Inhalts- und prozessbezogene Anforderungen an die Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung im Kontext Industrie 4.0

Associations of technostressors at work with burnout symptoms and chronic low-grade inflammation: a cross-sectional analysis in hospital employees

OBJECTIVE

Despite the increasing scholarly interest in the phenomenon technostress, associated biological effects on employee health are under-researched. Chronic low-grade inflammation is suggested as a central pathway linking stress experience to disease development. The aim of this study was to assess associations of technology-related work stressors (technostressors) with low-grade inflammation and burnout symptoms.

METHODS

N = 173 (74.6% women, M_age = 31.0 years) university hospital employees participated in a cross-sectional study. Self-report questionnaires were used for the assessment of general psychosocial working conditions (work overload, job control, social climate), a range of different technostressors, burnout symptoms, and relevant confounders. Participants provided capillary blood samples, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) as an inflammatory biomarker was analyzed from dried blood spots.

RESULTS

Based on a factor analysis, we identified four underlying dimensions of technostressors: techno- and information overload, techno-complexity, interruptions and multitasking as well as usability and technical support. In multivariate linear regressions, techno-/information overload and techno-complexity were associated with core (exhaustion, mental distance) and secondary (psychosomatic complaints) symptoms of burnout. Techno-/information overload was a significant predictor of burnout core symptoms, even when general work overload was controlled for. The technostressors were not associated with hs-CRP.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study on technology-related stress at work and chronic low-grade inflammation. The results suggest that (information) overload caused by digital technology use is a distinct work stressor with genuine consequences for psychological health. To what extent these effects also manifest on a physiological level needs to be subjected to future studies, ideally with prospective designs.

Healthy Mobile Work: The Relationship of a Participative Work Agreement and Workplace Health Management-Qualitative Results of a Longitudinal Study

Mobile work is becoming increasingly common, and it has been, consequently, associated with new health-related hazards and resources. Our study examined health-related stresses, strains and resources of mobile work in a medium-sized company. The study aimed to generate implications for a work agreement and for workplace health management (WHM). For this, a multi-method longitudinal study (2019-20) was conducted, with 29 focus group and 6 individual interviews (absolute number of all participants N = 187). It was designed as a qualitative content analysis and theoretically based on the job demands-resources model (JD-R). Positive effects (e.g., increased work-life balance, higher concentration), as well as negative consequences (e.g., alienation in the team, communication effort), can be found. Numerous fields of action for both the work agreement and WHM could be identified. For example, the work agreement regulates the equipment for working from home with support from WHM in order to ensure occupational health-oriented selection and handling, or by fixing core working hours through the work agreement and supporting competence building for leaders in order to enable flexible work commitments for employees. Self-organised work at home can be supported both by rules in the service agreement and by building up self-management skills through the WHM's offers. The findings illustrate that a work agreement can make a relevant contribution to a healthy design of mobile work by systematically linking it with WHM. The synergies between work agreement, employee health and WHM become clear.

[Design and validation of a computer-based task for the induction of a mental workload spectrum]

As part of the driver's cab 4.0 project funded by the BMBF, an adaptive human-machine interface for agricultural machinery, which detects the current level of mental workload by analysing physiological data is being developed. For this purpose, an experimental task is designed and evaluated, which can induce a mental workload spectrum from little to very strenuous in humans. In three laboratory studies, mental workload is generated by a monitoring activity, with varying difficulty levels. The complexity of the activity is increased by a visual and/or an auditory secondary task. Subjectively perceived mental workload is evaluated by using the Rating Scale Mental Effort, collecting reaction times and error rates. The studies with N = 17, N = 8 and N = 21 participants show that a dynamic combination of main and secondary tasks can induce significantly different degrees of workload (F (2.40) = 54,834, p < 0.001).Practical Relevance: The experimental task developed in this paper will be used to design a measuring system for mental workload based on physiological indicators for combine harvesters. In low-workload situations (e.g. automated harvesting) additional recommendations for action should be proposed by the system. During high workload sections excessive demands on the user should be avoided by only showing the information necessary to carry out the task at hand.

Mental Stress and Strain Assessment in Digital Work

Abstract. When digitalizing work, organizations face the challenge of analyzing, evaluating, and mitigating a potential increase in mental workload for employees and managers. This paper presents an instrument to assess mental stress and strain in digital work contexts and the related development process and validation. Based on a literature and instrument review and an interview study, we developed an assessment instrument and validated it in two coordinated studies ( N = 245, N = 279), ultimately resulting in an instrument with 139 items: 27 items addressing demographic aspects and 112 items dispersed over five categories (work task and activity, workflow and organizing, work environment, organizational climate, and personal attitude). To demonstrate the instrument’s validity, we calculated a structural equation model based on the framework of the job demands-resources model. The resulting instrument is comprehensive and can also be applied by HR nonprofessionals.

Risk factors for digital stress in German public administrations

OBJECTIVE

As the digitization of the working world progresses, the demands on employees change. Not least, this is true for the setting of public administrations in Germany, which is currently affected by the transformation to E-Government. This study aims to identify and describe a risk cluster of digitally stressed employees in public administrations.

METHODS

An online sample of 710 employees from three public administrations in North Rhine-Westphalia were surveyed about digital stress (7 items) and several potential risk factors (19 items) derived from the current research. In the first step, a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis is used to detect the risk cluster. This is followed by a comparison to the group of the remaining employees regarding their risk profiles.

RESULTS

The analysis states that the digitally stressed cluster accounts for approximately ten percent of the public administration's employees of the total sample. Employees in the risk cluster are less satisfied with on-site work overall, experience less collegial support on-site, experience less collegial support in the home office, resign more often, are more likely to feel overwhelmed, are less educated, are older in age and more often have relatives in need of care.

CONCLUSION

This work was able to identify and describe a group of digitally stressed rather than left-behind employees in public administrations to bring awareness to potentially destructive factors in the digital transformation process but eventually to social inequalities. The findings offer the basis for interventions to arise and evoke potential for further research.

Description and application of a method to quantify criterion-related cut-off values for questionnaire-based psychosocial risk assessment

PURPOSE

The psychosocial risk assessment is a systematic intervention process for organizations that aims at improving psychosocial working conditions as well as employee health. Based on a screening of working conditions, interventions to reduce risk factors are implemented and evaluated. What is missing for most screening instruments however are cut-off values to categorize working conditions into uncritical vs. critical, whereas the latter indicates an elevated risk for illness. To estimate and evaluate cut-off values, two studies were conducted using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.

METHODS

In Study 1, a sample of 229 participants answered an online survey on depression (PHQ) and psychosocial working conditions using a questionnaire (DYNAMIK) that covers five factors important to workers' health: workload, boundary permeability, participation, leader support, and usability. Using the ROC analysis, criterion-related cut-off values were generated to predict depressive symptoms. In Study 2, these cut-off values were used to classify working conditions in the two categories of 'critical' and 'uncritical' in an independent sample (N = 295). It was tested for differences in the results of the two groups concerning the direct criterion of depressive symptoms and the indirect criterion of effort-reward imbalance.

RESULTS

In Study 1, cut-off values differed between the five scales and showed different values for sensitivity and specificity. In Study 2, participants exposed to critical working conditions reported more depressive symptoms as well as an effort-reward imbalance.

CONCLUSIONS

Cut-off values are useful to identify working conditions as either critical or uncritical. This knowledge is important when deciding which working conditions should be optimized within the context of psychosocial risk assessment.

Validierung eines interaktiven Abstimmungssystems zur Diagnose psychischer Belastung mittels KFZA

Zusammenfassung. Stellt ein elektronisches Votingsystem (EVS) auf Basis des KFZA (Kurz-Fragebogen zur Arbeitsanalyse) eine Alternative zu dem klassischen „Papier & Bleistift“-Erhebungszenario (P&B) dar und entspricht es den Anforderungen der EN ISO 10075 – 3 (2004) ? Um zu testen, ob EVS an einer österreichischen Stichprobe ( N = 43) zu vergleichbaren Ergebnissen wie die „P&B“-Befragung mittels KFZA führt, nahm jede Probandin und jeder Proband an drei Versuchsbedingungen 1. P&B Einzel, 2. P&B in Gruppe und 3. EVS in Gruppe mit randomisierter Reihenfolge teil. Die Methodenübereinstimmung wurde durch die ICC der KFZA-Skalen und mit einem Bland-Altman-Plot für den KFZA-Gesamtwert beurteilt. Die ICC zeigen gute bis mehrheitlich exzellente Übereinstimmungen (KFZAgesamt = .966). Es bestehen keine signifikanten systematischen Abweichungen zwischen den Erhebungsmethoden. EVS dauerte mit 16 Minuten zwar 10 Minuten länger als P&B, aber die Gebrauchstauglichkeit wurde bedeutsam besser beurteilt. Die Studie zeigt trotz ihrer Limitationen wie die praktische Umsetzung zur Bewertung von elektronischen Messverfahren zur Diagnose psychischer Belastung erfolgen kann.

Der Fragebogen zur Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastungen (FGBU)

Zusammenfassung. Die Gemeinsame Deutsche Arbeitsschutzstrategie (GDA) empfiehlt in ihrer Leitlinie eine Liste psychischer Belastungsfaktoren, die bei der Gefährdungsbeurteilung berücksichtigt werden sollen. Der vorliegende Artikel stellt den Fragebogen zur Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastungen (FGBU) vor, der das Ziel hat, die dort genannten Belastungsfaktoren reliabel und valide zu messen. Der Fragebogen beinhaltet 19 Skalen sowie einen Index mit zehn Umgebungsbelastungen. Er wurde in drei Studien mit einer Gesamtstichprobe von 1203 erwerbstätigen Personen mit unterschiedlichen Arbeitstätigkeiten getestet. Die Ergebnisse von Item- und Skalenanalysen bestätigen die gute Messqualität der eingesetzten Skalen. Zusammenhangsanalysen zur Prüfung der inhaltlichen, kriteriumsbezogenen und inkrementellen Validität deuten darauf hin, dass der neu entwickelte Fragebogen die zu erfassenden psychischen Belastungen valide misst. Zudem bestätigen die Ergebnisse des Einsatzes des Fragebogens in zwei Betrieben die praktische Nutzbarkeit des Fragebogens sowie die Möglichkeit, Ergebnisse von organisatorischen Einheiten zu aggregieren. Der Fragebogen ist gut geeignet, um im Rahmen von Gefährdungsbeurteilungen die von der GDA vorgeschlagenen Belastungsfaktoren mit gut überprüften und zugleich ökonomischen Skalen in ihrer Gesamtheit zu erfassen.

Psychosocial areas of worklife and chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The aim of this review was to synthesize the evidence on the potential relationship between psychosocial work factors from the Areas of Worklife (AW) model (workload, job control, social support, reward, fairness, and values) and chronic low back pain (CLBP; unspecific pain in the lumbar region lasting 3 months or longer).

METHODS

We conducted a systematic literature search of studies in Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL (1987 to 2018). Three authors independently assessed eligibility and quality of studies. In this meta-analysis, we pooled studies' effect sizes using a random-effects model approach and report sample size weighted mean Odds Ratios (ORs).

RESULTS

Data from 18 studies (N = 19,572) was included in the analyses. We found no studies investigating associations between fairness or values and CLBP. CLBP was significantly positively related to workload (OR = 1.32) and significantly negatively related to overall job control (OR = 0.81), decision authority (OR = 0.72), and two measures of social support (ORs = 0.75 to 0.78), even in prospective studies. Skill discretion and reward did not significantly relate to CLBP. Moderation analyses revealed several variables (e.g., exposure time, mean age and sex) affecting these relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support employees' workload, job control, and social support as predictors of CLBP. In this line, these work factors should be considered when developing programs to prevent chronic low back pain. Future studies should apply measures of CLBP that are more precise, and investigate the full areas of work life (AW) factors in combination.

Entwicklung eines Fragebogens zur Erfassung zentraler Merkmale der Arbeit 4.0

Zusammenfassung. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, ein Fragebogeninstrument zur Erfassung zentraler Merkmale der Arbeit 4.0 vorzustellen. Kerndimensionen des Fragebogens sind die Digitalisierung von Arbeitsprozessen, die Flexibilisierung der Arbeit in räumlicher und zeitlicher Hinsicht, die Entgrenzung der Arbeitstätigkeit, sowie die Möglichkeit zur Mitbestimmung bei der Arbeit und deren subjektive Relevanz. Die Faktorstruktur der erfassten fünf Dimensionen erweist sich als replizierbar stabil. Die Dimensionen lassen sich mittels konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen von verwandten Dimensionen des Job Diagnostic Survey ( JDS) und des Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire ( COPSOQ) trennen. In Bezug auf die Vorhersage von Außenkriterien besitzen die fünf Dimensionen inkrementelle Validität über den JDS hinaus. Insgesamt sprechen die Ergebnisse aus fünf unabhängig durchgeführten Erhebungen dafür, dass der Fragebogen ein kurzes, reliables und valides Instrument zur Erfassung zentraler Merkmale der modernen Arbeitswelt darstellt.