Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108758

Catherine A. Heaney, PhD, MPH, Department of Psychology and Program in Human Biology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall 424, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, 650-736-8512, cheaney@stanford.edu

Every occupational safety and health professional has faced difficult decisions about how best to bring about desired changes in the workplace; they know what they want to accomplish but are not sure how to go about doing it. Strategies for change are the activities that change agents engage in or implement to bring about the desired reduction in occupational injuries and illnesses. Strategies for change can be categorized into (a) individual-level change strategies that focus on changing employees' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors and (b) organizational-level change strategies that focus on changing organizational structures, policies, priorities, and procedures. Both types of change strategies can benefit from being informed by theory. Strategies for changing employee beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are most often guided by social influence and social learning theories. Organizational change theories can guide strategies for bringing about changes at the organizational level. Theory can help guide the development of interventions that will be optimally successful in as timely, appropriate, and cost-effective a manner as possible. Unfortunately, the translation of theory into practice is not a simple and straight-forward process, and occupational safety and health interventions are rarely guided by theory. In this panel, the convener will provide a short introduction to the benefits of using theory to guide practice. Then four presenters will describe case studies using communication theory, worker involvement theories, protection motivation theory, and diffusion theory to develop OSH interventions.

Learning Objectives: This panel has two goals

(
• to motivate OSH professionals to consider using theory when developing strategies for change and (
• to provide instructive case studies of how different theories have been used in OSH programs.

Keywords: Theory, Occupational Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.