A health-related Quality Management approach to evaluating health promotion activities

Work-life balance has a major impact not only on business productivity but also on the economy as a whole, (Hughes 2007) and Wolf (2008) maintain that implications for the workplace are enormous as mental disease goes hand in hand with significant productivity losses. According to Janssen et al., (2003), the occurrence and causes of sickness absence are affected by several factors, many of which are work-related and organizational. Examples of the former are work content and work conditions. The latter include, for instance, company size, the existence of health promotion programmes, and absence policies (ibid). When implementing corporate health promotion, the responsibility should mainly rest with the management (Plath et al., 2008). Thus health promotion activities are important in order to improve co-worker health and in the long term the efficiency in the organization. Advancing knowledge in the area of leadership for health promotion could make valuable contributions to increasing the health of the population, Andersson et al., (2005). Vinberg (2006) claims that increased workplace health and performance are connected to a good working environment and work organization.