Workplace Determinants of Social Capital: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence from a Finnish Cohort Study

Tuula Oksanen,Mika Kivimäki,Anne Kouvonen,Etsuji Suzuki,Marianna Virtanen,Soshi Takao,Ichiro Kawachi,Jussi Vahtera,Jaana Pentti,Richard Fielding

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065846

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine which contextual features of the workplace are associated with social capital.MethodsThis is a cohort study of 43,167 employees in 3090 Finnish public sector workplaces who responded to a survey of individual workplace social capital in 2000–02 (response rate 68%). We used ecometrics approach to estimate social capital of work units. Features of the workplace were work unit's demographic and employment patterns and size, obtained from employers' administrative records. We used multilevel-multinomial logistic regression models to examine cross-sectionally whether these features were associated with social capital between individuals and work units. Fixed effects models were used for longitudinal analyses in a subsample of 12,108 individuals to examine the effects of changes in workplace characteristics on changes in social capital between 2000 and 2004.ResultsAfter adjustment for individual characteristics, an increase in work unit size reduced the odds of high levels of individual workplace social capital (odds ratio 0.94, 95% confidence interval 0.91–0.98 per 30-person-year increase). A 20% increase in the proportion of manual and male employees reduced the odds of high levels of social capital by 8% and 23%, respectively. A 30% increase in temporary employees and a 20% increase in employee turnover were associated with 11% (95% confidence interval 1.04–1.17) and 24% (95% confidence interval 1.18–1.30) higher odds of having high levels of social capital respectively). Results from fixed effects models within individuals, adjusted for time-varying covariates, and from social capital of the work units yielded consistent results.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that workplace social capital is contextually patterned. Workplace demographic and employment patterns as well as the size of the work unit are important in understanding variations in workplace social capital between individuals and workplaces.

Highlights

Social capital refers to features of social organisation such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit [1]
Half of the participants were working in work units with fewer than 29 employees, where less than 4% of the employees were manual, 10% male and 25% employees were on a fixed-term contract
Every 30-person-year increase in the size of a work unit reduced the likelihood of the workplace belonging to the highest category of workplace social capital by 6% when all individual level covariates were controlled for

Summary

Introduction

Social capital refers to features of social organisation such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit [1]. During the last two decades, researchers have focused on social capital as one of the social determinants of population health [2,3]. Building social capital has been suggested as an avenue to promote health and to reduce health disparities within and between populations [4]. Suggestions on how to intervene in order to build social capital have been sparse, partly owing to the paucity of research on factors that determine the levels of social capital. Social capital has been measured both at the individual level and at the group level

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion