Affiliations: School of Occupational Therapy, La Trobe University,
Victoria, Australia | Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
at Psychosocial Research Centre, Coburg Victoria, Australia | Psychosocial Research Centre and Department of
Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia | North West Area Mental Health Service, Melbourne,
Australia
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Anne Williams, School of
Occupational Therapy, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3068, Australia.
Tel.: +61 3 9479 5717; Fax: +61 3 9479 5737; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Objective: Social firms or enterprises aim to offer sustainable
employment in supportive workplaces for people who are disadvantaged in the
labour market. Therefore, this study sought to explore employees' views in one
social firm about the features of their workplace that they found
supportive. Participants: Seven employees were recruited, all of whom
experienced persistent mental illness, and had worked in this social firm for
between eleven months and six years. Methods: A semi-structured interview, the Work Environment Impact
Scale (version 2.0), was used to explore participants' views of their workplace
and to rate how its physical and social characteristics impacted them.
Participants also rated their job satisfaction with a modified Indiana Job
Satisfaction Scale. Results: Features of the social firm workplace identified by these
employees as contributing to their sustained employment and satisfaction were
the rewards, task demands, work schedule, and workplace interactions with
supervisors and other co-workers. From their views, guiding principles for the
development of supportive workplaces and evaluation of their capacity to afford
sustainable employment were derived. Conclusions: This study adds to current knowledge about workplace
supports from an employee perspective, and is of relevance for informing future
social firm development, workplace design and evaluation.
Keywords: Social enterprise, job tenure, workplace environment
