The role of secondary traumatic stress breakthrough champions in reducing worker trauma and improving organizational health using a configurational analysis approach.

Organizational champions are individuals or teams that strive to promote change within their workplace. These champions are integral to spreading innovative ideas and strategies and creating organization-wide changes ( Powell et al., 2015). However, little is known about the processes or specific strategies that make champions successful. One area in which champions are needed is in improving organizations' response to and understanding of secondary traumatic stress (STS), among those in helping professions that are indirectly exposed to trauma through the traumatic stories of those they work with. In fact, research has shown that organizational efforts to address STS improve the well-being of individual professionals within that organization ( Sprang et al., 2021). The present study sought to better understand what champion-related processes or conditions led to organizational change in addressing the effects of indirect exposure and improving symptoms related to STS. Results showed that organizational change in addressing STS and champions' problem-solving strategies resulted in reductions in individual professionals' STS symptoms. Furthermore, champions' use of peer engagement or sharing of knowledge among peers in child welfare settings led to improvements at an organizational level. These results show that organization-level change can have a direct impact on individual well-being and there are specific champion activities that can promote this change. Specifically, results demonstrate a need to identify and support champions' use of problem-solving and peer engagement strategies to turn the individual and organizational threat posed by indirect trauma into an opportunity for shared healing.