Planning an organizational wellness initiative at a multi-state social service agency

Increasingly, organizations in general, and social service organizations, specifically, are recognizing the importance of planning and evaluating organizational wellness initiatives. Yet, few participatory models for carrying out these aims exist. For this study, researchers utilized concept mapping (CM) to explicate a conceptual framework for planning, and subsequently evaluating, a wellness initiative at a multi-state social service organization. CM is a participatory approach that analyzes qualitative data via multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses. Outputs include a number of visual depictions that allow researchers to explore complex relationships among sets of the data. Results from this study indicated that participants (N=64), all of whom were employees of the agency, conceptualized organizational wellness via an eight-cluster solution, or Concept Map. Priority areas of this framework, specifically importance and feasibility, were also explored. After a brief review of pertinent literature, this article explicates the CM methodology utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and identifies apt areas for future research.