“Current work environment management apparently lacks sufficient tools for handling the digital work environment.”

Course leader presentation: Sara Thomée

For a Healthy Digital Work Environment, 18th – 20th of October 2017, Hotel Scandic Continental, Stockholm, Sweden

1. What is your background?

I’m a psychologist and a researcher in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and University of Gothenburg. My main research has concerned information and communication technology (ICT) use, stress and health, especially in young adults. As a clinical psychologist my work focuses on psychosocial work factors and sustainable health.

2. Why do you think that Healthy Digital Work Environments is an important and current issue to discuss in 2017? What is new in the field?

Digitalization has had a widespread effect on how we organize work, perform tasks, communicate, and interact at work as well as at leisure. The majority of the working population use ICT in their workday. However, ICT at work has also been associated with increased work demands, usability and competence problems, information and communication overload, and boundless work. Worker organizations are signaling that this is causing stress in employees and managers with effects on health as well as on productivity – and that the problems may be increasing.

There is a lot of research and knowledge about the physical, psychosocial, and cognitive risk factors in the digital work environment – and also about solutions – in several disciplines; computer engineering, human-computer interaction, psychology, ergonomics, occupational health science etc. Yet, there seems to be a lack of implementation of the knowledge at the actual workplaces. Current work environment management apparently lacks sufficient tools for handling the digital work environment. I think it is time to join forces to integrate knowledge from different disciplines and find ways for actual implementation – for a sustainable and healthy digital work environment.

3. What do you want to say to the participants of the course?

Welcome to a most interesting course! Together – with experts from different research fields as well as from work environment management – we can discuss solutions and implementation! I’m very much looking forward to this opportunity!

More information: Course web page
Registration: Course registration
Last registration date:
 15th of September 2017

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Course Leader Presentation