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Many employers offer worksite health promotion (WHP), but a high percentage of the workforce does not participate. As the employees’ perspective regarding potential barriers to participation has received little attention in research so far, improvements in program design are delayed. The aims of the present paper therefore are to investigate perceived barriers to WHP participation from the employees’ point of view, and to construct a barrier typology. A quantitative questionnaire was developed on the basis of existing studies and distributed in four Austrian organisations offering comprehensive WHP programs. 237 respondents rated the appreciability of 22 potential barriers to WHP participation. Barrier categories and typologies were defined using principal component analysis (PCA), multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), and regression analysis. The PCA identified six barrier types: (1) integration into the daily routine; lack of (2) information; an (3) imbalance of benefits and costs; the requirement of too much (4) involvement; (5) interpersonal barriers; and (6) incredibility of the company’s honest commitment. According to the MCA, one group perceives barriers intensively, another hardly, and a third mainly program design related barriers. The regression analysis shows that especially being too busy at work and feeling physically not up to participating in WHP activities are major barriers. The results provide a comprehensive overview and categorization of barriers to WHP participation perceived by employees in companies offering holistic programs. Moreover, they can be used as guidelines for analysing existing and/or preventing barriers of occurring when designing and implementing WHP programs.

The paper at hand is the first that explores the notion of attachment orientations, i.e. attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, influencing individual attachment towards an organization, i.e. employees' affective, normative and continuance commitment. Findings of a questionnaire survey reveal positive correlations of attachment anxiety with affective, normative and continuance commitment. Attachment avoidance in contrast was found to contribute only to the prediction of affective commitment. Reconsidered, our results imply low affective, normative and continuance commitment for secure employees, i.e. for employees low in anxiety and low in avoidance. Implications of the findings, regarding the question of whether organizations should abstain from the employment of secure workers, are discussed.

Abstract: Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of worksite health promotion to improve individual well-being from the employees’ perspective, analyze benefit categories and develop suggestions for future worksite health promotion program designs. Subjects and methods: A questionnaire based on a qualitative study was distributed in four Austrian organizations to cover state-owned, private, and non-profit organizations. A total of 237 white-collar employees participated in the survey. Results: Workplace health promotion does improve individual well-being from the employees’ perspective. A factor analysis of the changes in well-being reported yields a three-factor solution with a physical/cognitive element, a social component, and an emotional factor. In the sample tested, the physical-cognitive and emotional elements of perceived benefits were felt the most. Conclusion: The current theoretical grouping of potential WHP effects requires further testing and might profit from being differentiated into more categories. Research on WHP could gain from a consideration of the employee’s perspective by showing which program elements to focus on. Strengthening the emotional components of WHP information and program elements is proposed for increasing participation rates and the subsequent individual benefits derived.