Can varying the number of teams in a shift schedule constitute a preventive strategy?

OBJECTIVE: The study examines the implications for shiftworkers of applying different numbers of teams in the organization of shiftwork. METHODS: The participating operators came from five different companies applying continuous shift rotation systems. The companies shared the same product organization and a common corporate culture belonging to the same multinational company. Each company had a shift system consisting of four, five or six teams, with the proportion of shifts outside day work decreasing as the number of teams increased. Questionnaire and documentary data were used as data sources. RESULTS: Operators in systems with additional teams had more daywork but also more irregular working hours due to both overtime and schedule changes. Operators using six teams used fewer social compensation strategies. Operators in four teams were most satisfied with their work hours. Satisfaction with the time available for various social activities outside work varied inconsistently between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: In rotating systems the application of more teams reduces the number of shifts outside day work. This apparent improvement for shiftworkers was counteracted by a concomitant irregularity produced by greater organizational requirements for flexibility. The balance of this interaction was found to have a critical impact on employees.OBJETIVOS: Investigar as implicações para trabalhadores em turnos do uso de um número distinto de turmas de trabalho na organização dos turnos. MÉTODOS: Participaram do estudo operadores de cinco empresas que usavam sistemas contínuos de turnos alternantes. As empresas tinham em comum a organização de produtos e cultura empresarial e pertenciam a uma mesma empresa multinacional. Cada uma das empresas tinha um sistema de turnos que compreendia quatro, cinco ou seis turmas de trabalho, sendo que a proporção de turnos fora dos horários diurnos diminuía à medida que aumentava o número de turmas. Foram usados dados de questionários e documentação como fontes de pesquisa. RESULTADOS: Os operadores de sistemas com turmas extras apresentaram uma quantidade maior de trabalho diurno, assim como mais horas irregulares de trabalho em decorrência de horas extras e mudanças de horário. Os operadores que contavam com seis turmas usaram menos recursos de compensação social. Os que trabalharam com quatro turmas ficaram mais satisfeitos com os horários de trabalho. A satisfação com o tempo disponível para diversas atividades sociais fora do trabalho variou de modo inconsistente entre as turmas estudadas. CONCLUSÕES: Nos sistemas com turnos rodiziantes, o uso de um número maior de turmas reduz o número de turnos não-diurnos. Esta aparente vantagem aos trabalhadores em turnos foi neutralizada pela concomitante irregularidade resultante de maiores exigências organizacionais para permitir flexibilidade. Verificou-se que o equilíbrio desta interação teve um impacto fundamental sobre os trabalhadores

PARTICIPATION SOM ORGANISATORISK PRAKSIS

Hensigten med artiklen er at give et bidrag til forståelsen af begrebet organisatorisk participation både teoretisk og ud fra praksis. Det gøres ud fra analyser og tematiseringer af participationens mangfoldighed, participationssystemers konstituering, participationens substans og finalitet samt den participerende medarbejder. Bredden i begrebet søges indfanget gennem en heuristisk model til identificering af de hoveddimensioner og subelementer, hvorudfra et participationssystem konstitueres. Participationsbegrebets formålsrettethed indkredses, og den participerende medarbejder reflekteres ud fra de psykologiske teorier om ’selvbestemmelse og self/collective efficacy’ i et integrativt participatorisk perspektiv

DIFFERENT FORMS OF JOB SATISFACTION DOES JOB SATISFACTION MEAN SATISFIED EMPLOYEES?

This article introduces a qualitative model for different forms of job satisfaction that was originally proposed by Bruggemann, Grosskurth, and Ulich (1975), and further developed by Büssing (1992) and colleagues. This model is not new, but was probably buried in oblivion as a result of the longstanding and overwhelming dominance of the quantitative approach to job satisfaction in the English-speaking research community. We provide a brief historical overview on the quantitative research tradition of job satisfaction and basically discuss its methodological shortcomings. As an alternative, we describe different qualitative forms of job satisfaction according to Bruggemann et al. (1975) and Büssing (1992), and we additionally report some empirical results on the Bruggemann model. These findings suggest that the qualitative and quantitative approaches measure different aspects of job satisfaction, and that the integration of both approaches is a promising direction for future research. In the general discussion we propose some research perspectives and practical implications focusing on this integrative approach

Distributed Leadership Agency and Its Relationship to Individual Autonomy and Occupational Self-Efficacy: a Two Wave-Mediation Study in Denmark

The purpose of the present study is the investigation of distributed leadership agency (DLA). DLA is an activity-based concept, which is defined as employees active participation in leadership tasks. By combining a descriptive and a normative approach DLA has the potential of real employee empowerment. It can protect from arbitrary managerial power and lead to employees personal development through sharing organizational resources, influencing leadership activities and joint decision making in companies. The study examines individually perceived autonomy as an antecedent and employees occupational self-efficacy as an outcome of DLA over time. Furthermore, the study tests the mediating role of DLA on the autonomy self-efficacy relationship. The two-wave study applied an online survey in a Danish municipality with a time lag of seven months. We used regression analyses for testing the cross-sectional as well as cross-lagged relationships and an autoregressive model for analyzing the half-longitudinal mediation. The results revealed a significant positive effect of DLA on employees occupational self-efficacy cross-sectionally at Time 1 (n = 117) and Time 2 (n = 67), as well as cross-lagged (n = 67). The cross-sectional and cross-lagged findings also support a significant positive impact of autonomy on DLA. However, DLA only mediated the autonomyself-efficacy relationship cross-sectionally, but not over time. Computed alternative causal models corroborate the proposed direction of our hypothesized relationships. These results provide first evidence that structural features such as autonomy are timely prior to action-related behavior (DLA), and that participating in leadership tasks enhances employees occupational self-efficacy.(VLID)456934