Conditions for Low Stress-Risk Jobs

Abstract

The European situation of new forms of work organisation and stress risks in jobs are described against the ‘decentralisationhuman factor orientation model’, which discerns types of work organisation. ‘Flexible firms’ based on lean production have the highest probability of high strain jobs, predicting negative health effects. Among European employees, those working in high strain work organisations report the highest number of complaints with musculoskeletal problems, allergies and asthma and stress-related problems. Although new forms of work organisation are limited in occurrence, most of them tend towards lean production, indicating growing stress risks for employees. The authors suggest to reduce stress risks in jobs by redesigning those organisational conditions labelled as sources for these risks into work situations with a better balance in job demands and job control.