Karina Nielsen
Title: The ability of line managers to make or break an intervention
Organisational interventions are widely recommended (EU-OSHA. The randomized controlled trial
(RCT) has been considered the “gold standard” for evaluating organizational interventions, (e.g.
Richardson & Rothstein, 2008), however, in recent years, this design has been challenged as it only
allows us to answer “what works?”. Realistic evaluation calls for research that can answer the
questions of “what works for whom in which circumstances” (Pawson & Tilley, 2006). It has been
argued that complex interventions (Rogers, 2008) require more sophisticated evaluation frameworks
(Nielsen and Abildgard, 2013).
Both individual psychological factors and the social context have been found to influence an
organisational intervention’s ability to improve employee health and well-being (Nielsen and Randall,
2012). Recent process evaluations of organizational intervention studies suggest that such leaders
can “make or break” an intervention (e.g. Nielsen & Randall, 2009).
In my presentation 1) I discuss why we need to consider sophisticated evaluation designs, 2) I review
recent process evaluation studies that provide insights into how line managers may make or break an
intervention, both in terms of how they may enforce change to ensure successful intervention
implementation but also in which circumstances they may choose not to do so, 3) I discuss how we
may enhance line managers’ resources to enable them to implement changes, and finally, 4) I discuss
how we may proactively integrate the existing knowledge about the role of line managers in future
intervention designs.