Yukon Health Promotion Research Program: A case study in organizational and policy research. (Volumes I and II)

The PDE is a case study and an experimental tool or platform to explore the assumptions, implications, and outcomes of social science research in organizational and policy research. The objective of this work is to engage an organization in research focused on action--from a legislative act to research and on into policy formation and program implementation.;Two areas of interest are addressed in this work; first is a contribution to the field of health and health promotion and secondly are the insights into the role of the researcher in the organizational and policy research process.;Personal and population health status is a consequence of environmental and individual influences. To effectively anticipate, control, and positively influence health, basic and reliable information is required. This research provides the information required to focus health programs, to influence costly risk taking behavior, and to offer appropriate and directed services to the customers of government health programs. In short, health promotion research is basic market research designed for organizational action--policy and program. The PDE is a tool for profiling the health customers of a government department of health. This market tool offers the information that will allow government to rationalize existing programs, to target services to high risk or high cost customers, and to develop an understanding of health behavior consistent with accountable public policy.;The PDE is also a platform on which to understand the principles of organizational and policy research. Besides the development of health information for organizational purposes, the PDE develops an alternative interpretation of the role of research to the field of organizational and policy research. This role of the organizational researcher is neither passive nor is it content-dependent. Researchers are facilitators of knowledge. Their role is that of broker or advocate for social science methods in the organization. To believe that research provides the "answer" is to confuse the epistemological and methodological contributions of research to the organization and the policy process. Research contributes communication and mediates knowledge rather than prescribes it.