Forms of participation – the development and application of a conceptual model of participation in work environment interventions

In the realm of work environment improvements, the Nordic countries have led the way in demonstrating that employee participation is a key requisite for achieving improvements. Despite this there is a lack of precision on what ‘participatory’ in a participatory work environment intervention means. In this study, we present a conceptual model for participation in work environment interventions and apply it to protocols and manuals from 8 participatory interventions to determine the form of participation used in each intervention. We suggest that the conceptual model can be applied in the design and assessment of participatory work environment interventions.