Affiliations: Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research
Unit, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2. Tel.: +1 306
337 2437; Fax: +1 306 585 5694; E-mail: michael.polanyi@uregina.ca | Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada | McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Note: [] Corresponding author
Abstract: Technology change, rising international trade and investment, and
increased competition are changing the organization, distribution and nature of
work in industrialized countries. To enhance productivity, employers are
striving to increase innovation while minimizing costs. This is leading to an
intensification of work demands on core employees and the outsourcing or
casualization of more marginal tasks, often to contingent workers. The two
prevailing models of work and health – demand-control and effort-reward
imbalance – may not capture the full range of experiences of workers in
today's increasingly flexible and competitive economies. To explore this
proposition, we conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of interviews with
120 American workers [6]. Our analysis identifies aspects of work affecting
the quality of workers' experiences that are largely overlooked by popular
work-health models: the nature of social interactions with customers and
clients; workers' belief in, and perception of, the importance of the product
of their work. We suggest that the quality of work experiences is partly
determined by the objective characteristics of the work environment, but also
by the fit of the work environment with the worker's needs, interests, desires
and personality, something not adequately captured in current models.
Keywords: qualitative research, job strain, quality of work, workers, United States
