Contribution of work ability and core self-evaluations to worker health.

K Coomer,J Houdmont

doi:10.1093/occmed/kqz081

Abstract

Work ability (WA) concerns the capacity to manage job demands in relation to physical and psychological resources. Core self-evaluations (CSE) refer to a composite personality construct comprising self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy and emotional stability traits. Studies have shown the independent contribution of WA and CSE to work outcomes, yet none has explored their additive contribution, when applied together, to identify workers at risk of impaired health and performance-related outcomes. The aim was to explore the contribution of WA and CSE to explaining variance in psychological distress and work engagement in a sample of UK manufacturing sector workers. A self-report questionnaire containing validated measures of WA, CSE, psychological distress and work engagement was administered to employees in four UK manufacturing organizations. Bivariate correlations were calculated to identify patterns of relationships between the variables and hierarchical linear regression analyses performed to examine the incremental contribution of WA and CSE to the target variables. Analyses were conducted on data contributed by 311 workers (21% response rate). WA accounted for around one-quarter of the variance in psychological distress and around one-fifth of the variance in work engagement. The addition of CSE explained a further 10% (psychological distress) and 7% (work engagement) of the variance. These exploratory findings suggest that WA and CSE might be useful in the identification of workers at risk of poor psychological well-being and work effectiveness in UK manufacturing. Longitudinal sector-representative studies are required to establish the constructs' predictive power.

Highlights

Work ability (WA) refers to a worker’s capacity to manage their job demands in relation to their health and mental resources [1]
The addition of Core self-evaluations (CSE) explained a further 10% and 7% of the variance. These exploratory findings suggest that WA and CSE might be useful in the identification of workers at risk of poor psychological wellbeing and work effectiveness in UK manufacturing
In view of the growing body of evidence highlighting the role of the CSE personality construct in explaining worker health and performance-related outcomes, the second aim of this study is to examine whether CSE explained a significant amount of incremental variance in psychological distress and work engagement over and above that accounted for by WA

Summary

Introduction

Work ability (WA) refers to a worker’s capacity to manage their job demands in relation to their health and mental resources [1]. Existing studies are inconsistent in terms of the treatment of WA as an independent versus dependent variable, and little research has been conducted in the context of the United Kingdom and, the manufacturing sector. This is an important omission given the ageing workforce and increasing requirement for longer working lives. There is limited knowledge about the potential utility of WA in this context for the identification of workers at risk for impaired health and performance related outcomes such as work engagement In response to this knowledge gap, the first aim of the current study is to examine the contribution of WA to explaining variance in psychological distress and work engagement in the context of the UK manufacturing sector. Studies have shown the independent contribution of WA and CSE to work outcomes, yet none have explored their additive contribution, when applied together, to identify workers at risk of impaired health and performance-related outcomes

Methods

Results

Conclusion