Employmentweb_low

EmpLoymEnT, work, And HEALTH inEquALiTiES - a global perspective
young biochemistry students at the
university of isparta (Turkey).
source: © ilo/p. deloche (2003)
Wegman, & Kjellstrom, 2007). Worldwide, few studies determining the
effects of psychosocial stressors on working life and related health
effects have been reported, and information is based on indirect
evidence, aggregated data, or case reports. However, in some wealthy
countries, developed theoretical models and extensively empirical
findings are available (Marmot, Siegrist, & Theorell, 2006).
The main conceptual models of psychosocial working conditions
used in health research have separated the measurement of
potentially stressful working conditions from the health effects of work
stress. a widely used work stress model, developed by Karasek &
Theorell (1990), conceptualises work stress in terms of the
psychological demands of work and the degree of control over working
conditions. In Karasek's initial formulation of the model, it was
hypothesised that high job demands, together with low control over
working conditions, would be particularly bad for health. This was
labeled job strain. The Karasek model was developed further by the
addition of a third dimension related to degree of social support at
work. a supportive working environment is considered to be one in
which employees receive good support from both colleagues and
supervisors and where employees receive clear and consistent
information from their supervisors. a different model of working
conditions, the effort-reward imbalance model, developed by Siegrist
(1996), is based on the notion of social reciprocity. This model proposes
that a combination of putting high effort into work without adequate
reward is detrimental to health. Effort includes both extrinsic and
intrinsic components (for example, work over-commitment) and
reward includes esteem or respect, career opportunities including job
security and promotion prospects, and financial remuneration.
The concept of organisational justice is a more recent model for
psychosocial working conditions which may have health consequences
(Kivimäki, Elovainio, Vahtera, & Ferrie, 2003). This model concerns
fairness of treatment at work and has procedural and relational
dimensions. relational justice refers to the extent to which supervisors
consider employees' viewpoints, are able to suppress personal biases,
and take steps to deal with their employees in a fair and truthful
manner. The procedural component relates to the fairness and
consistency of formal decision-making procedures in an organisation.
although there have been some attempts to obtain objective
measures of psychosocial working conditions, it is more common
for psychosocial working conditions to be based on self-reported
questionnaire measures collected through surveys of employees.
Self-report measures have the advantage that they take account of
the employees' perception of their work environment, which may
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