title: The Importance of Team Health Climate for Health-Related Outcomes of White-Collar Workers.
abstract: Occupational health researchers and practitioners have mainly focused on the individual and organizational levels, whereas the team level has been largely neglected. In this study, we defineteam health climateas employees' shared perceptions of the extent to which their team is concerned, cares, and communicates about health issues. Based on climate, signaling, and social exchange theories, we examined a multilevel model of team health climate and its relationships with five well-established health-related outcomes (i.e., subjective general health, psychosomatic complaints, mental health, work ability, and presenteeism). Results of multilevel analyses of data provided by 6,449 employees in 621 teams of a large organization showed that team health climate is positively related to subjective general health, mental health, and work ability, and negatively related to presenteeism, above and beyond the effects of team size, age, job tenure, job demands, job control, and employees' individual perceptions of health climate. Moreover, additional analyses showed that a positive team health climate buffered the negative relationship between employee age and work ability. Implications for future research on team health climate and suggestions for occupational health interventions in teams are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of LeipzigLeipzig, Germany; Department of Brand and Marketing Management, Market and Marketing Analysis, Techniker KrankenkasseHamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of LeipzigLeipzig, Germany; School of Management, University of QueenslandBrisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Methods, Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, Jacobs University Bremen Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lippke
keywords: health; organizational climate; presenteeism; teams; work ability