Healthy Workplaces: The Past, the Present and the Future of Universities as Organizations. (Symposium 1): Research on Healthy Universities: Methodology, Tools and Future Theoretical Implications

In recent years, many important transformations have affected academic communities, changing individual and collective behaviors related to work. Within this scenario, the issue of healthy universities emerged not simply as related to physical health and safety, but rather as the effort to create sustainable contexts and environments addressed to improve wellbeing for all members of the community (teachers, administrative staff, and students). Accordingly, the most recent organizational and technological changes faced by many European and non-European universities are heavily challenging teachers and administrative staff, impacting on their perceptions about job insecurity, financial cuts, increased administrative demands, pressure at work, difficulties in academic career advancement and tough competition. In this vein, the present symposium aims to provide a contribution to the discussion about the features of healthy universities from a multicultural perspective. Yet the symposium is part of a wider proposal about the quality of life at work in the academic environments, considered as a specific type of organization; this proposal was launched by an Italian research group composed by W/O Psychologists and Psychometrics coming from different Universities and interested in investigating the issue of healthy universities in a cross-national perspective developing a common protocol for the assessment of individual and organizational wellbeing in academic contexts, both from a theoretical point of view (sharing theoretical perspectives) and from a methodological point of view (developing tools and a research model aimed at validating standardized assessment protocols). The aim of this first symposium is to explore the present and the future of the research on the topic of Healthy Universities. Theoretical future implications, tools, and methods used to measure psychosocial risks and wellbeing indicators in Universities will be discussed. Contributions based on research carried out in Europe and in Australia will provide crucial international implications for future research. Based on data collected through different preliminary studies, some contributions carried out in Europe and in Australia will be presented, to share and enrich the perspectives on tools, methodologies and good practices in progress for the improvement of working conditions and well-being.