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Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System

Background Return-to-work (RTW) within a complex organizational system can be associated with suboptimal outcomes. Purpose To apply a sociotechnical systems perspective to investigate complexity in RTW; to utilize system dynamics modeling (SDM) to examine how feedback relationships between individua...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jetha, Arif, Pransky, Glenn, Fish, Jon, Hettinger, Lawrence J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26547909
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9613-2
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author Jetha, Arif
Pransky, Glenn
Fish, Jon
Hettinger, Lawrence J.
author_facet Jetha, Arif
Pransky, Glenn
Fish, Jon
Hettinger, Lawrence J.
author_sort Jetha, Arif
collection PubMed
description Background Return-to-work (RTW) within a complex organizational system can be associated with suboptimal outcomes. Purpose To apply a sociotechnical systems perspective to investigate complexity in RTW; to utilize system dynamics modeling (SDM) to examine how feedback relationships between individual, psychosocial, and organizational factors make up the work disability system and influence RTW. Methods SDMs were developed within two companies. Thirty stakeholders including senior managers, and frontline supervisors and workers participated in model building sessions. Participants were asked questions that elicited information about the structure of the work disability system and were translated into feedback loops. To parameterize the model, participants were asked to estimate the shape and magnitude of the relationship between key model components. Data from published literature were also accessed to supplement participant estimates. Data were entered into a model created in the software program Vensim. Simulations were conducted to examine how financial incentives and light duty work disability-related policies, utilized by the participating companies, influenced RTW likelihood and preparedness. Results The SDMs were multidimensional, including individual attitudinal characteristics, health factors, and organizational components. Among the causal pathways uncovered, psychosocial components including workplace social support, supervisor and co-worker pressure, and supervisor-frontline worker communication impacted RTW likelihood and preparedness. Interestingly, SDM simulations showed that work disability-related policies in both companies resulted in a diminishing or opposing impact on RTW preparedness and likelihood. Conclusion SDM provides a novel systems view of RTW. Policy and psychosocial component relationships within the system have important implications for RTW, and may contribute to unanticipated outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-49674242016-08-12 Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System Jetha, Arif Pransky, Glenn Fish, Jon Hettinger, Lawrence J. J Occup Rehabil Article Background Return-to-work (RTW) within a complex organizational system can be associated with suboptimal outcomes. Purpose To apply a sociotechnical systems perspective to investigate complexity in RTW; to utilize system dynamics modeling (SDM) to examine how feedback relationships between individual, psychosocial, and organizational factors make up the work disability system and influence RTW. Methods SDMs were developed within two companies. Thirty stakeholders including senior managers, and frontline supervisors and workers participated in model building sessions. Participants were asked questions that elicited information about the structure of the work disability system and were translated into feedback loops. To parameterize the model, participants were asked to estimate the shape and magnitude of the relationship between key model components. Data from published literature were also accessed to supplement participant estimates. Data were entered into a model created in the software program Vensim. Simulations were conducted to examine how financial incentives and light duty work disability-related policies, utilized by the participating companies, influenced RTW likelihood and preparedness. Results The SDMs were multidimensional, including individual attitudinal characteristics, health factors, and organizational components. Among the causal pathways uncovered, psychosocial components including workplace social support, supervisor and co-worker pressure, and supervisor-frontline worker communication impacted RTW likelihood and preparedness. Interestingly, SDM simulations showed that work disability-related policies in both companies resulted in a diminishing or opposing impact on RTW preparedness and likelihood. Conclusion SDM provides a novel systems view of RTW. Policy and psychosocial component relationships within the system have important implications for RTW, and may contribute to unanticipated outcomes. Springer US 2015-11-07 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4967424/ /pubmed/26547909 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9613-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Article
Jetha, Arif
Pransky, Glenn
Fish, Jon
Hettinger, Lawrence J.
Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title_full Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title_fullStr Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title_full_unstemmed Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title_short Return-to-Work Within a Complex and Dynamic Organizational Work Disability System
title_sort return-to-work within a complex and dynamic organizational work disability system
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26547909
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9613-2
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