Occupational Health
Occupational health
A field of its own by mid-20th century
Productivity of workforce depends on health of workforce
The purpose of OHP is to develop, maintain and promote the health of employees directly and the health of their families
The primary focus of OHP is the prevention of illness or injury by creating safe and healthy working environments.
“Mental health of the industrial worker” (by Kornhauser)
Organizational health
Intrinsic value of work
value found in actually performing the work
Instrumental value of work
value provided by enabling individuals to express, maintain, and advance talents, abilities and knowledge
Positive psychology
Aims to study positive aspects of human thinking and behavior
Ex. illness prevention vs wellness promotion
Obviously, OHP is focused on employees.
As psychologists, we know they’re the most aspect of the org.
Companies will rarely adopt a policy or practice simply because it makes “good” sense
How do we convince companies that employee health and well-being are important?
Environmental influences on mental health
Opportunity for control
Two key elements
way over you behave. You can do something the way you wish. You control your own actions.
You understand the connection with how you behave and the consequences that follow.
Opportunity for skill use
lack to use skills you know
lack to learn new skills
Externally generated goals
Setting own goals and steps on getting there
Environmental variety
choices and options
Environmental clarity
Two aspects of clarity
Availability of money
not having money impairs mental health by limiting amount of control and number of choices available to a person
Physical security
workers need to feel safe when they work
Opportunity for interpersonal contact
workers should NOT feel isolated
Valued social position
people derive self esteem from the contributions they make
Stress
stress can cause many undesirable outcomes in both employee health and organizational outcomes
stress is a known contributor to multitude of physical and psychological problems
types of stress
distress
bad
eustress
good
Stressful or demanding situations cause a fight or flight reaction causing a release of hormones
in small doses, these hormones can produce positive effects, heightened memory, increased immunity, and lower sensitivity to pain
extended or chronic release produces impaired cognitive ability, low blood sugar, high blood pressure, and lowered immunity
Need for recovery
stressor
any physical or psychological demands which an individual responds
strain
reaction or response to stressors
sources of stress
time, as a limited resource, is at the core of OH
finding and maintaining balance is the goal
Industrial Revolution to blame for the “great divide”?
The concept of mental health
Affective well-being
Pleasure and arousal
Competence
being successful in various areas of life
Autonomy
freedom to choose path of one’s own behavior
Aspiration
always trying to achieve a better outcome
Integrated functioning
overall balance, harmony, and inner relatedness
Work/family conflict
Conflict resulting from the attempted balance between work and family.
Only of interest to IO for the last 30 years
What is a family?
Rarely are we able to fully give to both domains, creating guilt and more conflict.
Cross-cultural differences
The effect of work on family
The effect of family on work
The family-work interaction
Conceptual models of the relationship between work & family
Spillover Model
each domain spills over into the other
Compensation Model
what is lacking in one domain, is compensated by another
Segmentation Model
each domain is segmented, or separate, from the other
individual can be successful in one domain and not the other
Gender differences in work/family conflict
job satisfaction: women- r=.35 men r=.29
life satisfaction: women – r= .42 men r= .32
Employees perceiving Work family conflicts are 30 times more likely to experience a clinically significant mental health problem
If there are high demands in both domains (as is often the case), how do you get it all done?
Assistance in reducing work/family conflict
Adjusting work schedules
Child-care centers
The Family and Medical Leave Act
Elder-care programs
Dual-career families
Gender differences
Differential investment in career and family
Lack of temporal control
Work schedules
Rotating shifts
Biochronology
humans and society are diurnal (awake during the day and asleep during the night)
daylight has a cuing effect to initiate wakefulness
circadian system is slow to adjust to night work
Forward v. backward rotation
Backward
from day to night to afternoon shifts
Forward
from day to afternoon to night
Flextime
Coretime
Everyone must be at work during these hours
Flexband
latitude allowed on whether workers are at work during these hours
Compressed workweek
4 10hr days as opposed to 5 8hr days
Most of the burden lies with employees
But time management, to-do lists, and trying hard is not sufficient
another OHP goal needs to include providing employees with additional skills to facilitate WFB
Alcoholism and drug abuse in the workplace
Research is limited
4-5 million people in the US use cocaine monthly; marijuana is much more frequently
$50 billion dollars is spent annually on employee substance abuse programs
Substance abuse
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
recognizes former drug use as a disability and protects past users
Employee assistance programs (EAP)
IO is most concerned with drug abuse and performance impairment
Psychological effects of unemployment
current economic conditions have created large-scale job loss domestically and globally
Unemployment diminishes many opportunities individuals need to thrive
Job loss and decreased mental health: r=.36
Job gain and increased mental health: r = .54
Intended consequences of employment
Unintended consequences of employment
Unemployment & loss of discretionary control
Relationship between unemployment & mental health
Child labor and exploitation
Use of child labor in foreign countries
Fair Labor Standards Act