What Makes a Difference? Exploring Organizational Initiatives and Conditions for a Favorable Psychosocial Work...

The psychosocial work environment in healthcare is widely recognized as challenging. High workload, stress, and poor work-life balance contribute to negative health outcomes for healthcare workers. Swedish primary healthcare faces similar issues, yet efforts to address them have focused primarily on individual-based interventions, such as stress management. Research on organizational initiatives remains limited, despite their greater potential for achieving long-term, sustainable improvements.

This study aims to explore characteristics of primary healthcare units where organizational initiatives to improve the psychosocial work environment have been successfully carried out.

A multiple case approach was used, allowing various cases to be investigated and enabling identification of similarities and common patterns across the units.

Four main categories and 16 subcategories were identified, capturing key factors that contribute to a favorable psychosocial work environment in primary healthcare through organizational initiatives. The main categories are engaged leadership, an open workplace climate, conditions for improvement, and a structured work organization.

This study identifies key characteristics of primary healthcare units that contribute to creating a favorable psychosocial work environment in Swedish primary healthcare. These elements promote inclusivity, balanced change processes, and staff involvement in decision-making. The findings underscore the need for further research on managerial challenges and effective strategies for staff recruitment and retention.