Health Leadership in the Wellness Industry

This paper reports a study carried out in the Swedish wellness sector. This is an industry that is expanding in most parts of the world. Nevertheless, only limited amounts of research has been carried out in this industry in contrast to the health sector and the wider hospitality sector which both have attracted substantial amounts of research. Since one of the missions of the wellness industry is to improve the health of the customers, it should be vital that the work environment of the employees is conducive for health. In a separate development, quality management practices have been found to be related to better health among the employees. Dimensions of health promoting quality leadership have been defined in previous research. The purpose of the present study was to identify dimensions of workplace health in the wellness industry and relate them to the dimensions of health promoting quality leadership. An empirical study involving seven leading spahotels in southern and western Sweden has been carried out. The first part of the study was qualitative and consisted of quality cafes carried out at each of the hotels. The quality cafe is a novel method which has the world cafe-method as its basis, combined with quality management techniques. Between 11 and 16 participants participated in the cafes. Based on the findings from the quality cafes, a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was returned by 92 employees of the hotels. The findings from the study include a definition of five major health dimensions for the employees. Happiness Kinship Respect Physical health conditions Control In the quantitative phase, the dimensions were found to be statistically consistent and correlated with the self-reported health of the respondents. The findings are related to health promotion theory and the health promoting quality leadership dimensions which previous research has defined as: Empathy Presence and communication Integrity Continuity Based on the comparative analysis of the two sets of dimensions and the theory within health promotion, a framework for health leadership in the wellness industry is proposed.