Behavior Change InterventionsGAS for SAMNCT06893471
From Yearly Checks to Daily Progress: Evaluating Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) in Systematic Work Environment Management (SAM) Within the Municipal Sector
A study testing GAS for SAM in people with Behavior Change Interventions and Work Environment Adverse Effects, run by Karolinska Institutet at 1 site in Sweden.
Trial summary
The goal of this project is to evaluate a practical method for improving systematic work environment management (SAM) by focusing on health-promoting factors rather than identifying risk-factors, and deficiencies. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Any ageHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Behavior Change Interventions, Work Environment Adverse Effects, Health Factors
- What is being tested?
- GAS for SAM
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 45 participants
- Where
- 1 siteSweden
- Study dates
- 15 Aug 2024to 31 Dec 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages Any age
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child, Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- work unit must have >3 employees, working within municipal sector, no other major organizational changes
Who cannot join
- Units with <3 employees, other major organizational changes
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
About this study
Official title: From Annual Measurements to Daily Improvements: Evaluation of a Method for Improving Systematic Work Environment Management
The goal of this project is to evaluate a practical method for improving systematic work environment management (SAM) by focusing on health-promoting factors rather than identifying risk-factors, and deficiencies. It will also explore how Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) can support goal-setting and evaluation within SAM. The main questions it aims to answer are:
- Which health-promoting factors are prioritized, and what organizational-level initiatives are developed?
- How does using GAS influence goal achievement related to health-promoting factors?
- How do employees, managers, and HR representatives perceive the use of GAS?
- What factors help or hinder the implementation of GAS and goal attainment?
Read more
Participants will:
Apply GAS within their organizations to set and evaluate goals Engage in a participatory process to identify key health-promoting factors Assess progress and the impact of interventions over time Researchers will analyze the effectiveness of GAS in enhancing SAM (experiment vs control group) and develop tools to support sustainable, healthy workplaces in the municipal sector.
Read the detailed description
This project aims to test and evaluate a practical method for enhancing systematic work environment management (SAM), shifting the focus from identifying deficiencies to achieving goals centered on health-promoting factors. Competence supply is one of the greatest challenges for Swedish municipalities, and deficiencies in organizational and social work environments contribute significantly to sickness absence, poor mental health, and well-being. This issue threatens municipalities' ability to fulfill their responsibilities to citizens. Active systematic work environment management (SAM) has been identified as a potential solution, yet many municipalities rely on annual assessments focused on shortcomings, without providing indicators for concrete solutions, goal achievement, or measurable progress.
There is a lack of knowledge on how SAM should be designed to prioritize health-promoting factors (i.e., workplace conditions that support employee health and sustainable employment) at an organizational level. Additionally, there is a need for goal indicators that are motivating, measurable, and applicable at both unit and organizational levels.
To address these pressing needs, we propose applying the Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) method. GAS serves as both a goal-setting and evaluation methodology, previously applied successfully at the individual level. We suggest that GAS can help organizations formulate concrete and tailored desired states related to specific interventions, thereby enhancing improvements in health-promoting factors.
GAS offers several advantages for enhancing SAM. First, goal-setting theory suggests that GAS facilitates the establishment of achievable and relevant goals. A participatory design is crucial, fostering a shared mental model of objectives. Second, GAS promotes data-driven decision-making and accountability within SAM, enabling workplaces to systematically assess progress and the impact of work environment initiatives. Third, GAS is versatile and universal, serving as a general framework adaptable to different organizations and their specific contexts and objectives.
The project will address the following research questions:
- Which health-promoting factors are prioritized, and what organizational-level initiatives are generated to address them?
- How does the application of GAS (as part of SAM) influence the achievement of goals related to health-promoting factors?
- How is the use of GAS perceived by different stakeholders (employees, managers, HR representatives)?
- What facilitators and barriers influence the implementation of GAS and the attainment of goals? The project will identify and highlight prioritized organizational-level health-promoting factors while mapping successful strategies and practices for addressing them. The expected outcome is the development of a systematic, participatory, and practical method that fosters local engagement in initiative development, goal setting, and follow-up of health-promoting factors within SAM. This work will contribute to the development of measurement methods and outcome metrics for organizational-level health-promoting factors. The resulting knowledge and tools can support the creation of long-term healthy, sustainable, and attractive workplaces within the municipal sector
- Conditions
- Behavior Change Interventions, Work Environment Adverse Effects, Health Factors, Goal Attainment Scaling
- Being tested
- GAS for SAM
- Keywords
- Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), Systematic work engagement management (SAM), group level, municipal sector, goal setting, RCT, health factors, Step Wedge Design
- Medical subject headings
- Occupational Stress
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
GAS for SAMOther
This study adapts Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) for group-level goal setting within systematic work environment management. Developed collaboratively with organizational stakeholders, the method is:
Tailormade - Allows flexibility in defining and scaling goals. Co-created - Encourages ownership and employee involvement. Standardized - Uses a five-level scale (-2 to +2) for tracking progress and enabling comparisons.
Data-driven - Includes a Progress Graph for systematic follow-up and documentation of goals and initiatives.
Managers in the experiment group will receive training before implementation begins
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Control group | No intervention | Business-as-usual condition: This group follows established processes for systematic work engagement management (SAM) We will employ a randomization approach using a two-arm stepped-wedge design. This design allows for a sequential roll-out of the intervention across study arms while maintaining a randomized allocation schedule. The stepped-wedge approach ensures that all participants eventually receive the intervention, while still permitting valid between-group comparisons at different time points. Importantly, this design also enables the inclusion of an additional measurement point, which will strengthen our ability to assess both short-term and longer-term intervention effects. |
| Experiment group | Experimental | Works with Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) as part of systematic work engagement management (SAM)
We will employ a randomization approach using a two-arm stepped-wedge design. This design allows for a sequential roll-out of the intervention across study arms while maintaining a randomized allocation schedule. The stepped-wedge approach ensures that all participants eventually receive the intervention, while still permitting valid between-group comparisons at different time points. Importantly, this design also enables the inclusion of an additional measurement point, which will strengthen our ability to assess both short-term and longer-term intervention effects. Receives: Other: GAS for SAM |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Employee survey results
The results from the annual employee survey will be the primary outcome in this study.
The municipality uses e.g., HME index from Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner (SKR) and are developing specific items for measuring health factors built on research based questions.
- Fair and transparent organization: Colquitt, 2001; COPSOQIII; Rawlins, 2008
- Leadership (present, trusting, engaging): Carless et al. 2000
- Participation and influence: Astvik et al. 2020; QPS Nordic
- Communication and feedback: Astvik et al. 2020
- Prioritization of work tasks: Astvik et al. 2020; COPSOQIII; Semmer et al. 2007; Åkerblom et al. 2021
- Lifelong competence development: COPSOQIII; Singer et al. 2012; OSA
- Systematic work environment management in daily practice: Berthelsen et al. 2020
- Early interventions and work adjustments:
COPSOQIII
Responses are rated on a five point (1-5) Likert-scale (higher score better outcome)
Measured: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 2 years
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted25 Mar 2025
- Study start15 Aug 2024
- Primary completion31 Dec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion31 Dec 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Behavior Change InterventionsStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Karolinska InstitutetThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 45 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Karolinska Institutet
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Mälardalen University
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Sebastian Heikklä, Karolinska Institutet
- Investigators
- Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz, Professor in Psychology, Study chair, Mälardalen University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06893471
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 20240063 (AFA-grant)
- Other IDs
- 20240063
- Acronym
- GAS for SAM
- Status last verified
- Sep 2025
- First submitted
- 18 Mar 2025
- Last updated
- 1 Oct 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided: This is a collaborative project with a municipality. Data will be collected at the group level (work units) and will remain confidential.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 1 Oct 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- From Annual Measurements to Daily Improvements: Evaluation of a Method for Improving Systematic Work Environment Management
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06893471
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- GAS for SAM / 20240063 (AFA-grant)
- Conditions
- Behavior Change Interventions, Work Environment Adverse Effects, Health Factors, Goal Attainment Scaling
- Keywords
- Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), Systematic work engagement management (SAM), group level, municipal sector, goal setting, RCT, health factors, Step Wedge Design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Enrolling by invitation
- Enrolment
- 45 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Karolinska InstitutetUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Mälardalen University
- Study start
- 15 Aug 2024 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Dec 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 31 Dec 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 25 Mar 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The goal of this project is to evaluate a practical method for improving systematic work environment management (SAM) by focusing on health-promoting factors rather than identifying risk-factors, and deficiencies. It will also explore how Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) can support goal-setting and evaluation within SAM. The main questions it aims to answer are:
- Which health-promoting factors are prioritized, and what organizational-level initiatives are developed?
- How does using GAS influence goal achievement related to health-promoting factors?
- How do employees, managers, and HR representatives perceive the use of GAS?
- What factors help or hinder the implementation of GAS and goal attainment?
Participants will:
Apply GAS within their organizations to set and evaluate goals Engage in a participatory process to identify key health-promoting factors Assess progress and the impact of interventions over time Researchers will analyze the effectiveness of GAS in enhancing SAM (experiment vs control group) and develop tools to support sustainable, healthy workplaces in the municipal sector.
Detailed description
This project aims to test and evaluate a practical method for enhancing systematic work environment management (SAM), shifting the focus from identifying deficiencies to achieving goals centered on health-promoting factors. Competence supply is one of the greatest challenges for Swedish municipalities, and deficiencies in organizational and social work environments contribute significantly to sickness absence, poor mental health, and well-being. This issue threatens municipalities' ability to fulfill their responsibilities to citizens. Active systematic work environment management (SAM) has been identified as a potential solution, yet many municipalities rely on annual assessments focused on shortcomings, without providing indicators for concrete solutions, goal achievement, or measurable progress.
There is a lack of knowledge on how SAM should be designed to prioritize health-promoting factors (i.e., workplace conditions that support employee health and sustainable employment) at an organizational level. Additionally, there is a need for goal indicators that are motivating, measurable, and applicable at both unit and organizational levels.
To address these pressing needs, we propose applying the Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) method. GAS serves as both a goal-setting and evaluation methodology, previously applied successfully at the individual level. We suggest that GAS can help organizations formulate concrete and tailored desired states related to specific interventions, thereby enhancing improvements in health-promoting factors.
GAS offers several advantages for enhancing SAM. First, goal-setting theory suggests that GAS facilitates the establishment of achievable and relevant goals. A participatory design is crucial, fostering a shared mental model of objectives. Second, GAS promotes data-driven decision-making and accountability within SAM, enabling workplaces to systematically assess progress and the impact of work environment initiatives. Third, GAS is versatile and universal, serving as a general framework adaptable to different organizations and their specific contexts and objectives.
The project will address the following research questions:
- Which health-promoting factors are prioritized, and what organizational-level initiatives are generated to address them?
- How does the application of GAS (as part of SAM) influence the achievement of goals related to health-promoting factors?
- How is the use of GAS perceived by different stakeholders (employees, managers, HR representatives)?
- What facilitators and barriers influence the implementation of GAS and the attainment of goals? The project will identify and highlight prioritized organizational-level health-promoting factors while mapping successful strategies and practices for addressing them. The expected outcome is the development of a systematic, participatory, and practical method that fosters local engagement in initiative development, goal setting, and follow-up of health-promoting factors within SAM. This work will contribute to the development of measurement methods and outcome metrics for organizational-level health-promoting factors. The resulting knowledge and tools can support the creation of long-term healthy, sustainable, and attractive workplaces within the municipal sector
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Control group | No intervention | –Business-as-usual condition: This group follows established processes for systematic work engagement management (SAM) We will employ a randomization approach using a two-arm stepped-wedge design. This design allows for a sequential roll-out of the intervention across study arms while maintaining a randomized allocation schedule. The stepped-wedge approach ensures that all participants eventually receive the intervention, while still permitting valid between-group comparisons at different time points. Importantly, this design also enables the inclusion of an additional measurement point, which will strengthen our ability to assess both short-term and longer-term intervention effects. |
| Experiment group | Experimental | Other: GAS for SAMWorks with Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) as part of systematic work engagement management (SAM) We will employ a randomization approach using a two-arm stepped-wedge design. This design allows for a sequential roll-out of the intervention across study arms while maintaining a randomized allocation schedule. The stepped-wedge approach ensures that all participants eventually receive the intervention, while still permitting valid between-group comparisons at different time points. Importantly, this design also enables the inclusion of an additional measurement point, which will strengthen our ability to assess both short-term and longer-term intervention effects. |
Who may qualify
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child, Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- work unit must have >3 employees, working within municipal sector, no other major organizational changes
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Units with <3 employees, other major organizational changes
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| GAS for SAMThis study adapts Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) for group-level goal setting within systematic work environment management. Developed collaboratively with organizational stakeholders, the method is: Tailormade - Allows flexibility in defining and scaling goals. Co-created - Encourages ownership and employee involvement. Standardized - Uses a five-level scale (-2 to +2) for tracking progress and enabling comparisons. Data-driven - Includes a Progress Graph for systematic follow-up and documentation of goals and initiatives. Managers in the experiment group will receive training before implementation begins | Other | Experiment group |
Primary outcome
Employee survey results
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 2 years
The results from the annual employee survey will be the primary outcome in this study. The municipality uses e.g., HME index from Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner (SKR) and are developing specific items for measuring health factors built on research based questions. 1. Fair and transparent organization: Colquitt, 2001; COPSOQIII; Rawlins, 2008 2. Leadership (present, trusting, engaging): Carless et al. 2000 3. Participation and influence: Astvik et al. 2020; QPS Nordic 4. Communication and feedback: Astvik et al. 2020 5. Prioritization of work tasks: Astvik et al. 2020; COPSOQIII; Semmer et al. 2007; Åkerblom et al. 2021 6. Lifelong competence development: COPSOQIII; Singer et al. 2012; OSA 7. Systematic work environment management in daily practice: Berthelsen et al. 2020 8. Early interventions and work adjustments: COPSOQIII Responses are rated on a five point (1-5) Likert-scale (higher score better outcome)
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 1 Oct 2025.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided. This is a collaborative project with a municipality. Data will be collected at the group level (work units) and will remain confidential.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz, Professor in Psychology study chair
Mälardalen University
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing GAS for SAM in people with Behavior Change Interventions and Work Environment Adverse Effects, run by Karolinska Institutet at 1 site in Sweden.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: enrolling by invitation, as of the sponsor's last update on 1 Oct 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Sweden. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Employee survey results (time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 2 years). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 1 Oct 2025.