Summary

Organizational interventions aim to improve working conditions and employee well-being by making changes to the way work is organized, designed, and managed. A particular type of organizational intervention is participatory intervention, in which intervention activities are not predetermined but determined and implemented as a result of discussions between employees and managers. Activities are developed that are aimed at making changes either to reduce or eliminate demands or increase resources. The activities may target individuals, for example, reducing the demands employees put on themselves such as expectations of career progression or building resources such as self-efficacy. Activities may also be at the group level, reducing demands such as group conflict or building group resources such as fostering collaboration. Activities may also target leaders or line managers through training to minimize abusive leadership behaviors or building the leaders’ resources to consider employee well-being. Finally, activities may also target the organizational level, focused on reducing quantitative job demands such a high workload or increasing job resources such as autonomy. To date, the literature has only documented to a limited extent which activities are implemented and how and why planned activities might improve well-being in the specific organizational setting. When planning and implementing organizational interventions, it is important to develop program theories that can be tested to evaluate what works for whom in which circumstances.