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1. Introduction
Intrinsically, work has both positive and negative features which employees react on, but are commonly associated with stress that influences employees negatively, e.g. burnout ([18] Maslach et al. , 2001). According to [19] Nelson and Simmons (2003), an employee is experiencing a stressor as eustress (positive) or distress (negative), and manages the stressor by savoring from the positive experiences or coping with the negative experiences. Outcomes of managing stressors positively will be, for example, physical and mental health, and increased work performance ([19] Nelson and Simmons, 2003). In workplace interventions, it is most common to prioritize efforts that decrease the negative aspects in the work situation, because such aspects could cause distress and disease among the employees. As a parallel, the positive conditions at work should also be enhanced to maintain and increase health among the employees that are already feeling well at work ([17] Lowe et al. , 2003). According to the Luxembourg Declaration on Workplace Health Promotion, workplace health promotion refers to efforts made to improve health and well-being of the employees ([11] European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP), 2007). Work-related factors and processes should be identified in a local context to find a focus for workplace health promotion efforts and actions ([25] Whitehead, 2006).
Internationally, health promotion is often used as an umbrella concept for both the prevention of disease and the promotion of health. Thus, the European Health Promotion Indicator Development model ([4] Bauer et al. , 2006) states a parallel structure between prevention of risk factors (pathogenesis) and promotion of resources (salutogenesis) for health development. The split structure has an impact on the planning, implementation, and effects of health promotion ([4] Bauer et al. , 2006). The salutogenic approach focusses on development and maintenance of individuals' health, and how individuals can mobilize strength and energy by savoring from positive experiences in life ([1] Antonovsky, 1987a; [5] Bryant and Veroff, 2007). The opposite concept is pathogenesis, for which preventive intervention focusses on elimination of risk factors and destructive processes causing poor health ([4] Bauer et al. , 2006).
[1] Antonovsky (1987a) brought attention to the salutogenic approach and claimed that an individual's state of health is not a dichotomy of health or disease, but that an individual's state...