Work characteristics and determinants of job satisfaction in four age groups: university employees’ point of view

Contains fulltext : 79843.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: To investigate (a) differences in work characteristics and (b) determinants of job satisfaction among employees in different age groups. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire was filled in by 1,112 university employees, classified into four age groups. (a) Work characteristics were analysed with ANOVA while adjusting for sex and job classification. (b) Job satisfaction was regressed against job demands and job resources adapted from the Job Demands-Resources model. Results : Statistically significant differences concerning work characteristics between age groups are present, but rather small. Regression analyses revealed that negative association of the job demands workload and conflicts at work with job satisfaction faded by adding job resources. Job resources were most correlated with more job satisfaction, especially more skill discretion and more relations with colleagues. CONCLUSIONS: Skill discretion and relations with colleagues are major determinants of job satisfaction. However, attention should also be given to conflicts at work, support from supervisor and opportunities for further education, because the mean scores of these work characteristics were disappointing in almost all age groups. The latter two characteristics were found to be associated significantly to job satisfaction in older workers

Health-related and work-related aspects associated with sick leave: a comparison of chronically ill and non-chronically ill workers.

Contains fulltext : 47758.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)OBJECTIVES: Our aims were to study to what extent chronically ill workers (CIWs) take more sick leave than non-chronically ill workers (NCIWs) and to explore which health-related and work-related aspects are associated with the sick leave patterns of the two groups. METHODS: A questionnaire on work, health and sick leave was sent to all employees of a university in The Netherlands (response: 49.1%). Analyses were conducted for 444 CIWs and 1,347 NCIWs. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to quantify the contribution of being chronically ill to sick leave in general, frequent sick leave, prolonged sick leave, and present sick leave. The contributions of health-related and work-related aspects to sick leave were investigated by multiple logistic regression analyses for both CIWs and NCIWs separately. RESULTS: CIWs showed significantly increased ORs for general, frequent, prolonged and present sick leave when compared with NCIWs. Fatigue, emotional exhaustion and perceived health complaints showed stronger associations with sick leave for both CIWs and NCIWs than various work-related aspects. Workers of 46 years of age and older showed less sick leave than workers under the age of 36. Male respondents and scientific personnel showed less frequent sick leave than the other respondents, and so did respondents working more than 40 h a week, compared with part-timers. The final regression models explained 8%-16% of the variance in sick leave. CONCLUSIONS: CIWs take two to three times more and longer sick leave than NCIWs. Health-related aspects are more strongly associated with sick leave than work-related aspects for both CIWs and NCIWs. Sick leave patterns were, nevertheless, only partly explained by health-related and work-related aspects. In any case, future studies of sick leave should certainly take the presence of chronic disease into account as an important determinant of sick leave

Perceptions of mental workload in Dutch university employees of different ages: a focus group study

Contains fulltext : 118943.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: As academic workload seems to be increasing, many studies examined factors that contribute to the mental workload of academics. Age-related differences in work motives and intellectual ability may lead to differences in experienced workload and in the way employees experience work features. This study aims to obtain a better understanding of age differences in sources of mental workload. 33 academics from one faculty discussed causes of workload during focus group interviews, stratified by age. FINDINGS: Among our participants, the influence of ageing seems most evident in employees' actions and reactions, while the causes of workload mentioned seemed largely similar. These individual reactions to workload may also be driven by differences in tenure. Most positively assessed work characteristics were: interaction with colleagues and students and autonomy. Aspects most often indicated as increasing the workload, were organisational aspects as obstacles for 'getting the best out of people' and the feeling that overtime seems unavoidable. Many employees indicated to feel stretched between the 'greediness' of the organisation and their own high working standards, and many fear to be assigned even less time for research if they do not meet the rigorous output criteria. Moreover, despite great efforts on their part, promotion opportunities seem limited. A more pronounced role for the supervisor seems appreciated by employees of all ages, although the specific interpretation varied between individuals and career stages. CONCLUSIONS: To preserve good working conditions and quality of work, it seems important to scrutinize the output requirements and tenure-based needs for employee supervision

Fatigue, emotional exhaustion and perceived health complaints associated with work-related characteristics in employees with and without chronic diseases.

Contains fulltext : 52162.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)OBJECTIVES: Ageing of the Dutch working force and increasingly more stringent restrictions regarding early retirement and disability benefits are leading to higher numbers of workers with ill health. Until now, only a few studies have explored how employees with ill health perceive their work. This study investigated possible differences in scores on fatigue, emotional exhaustion, perceived health complaints and various work-related characteristics between chronically ill (CIWs) and non-chronically ill workers (NCIWs), as well as differences in associations between work- and health-related characteristics. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all employees of a Dutch university to collect data on perceived work-related and health-related characteristics (response 49.1%). Differences in various scores were analysed using chi (2)-tests and the general linear model. Associations between the work- and the health-related characteristics were determined by multiple linear regression analyses in the CIWs (n = 444) and NCIWs (n = 1,347) separately. Interaction terms were included to detect differences between the two groups. RESULTS: The results indicated that the CIWs had less favourable scores on the three health-related characteristics. Also, the CIWs scored less favourably than the NCIWs on almost all the work-related characteristics. In the two groups, negative work-related aspects, such as higher work pressure, contributed most to explaining the variance in the health-related characteristics. However, in the CIWs, fatigue was not explained by the work-related aspects as much as in the NCIWs. In the CIWs, the association between unpleasant treatment and the health-related characteristics was stronger than in the NCIWs, but there were indications that autonomy, possibilities for learning and social support from superiors also played an important role. CONCLUSIONS: CIWs perceived more fatigue, emotional exhaustion and health complaints than NCIWs. There were different patterns of associations between work- and health-related characteristics in the NCIWs and CIWs. Future studies on associations between work-related characteristics and health should take the presence of chronic disease into account