Work Organization Conditions Research Articles

The growing inequalities in Italy – North/South – and the increasing dependency of the successful North upon German and French industries

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the impact of the adoption of 4.0 technologies and of the Italian Government Plan on the Italian industrial structure and on work organisation and workers' conditions. The Italian industrial structure is strongly unbalanced at a territorial level, because it is concentrated in the Northern country, while the South of the country is at a great disadvantage: the industrial and employment divide is therefore very evident. The adoption of 4.0 technologies and the Italian government's plan risk further aggravating this imbalance. Northern Italian industry, however, is also a cause for concern, as it is increasingly dependent on the supply chains of German, and to some extent French, industry. The consequences of the implementation of Industry 4.0 at the factory level on working conditions are negative for workers as it leads to an increase in work rhythms, an increase in workloads, a greater control over work performance and less autonomy for workers. In general, in fact, our research has shown a strong intertwining between 4.0 technologies and the organisational model of Lean Production, an intertwining aimed at increasing the exploitation of workers.

In the loop or cut off from the business - How to keep employees virtually engaged during Covid-19 (WITHDRAWN)

The Covid-19 pandemic caught organizations all over the world totally unprepared and forced most of them to transition into a virtual workplace, whereby employees were confronted with limited social contact. Accordingly, keeping employees engaged is key to ensure business continuity. Studies on virtual work engagement offer substantive insights into how to keep employees engaged in remote work settings. However, we still lack insights into how employees experience work engagement in times of crises. To generate empirical insights into virtual work engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic, we conducted a qualitative study with 1256 ratings of employees who worked from home from March to August 2020. In particular, we draw on the job demands-job resource theory to explore how employees experience their access to supervisory-, collegial-, and organizational resources during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings indicate five types of virtual work engagement differing in the degree to which they have access to crucial job resources, namely supervisory support, collegial interaction and organizational working conditions. We discuss these five types and develop implications for designing resourceful work environments to enforce employees' virtual work engagement in times of crises.

The Organizational Working Conditions from a Governance Perspective: An Analytical Framework

To pursue high-quality development, China needs to create new working conditions for workers to improve the quality of their work. “Working conditions” refers to the kind of working climate and state that people perceive in their organizations, a perception will have an important impact on their organizational behavior. Improving the working conditions of an organization is actually a social process of organizational governance. In observing organizational working conditions from a governance perspective, it is necessary to take into consideration “embeddedness” as a structural background and the work unit (danwei) as an institutional vehicle. It is imperative to emphasize both organizational order and the subjective perceptions of individuals. It also essential to analyze the organization’s social solidarity, its conflicts and integration and its protections and inclusion, the participation of its members, their interaction and the structure of their roles, and the organization’s structure and functions. This analytical framework provides a more comprehensive picture of organizational governance, which in turn reflects the organization’s working conditions and provides insights into overall research and dialogue in the disciplinary field of working conditions.

How do work organization conditions affect job performance? The mediating role of workers’ well-being

Background To design a workplace environment that favors workers’ well-being, organizations need to determine which variables are associated with this mental state. In doing so, the hope is to replenish human, work and social resources and ultimately boost employee’s performance at work. Objective and method This study’s objective was to evaluate the association between work organization conditions and job performance/professional efficacy as mediated by employees’ well-being. We conducted path analyses adjusted for design effects resulting from cluster sampling. We used MPlus software. The analysis performed allowed us to evaluate both the direct and indirect associations (mediation effects) while accounting for the non-independence of our data due to cluster sampling (workers nested in their workplace). Results and conclusion Three indirect associations/mediation effects were found to be significant. Psychological demands, number of hours worked, and job insecurity were indirectly associated with lower levels of professional efficacy/job performance because of their negative associations with well-being. The results obtained highlight the need to target specific work organization conditions. Making sure a sufficient number of staff are on hand to reduce psychological demands, offering the option to reduce number of hours worked, and fostering job security with an improved organizational communication are all possible avenues.

Application of the Theory of Constraints for Railway Personnel

The aim of this paper is to present a research leading to the innovation of the railway personnel’s work organization system and conditions. It deals with the issue of their performance and the position in the transport process. The concepts are theoretically defined, followed by an analysis of the staff’s role in the process using model examples. The theory of constraints is applied too, first in theory but supplemented by real examples. Some of these critical points and weakest links are highlighted as well as the possibilities how they can be eliminated. The possible synergistic effects are mentioned too.

Affective Temperament is Associated with Stress Coping Strategies and Work Stress Perception Among Polish Bank Employees.

BackgroundStress in the banking workplace is associated with psychological and health problems. Intensity of work-related stress experiences is associated with specificity of job stress factors personal features such as affective temperament. The aim of the study was to evaluate associations between affective temperament, coping stress strategies, and perceived job stress in bank employees.MethodsSubjects were 209 bank workers aged 22–55 years (n = 101 managers and 108 non-managers). Affective temperament and stress coping strategies were evaluated using the Temperament Evaluation of Pisa, Paris and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), respectively. Both questionnaires, TEMPS-A and CISS, show good internal consistency and are proper research methods in the bank employee group. Perceived job-related stress was rated for different sources of job stress common among bank workers.ResultsDepressive temperament was negatively associated with coping style focused on avoidance, and with job stress regarding “responsibility for decisions regarding other people” and “frequent trips.” Irritable temperament was positively correlated with coping style focused on task and job stress regarding “frequent trips.” Cyclothymic temperament was positively correlated with job stress regarding “direct work with money” and “organizational conditions of work.” Multidimensional linear regression showed that irritable and anxious temperaments were associated with coping style focused on task; depressive temperament was associated with coping style focused on avoidance; and cyclothymic temperament was associated with intensity of job stress. The results obtained indicate different levels of job-related stress associated with different sources in bank employees, working with managers and non-managers positions. Affective temperament was associated with stress coping strategies and intensity of perceived job stress. On the basis of affective temperament dimensions it is possible to predict stress coping styles and work-related stress perception in bank employees.ConclusionAffective temperament traits measured by TEMPS-A were associated with stress coping strategies and intensity of work stress perception in Polish bank employees.

Digitalisation, unions and participation: the German case of ‘industry 4.0’

AbstractThis article tackles the question of how labour representatives cope with the implementation of ‘Industrie 4.0’ in German manufacturing plants. Digitalisation of manufacturing is going along with challenges for employment, work organisation and working conditions. The article analyses one of the main strategies German unions have developed, the project ‘Work 2020’, which was to raise works councils' awareness of the workplace impact of digitalisation, improve their knowledge of the changes, raise their capacity to respond and, finally, lead to the negotiation of workplace agreements on this issue with employers. The results of the analysis show that a strong interplay between unions and works councils and the activation of works councils by the unions have become indispensable preconditions for coping with the new challenges both of digitalisation and of the ongoing erosion of the German system of labour relations.

Does Depression Mediate the Effect of Work Organization Conditions on Job Performance?

The present study proposes to shed light on the impact of workers' depression on their work performance. We implemented a path analyses adjusted for design effects resulting from cluster sampling using MPlus software on a sample of 1957 workers. These analyses allowed us to evaluate direct and indirect effects (mediation) while taking into account the nonindependence of observations due to cluster sampling (workers nested in their workplace). Results indicate that three indirect associations were found to be significant. Psychological demands, work schedule, and job insecurity were indirectly associated with lower levels of professional efficacy/job performance because of their positive associations with depression. The results obtained suggest that interventions targeting specific work organization conditions could be warranted.

Risk of slaughterhouse workers developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders in different organizational working conditions

Job rotation is defined as workers rotating between tasks with different exposure levels and occupational demands. The aim of the present study was to analyze the risk factors for the development of upper-limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders (UL-WMSDs) in poultry slaughterhouse workers as well as compare the score of the OCRA Checklist in different organizational working conditions. In this cross-sectional study, 118 workers were involved, 68 women (32.3 ± 10.7 years) and 50 men (29.5 ± 10.5 years). Three organizational configurations (“without job rotation”, “with job rotation – tasks >1h” and “with job rotation - tasks <1h”) were evaluated using the OCRA Checklist method, totaling 36 tasks and 28 job rotation schemes composed of 2–3 tasks. The OCRA score of the right upper limbs (17.8 ± 3.2) was significantly higher (p = 0.046) relative to the left upper limbs (16.4 ± 3.6). The median score was significantly lower in the “with job rotation - tasks <1h” condition (18.6) when compared to the “job rotation – tasks >1h” (19.4) (p < 0.001) and the “without job rotation” (19.0) (p = 0.038) conditions. However, there was no significant difference between the condition “with job rotation - tasks >1h” and “without job rotation” (p = 0.155). Thus, job rotations with intervals <1h reduced the risk of developing UL-WMSDs. Job rotations with <1 h intervals in poultry slaughterhouses are recommended along with further studies to verify the effectiveness of rotations with more than two tasks, involving mild or non-repetitive tasks.

Predicting Nurses Burnout through Quality of Work Life and Psychological Empowerment: A Study Towards Sustainable Healthcare Services in Malaysia

The nursing profession is a much-demanded profession that requires the individual capacity to work under intense physical and emotional dynamics in the workplace. Work related factors cause burnout and need attention from scholars and professionals to reduce the effects of the burnout among nursing staff. This study aimed to examine the meditational role of psychological empowerment and work-life quality on the burnout experiences of nursing staff in Malaysia. This study investigated a sample of 432 nursing staff from 10 registered hospitals in the Selangor area that have been listed on the Malaysian Health Tourism Council (MHTC) website. The responses collected via a self-reported questionnaire, and the data was analyzed using partial least square regression structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings statistically support the argument that the provision of quality of work-life (adequate and fair compensation, constitution in the work organization, safe and healthy working conditions, social integration in the work organization, social relevance of work-life, and work and life span) could promote psychological empowerment among nurses. Psychological empowerment statistically resulted in reducing the burnout effects by mediating the effect of work-life quality (QWL) on burnout. This study contributes to the literature that QWL factors need to be studied separately, and its affects on psychological empowerment, and how psychological empowerment permits curtails the effects of the burnout among nursing staff providing the services to health tourists. This study also provided important implications for the management staff of the nursing industry to initiate the management of burnout with the provision of psychological employment. The present study contributed to the current literature of burnout management through the psychological empowerment provided by the factors of the quality of work life.

Organizational and Psychosocial Working Conditions and Their Relationship With Mental Health Outcomes in Patient-Care Workers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between both psychosocial and organizational working conditions with self-reported mental health and mental health expenditures. This study used worker survey and medical claims data from a sample of 1594 patient-care workers from the Boston Hospital Workers Health Study (BHWHS) to assess the relationship of psychosocial (job demands, decision latitude, supervisor support, coworker support) and organizational (job flexibility, people-oriented culture) working conditions with mental health outcomes using validated tools RESULTS:: People-oriented culture and coworker support were negatively correlated with psychological distress and were predictive of lower expenditures in mental health services. Job demands were positively correlated with psychological distress. Working conditions that promote trustful relationships and a cooperative work environment may render sustainable solutions to prevent ill mental health.

Well-being at work from a multilevel perspective: what is the role of personality traits?

PurposeIt is of great importance for organizations to identify what can influence employees’ well-being. The theoretical model that the authors propose combines psychological and social determinants of stress at work. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of work organization conditions, personality traits and their interaction to well-being in a sample of Canadian workers and companies.Design/methodology/approachMultilevel regression analyses were performed on a sample of 1,957 workers employed in 63 Quebec firms. Work organization conditions included (skill utilization, decision authority, psychological demands, physical demands, job insecurity, irregular schedule, number of working hours, social support from colleagues and supervisors, job promotion, and recognition) and personality traits included (self-esteem, locus of control and Big Five).FindingsWork organization conditions (psychological demands, number of hours worked and job insecurity) and personality (self-esteem, locus of control, extraversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness) were significantly associated with well-being. The results of the analysis show that none of the personality traits included in this study interacts with work organization conditions to explain workers’ level of well-being.Originality/valueThis study provides support for the implementation of human resource management (HRM) practices in order to diminish the presence of stressful working conditions as well as for the eventual development of training programs designed to raise personality traits.

Evolution of approaches to the essence of the notion «professional health»

The article deals with the ways of evolution, formation and regularities of the development of the term «professional health».A theoretical analysis of the problem of professional health was conducted, which made it possible to present his generalized understanding.Professional health is understood by us as the state of somatopsychic, socio-psychological and moral and ethical well-being of workers who enable them to perform their professional duties at the lowest cost and most effective, for the actions of any factors that accompany their professional activities.On this basis, we have identified the main components of professional health specialist in public administration.The level of scientific research of the topic by the domestic and foreign scientists is determined.The diversity and ambiguity of scientific views on the modern understanding of professional health in the system of public administration is emphasized. It is noted that the interpretation of this concept differs depending on its subjects, forms and methods of realization. The availability of certain resources of a public servant is not yet a guarantee of their use, but at the same time they determine the content of the mechanisms, strategies, styles and behaviors that a public official uses.It is concluded that professional health is the ability of the body to accumulate and maintain resources that ensure the performance of professional activities under the internal organizational conditions of work. Professional health is one of the informative indicators of the state of social health, which reacts sensitively not only to socio-economic changes, quality of life, etc., but also to working conditions.

Non-specific low back pain and its relation to the nursing work process.

Objectiveto relate nonspecific low back pain within the nursing work context with their workloads, attrition processes and the risks of illness.Methoda cross-sectional study with 301 workers from a general hospital in the south of the country. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and the Work Context Assessment Scale composed of three dimensions were used: working conditions, work organization and socio-professional relations. The association of variables with low back pain was tested using bivariate and multivariate analyzes. The measure of association used was the Odds Ratio and its respective intervals with 95% confidence. The data collected were discussed under the theoretical framework of the work process within the marxist conception and the theory of social determination of the health-disease process.Resultsthere was a statistically significant association between the dimensions of work organization and working conditions with low back pain and they obtained a critical classification meaning moderate risks to the professional illness.Conclusionthe study allowed a better understanding of the nursing work process and its relation with nonspecific low back pain and signaled that changes in the organization and working conditions should occur in order to reduce the risks of nursing workers’ illness.

Perception des conditions de travail et perspectives professionnelles chez les enseignants des collèges en Tunisie

This study examines the impact of organizational work conditions on the mental health of secondary school teachers in Tunisia. It aims to understand teachers’ specific problems on the basis of their professional representations of the profession in order to identify the sources of their malaise at work. To conduct our research, Self-report questionnaires were completed by 34 teachers, aged 30 to 58 years, from different secondary schools. The thematic analysis highlights a bond between constraints perception related to working conditions and the negative evaluations of work situations and teaching profession as a whole. Professional experience reveals suffering and discomfort, they can lead to reconsidering future prospects.

Pedagogiczne elementy adaptacji (kierowanej) społeczno-zawodowej nowych pracowników

The objective conditions of professional training in the field of education and the specificity of work-related activities involve the need to provide adaptation training to newly-hired workers. Adaptation is an intentional, educational process. It constitutes the beginning of a long, multi-stage occupational development process and is reduced to four activity areas: a) adjusting the newly-hired worker to the social environment of the work establishment and workers, b) inducing this worker to an efficient work, c) familiarizing such a person with the activities of social departments (e.g. self-governing bodies, trade unions, special-interest groups) operating within the work establishment, d) adjusting such a worker to organizational conditions of work (working time, length of stay in the work post, punctuality and work discipline). Treating the adapted workers as a potential force capable of improving the functioning and development of the work establishment, creates the characteristic feature of the adaptation process. In different companies this process should start with developing the adaptation programme which should be implemented in a thoughtful manner. The basic adaptation strategy includes additional training and professional development in different forms which are constantly diversified and refined.

Does organizational culture play a role in the development of psychological distress?

The aim of this article is to analyze the extent to which organizational culture contributes to the symptoms of psychological distress in the workforce. Integrating organizational culture and work organization conditions makes it possible to examine how culture is associated with the various components of work organization conditions, and how these conditions might relate to symptoms of psychological distress in employees. Data from the SALVEO study were collected in 2009–2012 from a sample of 1824 individuals nested in 60 Canadian workplaces. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the data. After controlling for individual and family characteristics, only group and rational cultures were associated with psychological distress, but both type of organization cultures were mediated by work organization conditions. Group culture is indirectly associated with lower levels of psychological distress since it favors lower levels of psychological demands and job insecurity. Rational culture is indirectly associated with higher levels of psychological distress because it favors higher psychological demand levels. The results obtained highlighted the importance of including variables relating to broader organizational context in models examining stress in the workplace.

“You Feel The Threat From Asia”. Onshore Experiences of IT Offshoring To India

This article investigates the experiences of employees and managers in Swedish companies that offshore IT services to India, focusing on how implementation of offshoring is changing the work organization and working conditions for software developers onsite. Our analysis highlights the fact that the working conditions have been significantly redesigned in several different ways because of offshoring, most obviously due to the need for knowledge transfer between the onshore and the offshore working sites. The study illustrates how employees and managers onsite utilized different strategies for knowledge transfer and how these strategies were more or less successful, sometimes due to resistance from employees. The article concludes that, although offshoring contributed to a separation of conception from execution in these companies, there were few signs of routinization of daily work tasks for onsite employees. Instead, it was the routinized and noncore tasks that were offshored while project management tasks were taken over by onsite staff, which meant that they ended up in a superior position vis-à-vis their Indian colleagues as new global hierarchies were created. Power relations at work, both within firms and between firms, are thus brought to light.

EL SÍNDROME DE QUEMARSE POR EL TRABAJO Y FACTORES PSICOSOCIALES EN DOCENTES DE PRIMARIA DE LA CIUDAD DE MONTEVIDEO

El presente estudio explora el Síndrome de quemarse por el trabajo a través del Cuestionario para la Evaluación del Síndrome de Quemarse por el Trabajo, (CESQT) (Gil-Monte, 2011) y su relación con Factores Psicosociales (Estrés de Rol, Supervisión, Condiciones Organizacionales, Preocupación Profesional y Falta de Reconocimiento Profesional) evaluados mediante el Cuestionario de Burnout del Profesorado Revisado (CBP-R) (Moreno Jiménez, Garrosa Hernández, &amp; González Gutiérrez, 2000). Se trabajó con una muestra no probabilística de 71 maestras de enseñanza privada de la ciudad de Montevideo. El 21,4% (15 maestras) presentaron según el CESQT un nivel crítico del Síndrome de Quemarse por el Trabajo (SQT) y 1.4% (1 maestra) además presentó sentimientos de culpa lo que indica el aspecto severo del mismo (Perfil 2). Se hallaron correlaciones significativas y positivas entre Estrés de Rol, Condiciones Organizacionales, Supervisión y Falta de Reconocimiento Profesional, con el SQT. Por último, se discuten resultados vinculados a salud laboral en docentes, limitaciones del trabajo y se plantean sugerencias para futuros estudios.

Working conditions under multiple exposures: A cross-sectional study of private sector administrative workers.

Office workers are increasingly exposed to physical and psychosocial risk factors. To assess the association between environmental, physical and organizational working conditions and the physical and psychosocial well-being of a sample of private sector office workers. Musculoskeletal pain was collected from a body map and the Disabilities of the Arms, Shoulders and Hands questionnaire. The short version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire enabled collecting information on six job related satisfaction and dissatisfaction subscales. A checklist for ergonomics in computer work guided the analysis of ergonomic factors and measurements were taken to characterize environmental conditions. Association between exposures and outcomes was calculated using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software. Significant moderate positive association was found between dissatisfaction with job psychological demands and musculoskeletal pain in the upper body (0.40; p= 0.05), as well as between postural ergonomic mismatches and dissatisfaction with job insecurity towards the future (0.42; p= 0.04). A significant moderate negative association (-0,47; p= 0.02) was found as well between satisfaction with job social support and with leadership quality and location of the work station in an open-plan office as opposed to smaller office rooms. The results show how raising awareness of the risk factors encountered in contemporary office work is still necessary to promote widespread improvement of working conditions, from both a physical and a psychosocial perspective.