Occupational Health

1
Occupational Health

• Broad based concept referring to the mental,
  emotional, and physical well-being of employees
  in relation to the conduct of their work.
• Important because work and occupational stature
  play a critical role in an individuals sense of
  identity, self-esteem, and psychological
  well-being.

2
Work Stress

• Work stress response to work-related stimuli
  that lead to negative physical or psychological
  consequences for the people exposed to them.
• Two major types
• Task content simplicity/complexity and
  monotony-variety
• Role propertiessocial aspects of job, most
  stress is here.

3
Role Properties

• Role conflict perceptual differences regarding
  the content of a persons role and its relative
  importance. Occurs among work group members,
  leads to negative affect, tension and physical
  symptoms. Can occur also among various roles one
  person has parent, worker, child, etc.
• Role overload is a variant when conflict causes a
  compromise in quantity, time schedule or quality.

4
Responses to Stress

• Individuals react differently
• Physiological response include increased blood
  pressure, cholesterol, biochemical measures,
  ulcers,
• Psychological responses are affective, job
  dissatisfaction is most common, also results in
  anger, frustration, hostility, irritation. Also
  more passively boredom, burnout, fatigue,
  depressed mood. Produces lower self-confidence
  and self-esteem.
• Behavioral responses included work role (job
  performance, accidents, drug use at work)
  antisocial behavior, flight from the job
  (absenteeism, turnover),degradation of other life
  roles (spouse/child abuse) and self-damaging
  behaviors (substance abuse)

5
Consequences of Stress

• Typically affects job performance of the
  individual both on the job and in other roles.
• Health is affected through physical stressors and
  responses to recurrent psychological stressors

6
Individual Differences

• Personality characteristics influence effects of
  stress.
• Type A individuals who tend to be aggressive
  and competitive and feel under chronic time
  pressures. Type B individuals who are more
  laid back, more able to relax, less competitive
• Locus of control whether you believe you are
  primarily responsible for what happens to you.
  Internally oriented tend to take more measures to
  ward off stress or mitigate its effects. This
  personality construct is called ego resilience or
  hardiness. Externally oriented people endure
  rather than try to act against the stress.

7
Situational Moderators

• Social support buffers the effects of stress,
  reduces the relationship between various job
  stressors, and indicators of mental/physical
  health.
• Stress can be buffered to the extent to which the
  onset of stress is predictable, the extent to
  which it is understandable and the extent to
  which it is controllable by the person who
  experiences it.

8
Stress prevention/interventions

• Prevent exercise, meditation, time management
  programs
• Intervention counseling, social support groups,
  employee assistance programs.
• Not many programs in the workplace but we are
  seeing more organizational concern with
  work/family conflict.

9
Work/family conflict

• The dilemma of trying to balance the conflict
  demands of work and family responsibilities.
• Change from traditional breadwinner and
  homemaker roles
• Look at work interfering with family, family
  interfering with work, and family-work
  interaction.

10
Definitions

• Work interferes with family (WIF) what impact
  work factors have on family matters. Certain
  work factors have a negative effect on family
  (job stress/work schedules)
• Family interferes with work (FIW) Aspects of
  family impact work behavior, sick kid so miss
  work.
• Family-work interaction interacting and cannot
  separate them.

11
Work/family models

• Spillover model similarity between what occurs
  in the work environment and what occurs in the
  family environment. Positive events at work
  carry over into home life.
• Compensation model Inverse relationship between
  work and family, what is missing in one is
  provided for in the other.
• Segmentation work and nonwork spheres are
  distinct, one doesnt influence the other.
  Compartmentalize.

12
Research findings

• Stronger correlation between work/family conflict
  and job satisfaction is stronger for women than
  men.
• Also stronger correlation for women between
  work/family and life satisfaction. Women also
  more likely to adjust schedule.
• Thus women have greater interest in resolving
  work/family conflict.
• Employees who experienced work/family conflict
  where up to 30 times more likely to experience a
  clinically significant mental health problems
  than those with no work/family conflict.

13
Organizational Assistance

• On-site child care about 1400 across the US,
  but very expensive.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (1993) employees
  can leave for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each
  year for the birth, adoption, foster care of a
  child, care for a spouse, parent, child with a
  serious health condition, or the employees own
  serious health condition without risk of loss of
  job.

14

• Job-guaranteed maternity leave, most moms return
• Organizations offering family responsive policies
  have employees that show higher organizational
  commitment and lower intentions to quit. Showed
  some for employees without children (work family
  culture shows support for all employees)
• Eldercare/sandwich generation (children at
  home/older parents who need care) issues will
  rise.