational health practitioners, work psychologists, union and safety representatives, PhD students and researchers.

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Subject background

There is a strong tradition in the Nordic countries for participatory approaches and for prevention when aiming to improve employee health and well-being in organizations. Despite this tradition and the embeddedness of this tradition in legislation in the Nordic countries, organizations continue to struggle with designing and implementing such interventions, and the sustainable impact of such interventions is rarely systematically evaluated. The overall aim of this course is to present practical knowledge and tools on how to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions.

In the wider research literature, there is some controversy as to whether such interventions are effective and how they can be implemented in the workplace. In recent years, focus has moved away from evaluating whether such interventions have an effect to understanding what the working mechanisms may be of such interventions and in which contexts these mechanisms can be triggered so that they bring about the intended outcomes (realist evaluation). A special characteristic of organizational interventions is that mechanisms both relate to the intervention process, e.g. leadership commitment, line manager support and employees having influence over the actual content of the intervention and intervention content, i.e. the actual activities implemented to mitigate adverse working conditions, such a poor social support. This focus on the intervention process and content calls for knowledge on how to design, implement and evaluate organizational interventions. This focus on the processes and tools suggests analyzing both the participants’ sensemaking of the intervention and the actual development and implementation of changes to the way work is organized, designed, and managed to improve employee health and wellbeing.

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General course fee and cancellation information

The courses and workshops vary in price. Please note that the course fee does not cover meals or accommodation. The course fee and day-package fee are invoiced after the registration deadline.

Travel arrangements

Please refrain from booking any travel tickets until we have confirmed the course. The confirmation, which will be sent at the latest after the registration deadline, will include detailed information on the payment of the course fee and day-packages, as well as information on practical arrangements. Please note that you are not insured by NIVA.

Cancellation policy

Cancellations received by 1st of August 2024: full refund
Cancellations received by 2nd of August 2024 or later: no refund

NIVA will issue an invoice or send information on how to pay the course with credit card (depending on the option chosen in the registration form) after the registration deadline.

The price is subject to minor changes.

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Contact persons

Course leader

Karina Nielsen, Professor, University of Sheffield, UK
email: k.m.nielsen@sheffield.ac.uk

In practical matters, please contact:

Julia Hemgård
Project Manager & Communications Advisor
NIVA
email: julia.hemgard@niva.org