Suchergebnisse

The etymology and the development of the meanings of well-being, prevention and risk, as well as their relationships, are presented and discussed. It is reminded that the World Health Organization defined health as physical, mental and social well-being, and that the European Union prescribed a general and programmed primary prevention, integrated with the design of work situations. However, current interpretations and practices mistake well-being with wellness, and prevention with the management of existing risks, while usually attributing the responsibility to the acting subjects in the workplace. The Interdisciplinary Research Program "Organization and Well-being", for over three decades, has interpreted well-being as a perfectible process, and outlined pathways of work analysis that actually carry out primary prevention.

A contribution in the medical field illustrates the historical evolution of the concepts of prevention and health to which it is necessary to refer for a discussion about health and safety in the workplace. Some contributions in the fields of labor law and organizational theory interpret the norms currently effective in Italy and the guidelines for the assessment of risks in work situations. What conception of prevention is implicitly assumed by the norms, and by the guidelines that the norms indicate? Are the current norms adequate to stimulate organizational choices aimed at preventing risks and discouraging harmful choices? Limits and contradictions hindering a real, effective, primary prevention are emphasized.

The Interdisciplinary Research Program "Organization and Well-Being" is aimed at identifying the relationships between the choices that structure the work processes, and the people's health, defined in terms of physical, mental and social well-being. A method allowing to connect the analysis of organizational choices and the biomedical analysis of their consequences on the involved subjects has been the object of studies and discussions for three decades. This debate includes comments expressed from points of view concerning: ergonomics, work psychodynamics, work sociology, work psychology, ergology, linguistic activity. The way to conceive organization, action research, inter-disciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity, in the various approaches here represented, are the main object of discussion.