Steps, Choices and Moral Accounting: Observations from a Step-Counting Campaign in the Workplace

Sedentary work is a contributing factor to growing obesity levels worldwide. Research shows that step-counters can offer a way to motivate greater physical mobility. We present an in-situ study of a nation-wide workplace step-counting campaign. Our findings show that in the context of the workplace steps are a socially negotiated quantity and that participation in the campaign has an impact on those who volunteer to participate and those who opt-out. We highlight that specific health promotion initiatives do not operate in a vacuum, but are experienced as one out of many efforts offered to the employees. Using a social ecology lens we illustrate how conceptualizing a step-counting campaign as a health promotion rather than a behavior change effort can have implications for what is construed as success.