Abstract
BackgroundMany studies have shown that work stressors have a negative impact on health. It is therefore important to gain an understanding of how work stressors can be reduced. Recent studies have shown that employees in countries with high investments into labour market policies less often report exposure to work stressors. Although these studies are indicative of an influence of the political level on work stressors, they are based on cross-sectional cross-country analyses where causal assumptions are problematic. The aim of this study is to extend the existing evidence by longitudinally testing whether changes in labour market policies are related to changes in work stressors.MethodsWe used comparative longitudinal survey data from the European Working Conditions Survey (27 countries; for the years 2005, 2010, 2015). The measurement of work stressors is based on two established work stress models: effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and job demand-control (job strain). To measure labour market policies, we used information on active (ALMP) and passive labour market policies (PLMP). After excluding persons with missing data, 64,659 participants were eligible for the ERI and 67,114 for job strain analyses. Estimation results are provided by three-way multilevel models (individuals, country-years, country), which allow us to estimate longitudinal and cross-country macro-effects.ResultsAn increase in ALMP leads to a decrease of ERI. The analyses for the subcomponents ‘effort’ and ‘reward’ showed that mainly the ‘reward’ component is positively associated with ALMP. The association between ALMP and ‘reward’ shows that an increase in ALMP investments is related to an increase in rewards. Yet, no significant longitudinal associations between ALMP and job strain, and between PLMP and the work stressors, were observed.ConclusionsThe study extends the current knowledge with longitudinal information by showing that an increase in ALMP is associated with an increase in rewards and a decrease of ERI. These longitudinal analyses may support a causal interpretation. The findings of this study have important policy implications. Our main result suggests that investments into ALMP can lead to better working conditions.
Highlights
Many studies have shown that work stressors have a negative impact on health
We extend current knowledge by focusing on both between-country variation and withincountry changes, taking advantage of the opportunity for longitudinal modelling provided by the repeated surveys in the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS)
Thereby, while the pattern is not clear for the two work stressors effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and job strain, we find an increase for the component ‘reward’, and a decrease for the component ‘control’ between the years 2005 and 2015
Summary
Many studies have shown that work stressors have a negative impact on health. It is important to gain an understanding of how work stressors can be reduced. Recent studies have shown that employees in countries with high investments into labour market policies less often report exposure to work stressors. Evidence based health promotion in the workplace usually focuses on the individual himself [6] or on the organisational level of the company [7] in order to reduce or prevent stressful work, or to optimise coping processes of the individual person. In addition to the individual and organisational level, working conditions are influenced by structural factors (e.g. economy, digitalisation) One such factor concerns national labour policies [8]. The explicit aim of these policies is to regulate the labour market, improve working conditions and provide adequate social protection in critical situations, e.g. in case of job loss [9]. The possibility to expand one’s own skills and knowledge over the course of working life is important in order to cope with the changing demands of the labour market (for example digitalisation processes)
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