The third Wellbeing at work conference 2014: Promoting healthy and sustainable work-lives
Wellbeing at work is an increasingly salient topic on the scientific and political agendas in many western countries. In the scientific world the concept of Wellbeing at work is typically addressed from the vantage point of organizational psychology, but to meet the challenges of ageing working populations that increasingly may be characterized by chronic diseases or disabilities the inquiry into the concept of wellbeing at work needs to widen its scope.
Bring together state of the art knowledge from different scientific fields
The third conference about Wellbeing at work will be held in Copenhagen, 26-28 may 2014 and is arranged by The National Research Center for the Working Environment, NRCWE. The conference aims to bring together state of the art knowledge from psychology, epidemiology and physiology to articulate a coherent research agenda on wellbeing at work that is able to capture the challenges at the labour marked facing many western countries. Earlier conferences have taken place in Manchester in 2012 and in Helsinki 2010.
Many different topics at the Copenhagen conference
To meet this challenge NRCWE therefore will make a call for papers on variety of different topics. At the moment the topics are the following:
1. Demographic changes – Ageing workforce
2. Case studies of wellbeing at workplaces
3. Gender and wellbeing at work
4. The role of leadership and management in wellbeing at work
5. Managing chronic disease at the workplace
6. Measuring wellbeing at work
7. Restructuring at workplaces and resilience of workers and teams
8. Social innovation and improved wellbeing
9. Technological innovation and improved wellbeing
10. Influence of work environment on wellbeing
13. Workplace interventions with wellbeing and health promotion
| Wellbeing at work – a definition A long, healthy, safe and productive working life – the essence of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work’s goal for employees in a modern and sustainable workplace: https://osha.europa.eu/en/about. The goal may be obtained by ensuring the employees’ wellbeing at workplaces through improvement of the working environment and through the general health of the employees. Wellbeing at work specifically in relation to the workplace consists of a combination of:
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Wellbeing at work is about both physical and psychological factors
At the NRCWE we define the term ’Wellbeing at work’ as a combination of different factors which make demands on working environment research (the box text). To fulfil the demands for a long, healthy, safe and productive working environment, a broad and substantiated knowledge is needed. Partly of physical and psychological risk factors in the working environment, and partly of positive working environment factors such as good leadership, influence and support from colleagues which would give employees pleasure in work and good health while it at the same time improves the productivity in the workplace. Finally, it is important to integrate the individual physical capacities among the employees as part of working environment research and as a solution for future challenges.
Work must be connected with different stages in life
At the same time, it is important to know how the workplace should be adapted and developed so that it corresponds to the employees’ resources. The work demands must be closely connected with the employees’ different stages in life, and particular considerations must be taken with respect to young, older and chronically ill employees. A balance between respect for the individual employee and the workplace community should also be established. Fundamentally, the research within wellbeing at work should provide a broad basis of knowledge which in the end should be of benefit for the working environment.
Deadline for abstract submission: November 1, 2013.
More information about the conference
- The conference site Wellbeing at work: www.nrcwe.dk/waw2014
- Professor Lars L. Andersen, NRCWE, head of the Scientific Committee, lla@nrcwe.dk
