Organisational Health Improvement Questionnaire- Core (OHIQ-Core) Study

What is the OHIQ study about?
Numerous studies have established that a psychologically healthy organisation (PHO) yields benefits for staff, the organisation, and wider society. A PHO seeks to boost performance and wellbeing at the individual and organisational level through sustainable win-win strategies. Despite the importance of a PHO, we are lacking in accessible, high-quality means to measure this concept. The need to reliably measure and organisation’s psychological health is particularly important in industries where staff wellbeing, performance, and retention are of major concern. By improving our ability to understand and measure psychological health, we are better positioned to target interventions efficiently.

Why is this research important?
Work can be a source of numerous positive and negative outcomes for an employee’s psychological functioning. Improving our ability to understand, assess, and monitor an organisation’s psychological health helps us to increase positive outcomes for wellbeing and performance at the individual and group level.

Who is carrying out this research?
The study is led by Professor Jason Spendelow at the Harper & Keele Veterinary School. Jason is collaborating with colleagues across Keele University and Harper Adams University.

Why have I been invited?
You have been invited because you are an adult working in an organisation that has agreed to participate in this research. We would like to understand your experiences of the working environment and how you judge organisational performance on key variables. The information you provide will be used to evaluate the questionnaire’s quality and better understand how these variables relate to each other, and overall psychological health.

Do I have to take part?
No, you do not have to take part. Your participation is voluntary and is not required by your employer. You can withdraw from the research at any point without giving a reason. If you complete less than 50% of the questionnaire, your data will be removed and not analysed. Completion of 50% or more of the questionnaire will mean your data will be included in data analysis and, due to the anonymous nature of the questionnaire, it will not be possible for these data to be removed prior to analysis.

If I agree to take part, what will happen?
If you agree to take part, you will be invited to complete an online questionnaire. This questionnaire will take approximately 15 mins to complete and will involve non-identifying questions about your life and working circumstances (gender, job role), perceived wellbeing and performance, and various aspects of your working environment (e.g., opportunities for career development).

Completion of each questionnaire is completely voluntary. If you are happy to proceed, you will be directed to a consent form to complete (clicking the ‘next’ button at the bottom of this page), followed by the questionnaire.

At the end of the questionnaire, you will be invited to complete the questionnaire in 2-4 weeks time. These data help us to understand how reliable the questionnaire is over time. If you agree to participate in this second phase, you will be asked to provide your email address to help us link your two questionnaire responses. Your email address will only be used to link responses and will be deleted once we have responses from both questionnaires. You will be asked for your email address at the end of this questionnaire should you proceed. You DO NOT have to provide your email or participate in a second questionnaire completion. This second stage is COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY.

What information will be collected about me?
We will collect the following information from you:
- Basic demographic data (e.g., gender identity, age, ethnicity)
- Basic information about your professional work or training role (e.g., role, years of experience)
- Self-rated wellbeing and workplace performance
- Perceptions of the psychological health of your working environment

Information you provide us will be held securely as electronic files on university servers. Only those directly involved in the research will have access to this information. Keele University is the Data Controller and will handle your data in accordance with data protection law for the purpose of a task carried out in the public interest and for research purposes. Your data will not be transferred outside of the UK or EU and will be stored for 10 years following the end of the study. You have several rights with regards how we process your data; the right to access, rectification, restriction and objection. To exercise these rights, contact both the named research contact and Data Protection Officer (dpo@keele.ac.uk). For full privacy information please visit our web page: https://www.keele.ac.uk/privacynotices/privacynotice-researchparticipants/

What will happen to the results of the study?
The research team will analyse information that you and others provide in the questionnaire. This information will help us evaluate the questionnaire and role of several variables in an organisation’s psychological health.

A summary of key findings will be produced and included in written reports, conference presentations and published documents. A summary of findings will be made available to your organisation via an OHIQ Report. Anonymised datasets will be stored in an open access repository such as the Open Science Framework. Note that your personal information will not be used in these materials or stored.

What are the risks or benefits of taking part?
We do not expect participation to carry any risk to you. However, some of the questions asked in this research pertains to potentially stressful or unpleasant aspects of your work environment. Thinking about these aspects might cause some distress. We have provided contact details of appropriate support services if this situation applies to you. Benefits of participation include the production of an organisational-level feedback report indicated areas of strength and limitations in the area of organisational psychological health.

Has this research been approved?
The OHIQ study has been approved by the Keele University’s Research Ethics Committee. Reference: 1134

Who is funding the research?
No external funding has been provided for this research.

Further Help
Please utilise any of the following professionals and agencies if you wish to seek support for your mental wellbeing:
- Your GP
- A staff support service provided by your employer (if available)
- CALM (5pm-12am), Webchat: https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/webchat/, 0800 58 58 58
- Samaritans, jo@samaritans.org, 116 123

To ask any questions about this research, please contact:
Prof. Jason Spendelow
Tel: +44 (0)1952 820280
Email: j.spendelow@hkvets.ac.uk

To raise a complaint about the research, please contact the Keele University research integrity team:
research.integrity@keele.ac.uk