Workplace stress and employees' well-being: Evidence from long-term care in the Czech Republic.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to verify the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model, which served as the basic concept of mapping workplace stress, on the sample of Czech professional caregivers. ERI model examines the relationship between the long-term subjectively perceived level of workers' effort and rewards and analyses the physical and psychosocial consequences of the (im)balance. The verification of ERI model in combination with well-being (and its psychosocial consequences) was conducted on a sample of Czech professionals caring for older people in 2014 (N = 265). The survey included 12 facilities providing health and social care services for older people. Facilities were chosen through purposive sampling and snowball technique. The sample was divided into the following subgroups: professionals working in residential or field services and medical or social workers. Results showed that the majority (57%) of professional caregivers in both residential and field services suffered from imbalance caused by higher effort and lower rewards. Subgroup of medical workers in long-term care institutions formed the most demanded group with the highest imbalance between work effort and rewards (68%). This discrepancy was reflected in a reduction of their well-being. This effect was most evident by the medical workers in home care. Well-being within this group was more than five times lower compared to other groups with ERI imbalance. Also, a group of social workers in institutions came out as a high-risk group in this regard. The level of imbalance differed among the defined groups. The data obtained verified the known facts about the adverse work situation of professionals in long-term care in the contemporary Czech environment. The outputs correspond to foreign studies and confirm the validity of ERI model on the sample of Czech professionals in the long-term care.