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Work Organization and Stress-Related Disorders
Input: Economic Factors
Organizational practices of concern in the work organization and stress
field are the products of macroeconomic, technological, demographic, and
other forces at the national and international level.
Falling barriers to trade and capital flow have enabled more companies
to operate globally, opening new labor and product markets. The volume
of world trade in merchandise nearly tripled in the period 1980-2000,
and the volume of trade in service grew even faster. This same period
also saw the emergence of new approaches to business organization
that involve specialization around core products and services, and
new models of production management that featured elements such as
continuous improvement, decentralized control and worker empowerment,
process simplification and paring of inventories. Exponential growth
and business uptake of computer and information technology were also
witnessed during this period.
In many countries, these trends have occurred against the backdrop
of an aging and increasingly diverse workforce. In the United States,
for example, labor force participation for men and women aged 62 and
older has increased steadily since the mid-1980s. Labor force participation
by women is approaching participation rates for men, with strong gains
seen also for mothers with children under age18. Also, the Hispanic
workforce continues to grow faster than other racial or ethnic groups.
1,
2
All of these developments have had significant impacts on business
practices relevant to the organization of work, including the organization
of firms, the organization of production, the nature of employment
contracts, and other human resource policies such as work-life programs
and fringe benefits. Examples of these impacts include the following:
- Organizations restructured and downsized at record levels in the
early 1990s when a third of more or major organizations engaged
in broad workforce reductions on a yearly basis. Although risk of
job displacement receded steadily as the economy improved, the fraction
of job loss due to structural reasons (versus lack of work) continued
to grow. 3,
4
- New models of production management, such as total quality management,
high performance and high involvement work systems, and lean production
diffused rapidly throughout industry in the 1990s. Research from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that quality
circles, job rotation and teamwork continued to spread throughout
the 1990s. Unpublished data from the 2002 National Organizations
(NOS) survey show teamwork and cross-training to be present in two-thirds
of all firms, and job rotation in 40% of firms. These values are
all higher than reported by MIT and suggest further diffusion of
these practices, although the MIT and NOS surveys are not strictly
comparable.5
- Evidence suggests that flexible or alternative employment
arrangements have become an important part of business staffing
strategy. Staffing agency data show steady growth in temporary help
employment since 1992, interrupted only by the business downturn from
2000-2002. Similarly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current
Employment Survey showed a six-fold increase in temporary help in the
period 1982-1998, in contrast to a 40% increase in total employment.
Unpublished data from the 2002 NOS suggest continuing expansion of
alternative employment from1998-2002. However, the BLS Current
Population Survey suggests more stability than do these other sources in
utilization of alternative employment arrangements.6,
7,
8
- Advances in computer and telecommunications technology have facilitated
telecommuting and work from home. Recent BLS and private sector
data suggest that more than 20 million people presently work from
home at least one day per week, and several million more work from
home at least once a month. Bureau of Census data on the prevalence
of work at home are more conservative, but demonstrate gains in
home work in the period 1980-2000 that are much stronger than the
growth in total employment.9,
10
- A 2005 report by the Families and Work Institute indicates that
the proportion of firms with programs addressing personal and family
needs of workers (e.g., work time flexibility, child- and elder-care
assistance, resolution of personal and family problems, leave for
child birth, adoption, or illness) has been largely stable since
1998, although improvement in some of these areas has occurred.
In contrast, employer-provided medical care and retirement benefits
have declined in the last decade. Findings by the BLS show the proportion
of workers participating in employer provided medical plans eroded
by over 25% in the period 1992-1993 to 2003, and the percentage
of workers covered by defined benefit retirement plans declined
by one-third. In this period, the percentage of workers covered
by any employer-provided retirement plan fell by 8%.11,
12
Although research on the effects of these organizational practices is
incomplete, they are believed to influence the design of jobs and risks of
work-related stress, injury and illness as illustrated in the Program
Description. Refer to the Occupational
Risks section for a summary of what is known about the prevalence of
stress and stressful job conditions in today's workplace.
References
- The 21st
century at work: Forces shaping the future workforce and workplace
in the United States, 2004.
External Link: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG164/
- Health and safety needs of older workers,
2004.
- Corporate job creation, job elimination,
and downsizing.
Reference: AMA [1997]. 1997 AMA survey. Corporate job creation, job
elimination, and downsizing. New York: American Management Association.
- Worker displacement in the mid-1990s.
 PDF
Only External Link: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1999/07/art2full.pdf
- Work
reorganization in an era of restructuring: Trends in diffusion and
effects on employee welfare.
External Link: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3068/is_200001/ai_n7726351
- American
Staffing Association: Staffing statistics-staffing employment and
sales data.
External Link: http://www.americanstaffing.net/statistics/staffingsurvey.cfm
- Contingent
and alternative employment arrangements, February 2005.
External Link: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm
- CRS report for Congress: Temporary workers as members of the contingent
labor force.
Reference: Levine L [1999]. CRS report for Congress: Temporary workers
as members of the contingent labor force. Washington, DC: The Library
of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Order Code No. RL30072.
- Work
at home in 2004.
External Link: ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/History/homey.09222005.news
- Telework
Trending Upward, Survey Says.
External Link: http://www.workingfromanywhere.org/news/pr020707.html
- 2005 National Study of Employers.
PDF
Only External Link: http://familiesandwork.org/eproducts/2005nse.pdf
- Medical and retirement plan coverage: Exploring the decline in recent
years.
PDF
Only External Link: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2004/08/art4full.pdf
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NIOSH Program Portfolio:
Work Organization and Stress-Related Disorders
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