scholarly journals The Effect of Organizational Changes on the Psychosocial Work Environment: Changes in Psychological and Social Working Conditions Following Organizational Changes

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Fløvik ◽  
Stein Knardahl ◽  
Jan Olav Christensen
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Simonsen Abildgaard ◽  
Niels Christian Mossfeldt Nickelsen

This paper aims to discuss the implications of adopting an STS (science and technology studies)- based conceptualization of the psychosocial work environment. We problematize how work environment research presently divides elements of working conditions into separate physical and psychosocial dimensions. Based on actor network theory, a currently dominant perspective in the field of STS, we discuss the concept of sociomaterial work environment. An ANT perspective on work environment is relevant and timely, we argue, first and foremost because more entities are embraced in the analyses. We argue that the ANT perspective leads to a more nuanced understanding of the work environment where it is not a set of predefined categories that is the focus of interest, but rather the work environment as multiple locally performed aspects of agency, translation, and collectively constructed reality. This perspective on work environment, we argue, addresses pivotal issues raised in the work environment debate during the last ten years, for instance of how the work environment as a concept saliently belongs to a social democratic Scandinavian agenda in which the singular employee in a work environment context is predominantly seen as a victim. This trope, which was peaking in the 1970s, is increasingly becoming obsolete in a changing economy with still more flexible jobs. The contribution of this paper is to provide a presentation and a discussion of the potentials and pitfalls provided by a shift toward a sociomaterial work environment perspective, as well as an empirical exemplification of a sociomaterial approach to work environment assessment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Helge Hvid

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p>In this issue, four articles are published.</p><p><em>Corin and Björk</em> present a study of the psychosocial work environment among managers in public schools and in public elder care in Sweden. The study provides new insight into the working conditions of managers in the public sector, and at the same time, the study contributes to the development of research methods in the field. The study is based on Demerouti and Bakkers’ Job Demand-Resource model, which summarizes several well-known models for the studying of psychosocial work environment, primarily the Demand Control model of Karasek and Theorell and the Efford Reward model of Siegrist. The Job Demand-Resource model is most often used in survey studies, where employees assess their working conditions in a questionnaire. Corin and Björk, meanwhile, use the model as a basis for a qualitative study, which forms an external assessment of job demands and job resources. They use the ARIA method, based on the German ‘activity theory’. The study suggests that there is a strong imbalance between demands and resources in managers' work and the study illustrates how surveys and qualitative studies could be combined in a fruitful way (...)</p></div></div></div>


2015 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 405-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Utzet ◽  
A. Navarro ◽  
C. Llorens ◽  
S. Moncada

Author(s):  
Jonas Vinstrup ◽  
Annette Meng ◽  
Emil Sundstrup ◽  
Lars L. Andersen

Background: Poor psychosocial work conditions are known to foster negative health consequences. While the existing literature on this topic focus mainly on white-collar workers, the influence of different aspects of the psychosocial work environment in physically demanding jobs remain understudied. Likewise, senior workers represent a population of the workforce at increased risk of adverse health outcomes and premature exit from the labour market. This study investigates the association between psychosocial work factors and perceived stress among the senior work force. Methods: Utilizing cross-sectional findings, this study reports associations between psychosocial factors (organizational justice, cooperation and collegial support, decision latitude, clarity of tasks, and quality of leadership) and the outcome of perceived stress quantified by Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS). Currently employed senior workers with physically demanding jobs were included in the analyses (n = 3386). Associations were modeled using general linear models with weights to make the estimates representative. Results: For all individually adjusted psychosocial variables, the category of “good” was consistently associated with lower stress scores compared to the categories of both “moderate” and “poor” (all p < 0.0001). Likewise, in the mutually adjusted analysis, the category of “good” was statistically different from “poor” for all included variables, while the category of “moderate” remained different from “poor” for “clarity of tasks”, “cooperation and collegial support”, and “decision latitude”. Conclusions: Among senior workers with physically demanding jobs, poor ratings of organizational factors related to the psychosocial work environment are consistently associated with high stress scores. Blue-collar occupations focusing primarily on physical risk factors are recommended to increase awareness on psychosocial aspects that may be relevant to the local work environment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 78-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Llorens ◽  
Albert Navarro ◽  
Sergio Salas ◽  
Mireia Utzet ◽  
Salvador Moncada

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