Abstract
This chapter provides a brief introduction to the concepts of culture, particularly organizational culture; the latter emphasizes the meanings, orientations, and symbolism shared by people in organizational settings. We argue that many health issues can be productively conceptualized as cultural phenomena. Health is understood in a variety of ways in various societies, organizations, occupations, and other groups, with correspondingly varying implications for action. The cultural meanings of health guide the ways in which organizations, managers, and professionals try to influence people and improve how they deal with health issues. We discuss the expansion of the meaning of the term “health” and a change in its focus to include “right” attitude to work; these changes have resulted in “health” being incorporated into the sphere of well-being by managerial and professional regimes. Here it is important to consider both innocent well-intentioned activities and issues of power and control.
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Alvesson, M. (2016). Organizational Culture and Health. In: Wiencke, M., Cacace, M., Fischer, S. (eds) Healthy at Work . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32331-2_2
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