Christina Björklund

Does a Change in Psychosocial Work Factors Lead to a Change in Employee Health

Objective: The aim was to identify psychosocial factors at work that promote positive changes in employee health and factors that prevent negative changes in employee health. Method: This study is part of a large longitudinal study and includes 1212 employees. Data for psychosocial work factors and self rated health was collected in 2000 and 2003. A modified Poisson regression was used to find factors of relevance for positive and negative changes in health. Results: A negative change in leadership, organizational commitment and reporting job strain increased the risk for negative change in health. Improved leadership and social climate increased the chance for positive changes in health. Conclusion: By improving psychosocial factors at work, it is possible to promote employee health as well as prevent employee ill-health.

Does survey feedback enhance the psychosocial work environment and decrease sick leave

This longitudinal retrospective study shows that when the results of an organizational development intervention are fed back properly and action plans are made, factors associated with leadership and commitments to organization are enhanced. The study compared the effects of survey feedback, including the making of action plans and survey feedback without action plans, to the effects of no feedback at all on several psychosocial factors and sick leave over a 3-year period. The data were derived from 1236 individuals for whom baseline data were available and who completed a 3-year follow-up. Applied statistics revealed that the feedback action plan group reported greater improvements regarding leadership factors and commitment to the organization. The results reveal no differences between the feedback groups in regard to sick leave. There is a need for further studies, preferably with a randomized control design, on how to enhance both the psychosocial work environment and employee health and also how to reduce sick leave in the workplace.

Measuring Production Loss due to Health and Work Environment Problems: Construct Validity and Implications

Objective: The aim was to validate two measures of production loss, health-related and work environment–related production loss, concerning their associations with health status and work environment factors. Methods: Validity was assessed by evaluating the construct validity. Health problems related and work environment–related problems (or factors) were included in separate analyses and evaluated regarding the significant difference in proportion of explained variation (R2) of production loss. Result: health problems production loss was not found to fulfill the criteria for convergent validity in this study; however, the measure of work environment–related production loss did fulfill the criteria that were set up. Conclusion: The measure of work environment–related production loss can be used to screen for production loss due to work environment problems as well as an outcome measure when evaluating the effect of organizational interventions.

Hierarchies of health: health and work-related stress of managers in municipalities and county councils in Sweden.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the risk of poor health and stress among male and female managers working at different levels in the public sector. Methods: A cross-sectional study using register data. A modified Poisson regression approach was used to examine the risk of stress and illness in relation to management level and sex; 1088 managers participated and were categorized into different management levels and sexes. Results: The results showed a clear hierarchy of health in relation to managerial level and sex with several significant statistical differences. Women with lower-level management positions suffered to a greater extent from poor health and stress. Conclusions: Organizations should focus not only on developing individuals in their managerial roles but also on improving the conditions that allow managers to remain healthy and less stressed.

Work motivation and perceived risks

The purpose of the present paper is to examine work motivation (willingness to work) and the related variable of perceived risks. The paper reports results from two studies. The two studied groups were people employed in childcare and employees of a Swedish insurance company. The questionnaires were similar in both studies. The perceived risk variables were divided into two groups: accepted risks that were positively correlated with work motivation, and a risk burden that had a negative correlation to work motivation. The risk variables accounted for 36.9% of the explained variance in work motivation for employees of the insurance company and the variance in work motivation was explained to 23.3% by the risk variables for the group employed people in childcare. Hence, risk is an important factor in work motivation.

Work-related stress assessed by a text message single-item stress question

Abstract Background Given the prevalence of work stress-related ill-health in the Western world, it is important to find cost-effective, easy-to-use and valid measures which can be used both in research and in practice. Aims To examine the validity and reliability of the single-item stress question (SISQ), distributed weekly by short message service (SMS) and used for measurement of work-related stress. Methods The convergent validity was assessed through associations between the SISQ and subscales of the Job Demand–Control–Support model, the Effort–Reward Imbalance model and scales measuring depression, exhaustion and sleep. The predictive validity was assessed using SISQ data collected through SMS. The reliability was analysed by the test–retest procedure. Results Correlations between the SISQ and all the subscales except for job strain and esteem reward were significant, ranging from −0.186 to 0.627. The SISQ could also predict sick leave, depression and exhaustion at 12-month follow-up. The analysis on reliability revealed a satisfactory stability with a weighted kappa between 0.804 and 0.868. Conclusions The SISQ, administered through SMS, can be used for the screening of stress levels in a working population.

Academic Leadership: Management of Groups or Leadership of Teams? A Multiple-Case Study on Designing and Implementing a Team-Based Development Programme for Academic Leadership.

Demands on academic leadership are increasing, which raises the need for leadership training. This article describes development and implementation of a group training intervention in academic leadership at a departmental level. Little systematic research has addressed the question of what forms of leadership training are associated with effectiveness of academic leadership teams. This study examined a comprehensive methodological approach including three different data collection methods. The content analysis of the intervention resulted in identification of vital components that are associated with team effectiveness. Here, the findings are considered in relation to the notion of functional role-taking, and their general implications are explored in relation to the possibility of systematically developing academic leadership.

Participatory work place intervention for stress prevention in primary health care. A randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to explore whether a participatory, organizational intervention can reduce work-related risk factors, and thereby prevent stress-related ill health. We build on the job demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models of stress. It is a two-armed randomized trial, with one primary health care unit receiving the intervention and a two-unit control group. Validated questionnaires for the assessment of psychosocial work environment and health were administered, at the baseline and at 6 and 12-month follow up. The primary outcome was job strain. Secondary outcomes were effort–reward imbalance, exhaustion, sleep, and recovery. Group-level objective data on workload and data about relevant processes during the study were continuously collected. The changes in the intervention group with regard to job strain, effort-reward imbalance, exhaustion, sleep and recovery were not statistically different from changes in the control group. For the non-exhausted employees though, reward was significantly higher at follow up compared to baseline, but only in the intervention group. An important piece of information is that the objective workload was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group throughout the study. Not all the components of the intervention were implemented as intended. Context and process information, such as objective data and implementation fidelity are necessary for a valid interpretation of the results.