Työterveyshuolto-organisaation toiminta, sen henkilöstön henkinen hyvinvointi ja toiminnan tuloksellisuus

Abstract

The aim was to analyse a private nation-wide organization providing occupational health services (OHS) in Finland; its functioning, its personnel's mental well-being, the degree of client satisfaction and its financial performance and the associations between these factors. The OHS-organizations studied consisted of 38 units, including 34 OHS-units. Altogether 387 people (96% of the sample) representing different occupational health care professionals; 1267 patients (41 % of the patient sample); and 608 decision-makers (persons deciding who should provide of OH-services) (47 %) participated in the study. The diagnostic model for organizations devised by Burke-Litwin was used as the theoretical basis for the study. Organizational functioning was measured by studying workers' perceptions of different areas of the organization and their own work unit, such as organizational change, strategy and goals, leadership culture, structure, management practices, work unit climate, systems, individual skills/abilities, individual needs and values, and affective organizational commitment. Mental well-being included bum-out and psychological symptoms, a sense of coherence, and working ability. Organizational performance was measured using employees' ratings of the quality and effectiveness of their work unit, client satisfaction ratings, and economic profitability (operating margin and achieving the operating margin goal). The model was supported by the explorative and confirmatory factor analyses. Both individual and work-unit level analyses revealed that OHS-workers' high ratings of organizational functioning were related to their mental well-being, and high ratings of the performance of the work unit. Client satisfaction and the economic profitability of the 34 OHS-units were studied on the work-unit level. Workers' high ratings of some aspects of organizational functioning and some factors of consensus about this were positively correlated with the satisfaction of decision-makers, and similar associations were also found with patient satisfaction. In addition, employees' ratings of the functioning of the organization, their consensus on the ratings, and the satisfaction of the decision-makers with OHS correlated positively with the economic profitability of the OHS-units. Mental well-being of the OHS-personnel did not correlate with client satisfaction or economic profitability. Further, patient satisfaction was not connected to economic profitability.