Salutogenic workplace design

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss opportunities for health promotion through the workplace environment, adopting a “salutogenic” perspective of health which more explicitly focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, as opposed to factors which cause disease. Design/methodology/approach In the introduction, the salutogenic model of health and the Environmental Demands-Resources model are discussed, providing a conceptual framework to represent the workplace environment as a composite of pathogenic “demands” and salutogenic “resources”. Subsequently, a narrative review is performed to discuss the existing literature from the perspective of this novel framework, identifying environmental resources which might strengthen the three components of an employee’s “sense of coherence” (comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness), an individual orientation associated with more positive health outcomes. Findings Comprehensibility can be supported by effectively implementing a clear set of rules governing the use of the workplace. Manageability can be supported through biophilic design solutions, and through design which supports social cohesion and physical activity. Meaningfulness can be supported by recognising the importance of personal identity expression and through design which reinforces the employees’ sense of purpose. Originality/value The salutogenic perspective is a potentially valuable but relatively under-considered paradigm in workplace practice. The key contribution of this paper is to encourage researchers and practitioners to recognise the crucial role that an individual’s sense of coherence plays in supporting higher levels of physical and mental health, so that they increase their ability to provide truly “healthy” workplaces, capable of promoting health as well as minimising the risk of disease.

Testing the relationship between objective indoor environment quality and subjective experiences of comfort

“…As expected, employees reported the highest levels of productivity when they were satisfied with the air quality, temperature, illumination, and noise levels within the office. This is in line with theoretical expectations that environmental comfort is a crucial factor which mediates the relationship between the physical environment and employee job performance (Roskams & Haynes, 2019;Vischer, 2007Vischer, , 2008, in that discomfort contributes to stress, and draws attentional and energetic resources away from the completion of work-related activities. Hence, however it might be achieved, the provision of subjective comfort amongst employees should be a crucial consideration for employers.…”

“…The workplace industry is in the midst of a paradigmatic shift, whereby the traditional focus on cost reduction is being gradually superseded by a more user-centric approach in which the building occupants are seen as vital assets to which value can be added through the provision of more supportive working environments (Haynes, 2007a). A crucial part of making workplaces healthier and more suitable for their users is by mitigating environmental sources of physical and/or psychological discomfort (Roskams & Haynes, 2019;Vischer, 2007Vischer, . 2008, enabling the employees to conserve attentional focus and energy for their work, instead of expending it to cope with adverse environmental conditions.…”

A healthy office and healthy employees: a longitudinal case study with a salutogenic perspective in the context of the physical office environment

“…Few studies have applied salutogenesis to healthcare building design (Golembiewski, 2010;Golembiewski, 2016) and there is a growing interest in its application in the office context. From a salutogenic perspective, Roskams and Haynes (2019) proposed a conceptual framework in which environmental demands and resources such as behavioural rules, opportunities for personal identity expression, and biophilic design solutions were suggested to influence sense of coherence. Ruohomäki et al (2015) related sense of coherence to office relocation, but no explicit relation was made to the physical environment.…”

Improving health in the military and beyond using salutogenic design

“…Using salutogenic design strategies is demonstrated to significantly mitigate stress, reduce symptoms of depression and induce calm to improve overall well-being. [For extensive academic treatises on the clinical effectiveness of salutogenic design see, for example, Dijkstra et al (2008), Hall and Knuth (2019), Heerwagen et al (1995) or Roskams and Haynes (2019) Improving health in the military critically important because service members shoulder an exceptional amount of stress, and it is generally accepted that people do not perform at their best when they are stressed. Not only is stress an underlying threat to mission success (poor mental and physical health can negatively impact service members' abilities to effectively perform their duties) but also more pressingly, it is a direct threat to the DoD's greatest asset and budgetary investment: its people (Blakeley, 2017).…”

“…Figure 2.A tactical solutions framework of salutogenic design, based on the work ofRoskams and Haynes (2019) …”