Challenges in Work, Health and Wellbeing (201800084)
All documents for this subject (10)
Seller
Follow
fvz0708
Reviews received
Content preview
LECTURE 1: CHALLENGES IN WORK, HEALTH AND
WELLBEING
PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
ORGANIZATION
We need to talk about work, health and wellbeing
- Work is an important part of people’s wellbeing, including
socioeconomic position, prestige and identity
- Work is a major cause of illness and injury, weighing heavily on the
health care budgets of welfare states, the successfulness of
businesses, and people’s quality of life
- Health effects of work are an area of growing policy attention in an
ageing society
PART 2: WHAT DO WE MEAN BY WORK, HEALTH AND
WELL-BEING, AND HOW ARE THEY RELATED?
What is work?
- Paid and unpaid work/labor
o Productive versus reproductive/subsistence labor (c.f. Marx)
- In this course we mainly focus on paid work within organizations
- Whether work is paid or unpaid may differ across time and place
(e.g. childcare, elderly care)
Jobs
- When we talk about people’s ‘work’, we tend to talk about their jobs:
o Job = situated descriptions of employment, that take into
account where and how work is actually performed
- This is dependent on, for example:
o Employment relationship (e.g., self-employment, contract)
o Occupation (e.g., teachers, welders, nurses)
o Working conditions (e.g., location and hours worked, wages)
o Job characteristics (e.g., ergonomic demands)
Health and well-being
- Health and well-being are adjacent concepts
o Don’t see them as two completely separate concepts
- Well-being is the combination of feeling good and functioning well;
the experience of positive emotions such as happiness and
contentment as well as the development of one’s potential, having
some control over one’s life, having a sense of purpose, and
experiencing positive relationships
- Health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but a state
of complete physical, mental and social well-being (World Health
Organization)
What are job rewards/resources
- Work can have a positive impact on wellbeing and health
- We refer to these positive impacts as job rewards, or job resources
, - Wellbeing rewards of employment include
o Income, social status
o Identity
o Social networks
- Health rewards of employment include
o Better self-reported physical and mental health
o Psycho-social resources
o Health insurances & benefits
Job demands or risks
- Work can have a negative impact on wellbeing and health
- We refer to these negative impacts as job demands, stressors or
risks
- Work related health problems are common
How does work affect health and wellbeing?
- Work affects health and wellbeing in complex, reciprocal,
heterogeneous ways
o Complex: work affects health/wellbeing differently in different
circumstances (and vice versa) – and work can even be both
health-enhancing and health-damaging at the same time
o Reciprocal: causal relations run in both directions
o Heterogeneous: work affects the health/wellbeing of different
groups of workers differently (lecture part 3)
PART 3: THE UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF
HEALTH/WELLBEING RISKS AND REWARDS OF WORK
Unequal exposure to physical health risks
- Employment exposes workers to physical and mental health
demands or risks in heterogeneous or unequal ways
- Different jobs poses different physical demands/risks
o Exposure to hazards (e.g. production and use of harmful/toxic
substances, operation of heavy machinery and sharp objects)
o Repetitive overuse “wears out” body (e.g. lifting of heavy
objects, mouse arm, etc.)
o Working conditions (e.g. long hours, night work)
Common physical health risk at work
- Tiring or painful positions
o Plumber gets under the sink
- Activities involving strong visual concentration
o Staring at computer screens
- Handling or heavy loads
- Etc.
Differences in exposure to physical health risks
,Exposure to mental health risks
- Some work poses psycho-social demands (stressors), e.g.:
o Stress enhancing forms of work organization (insecurity,
scheduling)
Psychosocial stressors
o Stressful/traumatic interpersonal encounters (e.g, toxic work
cultures, client/patient aggression)
o Work pressure
Most common mental health risk factors
- People reporting exposure to risk factors that can adversely affect
mental well-being:
o Time pressure or overload of work, dealing with difficult
customers/patients etc., job insecurity etc.
Differences in exposure to mental health risks
Occupational health disparities
- Unequal exposure to health risks across jobs
- Occupational health disparities (OHD) framework
o Health disparities related to work result from the exposure to
health demands and resources associated with different jobs
(i.e. the package of occupations, working conditions and job
characteristics)
- Jobs expose workers to different risks
- Some jobs expose workers to more risks than others
Unequal exposure to wellbeing benefits and risks
- Wellbeing inequalities mirror labor market inequalities
, - Labor markets are unequal institutions
o Social/occupational class theory
o Labor market segmentation; insider/outsider theories (c.f.
Kalleberg’s good jobs, bad jobs)
- Paid work or workers is often subdivided into segments:
o Blue vs white collar; manual vs non-manual
o Self-employment vs. dependent employment (employee)
o Occupation / occupational class
Inequalities in wellbeing & rewards
- Labor market inequalities are related to, for example:
o Earnings
o Contract status & job security
o Entitlement to paid leave
o Autonomy and authority
- But also:
o Exposure to health risks and benefits
Organizations as spaces that generate inequalities
- Relational inequality: how categorical distinctions, when wed to
organizational divisions of labor, become the interactional bases for
moral evaluation, inclusion and exclusion from opportunities, and
the exploitation of effort and value.
- The causally most powerful locations in social life are proximate
networks of social relationships.
- Relational inequality theory: organizations/workplaces create and re-
create categorical inequalities
RIT: generation of workplace inequalities
- Exploitation
o Organization provides services, makes product and makes
profit
o Some people get more than others
- Social closure, exclusion & opportunity hoarding
- Claims making
o Organizations are seen as inequality regimes
o We find those inequalities legitimate
o EX I claim that I am smarter so I have to earn more
Those claims get accepted
Often based on education level
Lecture 1, part 3 take-away messages
- The physical and psycho-social demands and resources of jobs are
unequally distributed
- Different jobs are associated with different exposure to physical and
psycho-social risks, demands and resources
- A range of factors like gender, age, education, disability, ethnicity
and socio-economic background affect the types of jobs people have
access to as well as their health status
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller fvz0708. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $6.45. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.