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Can individual health differences be explained by workplace characteristics?--A multilevel analysis.
Staffan Marklund1, Malin Bolin, Jan von Essen
1Division of Personal Injury Prevention, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. staffan.marklund@ki.se
Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|November 13, 2007
Summary
Workplace organizational factors significantly impact employee health outcomes, including sickness absence and musculoskeletal disorders. High customer adaptation was linked to increased sickness absence, independent of individual job strain.
Area of Science:
- Occupational health research
- Organizational psychology
- Public health
Background:
- Work-related health studies traditionally emphasize individual factors.
- A gap exists in understanding how workplace organizational characteristics influence employee health outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of workplace variations on five individual health outcomes.
- To identify specific organizational characteristics that explain these health outcome variations.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 90 Swedish workplaces and approximately 4300 employees.
- Independent data collection: organizational data via manager interviews, individual data via employee surveys.
- Analysis of variance in sickness absence, work ability, general health, and musculoskeletal disorders attributed to the workplace.
Main Results:
- A substantial portion of variance in sickness absence, work ability, general health, and musculoskeletal disorders was workplace-dependent.
- Customer adaptation, lean production, and performance control partially explained workplace-related health outcome variances.
- High customer adaptation correlated with increased sickness absence, even after controlling for age and gender, and was not mediated by job strain.
Conclusions:
- Organizational characteristics play a significant role in shaping employee health beyond individual factors.
- Specific organizational features like customer adaptation can directly impact health outcomes such as sickness absence.
- Future occupational health interventions should consider organizational-level strategies.
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