Successful return to work: the role of fairness and workplace-based strategies

International Journal of Workplace Health Management

Volumn 3, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 7-24

  Gail Hepburn, C ^a,b   Franche, Renée Louise ^c,d   Francis, Lori ^e  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE   (Canada)

^b INSTITUTE FOR WORK AND HEALTH   (Canada)

^c SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^d UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^e SAINT MARY S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Accidents; Business policy; Canada; Disabilities; Workplace

Indexed keywords

ABSENTEEISM; ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ARTICLE; COMPENSATION; DEPRESSION; FEMALE; HUMAN; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; INTERVIEW; MALE; MENTAL HEALTH; MULTIPLE REGRESSION; MUSCULOSKELETAL STRESS; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SELF REPORT; SOCIAL INTERACTION; WORK DISABILITY; WORK ENVIRONMENT; WORK RESUMPTION;

EID: 77954779435     PISSN: 17538351     EISSN: 1753836X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/17538351011031902     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada (2009), National Work Injury, Disease and Fatality Statistics, Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada, Mississauga.
2. Beardwood, B.A., Kirsh, B. and Clark, N.J. (2005), “Victims twice over: perceptions and experiences of injured workers”, Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 30-48.
3. Bies, R.J. and Moag, J.S. (1986), “Interactional justice: communication criteria of fairness”, in Lewicki, R., Sheppard, B.H. and Bazerman, M.H. (Eds), Research on Negotiation in Organizations, JAI, Greenwich, CT, pp. 43-55.
4. Blader, S.L. and Tyler, T.R. (2005), “How can theories of organizational justice explain the effects of fairness?”, in Greenberg, J. and Colquitt, J.A. (Eds), Handbook of Organizational Justice, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 329-54.
5. Brockner, J., DeWitt, R.L., Grover, S. and Reed, T. (1990), “When it is especially important to explain why: factors affecting the relationship between managers' explanations of a layoff and survivors' reactions to the layoff”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 389-407.
6. Collins, C.J. and Smith, K.G. (2006), “Knowledge exchange and combination: the role of human resource practices in the performance of high-technology firms”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 544-60.
7. Colquitt, J.A. (2001), “On the dimensionality of organizational justice: a construct validation of a measure”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 86 No. 3, pp. 386-400.
8. Colquitt, J.A., Conlon, D.E., Wesson, M.J., Porter, C.O.L.H. and Ng, K.Y. (2001), “Justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 86 No. 3, pp. 425-45.
9. Conlon, D.E., Meyer, C.J. and Nowakowski, J.M. (2005), “How does organizational justice affect performance, withdrawal, and counterproductive behavior?”, in Greenberg, J. and Colquitt, J.A. (Eds), Handbook of Organizational Justice, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 301-27.
10. Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S. and Sowa, D. (1986), “Perceived organizational support”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 71 No. 3, pp. 500-7.
11. Elovainio, M., Kivimaki, M. and Helkama, K. (2001), “Organizational justice evaluations, job control, and occupational strain”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 86 No. 3, pp. 418-24.
12. Elovainio, M., van den Bos, K., Linna, A., Kivimaki, M., Ala-Mursula, L., Pentti, J. and Vahtera, J. (2005), “Combined effects of uncertainty and organizational justice on employee health: testing the uncertainty management model of fairness judgments among Finnish public sector employees”, Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 61 No. 12, pp. 2501-12.
13. Franche, R.-L. and Krause, N. (2002), “Readiness for return to work following injury or illness: conceptualizing the interpersonal impact of healthcare, workplace, and insurance factors”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 233-56.
14. Franche, R.-L., Severin, C., Hogg-Johnson, S., Côté, P., Vidmar, M. and Lee, H. (2007), “The impact of early workplace-based return-to-work strategies on work absence duration: a six-month longitudinal study following an occupational musculoskeletal injury”, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 49 No. 9, pp. 960-74.
15. Franche, R.-L., Cullen, K., Clarke, J., Irvin, E., Sinclair, S., Frank, J. and The Institute for Work & Health (IWH), Workplace-Based RTW Intervention Literature Review Research Team (2005), “Workplace-based return-to-work interventions: a systematic review of the quantitative literature”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 607-31.
16. Franche, R.-L., Carnide, N., Hogg-Johnson, S., Côté, P., Breslin, C.F., Bültmann, U., Severin, C.N. and Krause, N. (2009), “Course, diagnosis, and treatment of depressive symptomology in workers following a workplace injury: a prospective study”, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 54 No. 8, pp. 534-46.
17. Francis, L. and Barling, J. (2005), “Organizational injustice and psychological strain”, Canadian Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 250-61.
18. Frank, J., Sinclair, S., Hogg-Johnson, S., Shannon, H., Bombardier, C. and Beaton, D. (1998), “Preventing disability from work-related low-back pain: new evidence gives new hope – if we can just get all the players onside”, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 158 No. 12, pp. 1625-31.
19. Greenberg, J. (1990), “Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: the hidden cost of pay cuts”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 75 No. 5, pp. 561-8.
20. Greenberg, J. (1993), “Stealing in the name of justice: informational and interpersonal moderators of theft reactions to underpayment inequity”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 81-103.
21. Greenberg, J. (1994), “Using socially fair treatment to promote acceptance of a work site smoking ban”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 2, pp. 288-97.
22. Greenberg, J. (2001), “The seven loose can(n)ons of organizational justice”, in Greenberg, J. and Cropanzano, R. (Eds), Advances in Organizational Justice, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, pp. 245-71.
23. Guthrie, J.P. (2001), “High-involvement work practices, turnover, and productivity: evidence from New Zealand”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 180-90.
24. Health Canada (1998), Health Canada Economic Burden of Illness in Canada, Health Canada, Ottawa.
25. Hlobil, H., Staal, J.B., Spoelstra, M., Ariens, G.A., Smid, T. and van Mechelen, W. (2005), “Effectiveness of a return-to-work intervention for subacute low-back pain”, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 249-57.
26. Huselid, M.A. (1995), “The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 635-72.
27. Kausto, J., Elo, A.-L., Lipponen, J. and Elovainio, M. (2005), “Moderating effects of job insecurity in the relationships between procedural justice and employee wellbeing: gender difference”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 431-52.
28. Kerr, M.S. (1998), A Case-control Study of Biomechanical and Psychosocial Risk Factors for Low-back Pain Reported in an Occupational Setting, University of Toronto, Toronto.
29. Kosny, A., Franche, R.-L., Pole, J., Krause, N., Côté, P. and Mustard, C. (2006), “Early healthcare provider communication with patients and their workplace following a lost-time claim for an occupational musculoskeletal injury”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 27-39.
30. Krause, N. and Lund, T. (2004), “Returning to work after occupational injury”, in Barling, J. and Frone, M.R. (Eds), The Psychology of Workplace Safety, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 265-95.
31. Krause, N., Dasinger, L.K. and Neuhauser, F. (1998), “Modified work and returns to work: a review of the literature”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 113-39.
32. Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety (2008), Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety 2008 Workplace Safety Index, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA.
33. Lippel, K. (2007), “Workers describe the effect of the workers' compensation process on their health: a Quebec study”, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Vol. 30 Nos 4-5, pp. 427-43.
34. Loisel, P. (2005), “Intervention for return to work – what is really effective?”, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 245-7.
35. MacEachen, E., Clarke, J., Franche, R.-L., Irvin, E. and The Workplace-based Return to Work Literature Review Group (2006), “Systematic review of the qualitative literature on return to work after injury”, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 257-69.
36. Macky, K. and Boxall, P. (2007), “The relationship between ‘high-performance work practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and interaction effects”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 537-67.
37. Meyer, J.P. and Smith, C.A. (2000), “HRM practices and organizational commitment: test of a mediational model”, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 319-31.
38. Meyer, J.P., Allen, N.J. and Smith, C.S. (1993), “Commitment to organizations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 78 No. 4, pp. 538-51.
39. Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L. and Topolnytsky, L. (2002), “Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 20-52.
40. Moorman, R.H. (1991), “Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship?”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 76 No. 6, pp. 845-55.
41. Moorman, R.H., Blakely, G.L. and Niehoff, B.P. (1998), “Does perceived organizational support mediate the relationship between procedural justice and organizational citizenship behavior?”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 351-7.
42. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2009), Sickness, Disability and Work: Keeping on Track in the Economic Downturn, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Stockholm.
43. Radloff, L.S. (1977), “The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population”, Applied Psychological Measurement, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 385-401.
44. Rhoades, L. and Eisenberger, R. (2002), “Perceived organizational support: a review of the literature”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87 No. 4, pp. 698-714.
45. Schultz, I.Z., Crook, J., Fraser, K. and Joy, P.W. (2000), “Models of diagnosis and rehabilitation in musculoskeletal pain-related occupational disability”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 271-93.
46. Tepper, B.J. (2001), “Health consequences of organizational injustice: tests of main and interactive effects”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 86 No. 2, pp. 197-215.
47. Tyler, T.R. and Lind, E.A. (1992), “A relational model of authority in groups”, in Zanna, M.P. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 25, Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp. 115-91.
48. US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009), “Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work, 2008”, available at www.bls.gov/news.release/osh2.nr0.htm (accessed 27 November 2009).
49. Van den Bos, K. and Lind, E.A. (2002), “Uncertainty management by means of fairness judgments”, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 34, pp. 1-60.
50. Van den Bos, K. and Miedema, J. (2000), “Toward understanding why fairness matters: the influence of mortality salience on reactions to procedural fairness”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 3, pp. 355-66.
51. Von Korff, M., Jensen, M.P. and Karoly, P. (2000), “Assessing global pain severity by self-report in clinical and health services research”, Spine, Vol. 25 No. 24, pp. 3140-51.
52. Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (2009), Workplace Safety and Insurance Board 2008 Annual Report, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Toronto.
53. World Economic Forum (2008), Working towards Wellness: The Business Rationale, World Economic Forum, Geneva.
54. Wright, P.M., Gardiner, T.M. and Moynihan, L.M. (2005), “The impact of HR practices on the performance of business units”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 21-36.
55. Wright, T.A. and Cropanzano, R. (2000), “Psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction as predictors of job performance”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 84-94.