Health promoting leadership practices in four Norwegian industries

Traditionally, research on employee health at work has had a problem-oriented approach, such as investigating the causes of sickness absence among employees. Few studies have explored what creates good health at work (Schaufeli and Salanova, 2007). Today, more find the need for understanding why employees stay healthy at work (Hanson, 2004; Nyberg et al., 2005; Dellve et al., 2007). European and Norwegian work life is characterized by increased efficiency demands (Huws et al., 2009). This affects employee working conditions, through additional work tasks, downsizing and cost reduction, among other things. In this context, leadership practice is crucial and influences how employees cope with more demanding work conditions (Øyum et al., 2006; Skarholt et al., 2012, 2013). Leadership, organizational cultures and how work is organized are important determinants of employee health (Aronsson and Lindh, 2004; Shain and Kramer, 2004). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health promotion as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health’ and argues that health is created in supportive environments; ‘health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life, where they learn, work, play and love’ (WHO, 1986