A static organization in a dynamic context – A qualitative study of changes in working conditions for Swedish engine officers

During the last decades the shipping industry has undergone rapid technical developments and experienced hard economic conditions and increased striving for profitability. This has led to reduced staffing and changes in task performance, which has been reported to increase workload for the remaining seafarers. The working conditions on board have a number of distinct and in many ways unique characteristics, which makes the job demands and resources for seafarers unique in several ways. The purpose of this study was to assess how engine room staff perceives how these major technical and organizational changes in the shipping industry have affected job demands as well as resources. The study compiled individual interviews and focus groups interviews with engine crew members where they were asked to elaborate on the psychosocial work environment and the major changes in the working conditions on board. Engine crew describes a work situation where they feel a lack of resources. The content of the work has changed, staffing has been reduced, new tasks are being added but the organization of the crew and the design of the work place remains unaltered

From Recovery to Regulation: An Attempt to Reconceptualize 'Recovery from Work'

The concept of recovery' (from work) has quickly gained in importance in the occupational health literature. However, we think that the conceptualization of recovery' needs some more attention. Although many authors acknowledge that recovery' refers to a process', the concept is often treated as a static construct. In this paper, we argue that recovery should be conceptualized as a dynamic construct related to changes in psychophysiological state of the person. We refer to two main theories that have provided a theoretical framework for research in this area: Meijman & Mulder's Effort-Recovery (E-R) model and Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory. In particular, the E-R model has been seminal in this area and stresses the element of changing psychophysiological states that has been used for reconceptualising recovery'. Various biological rhythms influence these changing psychophysiological states, and thus the level of energy (or effort) a person can mobilize or wants to mobilize. A distinction is made between physical fatigue' and mental fatigue' and its consequences for recovery. The discrepancy between actual state' and required state' has been suggested as the basis for recovery'. This emphasises that recovery is a dynamic and ongoing process, which also included motivational aspects, in particular as far as mental work is concerned. The capacity to maintain self-regulation of one's psychophysiological state is important in this respect. Thus, we propose that recovery' is the continuous process of harmonizing the actual state' with the state that is required' at that moment. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The conceptual roles of negative and positive affectivity in the stressor-strain relationship

The purpose of this study was to compare the data/model fit for two competing theories of the conceptual roles that Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA) play in the stressor-strain relationship. In the 'trait model', NA is understood to be a confounder that inflates the perceived work-related stressor-outcome relationship, while PA is unrelated to either stressors or strain. Alternatively, the 'situational model' assumes that NA and PA are directly affected by stressors and are thought to mediate the stressor-relationship. The sample consisted of 731 Swedish engine room officers. Role stress was used as a stressor indicator, perceived stress was the outcome measure, and the PANAS was used to assess levels of affectivity. The path analysis gave strong support for the work situational model (RMSEA = 0.034) while no support was found for the trait model. No moderating effects from affectivity were found