A review of smartphone applications designed to improve occupational health, safety, and well-being at workplaces

BACKGROUND: As smartphones become more widespread, software applications for occupational health, safety and well-being (OHS&W) at work are increasing. There is sparse knowledge about the available apps and the research evidence of their effects. This study aims to identify available smartphone applications designed to improve OHS&W at workplaces, and examine to what extent the apps are scientifically validated. METHODS: We searched the Danish App Store and Google Play for free OHS&W apps. Apps were included if they targeted OHS&W and were designed for workplace use. After categorizing the apps, we searched bibliographic databases to identify scientific studies on the ‘intervention apps’. RESULTS: Altogether, 57 apps were included in the study; 19 apps were categorized as digital sources of information, 37 apps contained an intervention designed for workplace changes, and one app had too sparse information to be classified. Based on the publicly available information about the 37 intervention apps, only 13 had references to research. The bibliographic database search returned 531 publications, resulting in four relevant studies referring to four apps aimed at ergonomic measures, noise exposure, and well-being, which showed either limited effect or methodological limitations. CONCLUSION: There is no conceptual clarity about what can be categorized as an OHS&W app. Although some of the apps were developed based on scientific research, there is a need to evaluate the apps’ effects in promoting OHS&W. The sparse documentation of evidence should be kept in mind when applying apps to improve OHS&W. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13821-6

Influence at Work tied to Materiality in Danish Care Work

Influence at work is known to be an important factor for workers health. Researchers have called for studies on influence at work as a contextualized phenomenon. Based on individual interviews with managers and focus group interviews with employees in three care workplaces, the article shows how the materiality of the work setting ties employees’ influence to perform tasks in both hindering and enabling ways. We show that a work environment where employees’ influence is hindered produces negative experiences in the work environment, while an environment where employees’ influence is enabled produces positive experiences. Additionally, we study how employees influence the material aspects of their workplace.We present a view of influence at work as constituted by materiality and social organization in sociomaterial assemblages. This study reintroduces materiality as a concern in psychosocial work environment research and contributes a sociomaterial view on influence at work and materiality

Skakmat – kan prisen for indflydelse blive for stor? Skyggearbejde og workarounds blandt ansatte i psykiatrien

Arbejdsmiljøforskningen har fastslået, at indflydelse i arbejdet er en af de vigtigste faktorer for trivsel og oplevelsen af at kunne løse opgaverne. Men nye styringsformer og –rationaler inden for New Public Management kan binde og begrænse medarbejdernes indfl ydelse på nye måder. Med afsæt i etnografi sk feltstudie og 41 semistrukturerede interviews viser vi i denne artikel, hvordan ansatte i psykiatrien oplever, at behandlingspakker og Sundhedsplatformen standardiserer opgaveløsningen i en grad, så de oplever ikke at have tilstrækkelig indfl ydelse til at løse arbejdsopgaverne med afsæt i deres professionelle dømmekraft. Analyserne viser, at de ansatte finder veje til at øge indflydelsen i det skjulte gennem skyggearbejde og workarounds. Men den øgede indflydelse kommer med en pris i form af merarbejde, utilstrækkelighedsfølelse og frygt for afsløring. Vi viser, at de ansatte befi nder sig i en vanskelig situation, hvor de erfarer, at der ikke er lydhørhed over for deres kritik. De kan derfor vælge mellem at handle i modstrid med deres professionelle dømmekraft eller øge arbejdsintensiveringen i det skjulte.Research in work environment has established influence in work as an important factor for wellbeing and the ability to solve key tasks. However, new management logics within New Public Management can tie and limit employees’ influence in new ways. Based on ethnographic fi eld study and 41 semistructured interviews, this article shows how care pathways and the electronic patient journal (Sundhedsplatformen) standardize task completion to the extent that employees in a psychiatric center experience not having suffi cient influence to solve tasks using their professional judgement. The analysis shows how employees find ways to increase their influence in secret through shadow working and workarounds. But, this secretly acquired influence comes with a price in terms of added work, feelings of self-insufficiency, and fear of getting caught. We show how employees are in a diffi cult situation as open criticism of the situation is mostly ignored. Thus, they can choose to suspend their professional judgement or increase their work intensity in the shadows

A dual-purpose knowledge mobilization laboratory: exploring interactions and processes for mobilizing research in occupational health and safety practices

Research institutions produce a substantial amount of scientific research every year hoping to stimulate improvements to worker’s health and safety. Despite of a large research output, the rate of OHS research knowledge that ultimately impact worker’s health and safety is low (Dugan and Punnett, 2017, Schulte et al., 2017, Guerin et al., 2022). Challenges relate to all activities in the knowledge translation chain, from access to knowledge over assessment and adaptation to application (Kothari et al., 2009), as well as to the practical relevance (Proctor et al., 2011). Challenges in bridging OHS research and workplace practice reduce the potentials of OHS research to improve worker’s health and safety, with implications for sick leave and work longevity. In Europe and North America, policy makers and research funding agencies place increased weight on the use and impact of OHS research knowledge at workplaces (Lavis et al., 2003, Pedersen, 2017, CIFHR, 2012). Extant research emphasizes the need for more knowledge about dissemination and uptake of evidence-based OHS practices in policy and practice (Guerin et al., 2022). A wide selection of models and frameworks have been developed to theorize how this might happen (Graham et al., 2006, Cunningham et al., 2020, Van Eerd, 2019, Schulte et al., 2017, Guerin et al., 2022). There is, however, a need to generate insight in how the process of mobilizing research knowledge to practical application look in practice (Cunningham et al., 2020). Spaapen and Van Drooge’s (2011) notion of productive interactions argue that insight into the process of making evidence-based research work for workplaces at ground-level is valuable to understand the social impact of research (Spaapen and van Drooge, 2011)