A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Are Trajectories of Preferred Retirement Ages Associated with Health, Work Ability and Effort–Reward Imbalance at Work? Findings from a 6-Year Swedish Longitudinal Study 

  2023. Marta Sousa-Ribeiro (et al.). Work, Aging and Retirement

  Article

  Preferred retirement age (PRA) is one key dimension when studying retirement decision-making. However, little is known concerning how PRA develops over the late career years. This study used a person-centered approach to longitudinally investigate trajectories of PRA and how they differ in self-rated health, perceived work ability, and effort–reward imbalance (ERI) at baseline levels and over 6 years. The study used data from four waves (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health. The sample consisted of 1,510 individuals aged 50–55 in 2010, who answered to the questionnaire for those in paid work (including self-employment) at the baseline and at least one of the following waves. Results from the latent class growth curve modeling show both within- and between-person variability in PRA over the 6-year span. We found four distinct trajectories, which differed both at the baseline levels and in the patterns of change in PRA: “C1: normative, relatively stable PRA” (42% of all participants); “C2: considerably early, increasing PRA” (6% of the participants); “C3: late, relatively stable PRA” (4% of the participants); and “C4: early, increasing PRA” (49% of the participants). Participants revealed a clear preference for retirement before the age of 65. Trajectories comprising earlier PRA showed poorer self-rated health, poorer work ability, and higher levels of ERI at the baseline and over time. The findings reinforce the importance of healthy work environments that promote work ability and facilitate a balance between efforts and rewards for encouraging longer working lives. 

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• Entering and exiting self employment – how do they relate to health and well-being?

  2023. Louise E. Bergman, Claudia Bernhard-Oettel. Book of Abstracts (DRAFT), 415-416

  Conference

  Research goals and motivation: Self-employed workers contribute significantly to our society in terms of economic productivity, job opportunity and innovation. Thus, it is in the interest of our society to support and encourage self employment. It is well documented that self-employed workers – on average – experience higher levels of wellbeing, and less mental health problems than employed workers do. However, self-employed workers are a highly heterogeneous group when it comes to who they are, how they work, and their health status. Thus, averages are not sufficient to inform researchers, policymakers and companies on how to understand the mental health and wellbeing of this group of workers. 

  Workers enter and exit self employment all the time as business opportunities occur, need of an income arises, innovations are created, and businesses fail. However, little is known about the mechanisms behind these career transitions beyond economic factors. Is the decision to start a business related to wellbeing, and how? How many self-employed workers are thriving over time, both when it comes to wellbeing and their business? Who is struggling and experiencing mental health problems, and is this related to exiting self employment? Questions like these currently go unanswered. 

  Theoretical background: This study is mainly exploratory, but mental health problems, wellbeing and how it develops and how it relates to entering and exiting self employment can be related work environment. The effort-reward imbalance model (ERI) has proven to be a good framework to understand health developments, and is adapted and used in this study as theoretical framework. 

  Method: Latent transition analysis (LTA) is used to consider both the longitudinal aspect and the heterogeneity of the group of self-employed workers, in a unique and novel way. We investigate what profiles of mental health and wellbeing exist among self-employed workers, how common they are, and how the workers transition between these profiles over time. Further, we study how the profiles and transitions between them relate to entrepreneurial entrance and exit, work environment factors (ERI) and background variables (i.e., age and gender). 

  We use data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) The current study is based on participants who responded to the 5 th -7 th wave of SLOSH conducted in 2014 (response rate 53%), 2016 (response rate 51%) and 2018 (response rate 48%). In this study, we use respondents who were self-employed at any of the three time points (N=2327). 

  Results: Results of all statistical analyses will be available when the conference takes place. Preliminary findings of factor analysis show that all scales have adequate fit and factor loadings. Based on previous research we expect to find at least one profile of relatively good mental health and wellbeing, as well as profiles with less advantageous mental health. We also expect that work environment factors are linked to health profiles such that better health is found in workers with less ERI. ERI, a well-documented theoretic model, is used to validate the health and wellbeing profiles. Probably, exits out of or entrance into self employment is related to changes in health and work environment. Mechanisms, the number of transitions, and the temporal order will be explored in our study. 

  Limitations: The limitations of this study lie in the exploratory nature of the analysis, and more studies will be needed to further validate any found profiles. 

  Relevance to congress theme: This study is relevant to the first theme of the congress: Careers and the labour market. Specifically, career transitions and employee mobility. With regard to the UN SDG, our study addresses good health and wellbeing and decent work and economic growth. 

  Conclusions: Exact conclusions will depend on the findings, but the study is one of the first to focus on health profiles of self-employed workers, and ways in which these workers’ mental health and wellbeing changes in relation to ERI and decisions to change employment. The results will yield a better understanding of how self-employed workers thrive or struggle, and how to identify the ones that struggle. This will also help to discuss potential possibilities to create better circumstances or preventive tools to shape decent work and sustainability of careers that involve self employment.

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• Entrepreneurial action and eudaimonic well-being in a crisis: Insights from entrepreneurs in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic

  2023. Constanze Eib, Claudia Bernhard-Oettel. Economic and Industrial Democracy

  Article

  Based on transactional stress theory, this article provides an empirical glimpse into how entrepreneurs in Sweden have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors investigated the impact of two crisis-induced stressors (unpredictability, loneliness) on two aspects of entrepreneurial success (business and personal success) through the indirect effect of eudaimonic well-being. They examined the role of crisis-related entrepreneurial actions (applying for government financial support, engaging in online business activities). Results from a sample of entrepreneurs operating in Sweden in the summer of 2020 revealed that unpredictability and loneliness were negatively related to business and personal success via eudaimonic well-being. Results for the moderating effects of the crisis-related entrepreneurial actions revealed mixed findings. The results provide valuable insights into the mechanisms that tie entrepreneurial stressors and opportunities for action to eudaimonic well-being, and in turn, entrepreneurial success in the early days of the crisis caused by the pandemic.

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• Narrated Experiences of Sexual and Gender Minority Refugees: Resilience in the Context of Hardship from Pre- to Post-Migration

  2023. Markus Byström (et al.). Nordic Journal of Migration Research 13 (1)

  Article

  Refugees from sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) face particular hardships, which demand adaptive responses. This pilot study explored SGM refugees’ experiences of resilience within the context of hardship from pre- to post-migration. Eleven semi-structured interviews with SGM refugees who had migrated to Sweden were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: (1) Concealing Identity in Response to Pervasive Oppression, (2) Living in Suspension, (3) External Sources of Support and (4) Strength from Within. Respondents reported utilising limited external resources and employing considerable internal resources in order to navigate and survive in the face of hardships that carried over and shifted across time. A more nuanced understanding of the connections between resilience and hardship is needed to inform post-migration reception practices and service provision in order to facilitate resilience in SGM refugees. 

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• Women´s and men´s experiences with participative decision making at workplace and organisational levels

  2023. Clara Plückelmann (et al.).

  Conference

  Participative decision-making (PDM) refers to the involvement of both employees and managers in decision-making processes, allowing them to provide input on work-related or organizational matters. Evaluating gender equality in decision-making power is important for organizations, as it impacts various work-related outcomes.This study examined gender differences in PDM in Swedish organizations. In this study, the focus was on direct PDM at the workplace and organizational levels.The study involved a large nationally representative survey in Sweden with 10,500 participants from different types of occupations. The results revealed that women perceived themselves to be less influential at the organizational level, while no gender differences were found at the individual workplace level.

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• Well-being of high skilled workers: Disentangling person and tasks effects

  2022. Louise Bergman, Claudia Bernhard-Oettel, Aleksandra Bujacz. 15th EAOHP Conference 2022. Supporting knowledge comparison to promote good practice in occupational health psychology, 564-565

  Conference

  Research goals and why the work was worth doing: Research of well-being and positive affect of workers have previous mainly been focused on a general level. These previous studies have not yet disentangled whether positive affect can be linked to task-by-task experience at work, or whether it mainly varies between different people with different types of work. The purpose of this study was to differentiate between the general level, task level, and type of employment in self-determination, meaningfulness of work and positive affect, thus contributing to the understanding of how to best assess well-being. The novelty and contribution of this study lies in the analysis strategy that allows for disentangling the effect that specific work tasks may have on workers' positive affect. Specifically, the use of multi-level modelling on the data gathered with the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) allows us to describe relationships between positive affect, self-determination, and meaningfulness of work at both person and task level. Multilevel studies assessing the intrapersonal variability of experienced well-being on not only a day-level, but also a task level, are rare and much needed to better understand the dynamics of well-being during a workday.

  Theoretical background: Researchers have connected positive affect – which represents momentary well-being experiences such as happiness, engagement, and inspiration – to high levels of general well-being and better health. High levels of positive affect is often attributed to higher levels of self-determination, and meaningfulness of work. Workers experiencing more self-determination and meaningfulness of work should experience more positive affect, and tasks experienced as more self-determined and meaningful should lead to more positive affect. Additionally, self-employed workers are suggested to have a more self-determined career choice in itself, and thus higher levels of positive affect.

  Design/Methodology/Approach/Intervention: In this study we tested whether H1) workers experiencing more self-determination and meaningfulness of work report higher levels of positive affect, H2) tasks experienced as more self-determined and meaningful are related to more positive affect, and H3) self-employed workers experience stronger relationships of task level self-determination and meaningfulness with positive affect than employed workers. We used a sample of 175 high skilled self-employed and employed workers, who reported self-determination, meaningfulness of work and positive affect for a total of 560 tasks during a workday by the DRM. DRM facilitates access to momentary experiences stored in memory, providing reliable estimates of intensity and variations of affect during the day. First, we tested two separate multilevel multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) models for momentary positive affect (outcome side of the model), as well as self-determination and meaningfulness of tasks (predictor side of the model), and then tested the models for measurement invariance. Since tasks were nested within individuals we fitted a bayesian structural equation model with random slopes with self-determination and meaningfulness of work and employment type as predictors and positive affect as an outcome variable.

  Results obtained: Results indicated that workers experiencing more self-determination and meaningfulness of work reported more positive affect, that tasks experienced as more self-determined also elicited higher levels of positive affect, and that there was a small positive effect of self employment on positive affect. The self-determination and meaningfulness of tasks seem to be more important to positive affect than employment type. The relationship between self employment on positive affect have been assumed by earlier research, but our study is the first to test and show that this indeed may be the case. However, other factors such as self-determination might be more important to task level positive affect.

  Limitations: We studied high-skilled worker, choosing this population facilitated comparison of groups of workers, as many background variables were similar, however, this does affect the generalizability of the results. As consequence, one limitation is that a fairly small sample. Further, we used DRM and a drawback of this method is that it is not in the moment assessment, but rather recorded after the tasks of the day. However, DRM still have practical benefits as it might elevate the response rate in contrast to in the moment reports, because it is difficult for the respondent to make pauses during their workday.

  Research/Practical Implications: These findings may inform researchers on how to best assess well-being, and organizations on how to design work of workers to elevate positive affect and thus, well-being, and health. We have empirically confirmed the assumptions of a positive relationship between self employment and positive affect of previous studies, and that this relationship might be less important than other factors such as self-determination.

  Originality/Value: The originality of this research lies in the multi-level structure of the method and analysis, as well as the comparison of groups of workers.

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• “Good job!”: Therapists' encouragement, affirmation, and personal address in internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for adolescents with depression

  2022. Ida Berg (et al.). Internet Interventions 30

  Article

  Internet-delivered interventions are generally effective for psychological problems. While the presence of a clinician guiding the client via text messages typically leads to better outcomes, the characteristics of what constitutes high-quality communication are less well investigated. This study aimed to identify how an internet therapist most effectively communicates with clients in internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT). Using data from a treatment study of depressed adolescents with a focus on participants who had a positive outcome, messages from therapists were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study focused on the therapist's 1) encouragement and 2) affirmation, and how the therapists used 3) personal address. The analysis resulted in a total of twelve themes (Persistence Wins, You Are a Superhero, You Make Your Luck, You Understand, Hard Times, You Are Like Others, My View on the Matter, Time for a Change, Welcome In, Let Me Help You, You Affect Me, and I Am Human). Overall, the themes form patterns where treatment is described as hard work that requires a motivated client who is encouraged by the therapist. The findings are discussed based on the cognitive behavioral theoretical foundation of the treatment, prior research on therapist behaviors, and the fact that the treatment is provided over the internet.

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• Act or Wait-and-See? Adversity, Agility, and Entrepreneur Wellbeing across Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2022. Ute Stephan (et al.). Entrepreneurship

  Article

  How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.

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• Anställningsformer och anställningsotrygghet i ett föränderligt arbetsliv

  2021. Petra Lindfors, Claudia Bernhard-Oettel. Konferensbok FALF 14-16 juni 2021, 20-21

  Conference

  Bakgrund och syfte

  Även om arbetsmarknaden i Sverige fortfarande domineras av tillsvidareanställningar har många yrkesarbetande tidsbegränsade anställningskontrakt som varierar i längd och garanterad arbetstid. Senare års omstruktureringar visar också att tillsvidareanställningar kan upphöra. Sammantaget kan det här bidra till ökad osäkerhet och otrygghet oberoende av anställningskontrakt vilket i sin tur reser frågor om hur fackets roll, arbetsvillkor, arbetsrelaterade attityder, arbetsrelaterad hälsa och välbefinnande varierar bland kvinnor och män med olika anställningskontrakt och varierande upplevelser av anställningsotrygghet. Det här symposiet för samman fyra konferensbidrag som gemensamt syftar till att diskutera ochproblematisera 1) hur vi kan beskriva och undersöka anställningsformer ochanställningsotrygghet i dagens arbetsliv, 2) kopplingar mellan anställningsotrygghet ochprestation, 3) olika sätt att analysera kopplingar mellan anställningsotrygghet ochhälsorelaterade konsekvenser, och 4) fackets roll i det föränderliga arbetslivet.

  Upplägg

  Det här symposiet utgår från följande fyra konferensbidrag nämligen 1) Hur kan anställningsformer och anställningsotrygghet i dagens arbetsliv beskrivas och undersökas? Claudia Bernhard-Oettel

  2) Anställningsotrygghet och prestation: resultat från en meta-analys. Lena Låstad med medarbetare

  3) Variabler eller individer: kan individfokus ge profilerad kunskap? Petra Lindfors med medarbetare

  4) Vad vet vi om fackets roll i ett föränderligt arbetsliv? Johnny Hellgren med medarbetare

  Utöver att presentatörerna inom ramen för sina respektive presentationer bidrar med problematiserande diskussion kommer de som bevistar symposiet att ombes bidra med reflektioner, råd och framåtblickande inspel. Därmed är förhoppningen att det här interaktiva symposiet resulterar i att alla deltagare gemensamt bidrar till att identifiera olika typer av utmaningar och hinder inom området med fokus på trender och tendenser, praktiska tips och råd på såväl mikro- som makronivå inför den kommande 5-årsperioden. Det här upplägget hänger samman med att symposiet avser samla kunskap av relevans för insatser avseende framtidens arbetsliv med fokus på anställningsvillkor och otrygghet. Därmed är förhoppningen att symposiet utgör ett led i att på sikt kunna klargöra betydelsen av anställningsvillkor och otrygghet för kvinnor och män i olika skeden av livet, i olika yrken, branscher och sektorer för att på sikt kunna bidra till långsiktig hållbarhet i arbetslivet.

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• Comparing Depressive Symptoms, Emotional Exhaustion, and Sleep Disturbances in Self-Employed and Employed Workers

  2021. Louise E. Bergman (et al.). Frontiers in Psychology 11

  Article

  Studies investigating differences in mental health problems between self-employed and employed workers have provided contradictory results. Many of the studies utilized scales validated for employed workers, without collecting validity evidence for making comparisons with self-employed. The aim of this study was (1) to collect validity evidence for three different scales assessing depressive symptoms, emotional exhaustion, and sleep disturbances for employed workers, and combinators; and (2) to test if these groups differed. We first conducted approximate measurement invariance analysis and found that all scales were invariant at the scalar level. Self-employed workers had least mental health problems and employed workers had most, but differences were small. Though we found the scales invariant, we do not find them optimal for comparison of means. To be more precise in describing differences between groups, we recommend using clinical cut-offs or scales developed with the specific purpose of assessing mental health problems at work.

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• Exploring Lived Experiences of Parents of Youth and Youth with a Foreign Background in Sweden

  2021. Laura Ferrer-Wreder (et al.). Child and Youth Care Forum 50, 453-470

  Article

  Background: Sweden is in transition when it comes to the immigrant experience. More research is needed to document the life circumstances and adjustment of those with foreign background living in Sweden.

  Objective: This study investigated the lived experiences of parents of youths and young people themselves who have an Iraqi or Syrian background and are living in Sweden.

  Method: This cross-sectional qualitative interview study focused on a sample of parents of youth and youth (N = 26) with a foreign background. Participants were either born in Syria or Iraq or had one or both parents born in these countries and had migrated to Sweden. Participant interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

  Results: In relation to the study aim, the analysis indicated three main themes in participants’ responses which concerned life in Sweden, feeling at home, and coping.

  Conclusions: Overall, these themes reflected how the perception of everyday experiences relates to adjustment within a multi-cultural urban Swedish context. This study showed how participants with a foreign background are rich in their own diversity of experiences and viewpoints. Results also pointed towards the promise of social policy and services aimed at benefiting those with a foreign background if such efforts are situated in the microsystems that provide life daily structure, as well as in contexts that offer socialization and networking opportunities (e.g., training, education, work, and school). Further, such action should consider the importance of the extended family as part of family-focused initiatives.

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• Health- and Age-Related Workplace Factors as Predictors of Preferred, Expected, and Actual Retirement Timing

  2021. Marta Sousa-Ribeiro (et al.). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (5)

  Article

  To address the challenges of demographic aging, governments and organizations encourage extended working lives. This study investigates how individual health- and age-related workplace factors contribute to preferred, expected and actual retirement timing, as well as to the congruency between preferences vs. expectations, and preferences vs. actual retirement. We used data from a representative Swedish longitudinal sample comprising 4058 workers aged 50–64, with follow-up data regarding actual retirement timing available for 1164 respondents. Multinomial logistic regression analyses suggest that later preferred, expected, and actual retirement timing were, to different extent, influenced by better health, an age-friendly workplace and feeling positive regarding the future at work. Emotional exhaustion, age-related inequalities at work and experiencing aging as an obstacle increased the likelihood of preferring to retire earlier than one expected to, over retiring at the time one expected to. Those with better health and positive work prospects were less likely to prefer retiring earlier than they expected to, and more likely to being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”, compared to being “pulled toward early retirement”. Experiencing aging as an obstacle decreased the chances of being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”. The results provide insights on how to facilitate extended working lives.

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• Hur kan anställningsformer och anställningsotrygghet idagens arbetsliv beskrivas och undersökas?

  2021. Claudia Bernhard-Oettel. Konferensbok FALF 14-16 juni 2021, 22-22

  Conference

  Bakgrund: Hur är det att arbeta i ett anställningskontrakt som avviker från det som länge har varit normen, nämligen en fast anställning på heltid? I takt med att organisationens behov för flexibilitet och effektivitet har ökat har även en rad alternativa anställningsformer skapats på dagens arbetsmarknad. Det kan t ex handla om visstidsanställningar eller anställningar som vikarie. Det kan vara anställningar som inte garanterar ett visst antal timmar, s k nolltimmeskontrakt. Det kan vara konsultuppdrag, anställningar via bemanningsföretag eller gigs som förmedlas via appar på internet. Dessa anställningsformer kan karakteriseras på olika sätt och de kopplar i olika hög grad till upplevelser av otrygghet sett till vissa innehåll i ett arbete, anställningen som helhet, men även möjligheterna att etablera sig på arbetsmarknaden. Osäkerheten kan också ligga i hur man kan skapa en yrkeskarriär, få ekonomisk trygghet eller tillgång till välfärds- och försäkringssystemet.

  Syfte: Syfte med föreliggande presentation är att karakterisera de olika typer av anställningsformer på ett systematiskt sätt, och att diskutera huruvida dessa är förknippade med olika otrygghetsupplevelser. Ett tredje syfte med presentationen är att belysa hur man som forskare bäst kan undersöka hur anställningsformer och (o)trygghetsupplevelser skiljer sig åt mellan olika människor på arbetsmarknaden. Detta är särskilt viktigt då tidigare forskning har visat att den upplevda otryggheten i en anställning är kopplad till en rad negativa konsekvenser för individen och organisationen.

  Metod: För att få en överblick över de senaste förändringar som rör olika typer av anställningar i Sverige lästes forskningsrapporter och rapporter från myndigheter. Olika fackförbund och en expert i arbetslagstiftningen konsulterades. Genom systematisk litteratursökning identifierades tidigare undersökningar i Sverige och utomlands som analyserade hur olika anställningsvillkoren kan se ut, hur de har klassificerats och vad de betyder för upplevelsen av anställningsotrygghet och andra former av otrygghet.

  Resultat: En systematisk överblick över likheter och skillnader mellan olika anställningsformer presenteras. Nya sätt att arbeta via plattformsarbete eller i egenanställning belyses i detalj. En sammanfattande överblick över kopplingen till olika former av otrygghetsupplevelser ges. Detta leder till slutsatser kring hur forskningsstudiers enkät- och mätverktyg behöver vara utformade för att kunna kartlägga de olikartade anställningsförhållanden som människor i dagens arbetsmarknad kan ha. Avslutningsvis diskuteras utmaningarna för att mäta den upplevda otryggheten som relaterar till dessa olika anställningsformer.

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• The mediating effect of exhaustion in the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and turnover intentions

  2021. Constanze Leineweber (et al.). Journal of Occupational Health 63 (1)

  Article

  Objectives: Earlier studies suggest that imbalance between effort and reward at work associates with exhaustion. Others have found that exhaustion increases turnover intentions; an important precursor of actual turnover that also associates with counterproductive work behaviors. Few, however, have studied the associations between effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and employees’ intentions to leave their current employment, and whether exhaustion is underpinning that relationship. Here, we investigate the mediating role of exhaustion in the effort-reward imbalance – turnover intentions relationship.

  Methods: Data from three waves covering a time span of four years from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) were analysed using structural equation modeling. Cross-lagged mediation analyses were conducted to estimate if associations from ERI to subsequent turnover intentions were mediated by exhaustion. Other causal directions (direct and reversed direct effects, reversed mediation) were also examined.

  Results: A direct path from ERI T1 to turnover intentions T2 was found, but not from ERI T2 to turnover intentions T3. Additionally, results showed that ERI at time points T1/T2 associated significantly with exhaustion two years later (T2/T3). Also, exhaustion at T1 showed a small but statistically significant direct association with turnover intentions at T2 (no association was found between exhaustion T2 and turnover intentions T3). A small, but statistically significant indirect effect from ERI to turnover intentions was found (estimate 0.005; 95% CI 0.002-0.010).

  Conclusions: Providing a good balance between effort and reward for workers is essential to protect employee health and help retain employees in the organization.

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• Trajectories of Procedural and Interactional Justice as Predictors of Retirement among Swedish Workers

  2021. Constanze Eib (et al.). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (12)

  Article

  Organizational justice is an important aspect of the psychosocial work environment, but there is a lack of studies on whether justice perceptions also predict retirement decisions. The aim of this study is to examine trajectories of procedural and interactional justice perceptions prior to retirement of three groups of retirees while considering self-rated health and important demographics. Data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (2006-2018, N = 3000) were used. Respondents were grouped into early retirement, normative retirement and late retirement. Latent growth curve models and multinomial logistic regressions were conducted to test whether trajectories of justice perceptions prior to retirement differed between retirement groups while controlling for self-rated health development and demographic variables. Late retirees had higher intercept levels of interactional justice and higher intercept levels of self-rated health prior to retirement, compared to early retirees. Late retirees also showed a slower decrease in procedural justice compared to early retirees. Only intercept levels of self-rated health differed between early retirees and normative retirees, such that early retirees had lower levels of self-rated health prior to retirement. Keeping employees in the workforce is a major challenge for any aging society. Organizational justice perceptions in the years prior to retirement seem particularly influential for delaying retirement.

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• You can't always get what you want

  2021. Constanze Eib (et al.). International Journal of Human Resource Management

  Article

  An intra-organizational change process involving all middle managers was studied in a public sector organization in Sweden over three time points, spanning two years in total. Using sensemaking and the person-environmental fit literature as well studies on promotion and demotion, hypotheses about the effects of managerial status loss and being offered a non-preferred role (non-preference) on change reactions (job satisfaction, turnover intentions, mental health) are made. Data from 140 middle managers was analyzed with path models, where two process factors (perceived organizational support during the change, procedural justice of the change) and two job characteristics (job demand, job control) were tested simultaneously as mediators. Results revealed that managerial status loss had negative effects on work attitudes but mental health was positively affected over time through decreased job demands. Non-preference had negative consequences for all outcome variables and these effects were mediated through lower procedural justice of the change, lower job control, and for some outcomes, lower perceived organizational support during the change. The results provide insight into how middle managers react to change, and suggest that process justice and job characteristics play an important part in shaping these reactions.

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• Effects of procedural justice on prospective antidepressant medication prescription

  2020. Viktor Persson (et al.). BMC Public Health 20 (1)

  Article

  Background: Procedural justice has been linked to several mental health problems, but most studies have used self-reported data. There exist a need to assess the link between procedural justice and health using outcomes that are not only self-reported. The aim of the current study was to examine whether perceived procedural justice at work is prospectively associated with antidepressant medication prescription.

  Methods: Data from 4374 participants from the Swedish Longitudinal Survey of Health (SLOSH) were linked to the Swedish National Prescribed Drug register. Based on their perceived procedural justice at two times (2010 and 2012), participants were divided into four groups: stable low, increasing, decreasing and stable high justice perceptions. Using Cox regression, we studied how the course of stability and change in perceived procedural justice affected the rate of prescription of antidepressant medication over the next 2 years. Participants with missing data and those who had been prescribed antidepressant medication in the period leading up to 2012 were excluded in the main analyses to determine incident morbidity.

  Results: The results showed that after adjustment for sex, age, education, socioeconomic position, marital status, and insecure employment a decrease in perceived procedural justice over time was associated with greater receipt of antidepressants compared to people with stable high perceptions of procedural justice (HR 1.76, 95% CI: 1.16 to 2.68). Being female and having insecure employment were also associated with higher hazards of antidepressant prescription.

  Conclusions: These findings strengthen the notion that procedural justice at work influences psychological well-being, as well as provide new insights into how procedural justice perceptions may affect mental health.

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• Is interpersonal justice related to group and organizational turnover? Results from a Swedish panel study

  2020. Constanze Leineweber (et al.). Social Science and Medicine 265

  Article

  Rational: Research on the relationship between organizational justice and turnover has mainly focused on turnover intentions rather than behavior, and the role of health in this relationship has been widely ignored.

  Objective: In his study, we hypothesized that interpersonal justice perceptions and self-rated health impact on later group (changing work groups while staying in the organization) and organizational turnover (changing organizations). The main effect of self-rated health on group and organizational turnover, as well as its moderating influence on the relationship between interpersonal justice perceptions and turnover, was investigated. Finally, we investigated whether group and organizational turnover are related to changes in subsequent interpersonal justice perceptions.

  Methods: Swedish panel data from permanent workers answering at up to five consecutive time points were used, and multilevel structural equation models were calculated.

  Results: Results showed that low interpersonal justice perceptions increase the risk of subsequent organizational, but not group, turnover. Lower levels of self-rated health predicted group, but not organizational, turnover. The effect of interpersonal justice perceptions on organizational turnover differed depending on self-rated health. Among those with poorer self-rated health, the negative association between interpersonal justice perceptions and organizational turnover was less pronounced. We also found that organizational turnover associated positively and group turnover negatively with changes in interpersonal justice perceptions.

  Conclusion: In conclusion, perceiving interpersonal justice decreases the risk of organizational turnover, but the association is less pronounced among employees with poor self-rated health.

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• Stuck at a workplace

  2020. Claudia Bernhard-Oettel (et al.). International Journal of Human Resource Management 31 (14), 1771-1792

  Article

  Whilst health consequences of being locked-in at the workplace have been documented in several research studies, it is largely unknown how work characteristics and their changes over time relate to risks for becoming locked-in at a certain workplace. Accordingly, this paper studied how perceived control, learning opportunities and quantitative demands at work associate with workplace-locked-in (WPLI). The study included permanent employees who participated in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) study in wave 3 through 5 (n = 2918 individuals; n = 7460 observations). Results from multi-level analysis show that there was significant individual variation in WPLI changes over time, even though on average, WPLI decreased slightly. Differences in work characteristics between individuals (L2) and across time (L1) associated significantly with WPLI: higher levels of job control and learning opportunities related to lower odds ratios for WPLI, whereas higher quantitative job demands associated with higher odds ratios of WPLI. Moreover, differences in quantitative job demands, number of job changes and educational achievements explained the individual variations of WPLI developments over time. The result shows that WPLI can – to some extent – be prevented or reduced through good work design, and implications for HR managers and organizations are discussed.

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• Temporal and person-oriented perspectives on job insecurity

  2020. Katharina Klug (et al.). Handbook on the Temporal Dynamics of Organizational Behavior, 91-104

  Chapter

  Job insecurity, the subjectively perceived risk of involuntary job loss, has been widely researched as a stressor and linked to negative individual, organizational and extra-organizational outcomes. After providing a brief state-of-the-art review of research on the antecedents and consequences of job insecurity, as well as theoretical frameworks to explain mechanisms underlying the relationship between job insecurity and outcomes, this chapter introduces a dynamic perspective on job insecurity. First, we scrutinize existing theory and research concerning temporal dynamics between job insecurity and outcomes when discussing mechanisms of recovery, adaptation and deterioration. Second, we review an emerging literature of person-oriented research on job insecurity, which investigates patterns of job insecurity with other stressors and resources, as well as patterns of change in job insecurity and its consequences over time. We conclude with a research agenda to advance the field towards a dynamic perspective on job insecurity.

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• Trajectories of effort-reward imbalance in Swedish workers

  2020. Constanze Leineweber (et al.). Work & Stress 34 (3), 238-258

  Article

  The aim of the study was to identify trajectories of effort-reward imbalance (ERI), to examine these with respect to demographic (age, gender, socio-economic position) and work-related (employment contract, work hours, shift work, sector) factors, and to investigate associations with different health indicators (self-rated health, depressive symptoms, migraine, sickness absence). The study used four waves of data (N = 6702), collected biennially within the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). Using latent class growth modelling, we identified four trajectories: a stable low imbalance trajectory, which comprised 90% of all participants, and three change trajectories including a decreasing trajectory (4% of the participants), an inverted U-shaped trajectory and an increasing imbalance trajectory, both in 3% of the participants. Results indicate that a sizeable proportion of Swedish employees’ experience imbalance between efforts and rewards at work. The most favourable trajectory comprised relatively more men and was characterised by better work-related characteristics than the less favourable ERI trajectories. All change trajectories were dominated by women and employees in the public sector. Health developments followed ERI trajectories, such that less favourable trajectories associated with impaired health and more favourable trajectories associated with better health. Sickness absence increased among all ERI trajectories, most so for the decreasing and increasing ERI trajectory.

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Show all publications by Claudia Bernhard-Oettel at Stockholm University