Gregor J. Jenny

Socioeconomic status, working conditions and self-rated health in Switzerland: explaining the gradient in men and women.

Objectives:Epidemiological research has confirmed the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, but only a few studies considered working conditions in this relationship. This study examined the contribution of physical and psychosocial working conditions in explaining the social gradient in self-rated health.Methods:A representative sample of 10 101 employees, 5003 women and 5098 men, from the Swiss national health survey 2002 was used. SES was assessed according to the EGP-scheme. Working conditions included exposure to physical disturbances, physical strain, job insecurity, monotonous work and handling simultaneous tasks. For data analysis logistic regression analyses were performed.Results:Data show a social gradient for self-rated health (SRH) as well as for physical and psychosocial working conditions. Logistic regression analysis controlling for age, gender and level of employment showed both physical and psychosocial working conditions to be significant predictors of SRH. Physical and psychosocial working conditions such as physical disturbances from work environment, physical strains in doing the job, monotony at work, job insecurity etc. could explain most of the social gradient of SRH in men and women.Conclusion:The study confirmed the relevance of modifiable physical and psychosocial working conditions for reducing social inequality in health. Gender differences need to be considered in epidemiological and intervention studies.

The consequences of job crafting: a three-wave study

This longitudinal study examined the consequences of job crafting on two important employee outcomes: psychological capital (PsyCap) as a work-related personal resource and work engagement as an indicator of employee well-being. The study also tested the reverse causation effects of PsyCap and work engagement on job crafting. It used a three-wave, three-month panel design to survey 940 employees from three European countries working in a broad range of economic sectors and occupations. The results of the cross-lagged longitudinal structural equation modelling demonstrated that job crafting predicted PsyCap and work engagement over time. No reverse causation effects were found. Overall, this study shows that when individuals proactively build a resourceful and challenging work environment for themselves, it can lead to diverse positive outcomes that are crucial to employee health and well-being. Employees should therefore be encouraged and be given the opportunity to craft their own jobs.

Design principles for data- and change-oriented organisational analysis in workplace health promotion

This article focuses on organizational analysis in workplace health promotion (WHP) projects. It shows how this analysis can be designed such that it provides rational data relevant to the further context-specific and goal-oriented planning of WHP and equally supports individual and organizational change processes implied by WHP. Design principles for organizational analysis were developed on the basis of a narrative review of the guiding principles of WHP interventions and organizational change as well as the scientific principles of data collection. Further, the practical experience of WHP consultants who routinely conduct organizational analysis was considered. This resulted in a framework with data-oriented and change-oriented design principles, addressing the following elements of organizational analysis in WHP: planning the overall procedure, data content, data-collection methods and information processing. Overall, the data-oriented design principles aim to produce valid, reliable and representative data, whereas the change-oriented design principles aim to promote motivation, coherence and a capacity for self-analysis. We expect that the simultaneous consideration of data- and change-oriented design principles for organizational analysis will strongly support the WHP process. We finally illustrate the applicability of the design principles to health promotion within a WHP case study.

The Context, Process, and Outcome Evaluation Model for Organisational Health Interventions

To facilitate evaluation of complex, organisational health interventions (OHIs), this paper aims at developing a context, process, and outcome (CPO) evaluation model. It builds on previous model developments in the field and advances them by clearly defining and relating generic evaluation categories for OHIs. Context is defined as the underlying frame that influences and is influenced by an OHI. It is further differentiated into the omnibus and discrete contexts. Process is differentiated into the implementation process, as the time-limited enactment of the original intervention plan, and the change process of individual and collective dynamics triggered by the implementation process. These processes lead to proximate, intermediate, and distal outcomes, as all results of the change process that are meaningful for various stakeholders. Research questions that might guide the evaluation of an OHI according to the CPO categories and a list of concrete themes/indicators and methods/sources applied within the evaluation of an OHI project at a hospital in Switzerland illustrate the models applicability in structuring evaluations of complex OHIs. In conclusion, the model supplies a common language and a shared mental model for improving communication between researchers and company members and will improve the comparability and aggregation of evaluation study results.

Age-related effects of job characteristics on burnout and work engagement

BACKGROUND In light of an ageing and age-diverse workforce, it is imperative to understand how psychosocial aspects of work might influence health throughout working life. Recently, there has been an implicit call to differentiate job characteristics beyond the two factors of job demands and job resources. As needs, abilities and motivation fluctuate with age, different job characteristics might yield differential benefits. Additionally, markers beyond chronological age should be considered. AIMS To explore systematically interactions between different job characteristics, age and age covariates (i.e. job tenure and position type) and their relationship with work-related health outcomes. METHODS An online survey of workers in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, recruited through a panel data service provider. We excluded participants working fewer than 30 hours a week, trainees, self-employed people and senior managers. We assessed seven areas of psychosocial risks at work, burnout, work engagement and demographics. RESULTS Of the 6000 workers contacted, 1916 responded (31%). After applying exclusion criteria, we analysed data from 1417 respondents. We found that age barely had a moderating effect between psychosocial factors and health outcomes, but its three-way interaction with age covariates had more explanatory potential. Young workers with high job tenure showed particular vulnerability to job demands and the lack of certain job resources. Older workers with managerial positions were more resilient. CONCLUSIONS Age and its covariates, such as job tenure and position type, should be considered in developing age-sensitive occupational health models.

Towards a Job Demands-Resources Health Model: Empirical Testing with Generalizable Indicators of Job Demands, Job Resources, and Comprehensive Health Outcomes.

Studies using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model commonly have a heterogeneous focus concerning the variables they investigate—selective job demands and resources as well as burnout and work engagement. The present study applies the rationale of the JD-R model to expand the relevant outcomes of job demands and job resources by linking the JD-R model to the logic of a generic health development framework predicting more broadly positive and negative health. The resulting JD-R health model was operationalized and tested with a generalizable set of job characteristics and positive and negative health outcomes among a heterogeneous sample of 2,159 employees. Applying a theory-driven and a data-driven approach, measures which were generally relevant for all employees were selected. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that the model fitted the data. Multiple group analyses indicated invariance across six organizations, gender, job positions, and three times of measurement. Initial evidence was found for the validity of an expanded JD-R health model. Thereby this study contributes to the current research on job characteristics and health by combining the core idea of the JD-R model with the broader concepts of salutogenic and pathogenic health development processes as well as both positive and negative health outcomes.

From Fidelity to Figuration: Current and Emerging Approaches to Organizational Health Intervention Research

Many professional communities are committed to the issue of organizational health and corresponding intervention research. They are dealing with individuals, teams and organizations, management, leaders and politics, health, well-being and productivity, and change, promotion, and development – for all of which there are experts with focused knowledge and methods. Actors in this scientific field include stress researchers moving from individual to organizational stress management, organizational behavior researchers concerned with the positive perspective, public health researchers considering organizations as root cause of psychosocial determinants of health, health promotion researchers dealing with healthy settings, ergonomics researchers addressing the macro level through participatory approaches, organizational change researchers introducing health as one criterion of successful change, management researchers discovering happiness as an additional, legitimate outcome, and so on.

The Application of Salutogenesis to Work

Work is both detrimental and health promoting. Antonovsky accentuated the distinction between eliminating stressors and developing health-enhancing job characteristics. He elaborated on job characteristics that potentially relate to a sense of coherence, offering a dense description of a workplace where individuals experience meaningfulness, manageability, and comprehensibility. This chapter presents models, measures, and intervention approaches that relate to the double nature of work and to both its pathogenic and its salutogenic qualities. Hereby, the view of Antonovsky is enhanced, insofar that health-promoting, salutogenic job characteristics are not solely understood as buffering the pathogenic effects of stressors at work, but have a direct effect on positive health outcomes. Antonovsky’s original model is first specified and simplified for the context of work. Then, Antonovsky’s line of thinking is related to frameworks researching job resources and demands. After a review of the prevalence of salutogenic measures in worksite health promotion, the point of making salutogenesis more visible in work-related research and practice is elaborated upon. This is illustrated with a practical example of a survey-feedback process promoting salutogenic work. Finally, the implications and challenges for practice and future research on salutogenic work are discussed.

The experience of work-life balance across family-life stages in Switzerland: a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study

BackgroundThe division of paid and unpaid labor in families continues to be highly gendered with men doing more paid work and women doing more unpaid care work. This is especially true for life stages with young children. Our study investigates the subjective experience of demands in the work and the private domain and the experience of work-life balance across family-life stages as a consequence of this gendered division of labor.MethodsWe used data from a survey study on work-life issues and health in four large companies in Switzerland (N = 3664).ResultsIn line with our hypotheses, subjective work and private demands were predicted by an interaction of family-life stages and gender. Specifically, during the primary child-rearing family-life stages, women experience more private demands than men while men experience more work demands, regardless of level of employment. Furthermore, women who work part time experience more work-life balance than women who work full time and more than men who work part or full time during the primary child-rearing family-life stages.ConclusionsResults are discussed in terms of a gendered work-life experience across the life course and the need for part-time work for both genders. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning our results’ implications for public health considerations.

The limits of control: a systemic, model-based approach to changing organisations towards better health

In this chapter, we combine a generic health development model, developed by researchers, with a management model, developed for company leaders, blending the logics of research and practice. The emerging Organisational Health Development (OHD) model is devised as a frame of reference for organisations, consultants and intervention researchers collaborating on targeted health-optimisation projects. This model serves as a common mindmap used to generate visibility of health development, enable all stakeholders to speak the same language, develop compatible perspectives and facilitate mutual action and the cross-linking and monitoring of targeted measures. It is also thought to support systemic thinking, i.e. enable the system’s members to see their blind spots, formulate hypotheses on work and health and raise awareness for the circularity of and the interactions between processes, organisations and employees. In applying this model, our intention is to also facilitate the generation of acceptable evidence for the research community. So far, our experience has shown that companies are interested in using mindmaps to facilitate discourse and action on health optimisation. Our approach is especially attractive to larger companies that already implement many optimisation measures, but that want to ameliorate their corresponding strategic efforts, i.e. companies that want to reduce complexity, enhance strategic visibility and necessity and optimise operative planning and spending on the multiple optimisation processes they use to target health and performance.