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

Knowledge Gaps and Research Directions

Chapter 1: Introduction

• Changing Organization of Work
• Concept of Organization of Work
• Organization of Work and Occupational Safety and Health

Changing Organization of Work

Advanced industrial countries such as the United States have witnessed sweeping changes in the organization of work that have been influenced by major economic, technological, legal, political, and other forces. Manufacturing jobs continue to decline, giving way to service and knowledge work. Liberalized trade regulations and new information and computer technologies have enabled more companies to operate globally, resulting in intensified price and product competition. In addition, product and service demands are shifting rapidly amid pressure for higher quality and customized products. In many countries, these trends are occurring against the backdrop of an aging and increasingly diverse workforce and tightening labor markets.

Organizational practices have changed dramatically in this new economy. To compete more effectively, many large companies have restructured themselves by downsizing their workforces and outsourcing all but core functions. At the same time, nontraditional employment practices that depend on temporary workers and contract labor have grown steadily. Organizations are also adopting new and flatter management structures that result in downward transfer of management responsibility and decentralized control, and they are implementing more flexible and lean production technologies such as just-in-time manufacturing. The rubric “high performance” work systems has been used to describe and justify many of these organizational practices.

For many workers, these trends have resulted in a variety of potentially stressful or hazardous circumstances, such as reduced job stability and increased workload. Data suggest, for example, that the average work year for prime-age working couples has increased by nearly 700 hours in the last two decades [Bluestone and Rose 1998; DOL 1999a] and that high levels of emotional exhaustion at the end of the workday are the norm for 25% to 30% of the workforce [Bond et al. 1997]. Alternatively, increased flexibility, responsibility, and learning opportunity in today’s workplace may offer workers greater potential for self-direction, skill development, and career growth, leading to reduced stress and increased satisfaction and well being.

In reality, these revolutionary changes in the organization of work have far outpaced our understanding of their implications for work life quality and safety and health on the job. This gap in knowledge is the subject of discussion here.

Concept of Organization of Work

Although the expressions “work organization” or “organization of work” are increasingly used in discussions of worker safety and health, these expressions have not been formally defined, and literature on this topic is still meager in the occupational safety and health field. As used in this document, organization of work refers to the work process (the way jobs are designed and performed) and to the organizational practices (management and production methods and accompanying human resource policies) that influence job design. Also included in this concept of organization of work are external factors, such as the legal and economic environment and technological factors that encourage or enable new organizational practices.

Figure 1 depicts the multilevel concept of organization of work and illustrates the continuity between (1) broad economic and public policy and other forces at the national and international level, (2) organization-level structures and processes, and (3) job demands and conditions in the workplace. For example, global economic pressures may lead to restructuring and downsizing by companies which, in turn, may increase workload demands and reduce job security for workers.

As explained, organization of work is identified most closely with the work process and with organizational factors influencing the work process. However, as illustrated conceptually in Figure 2, the present discussion adopts a broader formulation of the organization of work that incorporates both human resource practices and labor market characteristics. (Note that human resource practices and labor market characteristics are included among the organization of work factors in Figure 1.) In practice, these elements cannot be excluded from discussions of organization of work because they are commonly bundled together with work process innovations, or they may interact with new work processes to influence safety and health. For example, expanded employee training (a human resource function) is integral to the success of flexible production processes (an aspect of the work process). As an example of interplay between labor market and work process factors, studies imply that increasing job demands or longer work hours may pose disproportionate risk for women because they bear greater domestic responsibility and therefore experience greater total workload than do men [Alfredsson et al. 1985; Heyman 2000; UNDP 1995].

Figure 2. Topics encompassed by the organization of work.

Organization of Work and Occupational Safety and Health

Organization of work has been a topic of interest for some time in specialized areas of occupational safety and health, especially in the fields of job stress, industrial fatigue, and ergonomics. For example, extensive literature links job characteristics (e.g., low levels of control and work overload) to job stress and stress-mediated health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and psychological disorders [Karasek and Theorell 1990; Sauter et al. 1998; Schnall et al. 2000].

However, there is growing appreciation that the organization of work has broad implications for the safety and health of workers—not just for stress and stress-related outcomes. The changing organization of work may also directly influence the level of exposure to physical hazards in the workplace. For example, workers with multiple jobs or extended work shifts might be at risk of exceeding permissible exposure concentrations to industrial chemicals. Long work hours and staff reductions may increase the risk of overexertion injury. Increased public contact and alternative work schedules (e.g., night work), which are common in the growing service sector, may expose workers to heightened risk of violence in their jobs.

In addition, worker safety and health might be threatened by more indirect effects of changing organizational practices. For example, worker access to occupational health services and programs might be adversely affected by organizational downsizing or by the growth of defined contribution or voucher-style health benefit programs. These multiple influences of organization of work on occupational safety and health are illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Pathways between organization of work and illness and injury.

Little research, however, and few resources have been directed toward a fuller examination of the safety and health risks (or benefits) of the changing workplace. Indeed, researchers currently have only limited means to understand how the organization of work is changing, and studies linking organizational changes to safety and health outcomes have been slow to develop. Even more uncommon is research on organizational interventions to protect worker safety and health in the changing workplace.

The present report develops a scientific agenda to address occupational safety and health consequences of the changing organization of work. We begin by examining surveillance systems and suggesting improvements in these systems to better track how the organization of work is changing. Second, innovative organizational practices in today’s workplace are examined, and safety and health effects research is proposed to better understand the consequences of these practices. Third, limitations in research on ways to reorganize work to protect worker safety and health in the changing workplace are discussed, and steps to advance intervention research of this nature are proposed. Finally, challenges confronting research on all of these topics are discussed.