Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Creating a culture of health within an organization offers benefits such as
reducing costs and supporting employees in becoming and staying healthy. A variety of
health and wellness programs within an organization are important for establishing a
culture of health. These programs are supported communicatively to encourage employee
participation and healthful behavior changes. Recognized for their success in creating a
culture of health, a group of organizations, distinguished as 5-Star AchieveWELL
organizations, offer an opportunity to identify messaging strategies effective at promoting
health and wellness within the workplace and therefore, creating a culture of health. The
goals of this study included learning successful organization’s communication strategies
utilized to create a culture of health, understanding how new employees are socialized
into this culture, identifying how employees may resist the culture, and exploring how
resistance is addressed. Based on in-depth interviews with 19 5-Star AchieveWELL
organizational representatives and grounded theory analysis of collected data, evident
themes related to the goals of this study were identified. Key communication strategies to
support a culture of health include using multiple communication channels,
demonstrating leadership support, and being willing to adapt and change over time. New
employees are socialized into the culture of health during the recruitment process as well
as new employee orientation. Resistance to health and wellness occurs in the form of
non-participation and employee push-back, with this resistance often being met with
compassion. These results offer practical implications for organizations desiring to create a culture of health as well as theoretical implications for scholars studying organizational
socialization.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:IUPUI/oai:scholarworks.iupui.edu:1805/27257 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Martin, Natalie R. |
| Contributors | Brann, Maria, Bute, Jennifer, Goering, Elizabeth, Staten, Lisa |
| Source Sets | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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