The wellness ethic in action : a case study of company X / Jacqueline Anne Hart.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Hart, Jacqueline Anne.

Contributor:

Bosk, Charles L., advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Sociology.

Sociology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Sociology.

Sociology--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

viii, 192 pages ; 29 cm

Production:

1999.

Summary:

The wellness ethic is characterized by an extreme emphasis on individual accountability for health and illness. Wellness is an ideology and a set of practices that is at once personal, psychological, spiritual, moral, medical, and economic. It is in many respects the reigning framework for the interpretation of health in the contemporary United States. This research focused on wellness professionals as the critical actors, and the worksite as the central arena, for the implementation of wellness ideology. The analysis is based on data gathered through ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews in the wellness division of an international health maintenance organization and insurance company (Company X), one that has been nationally recognized as a leader in worksite wellness programming. In developing what they considered to be a cutting edge wellness program, these wellness professionals created a health intervention that emphasized the values of equal opportunity, self-responsibility, and productivity, and in the process standardized and normalized idealized standards of self-care and good health. Health was partially re-defined as personal outlook, with strong moral dimensions, demonstrated by health attitudes and behaviors. The wellness division staff understood health to be primarily shaped by an individual's innate character, personal belief system, and moral fiber, and believed that these factors in turn made health integral to an employee's job performance. In this way, the institutionalization of wellness at Company X served as a kind of employee training by defining for both employees and the company, what personal characteristics were required and what rewards could be expected. Another related consequence was that sickness was de-legitimized: their understanding of the determinants of health meant that sickness was often viewed as indicative of poor moral fiber and irresponsible choices. In general, my findings pointed to troublesome aspects of the operationalization of wellness ideology in workplace health promotion and disease prevention programs. It is possible that the distribution of health care resources will be shaped by more exacting standards for perfect health that rest primarily on the belief in personal responsibility, and that valuable social phenomena such as empathy and caring for the sick will be discouraged.

Notes:

Supervisor: Charles L. Bosk.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Sociology) -- University of Pennsylvania, 1999.

Includes bibliographical references.

University Microfilms order no.: 99-53542.

OCLC:

187483778