Commissioned education on work environment

For better or worse work plays a major role in both the psychological and the
physical well-being in peoples’ lives. Work can be a source of meaning, joy and self fulfilment, or a cause of distress and illness. This holds true even in wealthy parts of
the world with a long tradition of research and governmental actions to achieve a good
working environments. For example, in Sweden an average of 35 people are killed
every year in work related accidents, and during 2016 roughly one in five persons (22
per cent) had some type of disorder related to work that made it difficult for them to
work or to carry out daily tasks in the home. The causes depend on complex interactions among environmental demands and organizational and individual resources. Much is known within academia on central aspects of these interactions, when it comes to explaining different outcomes or how to actively prevent accidents and different kinds of illnesses. However, this knowledge is not always effectively communicated to the surrounding community. To create safe and sustainable work environments that boost productivity and individual well-being demands knowledge and competencies from a wide array of research fields. Along with the constant and fast pace of change, in actual work environments as well as regarding different policies, this makes it hard for private companies, governmental agencies and other organizations to keep track of current research and legislation.

Here, the School of Work environment and Leadership (“Arbetsmiljöhögskolan”,
AMH) at the Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, can function as a bridge
between the research community and the outside world, connecting relevant
researchers to ongoing societal challenges.

From this point of view, AMH can be seen as a doorway to a wide network of
researchers with deep knowledge into relevant aspects of issues regarding work
environment, ranging from ”soft” issues such as leadership, organization, risk
management, learning, and labour legislation, to ”hard” topics such as buildings,
indoor environments, air quality, lighting and digital tools. AMH arranges tailor-made
educations, ranging from shorter lectures to credit-awarding courses, which are
developed in close dialogue with the customers.

At this conference, we would like to highlight and discuss challenges and
possibilities in translating and communicating research results within the field of work
environment as relevant educations. We would like to invite to a discussion into both
best and worst practice.

Keywords: Work environment, education, competence, working life.