Ana Maria Rossi, James A. Meurs, Pamela L. Perrewé , eds. 2014. Improving Employee Health and Well‐Being. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc. $39.00. pp. 215. Paperback. ISBN: 978‐1‐62396‐517‐4. .

• Author: William P. Schaefer
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.129
• Published date: 01 March 2015
• Date: 01 March 2015

Book Review

Ana Maria Rossi, James A. Meurs, Pamela L. Perrewe

´, eds. 2014. Improving

Employee Health and Well-Being. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

$39.00. pp. 215. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1-62396-517-4.

This slender paperback publication is the fourth volume in a series titled

Stress and Quality of Working Life. It addresses the topic of employee health and

well-being and does so through the eyes of a select group of knowledgeable,

academic authors. Through the 12 chapters that comprise this work, the “…

multi-disciplinary group of experts …” (p. vii) offers an international perspective

on how individuals, organizations, and societies can create healthier workplaces

for employees. The book is divided into three sections. Section I includes six

chapters and focuses on the role of the individual in organizational stress and

well-being. Section II contains two chapters and examines the social aspects of

occupational stress. Section III is comprised of four chapters and addresses the

role of prevention and intervention in the workplace. The following material is

drawn from select chapters with the purpose of demonstrating the type and f‌low

of content that one will encounter in each section of the book.

The f‌irst chapter in Section I explores politics in the workplace and the

resulting effects on personal well-being. Authors Christopher C. Rosen and

Daniel C. Ganster present a framework “… that (a) explains how exposure to

workplace politics affects employee health and well-being over time and (b)

identif‌ies factors that serve to mitigate these inf‌luences” (p. 4). Rosen and Ganster

explore three streams of research: perceptions of organizational politics, political

behavior, and political skill. The authors use these three factors to explain

employee stress and the mitigating factors that can result in a less stressful work

environment for employees. As an example, if the actual or perceived political

environment of a given organization is deeply rooted in the organizational culture

and is not minimized, Rosen and Ganster posit that employee health may

seriously deteriorate: “… employees who work in highly political contexts may

experience chronically high levels of inf‌lammation, elevated resting blood

pressure, and harmful changes to their metabolic system that may be detected by

high body mass index numbers, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015

95

1948-4682 #2015 Policy Studies Organization

Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ.