Organizational interventions: A research-based framework for the evaluation of both process and effects

Abstract

Organizational interventions are often recommended when organizations want to improve employee psychological health and well-being. Research, however, has revealed inconsistent results and reviewers have called for research on why interventions either bring about desired change or fail to do so. Answering the “how” and “why” of intervention outcomes requires a close examination of the elements that hinder or facilitate desired outcomes, thus moving beyond evaluation of only the overall effects. In this paper, we present an evaluation framework based on recent intervention research and process-oriented organization theory. The framework offers suggestions for which elements to include when evaluating organizational interventions. Within the framework, elements crucial to intervention evaluation are grouped into four overarching categories that we argue are crucial to evaluation over the five phases of an intervention programme. These categories are: the organizational “actors”; the mental models of those actors; the context of the intervention; and intervention design and process. Evaluation during the process as well as of the overall effects, as recommended by this framework, should throw light on what works for whom, why, how and under which circumstances

Process variables in organizational stress management intervention evaluation research: a systematic review

“…If this is the case, the variable should be regarded as an intermediate effect and measured as part of the effect evaluation. A systematic way to take intermediate effects into account is to formulate a program theory (10). A program theory states under which conditions researchers expect proximal changes to occur (30) but seems to be missing in many of the included studies.…”

“…This can be done by studying process variables (9)(10)(11)(12). There are different ways of investigating the implementation process.…”

Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs

“…For example, managers in a call center who want to implement more enriched work design as a means of gaining a unique competitive advantage in mass markets (Batt, 2002) might experience much resistance from colleagues who believe that it will simply increase costs. In such circumstances, successful implementation of a new work design might require managers to spend more time persuading others as to the value of their ideas and developing a broad base of support (Nielsen & Abildgaard, 2013).…”

Strengthening Institutional Isomorphism in Development NGOs? Program Mechanisms in an Organizational Intervention

“…As the need to analyze the intervention from the perspective of isomorphism arose long after the interventions had ended, we opted for a retrospective reflection and evaluations of the process. Methodologically, our research is situated in studies of evaluation of organizational interventions (Nielsen & Abildgaard, 2013). As the analysis of our own conduct is by no means unproblematic, we searched for a methodological approach that could provide necessary analytical distance, and be something more conceptual than simple reflection on the interventionists' role typical to action research (Stringer, 2014).…”

“…Realistic evaluation research can focus on organizational actors, intervention design, context, process, or outcomes (Nielsen & Abildgaard, 2013;Soininen, 2013). In this article, we scrutinize the intervention design and its implementation.…”