<p><strong>Aim:</strong> The aim of this study was to investigate if there are associations between job stress in terms of demand, control, and support and physical inactivity.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> A cross-sectional design was used in this study which is based on the “Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health” (SLOSH) from 2006. SLOSH includes men and women, between 19-68 years old and from all labor markets sectors. A total of 5 141 participants sent in their survey. Indices of the components in the demand-control-support model were created and multiple regression analyses with physical inactivity as the dependent variable were performed. Adjustment for possible confounders (age, sex, marital status, children, education, physical work, computer work, working hours, shift work, smoking, alcohol consumption, sleep quality and BMI) were made.</p><p><strong>Result:</strong> The main result showed an association between passive work (low demands and low control) in combination with poor support and physical inactivity. This result was statistically significant both unadjusted (OR: 1.38, CI: 1.12-1.71) and adjusted (OR: 1.28, CI: 1.03-1.59) for several covariates.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study suggests that especially passive work (low demands and low control) in combination with poor support from supervisors and colleagues are associated to physical inactivity. Further research needs to establish causality.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-139).

The psychosocial work environment in human service organizations is in many respects rewarding from the aspect of human interaction. However, it has also been described in several research reports as demanding and stressful both physically and mentally, resulting in a negative impact on employee health and a high degree of sickness absence. From a public health perspective it is important to focus on determinants of health in occupational groups that are characterized by caring and human relations. This thesis aims at identifying determinants of individual and organizational health in human service professions from a multifactorial perspective. Based on both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, four studies of various aspects of psychosocial work exposures are carried out. Study I, an explorative and qualitative study, examines determinants of the psychosocial work environment in the Church of Sweden. Study II consists of a retrospective, randomized study assessing effects of goal clarity work on organizational well-being in the Church. Study III examines exposures resulting in stress-related sick leave among elderly care employees. Study IV is a longitudinal study that assesses effects of organizational change on health and sickness absence among elderly care employees. The results show some positive experiences, despite overall demanding work conditions within both of the studied professions. In the Church (Paper I), experiences of freedom and influence at work and the Christian values tend be factors with modifying effect on health. Four patterns are identified for negative health impact; these include unclear organization, a sense of being different, stressful work and destructive communication style. Effects of goal clarity work (Paper II) indicate an overall positive impact on organizational well-being. In elderly care (Paper III), the results suggest, in general, a positive work climate and high effectiveness. Work related exhaustion was significantly higher among employees with stress related sickness absence. Factors of risk for being absent due to stress are approximately three times higher among employees dissatisfied with both their work and their social situations. Finally, measuring effects of organizational change (Paper IV), the results reveal evidence of unchanged self-rated health (SRH), work satisfaction and work exhaustion after reorganization. However, sickness absence increased across time and there is an indication of impaired levels of the anabolic hormone DHEA-S among those individuals affected by the reorganization. The results point to a challenge for further research on the interplay between perceived stressors, resources available, biological stress markers and health in order to find adequate measures for improvements in psychosocial work environment in human service professions.

Background: Employees are the human capital which contributes to the success and de-velopment of a company to a great extent. Thus, these days, companies do not see them only as factors of production from the classical perspective, but have started to value them as stakeholders and partners with whom long-term goals are achieved together. Problem Discussion &amp; Purpose: Researchers realized the need of companies to deal with employees, and for that reason, there has been great time and effort spent on studies con-cerning the relation between job satisfaction and job performance. However, the authors of the thesis came to conclusion that the link between job satisfaction and job performance was still a vague one. Therefore, the thesis is focused on the concept of well-being. The study concentrates on blue-collar workers, and the purpose is to explore and understand the relation between job-related well-being and employees’ job performance in the context of stress caused by following environmental factors: working tools, workload, heat, noise, and safety. Theoretical Framework: The theories used for this study are concerning job perform-ance, well-being, and stress. An emphasis is given on the work environmental stressors, which are working tools, workload, safety, heat, and noise. Methodology: To make this study, the researchers applied qualitative approach and used 8 semi-structured interviews to collect the data. The authors have conducted personal “face-to-face” interviews. All of them were tape-recorded to provide the maximum accuracy of received data. Information was gathered within one company. Conclusion: After conducting research, acquiring empirical findings, and making analysis of data, the thesis authors suggest that there is a link between job performance and job-related well-being via the work environment stressors. The authors of the thesis assume that probably the relationship between well-being and performance can look as a “circle-” or “spiral”-like model, where well-being and performance influence each other mutually, however, in different ways at different stages of the model. The influence of well-being on job performance via researched work environment stressors can be either direct or indirect. The study is of a great importance because it gives good insight of seeing well-being as a link to performance which previously was not done by any other research. Being aware of the influence of the environmental factors, managers can better realize how these factors contribute to the performance and well-being of their employees, and find ways how to improve working environment in order to increase workers’ job performance and job-related well-being.

My essay is on the subject of teachers work environment with focus on noise and communication. In the essay questions are raised on how a teacher can influence his or hers noisy work environment. A school is a large work place with many employees and is owned and administered by the county municipality which is an even bigger workplace. How big an acting space does a teacher have in such a large organization? My methods of research on these questions have been to conduct interviews and analyzing documentation from The Swedish Work Environment Authority. The Swedish Work Environment Authority inspects workplaces and conducts work environment inquiries by inspecting and discovering misdoings/abuses. They put high demands on workplaces by imposing a high fine. I have investigated a preschool and an upper secondary school that have had problems with their noise environment. The result of the research is that a teacher, to a certain extent, can influence his or hers work environment, but that the teacher needs support from The Work Environment Authority in order to achieve real change. When the employee has risen the issue of a noisy work environment there has been no immediate response from the board of directors in the municipality. In the upper secondary school there were no major changes despite The Work Environment Authority imposing a large fine.

Introduction: Gendered practices of working life create gender inequalities through horizontal and vertical gender segregation in work, which may lead to inequalities in health between women and men. Gender equality could therefore be a key element of health equity in working life. Our aim was to analyze what gender (in) equality means for the employees at a woman-dominated workplace and discuss possible implications for health experiences. Methods: All caregiving staff at two workplaces in elder care within a municipality in the north of Sweden were invited to participate in the study. Forty-five employees participated, 38 women and 7 men. Seven focus group discussions were performed and led by a moderator. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the focus groups. Results: We identified two themes. "Advocating gender equality in principle" showed how gender (in) equality was seen as a structural issue not connected to the individual health experiences. "Justifying inequality with individualism" showed how the caregivers focused on personalities and interests as a justification of gender inequalities in work division. The justification of gender inequality resulted in a gendered work division which may be related to health inequalities between women and men. Gender inequalities in work division were primarily understood in terms of personality and interests and not in terms of gender. Conclusion: The health experience of the participants was affected by gender (in) equality in terms of a gendered work division. However, the participants did not see the gendered work division as a gender equality issue. Gender perspectives are needed to improve the health of the employees at the workplaces through shifting from individual to structural solutions. A healthy-setting approach considering gender relations is needed to achieve gender equality and fairness in health status between women and men.

As the staffing agency business is rapidly growing and suffering from accidents resulting in higher sick leave than in other businesses, it is of great interest to analyze which responsibilities prevail between the customer companies and the staffing agencies, when it comes to working environment for hired staff. The purpose of this essay is to clarify the distribution of responsibilities between customer companies and staffing agencies, regarding working environment. I would also like to analyze which consequences this distribution of responsibilities may lead to. To be able to answer these questions, I have chosen to use the legal dogmatic method together with the sociology of law method. I have studied legal sources, literature and also interviewed three persons who are active within the staffing agency business; one person from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, one person from the employers’ side and one person from the employees’ side. The conclusion of my survey is that the SAM-responsibility is divided equally between staffing agencies and customer companies, since the customer company who hires staff is equated with an employer. The employer must also ensure that there is an organized work adaptation and rehabilitation function within the company. According to Working environment regulation, the employer is obliged to immediately report accidents or other harmful incidents to the Swedish Work Environment Authority. Apart from the SAM-responsibility the customer company must also ensure that the hired staff takes necessary protective actions, to be able to safely perform their work and also to give the hired staff access to common facilities under the same conditions as for the other employees.

Arbetsförmedlingen is the Swedish national authority responsible for the work politics, and its main purpose is to create and build a solid and sustainable job market.Economic crises together with changes in the society and in the organization over the past few years mean that the unemployed individuals that come in contact with Arbetsförmedlingen are no longer a homogenous group. A lot of effort is put into helping those who may find it difficult to enter the work environment, such as youths (19 – 26 years old), people who have been unemployed or on sick leave for a long period of time, people with disabilities or immigrants who are newly arrived in Sweden.A harder social and economic climate can lead to frustration among the unemployed which mean that security measures at the offices has had to become adjusted. Local offices now have a public area where they have meetings with their clients and a locked open plan office space to which the public have no access. Working within an open plan office environment can cause health problems, mostly due to the constant background noise that comes from people having conversations on the phone, or with each other. The public areas have been furnished from a safety aspect, and different alarm functions are in place. Interviews with employees at the local Arbetsförmedlingen in Eskilstuna show that staff safety is a high priority with plenty of guidelines and directions to be followed.There are rules regulating the handling of personal information, and strategies need to be in place regarding the IT-structure that the organization is using.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att beskriva distriktssköterskors reflektioner över arbetsrelaterad stress. Studien hade en beskrivande design och genomfördes som en intervjustudie. Materialet analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Sexton distriktssköterskor verksamma inom hemsjukvård och på hälsocentral intervjuades. Resultatet visade hur distriktssköterskorna utsattes för olika påfrestningar i arbetet som bidrog till upplevelse av stress. Distriktssköterskorna beskrev hur de kände sig otillräckliga, utsattes för störningar, hade svårt att påverka sin arbetssituation samt att det ställdes höga krav på dem i arbetet. Deltagarna beskrev brist på tid och personal samt avsaknad av stöd från sina chefer. Största stödet fann distriktssköterskorna i varandra. Att jobba över var vanligt samt att behöva prioritera bland arbetsuppgifterna. Distriktssköterskorna upplevde fysiska och psykiska symtom till följd av stress på arbetet och hanterade det exempelvis genom fysisk aktivitet. Respondenterna beskrev hur de gjorde misstag på grund av stress, vanligaste var att glömma men det påverkade även distriktssköterskornas patientbemötande och bedömningar. Slutsatsen är att respondenterna upplevde det svårt att påverka sin arbetssituation, att det ställdes höga krav på dem och att det rådde en hög arbetsbelastning. I kombination med bristande stöd ledde det till hög grad av upplevd stress. Stress i arbetet fick konsekvenser för så väl distriktssköterskorna som för patienterna. / The purpose of this study was to describe Primary Nurses’ reflections of work related stress. The study had a descriptive design and was conducted as an interview study. The material was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Sixteen Primary Nurses in home care and primary care were interviewed. The result showed how Primary Nurses were subjected to various strain at work that contributed to the experience of stress. The Primary Nurses described how they felt inadequate, were subjected to interference, had difficulties in affecting their work situation and that there were high demands in their work. The participants described the lack of time and personnel and lack of support from their managers. The Primary Nurses found the greatest support in each other. To work overtime was common and to have to prioritize tasks. The Primary Nurses experienced physical and psychological symptoms as a result of stress at work and coped by example physical activity. The respondents described how they made mistakes because of stress, most common was to forget but it also affected the Primary Nurses’ patient treatment and assessments. The conclusion is that the respondents felt difficulties in influencing their work situation, there were high demands on them and there was a high workload. Combined with a lack of support it led to high levels of perceived stress. Stress at work had an impact as well on the Primary Nurses as on the patients.

Specialists in ergonomics believe that what is good ergonomics is also goodeconomics for many industrial settings. This relationship between ergonomicsand economics is supported by research on several industrial settings. Thisstudy turns to investigate this relationship within the maritime domain.Shipping naturally faces the same work environment problems as commonlyseen on work places ashore. Additionally, there is however a social and culturaldimension to the work environment in what might be the most globalisedindustry of all.This study is performed as a pilot study to a larger project within theeconomics of maritime ergonomics. The aim of this thesis is to review themajor issues in the research of maritime ergonomics and how cost-benefit ofergonomics is calculated in other domains. Furthermore, the thesis also aims atinvestigate which ergonomic factors that are considered the most important bythe shipping industry itself and if the economics of ergonomics is calculated inthe Swedish shipping industry.The review of scientific literature on maritime ergonomics is divided into threeareas of interest: organisation and management, occupational health and safetyand psychosocial work environment. No studies were found on cost-benefitcalculations within shipping. There are however several methods for evaluationand calculation from other domains. The result of the nine qualitativeinterviews shows a predominant occupation in the area of organisation.Important factors mentioned in the interviews that are believed to affect safety,productivity and well-being include leadership and social skills,communication between and within the shorebased organisation and the vessel,as well as knowledge on several levels. A survey among ten Swedish shippingowners shows that beyond the costs of sick-leave, the shipowners do not on aregular basis calculate the costs and benefits of ergonomics.Further research includes a stakeholder analysis; defining the operativemeasurements of productivity, quality and effectiveness for a maritime setting;an accident analysis and the compilation of Best Practise within shipping. / Specialister inom arbetsmiljöområdet är övertygade om att en bra arbetsmiljöockså är bra för ett företags ekonomi. Detta förhållande mellan arbetsmiljö ochekonomi har påvisats i flera studier inom olika branscher. Den här studienundersöker sambandet mellan en god arbetsmiljö och god ekonomi inomsjöfarten. Inom sjöfarten återfinns naturligtvis samma arbetsmiljöproblem somhos andra branscher men i det som kanske är den mest globaliserade branschenav alla finns det också en framträdande social och kulturell dimension iarbetsmiljön.Den här uppsatsen är utförd som en pilotstudie till ett större forskningsprojektinom sjöfart och arbetsmiljöekonomi. Målet med uppsatsen är att undersökainom vilka områden det forskas på inom sjöfartens arbetsmiljö samt attundersöka hur kostnadsnytta av arbetsmiljö beräknas. Dessutom ämnaruppsatsen undersöka vilka arbetsmiljöfaktorer som de olika sjöfartsaktörernasjälva anser vara de viktigaste och om branschen själv räknar på arbetsmiljönidag.Granskningen av den vetenskapliga litteraturen om sjöfartens arbetsmiljö äruppdelad i tre områden: organisation och ledarskap, hälsa och säkerhet, samtden psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Inga studier återfanns som berördearbetsmiljöekonomi inom sjöfarten. Det finns däremot ett flertal metoder ochmodeller för ekonomisk utvärdering och beräkning av arbetsmiljöåtgärder frånandra branscher. Resultatet av nio kvalitativa intervjuer visar fokus påorganisatoriska arbetsmiljöfaktorer. Viktiga faktorer som informanterna anserhar inverkan på säkerhet, arbetsmiljö och produktivitet inkluderar ledarskap;kommunikation ombord och mellan fartyg och landorganisation; och kunskappå olika nivåer. En undersökning hos tio svenska rederier visar att utöverkostnader för sjukfrånvaro räknar företagen inte regelbundet på kostnader ochvinster för arbetsmiljön.Förslag till framtida forskning inkluderar en intressentanalys, att definiera ochbeskriva de operativa rationalitetsmåtten produktivitet, kvalitet och effektivitetför sjöfarten, olycksfallsanalys och sammanställandet av exempel av ”BestPractise” inom sjöfarten.