Abstract: This study identifies and describes questionnaires that measure empowerment in working life. Theoretical bases and empirical examination of the questionnaires are also reported. Nine questionnaires emerged from a database search including AMED, CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE and PSYCINFO. The main target groups were employees in general. Most authors share the same theoretical basis. Most of the questionnaires focus on intra- individual issues, while a smaller number deal with the interaction between individual and organization. Control and competence are frequently used dimensions. Cronbach's alpha for complete questionnaires ranged between 0.62 and 0.96. No comparisons with outcome of health were reported. Spreitzer's questionnaire…[54] has undergone the most comprehensive investigation. Research is required to achieve better understanding of the interplay between conditions at work and empowerment and health.
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Keywords: Empowerment, measurement, working life, workplace health promotion, health promotion
Abstract: Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine the cross-sectional and 2-year longitudinal associations between perceived organizational justice, self-rated health and burnout. Metods: The study used questionnaire data from 428 Swedish employment officers and the data was analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling, SEM. Two different models were tested: a global organizational justice model (with and without correlated measurement errors) and a differentiated (distributive, procedural and interactional organizational justice) justice model (with and without correlated measurement errors). Results: The global justice model with autocorrelations had the most satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices. Global justice showed statistically significant (p < 0.01) cross-sectional…(0.80 ⩽ {mle ⩽ 0.84) and longitudinal positive associations (0.76 ⩽ mle ⩽ 0.82) between organizational justice and self-rated health, and significant (p < 0.01) negative associations between organizational justice and burnout (cross-sectional: mle = −0.85, longitudinal −0.83 ⩾ mle ⩾ −0.84). Conclusion: The global justice construct showed better goodness-of-fit indices than the threefold justice construct but a differentiated organizational justice concept could give valuable information about health related risk factors: if they are structural (distributive justice), procedural (procedural justice) or inter-personal (interactional justice). The two approaches to study organizational justice should therefore be regarded as complementary rather than exclusive.
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Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse how people who return to the labour market after long-term sickness absenteeism and subsequent job loss differ in employability, work ability, health, educational level, age, and gender, compared to those who do not. PARTICIPANTS: The cohort consisted of 191 individuals, 20 men and 171 women, whose employment was terminated because they had not been able to return to their regular work after taking a long-term sick leave and rehabilitation measures. METHODS: This study is based on a postal questionnaire sent out to a cohort of previous employees in a Swedish municipality…in 2008. RESULTS: At the time of the survey, 39% of the respondents had returned to the labour market and the remaining 61% had not. Return to the labour market after a long-term sick leave was positively associated with male gender, young age, and work ability, i.e. the ability to work with respect to health and work-related demands. Employability, educational level, and health were not significantly associated with a return to the labour market. CONCLUSIONS: In the discourse on employability, work ability is often neglected even though it is a central aspect of an individual's ability to obtain new employment.
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Keywords: Unemployment, health, long-term sick leave, Sweden
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that social support is important for health and performance at work, but there is a lack of research regarding managers’ social support at work, and if it needs to be improved OBJECTIVE: To investigate managers’ perception of work-related social support, and facilitators and hindrances that influence their seeking of social support at work. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with sixty-two managers in two Swedish organizations. RESULTS: Work-related support, which strengthened their managerial image of being competent, was sought from sources within the workplace. Sensitive and personal support, where there was a risk of jeopardizing their image of…being competent, was sought from sources outside the workplace. Access to arenas for support (location of the workplace, meetings, and vocational courses) and the managerial role could facilitate their support-seeking, but could also act as hindrances. Because attending different arenas for support were demanding, they refrained from seeking support if the demands were perceived as too high. CONCLUSIONS: Different supportive sources are distinguished based on what supportive function they have and in which arenas they are found, in order to preserve the confidence of the closest organization and to maintain the image of being a competent and performing manager.
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Keywords: Image, health, leadership, work conditions
Abstract: Objectives: Few workplace health promotion (WHP) interventions are designed to improve work conditions. Methods for measurement of work conditions are often developed from a risk factor perspective rather than a WHP perspective. More knowledge is needed on the work conditions that promote health in order to develop a good work environment. The purpose of the present study was to investigate if the Demand Control Support model, the Effort Reward Imbalance model and the Job Characteristic Inventory are correlated, if the subscales predict health and to analyze which combination of subscales is the most useful predictor of health longitudinally. Participants: The…study used questionnaire data from 662 civil servants at baseline and at follow-up 2 years later. Method: The data were analysed by multiple regressions. Results: A new model; effort, reward, and variety, was found having a higher predictive power to predict health than the original models. Conclusions: To promote health at work, social relations and health-mediating work conditions are important because these conditions may buffer health. Health can be assumed to be a resource that is created in everyday activities and interactions in workplaces, and there is a need to develop health measure instruments based on holistic health theories.
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Keywords: Work conditions, job stress models, health, workplace health promotion
Abstract: Objective: To explore the relationship between managers' leadership and their health, by investigating what psychosocial conditions in the workplace managers experience as being important to their health, and how their health influences their leadership. Participants and methods: Semi-structured interviews with forty-two managers at different managerial levels in a large Swedish industrial production company. Results: Most managers felt their health was good, but many perceived their work as stressful. They said it was important to their health that they did a good job and achieved results as expected, that conditions in the workplace enabled this achievement, and that their performance was…acknowledged. In comparison to the other managerial levels, the first-line managers' work and health were especially dependent on such enabling conditions. The results also showed that the managers' health influenced their leadership, the quality of their work and the quality of their relationship with subordinates. Conclusion: Managers' leadership, health and their work conditions are reciprocally related to each other. A productive and healthy workplace is facilitated by focusing on managers' conditions for leadership, their health and their work conditions.
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Keywords: Managerial levels, psychosocial work conditions, industrial production company
Abstract: The aim of this study was to describe how Swedish social insurance officers experienced their working conditions, when dealing with applications for disability pensions (DPs). A qualitative research design was selected to describe their experiences. Open-ended interviews with ten social insurance officers were analyzed with inductive content analysis. This analysis showed that the working conditions were influenced by rules and regulations and the social insurance officers' competence. The social insurance officers' powerful positions and how their discretion was implemented made them feel responsible for performing their work well. They felt that the large number of clients hampered them from being…able to offer the clients the activities they were entitled to, and from paying each client sufficient attention. There was a need for time to reflect and to improve management, in order to better develop the way in which DPs were handled. There was a difference in culture between the older social insurance officers, who had experience-based training, and the younger social insurance officers, who had academic qualifications. The results from this study could be used to better develop the organisation of work in the social insurance agency, and in further educational activities.
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Keywords: Social insurance officer, working conditions, street-level bureaucracy
Abstract: Aims: The objective of this pilot study was to explore whether organisational change and work-related stress, as measured by the Job Content Questionnaire, were associated with first-ever stroke among working people aged 30–65. Methods: In a case-control study a total of 65 consecutive cases, aged 30–65 years of age, with first-ever stroke were recruited from four hospitals in Sweden during 2000–2002. During the same period, 103 random population controls in the same age interval were recruited. Data on job-related stress and traditional medical risk factors were collected by a questionnaire. Results: In the multivariate analyses, organisational change (OR 3.38) increased…the likelihood of stroke, while experiencing an active job (OR 0.37) decreased the likelihood of stroke. Regarding risk factors outside work, age (OR 1.11), low physical activity (OR 5.21), low education (OR 2.48) and family history of stroke (OR 2.59) were associated with increased likelihood of stroke. Conclusion: This study suggests an association between organisational change, work-related stress and stroke. The likelihood of stroke was lower for people in active job situations.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND: Health problems due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and common mental disorders (CMD) result in costs due to lost productivity. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to increase knowledge of employers’ productivity loss due to employees’ presenteeism and sickness absence. METHODS: A web questionnaire was sent to employers of workers who were sick-listed for more than 30 days due to MSD or CMD, response rate: 50%, n = 198. Presenteeism and the impact on productivity before and after sick leave, and the performance of work tasks by replacement workers during sick leave, were measured using supervisors’ ratings. RESULTS: The average loss of productivity…per sick-leave case amounted to almost 10 weeks, 53%of productivity loss was attributable to presenteeism and 47%to lower productivity by replacement workers. Employees with a CMD diagnosis had significantly higher presenteeism-related productivity loss than those with MSD. CONCLUSIONS: Employers experienced substantial productivity loss associated with employees’ presenteeism and sick leave. Whether the supervisory rating of presenteeism is preferable to employee self-rating needs to be studied further. The long duration of presenteeism is counter-productive to resource-efficient organisations and indicates the need for improved supervisory skills to identify workers with poor health, both before and after sick leave.
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Keywords: Workplace, costs, work disability
DOI: 10.3233/WOR-213439
Citation: Work,
vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 1091-1100, 2021