Stockholm university

Research project Retail as an attractive workplace

The overall aim of the project is to study the importance of different job demands and job resources for outcomes such as attitudes, behaviors and health among employees, primarily in the retail sector.

Shop with Open sign. Photo: StockSnap from Pixabay.

Job demands refer to those aspects of the psychosocial work environment that burden the employee and require effort to manage (e.g., workload, physical demands, emotional demands, uncomfortable working hours, digitalization, job insecurity, work time insecurity, work–family conflict).

Job resources refer to factors in the work environment that facilitate the handling of job demands (e.g., job control, control over working hours, social support from colleagues/manager, perceived organizational justice, opportunities for learning and skills development, employability).

The project has a broad approach in terms of outcomes and includes different attitudes to the work and the organization, behaviors such as the intention to stay/quit in the organization and job performance, and various aspects of health.

The project is also a part of the NOWSTARS research program, Retail project.

Project description

More specifically, the project, which has the full title "Retail as an attractive workplace: The importance of work environment factors for attitudes, behaviors and health", examines:

  • Prevalence of different job demands and job resources for different groups of commercial employees (eg younger/older, women/men, blue-collar workers/white-collar workers/academics, people with different ethnic backgrounds, people with different employment conditions)
  • Associations between work environment factors and outcomes, partly at general level, partly to analyze differences/similarities in associatioons for different groups (as above)
  • Changes in working environment conditions over time
  • Differences and similarities between different groups (with different combinations of levels of work environment factors) in terms of outcomes.

The project is mainly based on survey data. Longitudinal surveys are conducted among members of the trade unions Union of commercial employees (Handelsanställdas förbund; affiliated with The Swedish Trade Union Confederation [LO]), Unionen (affiliated with The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees [TCO]) as well as Akavia and The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers (affiliated with The Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations [Saco]). In addition, both survey data and interview data are collected from general samples of employees in the retail sector.

By identifying how different job demands and job resources relate to work attitudes and performance, the project can in the short term provide valuable insights into what characterizes retail as an attractive workplace when it comes to recruiting and retaining competence. Correspondingly, increased knowledge about sustainable working conditions can provide an opportunity to work preventively to reduce negative work attitudes and ill health, which in the long run can result in sick leave, also by studying differences between forms of employment.

In the longer term, the project’s results can be used by both employers’ organizations and trade unions to provide an increased understanding of risk factors at work as well as of promoting factors that contribute to long-term sustainability, for the development of guidelines and policies. The project can also help identify groups where special efforts may be needed. The ambition is also that the results can be of practical use in workplaces in the retail sector.

Project members

Project managers

Magnus Sverke

Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology

Department of Psychology
Magnus Sverke Foto: Datorenheten/HD

Members

Helena Falkenberg

Assistant Professor

Department of Psychology
Fil dr Helena Falkenberg

Jacobus Pienaar

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology
Jacobus Pienaar Foto: Psykologiska institutionen/HD

Philip Ström

PhD Student

Department of Psychology
Philip Ström Foto: Psykologiska institutionen/HD

More about this project

This project has a reference group consisting of the following representatives from employers’ organizations and trade unions:

  • Stefan Carlén, The Commercial Employees’ Union
  • Shadé Jalali, Unionen
  • Ola Sundström, The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers
  • Carlotte Tarschys, Akavia