Improving the primary task : Effects of implementation intensity on employee health and organizational performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to document and discuss the effects of a participatory intervention in preschools focussing upon improving the performance of the primary task on employee health and organizational effectiveness. Further, to investigate the role of implementation intensity on the outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal, participatory intervention study of 62 preschools involving approximately 1,800 employees. The evaluation uses short-term sickness absence to measure employee health, employee-assessed primary-task quality and parent-assessed user satisfaction to measure organizational effectiveness, and implementation intensity was measured as hours per employee and as per the request by the workplace managers, and compensation was offered by the project. Findings The multi-level analyses show that preschools with higher implementation intensity have stronger effects on employee health and organizational effectiveness than preschools with lower implementation intensity. The differences indicate that the main intervention component, improving performance of the central work tasks through collaborative, participatory workplace activities, had effects on both health and effectiveness and that workplace and employee engagement in the intervention is crucial to its success. Practical implications Inspired by the Tavistock tradition for socio-technical systems design, the study indicates an avenue for conducting collaborative organizational change processes that benefit both employees and organizations. In addition, it proposes “hours used per employee” as a relatively simple measure of implementation intensity in such interventions. Originality/value The study contributes to research in the field of occupational psychological health by reporting on a comprehensive participatory intervention study comprising measures of employee health, organizational performance and implementation intensity.