The Changing Organization of Work and the Safety and Health of Working People

Knowledge Gaps and Research Directions

Authors

(NORA Organization of Work Team Members)

• Steven L. Sauter, NIOSH—Team Leader
• W. Stephen Brightwell, NIOSH
• Michael J. Colligan, NIOSH
• Joseph J. Hurrell, Jr., NIOSH
• Theodore M. Katz, NIOSH
• David E. LeGrande, Communications Workers of America
• Nancy Lessin, Massachusetts AFL-CIO
• Richard A. Lippin, USA MEDDAC
• Jane A. Lipscomb, University of Maryland
• Lawrence R. Murphy, NIOSH
• Robert H. Peters, NIOSH
• Gwendolyn Puryear Keita, American Psychological Association
• Sydney R. Robertson, Organizational Resources Counselors, Inc.
• Jeanne Mager Stellman, Columbia University
• Naomi G. Swanson, NIOSH
• Lois E. Tetrick, University of Houston

Foreword

Throughout its thirty years as the Nation’s primary research agency for worker safety and health, NIOSH has played a vital role in improving safety and health in the workplace. However, much remains to be done and new challenges are always on the horizon. This is certainly the case with the organization of work.

Since its inception, NIOSH has been committed to understanding and preventing hazards arising from the organization of work. In the 1970s, NIOSH was a partner in the Quality of Employment Surveys and initiated seminal epidemiologic studies on the effects of organization of work factors. Subsequently, NIOSH recognized stress at work as a leading safety and health problem and launched a series of initiatives to investigate and control this problem. Working with the American Psychological Association (APA), NIOSH has supported international conferences on work, stress, and health and postgraduate and graduate training programs combining organization of work with occupational safety and health at major universities. NIOSH also collaborated with the APA and other partners to establish the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology to explore these issues. But sweeping changes in the organization of work in recent years have increased the stakes and now call for bold new action.

In 1996, the National Occupational Research Agenda recognized organization of work as one of the 21 priority research topics for the next decade, and a multidisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners from government, industry, labor, and academia was assembled to craft the research agenda presented in this report. Simultaneously, a concerted effort was made to expand and strengthen both the extramural and intramural NIOSH programs in this area. We have increased extramural funding to universities for research on the organization of work and enhanced the visibility of “organizational science” within NIOSH.

We are confident that these measures will serve to energize urgently needed research on safety and health in the changing workplace. I commend to you the present report—not as a final definitive statement on research needs, but as a framework for a national agenda to elevate organization of work research to a higher priority in occupational safety and health, to provide guideposts for research direction, and to develop partnerships in support of these pursuits.

Kathleen M. Rest, Ph.D., M.P.A.
Acting Director
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Abstract

Revolutionary changes in the organization of work have far outpaced our knowledge about the implications of these changes for the quality of working life and for safety and health on the job. This gap in knowledge is one of the 21 priority areas for research under the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)—a framework crafted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and its partners to guide research into the next decade. This report was developed under NORA as the first attempt to develop a comprehensive research agenda for investigating and reducing occupational safety and health risks associated with the changing organization of work. Research and development needs identified in the agenda include (1) improved surveillance mechanisms to better track how the organization of work is changing, (2) accelerated research on safety and health implications of the changing organization of work, (3) increased research focus on organizational interventions to protect safety and health, and (4) steps to formalize and nurture organization of work as a distinctive field in occupational safety and health.

Executive Summary

Organizational practices have changed dramatically in the new economy. To compete more effectively, many companies have restructured themselves and downsized their workforces, increased their reliance on nontraditional employment practices that depend on temporary workers and contractor-supplied labor, and adopted more flexible and lean production technologies.

Fears have been raised that these trends are resulting in a variety of potentially stressful or hazardous circumstances, such as reduced job stability and increased workload demands. Data suggest, for example, that working time has increased dramatically in the last two decades for prime-age working couples, and that workers in the United States now log more hours on the job than their counterparts in most other countries. On the other hand, the increased flexibility, responsibility, and learning opportunities seen in many of today’s jobs may hold potential for improved satisfaction and well-being in the workforce. In reality, however, the revolutionary changes occurring in today’s workplace have far outpaced our understanding of their implications for work life quality and safety and health on the job.

This gap in knowledge about safety and health effects of the changing organization of work has been recognized as one of the 21 priority areas for research under the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). NORA represents a concerted process by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and its partners to target and coordinate occupational safety and health research into the next decade. Approximately 500 individuals and organizations outside NIOSH contributed to NORA, including employers, employees, safety and health professionals, public agencies, and industry and labor organizations.

The present report was developed under NORA as the first attempt in the United States to develop a comprehensive research agenda to investigate and reduce occupational safety and health risks associated with the changing organization of work. Four areas of research and development are targeted in the agenda.

First, an urgent need exists to implement data collection efforts to better understand worker exposure to organizational risk factors for illness and injury, and how these exposures may be changing. Since the demise of the Quality of Employment Surveys of the 1960s and 1970s, there has been no way of determining how the demands of work may be changing, and how these demands vary from one industry, occupation, or population to another. In this regard, there is a special need for systematic data collection examining major trends in organizational practices (e.g., new production technologies such as lean production and flexible manufacturing) that appear to be spreading rapidly through the economy and seem to have an important influence on job demands.

Second, much greater research attention needs to be given to the safety and health effects of prominent trends in the organization of work that have arisen in recent years. Process reengineering, organizational restructuring, and flexible staffing are prime examples of practices that are increasingly prevalent but insufficiently studied from an occupational safety and health perspective. For example, despite growing concern that inexperience resulting from variable and short-term job assignments may place temporary workers at increased risk for illness and injury, little data exist on safety and health outcomes among these workers.

This research on effects of new organizational practices cannot ignore the changing workforce, which is increasingly populated by women, ethnic minorities, and older workers. Women are disproportionately represented in jobs with restricted benefits and reduced flexibility, and they account for almost all of the growth in working hours. African-American women are twice as likely to be employed in temporary jobs than in traditional work arrangements, and (longer-tenured) older workers are at increased risk of displacement with greater earnings losses. Yet, the interplay of major demographic trends and the changing organization of work has received little research attention in the United States.

Third, the need exists for intervention research targeting organizational practices and policies that may protect worker safety and health. Improved methods are needed to overcome the many obstacles confronting intervention research in workplaces, and a closer examination is needed of factors influencing the motivation and capacity of firms to implement organizational interventions to protect worker safety and health.

Finally, progress toward understanding and preventing safety and health risks posed by organizational factors will require a much stronger public health commitment to this field of study. Steps need to be taken to formalize and promote organization of work as a distinctive field of study within occupational safety and health, to develop the multidisciplinary training essential for research in this area, and to improve research funding opportunities. As prescribed by NORA, strategic alliances among key stakeholders will be fundamental to advances of this nature. Stakeholders include Federal agencies, industry and labor coalitions, and the many professional disciplines with interests in the organization of work (e.g., labor studies, economics, organizational behavior, occupational/public health, and the job stress field).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following NIOSH staff for their contributions: Kellie Pierson for conducting literature searches; Judith Riley and Teri Hill for administrative support; Susan Feldmann, Jane Weber, and Anne Hamilton for editorial review; and Vanessa Becks for document layout and design.

Disclaimer

This document is in the public domain and may be freely copied or reprinted.

Disclaimer: Mention of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by NIOSH.

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DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002–116

April 2002