The study is interested in the insalubrious building’s syndrome (IBS) as a collective illness observable through specific symptomes. Working from this definition, the study proposes to use a method based on an environmentals, technical and sensorial, psycho-social investigation.
The authors show a lack of theoretical references, nonetheless, the investigation do point to the interaction of environmental, psycho-social and organisational factors in the creation of specific crisis.
Academic literature describes IBS as crisis that intervene in a specific context. These crisis manifest themselves through organisational disorders, tensions in relationships and, sometimes, through increased sanitarian risks. Concretely, we usually observe an increase il arrêt (sais pas comment traduire) illnesses, conflictual situations, absences, anxiety as well as a decrease of productivity that can result in a burnout.
The World Health Organism (WHO) highlights for several year the multifactorial aspect of IBSs. That is to say, IBS are not product of a single, causal factor but rather of a range of situational factors.
The authors are therefore confronted with a major difficulty in doing their investigation: the absence of a causal link between the phenomenon of IBS and one or several observable factors. That is why the hypothesis of this investigation is that the various explicative factors (environmental, social, psychological…) all appear at different moment of the crisis. More precisely, the environmental factors would be, in the authors views, what would trigger the syndrome. On the other side, psychosocial and psychological factors allow the continuity and evolution of the syndrome inside an organisation/company.
In order to accept or reject their hypothesis, the authors start from an interdisciplinary database. They collect psychological, technical and sensorial data sur la base de grille de lecture (ça veux dire quoi ça?). They use interviews, focus groups, event chronologies, and air quality tests. The authors used these tools in a real situation of IBS. Data then showed a “deep psychological destabilisation” of depressive episodes.
The lack of transparency of the scientific results regarding air quality is an organisational factor that triggers the IBS’s evolution, increasing anxiety. What’s more, the type of management and the communicative system are presented as explanatory factors to the evolution of the crisis. The authors points to the hierarchy’s denial with regards to the syndrome and the lateness they took in looking for solutions, this increased in turn the anxiety.
The study concludes on this essential point. The appearance of an IBS is not caused solely by psychological factors, but primarily by environmental factors. However, it is maintained by psychosociological, organisational factors.