Healthy Work Group , Te Rōpū Mahi Whakaora

The Healthy Work Group (HWG) conducts research-based studies and projects in workplace health, safety and wellbeing, including factors related to organisational and psychosocial work environments, and healthy work design.

About the Healthy Work Group

Healthy Work Group (HWG) research and consultancy focuses on all forms of workplace health and safety problems.

Topics include:

  • workplace bullying
  • job stress
  • workplace violence
  • organisation safety culture
  • musculoskeletal disorders
  • safety, health and wellbeing in industries such as tourism, health, manufacturing and processing, agriculture, construction, forestry, and transport.

The HWG utilises a multidisciplinary focus to the study of healthy work, bringing together expertise from across several disciplinary areas including:

  • ergonomics and human factors
  • occupational health and safety
  • organisation and management
  • human resource management
  • applied statistics
  • industrial and organisational psychology.

The HWG’s expertise aligns with national priorities that are set out in government strategies for injury prevention and workplace health and safety, and is developing government, industry and research partner relationships through its funded research and consultancy.

Research and consultancy

New Zealand Workplace Barometer

The New Zealand Workplace Barometer (NZWB) is a comprehensive research programme managed by Massey’s Healthy Work Group, with funding from Worksafe New Zealand.

The NZWB is designed to provide for the longitudinal monitoring and surveillance of work-related psychological health and safety outcomes among a large sample of New Zealand workers.

Psychosocial risks have a significant detrimental impact on organisations and the people who work in them. There is considerable evidence linking psychosocial hazards as a leading cause of lost-time from work and reduced levels of engagement and productivity due to their influence on mental health and depression, psychological distress and absenteeism.

Psychosocial risk factors or hazards include aspects of the work organisation that are a result of human (in)action and have the potential to cause psychological harm. Typical antecedents include job design, the organisation and management of work, and relational factors.

Research indicates that New Zealand workers are highly vulnerable to psychosocial workplace problems, which ultimately place a considerable burden on the economic and social wellbeing of our society. Until now, there has been no systematic approach to understanding or preventing psychosocial risks in New Zealand.

The NZWB examines the impacts of exposure to psychosocial risks (assessed through the measurement of psychosocial safety climate, alongside specific psychosocial hazards such as workplace bullying) on important individual and organisational outcomes, notably: depression and mental health, psychological distress, sickness absence, performance, innovation and engagement.

How will my organisation benefit from participating?

Organisations with 50 or more participants will receive a customised report of their results. This report can be benchmarked against the wider national dataset to give an idea of how your organisation compares. The survey uses standardised, validated measures that are used in overseas studies, so international comparisons can also be made.

How much does it cost to participate?

There is currently no charge for organisations to participate in the data collection beyond the time associated with employees completing the survey.

We anticipate that this research programme will continue longitudinally, and we may look to introduce a subscription model or similar for participation in future years.

How can I get involved?

If your organisation wishes to participate in the NZWB, we will generate a custom survey link to send to your staff. We ask that you please distribute the link, and allow your employees to complete the survey. The survey should take around 20 minutes to complete.

To find out more about participating, including whether this may be right for your organisation, email Liz Ashby: [email: L.Ashby@massey.ac.nz]

This project has been reviewed and approved by the Massey University Human Ethics Committee: Southern B, Application 18/15. If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research, contact:

Dr Rochelle Stewart-Withers
Chair, Massey University Human Ethics Committee: Southern B
Phone: 06 356 9099 x 83657
email: humanethicsouthb@massey.ac.nz

Workplace bullying and stress

HWG research activity includes several empirical studies into workplace stress and bullying in New Zealand organisations.

This work builds on the HWG’s initial study into workplace bullying prevalence, funded by the Department of Labour and Health Research Council of New Zealand and conducted in collaboration with the universities of Auckland, Waikato and Birbeck, University of London. The project was focused around identifying the incidence and nature of bullying and stress across four industry sectors: health, education, travel and hospitality, and in identifying potential interventions to better manage psychosocial hazards. Current projects include an analysis of organisational practices for the management of workplace bullying.

Recent publications

Workplace violence

The HWG studied workplace violence as perceived by occupational health and safety practitioners and human resource managers working in New Zealand organisations.

The 2011 New Zealand Workplace Violence survey identified the extent and nature of violence across 96 organisations, covering nearly 5% of New Zealand's working population and a wide range of industry sectors. Additional work in this area analysed violence control/management options for different industry sectors as a risk management tool.

Organisational Safety Culture

HWG research and consultancy has focused on organisational safety culture, including development of a qualitative safety culture measurement tool and a survey of 100 occupational health and safety professionals in New Zealand concerning their perceptions in relation to the value and use of safety culture as a concept.

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD)

The HWG completed an ACC-funded research project in 2014 that identified measures used by residential builders to reduce MSD risk.

A second stage of research will implement and evaluate higher priority measures (those most feasible to implement and which reduce the most risk). This research adopts a similar approach to government-funded work conducted in the NZ meat processing industry in 2004-2007, and NZ timber processing in 2006-2010, where MSD risk reduction measures were identified and provided to stakeholders throughout the industries.

The nature of MSD, with both physical and psychosocial risk factors, means that they need to be considered from both a social sustainability and an occupational health perspective to achieve viable management and prevention. However, continued high prevalence rates and costs, along with an ageing workforce and the changing nature of work, all present unique challenges for organisations in preventing and managing MSD risks.

Other research

Other research interests and current research within the group covers a range of topics including:

  • work-related falls prevention,
  • psychosocial and organisational issues in health and safety,
  • adventure tourism safety research.

Indicative publications related to this work can be found in the publications section. HWG members have also presented their research to many industry and academic conferences in New Zealand and overseas.

Who we are

Associate Professor David Brougham

Associate Professor David Brougham

Associate Professor, School of Management

David is researching how employees and businesses plan to adapt to changes as a result of technological disruption from AI, automation, robotics, and algorithms etc.

He is the Director of Research within the School of Management and Editor for the New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management. Prior to working at Massey David worked in the finance industry.

Professor Bevan Catley

Professor Bevan Catley

Professor, School of Management

Bevan’s primary research focus is on workplace bullying and workplace violence and he has published extensively on these topics in a number of international journals.

He is also a board member of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management and former board member of the International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment.

Dr Jason Cordier

Dr Jason Cordier

PhD, FHEA
Lecturer, School of Management

Jason is a member of HWG and consults, lectures and researches within the fields of strategic management, strategic HRM, and knowledge management.

He has extensive European, Asian, Middle Eastern and North American consulting experience in the fields of Governmental Organisational Development, Islamic Finance, Agri-business, Oil & Gas, Asset Management and Diversified Conglomerates.

Dr Darryl Forsyth

Dr Darryl Forsyth

PhD
Senior Lecturer, School of Management

Darryl teaches Human Resource Management and Research Methods at the Auckland campus. His ‘umbrella’ research focus is on understanding and facilitating healthy work. Currently this includes research projects on information overload, resilience, workplace bullying and violence.

The majority of his research focusses on designing comprehensive data collection tools and data analysis/modelling.

Associate Professor Dianne Gardner

Associate Professor Dianne Gardner

PhD
Associate Professor, School of Psychology
Dr Zoe Port

Dr Zoe Port

BBS (Hons), PhD, AFHEA
Lecturer
Phone
Department
School of Management

Zoe is a Co-Director of the Healthy Work Group research team and a named investigator on the externally-funded Healthy Work Project which seeks to develop, implement and test interventions to reduce exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards in small and medium-sized organisations.

Her PhD focused on exploring the heterogeneity and experiences of those who hold multiple jobs.

Associate Professor David Tappin

Associate Professor David Tappin

PhD, MSc
Associate Professor
Department
School of Management

David teaches courses in HR/ER, Decent Work and Project Management and supervises postgraduate students. He is a co-director of the Healthy Work Group – a research team involved in evaluating and addressing psychosocial risks and interventions in work, and a member of the human ethics committee in Auckland.

Research students

Student members of the HWG play a critical role contributing to the group's research agenda.

Together with undertaking their own work for their studies, our students are involved in larger research and consulting projects within the broader group.

For motivated, passionate and additive students, there are currently opportunities to study with the HWG. We invite proposals or inquiries about undertaking a PhD under our supervision. Please note that all approvals to study must still go through Massey University’s formal PhD enrolment process.

Current PhD students

Claire Gray

Claire Gray

Claire's PhD research intends to explore nurses' experiences of caring for patients who have sexually harassed them, through the use of emotional labour.

Her research aims to explore the relationships between sexual harassment, the emotional labour strategies of surface acting and deep acting, and the wellbeing of nurses. Accordingly, she intends to adopt a mixed methods approach, to examine these relationships; initially, these will be studied quantitatively, before following up with a qualitative approach to delve further into nurses' usage of emotional labour as a means to provide care to sexually harassive patients.

"As an early stage PhD researcher, I am really enthused to be a member of the Healthy Work Group. To be part of a research group that is dedicated to workplace health and safety is a great privilege, and something that I too am passionate about. I enjoyed the writing retreat earlier in the year, and am looking forward to working with members of the Healthy Work Group over the course of my PhD studies."

Nicola Green

Nicola Green

Nicola's PhD research is exploring the impact of telehealth videoconferencing services (THVCS) on the work system for key stakeholders in New Zealand.

Video-conferencing instead of in-person consultation is a potential tool to aid healthcare delivery through improved accessibility, lower costs and better allocation of human resources. However, literature suggests that uptake of telehealth is less than anticipated and there are difficulties with embedding telehealth into routine services.

The introduction of technology can be disruptive and change the nature of work for all those involved in the service. Her study, informed by sociotechnical systems theory, seeks to explore the facilitators and barriers of effective THVCS and how the work system can be designed to enable THVCS to be a sustained healthcare practice in New Zealand.

"Being a member of the Healthy Work Group provides a supportive network of knowledgeable, passionate and fun peers. This is particularly valuable to me as a distance student as it enables me to feel a connection to other students and scholars. In addition, the HWG provides other opportunities to be involved in academic life, including the recent highly productive and enjoyable three-day writing retreat."

Email:n.j.green@massey.ac.nz

Jishuo Sun

Jishuo Sun

Jishuo's PhD research explores the role of management competencies to enhance employee wellbeing.

Given that psychosocial risks, such as stress and bullying in the workplace, have negative impacts on employee health, and limit corporate sustainable development, line managers play a crucial role in reducing stress and bullying at work. These risks are often unresolved due to lack of relevant competencies in line managers.

Jishuo's research aims to identify management competencies required by managers for enhancing employee wellbeing, and then examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of their managers’ competencies and their personal experiences of a) workplace stress and b) workplace bullying.

"Being a member of the Healthy Work Group is one of the most valuable things in my PhD journey. As a early stage PhD researcher, the Healthy Work Group not only provides an outstanding academic environment related to my research interests, but also a warm and friendly family environment which encourages and guides me. I am honoured to be in the Healthy Work Group, and greatly enjoy working with the group members."

Email: J.Sun3@massey.ac.nz

Blake Yue

Blake Yue

Blake's PhD research aims to raise the understanding of work stress resulting from being HIV-positive in New Zealand.

Given that HIV-positive and AIDS are currently incurable and transmittable diseases, individuals infected with HIV may be exposed to various psychosocial risk factors in their workplace. As a minority group with an illness that still carries a strong anti-social stigma there are many who consider the psychosocial risks associated with HIV-positive people in New Zealand have received little research focus, and it seems there is limited literature or evidence-based research.

Blake's research explores if being HIV positive creates a differential effect in relation to psychosocial risk in the work place in New Zealand.

Blake and the HWG:

As an academic newcomer, it is an honour for me to be a member of the Healthy Work Group. I have always been passionate about the health and well-being of marginalized people and minorities, and the Healthy Work Group provides me with the opportunity to contribute towards helping them. I am very grateful to the members of the group - all of whom have been very helpful to me and the friendly family like environment and have inspired me greatly in the early stage of my research. I feel very blessed to be part of such a dedicated team and look forward to making an effective and meaningful contribution to the work of the Healthy Working Group.

Email: B.Yue@massey.ac.nz

Publications

The 2019 New Zealand Workplace Barometer (2020)

Understanding Management Competencies for Managing Bullying and Fostering Healthy Work in Nursing (2019)

Bone, K.(2019). ‘I don’t want to be a vagrant for the rest of my life’: Young peoples’ experiences of precarious work as a ‘continuous present’. Journal of Youth Studies. Online First: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2019.1570097

Bone, K.,Jack, G., & Mayson, S. (2018). Negotiating the greedy institution: A typology of the lived experiences of young, precarious academic workers. Labour and Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work. 28(4), 225-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2018.1528654

Kobayashi, K., Eweje, G., & Tappin, D. (2018). Employee wellbeing and human sustainability: Perspectives of managers in large Japanese corporations. Business Strategy and the Environment.

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