Workplace Health Promotion – a new catalyst for empowerment in work?

Abstract

Health promotion plays an increasing role in health policy. Wherever we turn, we are met by requests to change our way of living in order to become ‘healthy persons’. Health promotion is also being brought onto the agenda of the workplace. In this context, health promotion has been received reluctantly, as it is conceived of as a strongly individualistic approach to health, compared to the approach that is constituted by OHS. However, during the last years, a new concept of Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) has been developed; a concept that attempts to overcome the contradictions between individual and collective approaches to health. This article investigates the social shaping of this concept of WHP, and presents an analysis of the understanding of health that it is based on, and the way it constitutes employees, management and professionals. In addition, we present future scenarios for WHP and discuss if WHP will end up as just another fringe benefit used in Human Resource Management, or if it may be a catalyst for new attempts to promote empowerment in work.