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Self-management in Finnish working life – where and who experience it? Recently, self-management has been presented as a solution to higher motivation, agility, and innovativeness. Despite increased interest in the topic, many of the theoretical claims have yet to be studied quantitatively. This research aims to illuminate where and who experiences self-management within the Finnish workforce, with a heterogeneous sample of 2 000 Finnish employees. We distinguish between organizational self-management (OSM), as the extent of decentralization of power within the organization, and employee self-management (ESM) as how much power the individual employees experience. Our analysis shows that the male gender and a higher level of education were associated with higher levels of ESM, but these relationships disappeared once the position and salary level were controlled. The level of OSM was slightly higher for young organizations, in the third sector, and in certain industries such as information and communication.

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ObjectivesNovel information about the relationships between farmers' job demands, lack of resource, burnout, and ill health is reported based on testing the so-called "health impairment process" of the Job DemandsResources Model (JD-R) on a representative sample of Finnish dairy farmers. The aim was to find out whether two different job demand factors; workload, societal demands and lack of resource; loneliness, were related to the indicators of ill health via burnout. MethodsThe data is based on a postal survey of 400 Finnish dairy farms. Altogether 265 questionnaires were received from 188 farms and included in the analysis. The response rate was 47 per cent among sample farms. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between the variables. Explanatory factor analysis was used to group the job demand and lack of resource variables. ResultsWe identified two job demand factors, which we labelled workload and societal demands and one lacking job resource, loneliness. Our theoretical model was supported in that two of the factors, namely workload and loneliness, were related to ill health indirectly via burnout. In addition, workload was directly connected with ill health. Societal job demands were not significantly related to burnout, or to ill health. ConclusionOur results suggest that farmers could benefit from means to reduce workload, especially the physical load. This topic needs further research as the restructuring process has increased farm enterprise sizes. There is a need to develop tools and projects to alleviate loneliness among farmers. Lack of social support, high workload, ill health, and burnout among farmers may have serious direct and indirect negative consequences for the sustainability of farming.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate differences in the levels of work engagement across demographic and work- and organization-related factors, and their relative importance for work engagement. METHODS: The study was on the basis of a sample of 17,498 male and 17,897 female employees from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey collected in 2015. Linear regression models and dominance analysis were used. RESULTS: Several significant differences were observed between the levels of work engagement in different demographic and work- and organization-related groups. Employees working in human service occupations reported higher levels of work engagement than employees in other industries. Relatively, occupational group (68%) and industry (17%) contributed most to work engagement. CONCLUSION: It is important to focus on enhancing work engagement, particularly among less educated employees, among those with nonpermanent contracts, and in certain occupations. ispartof: JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE vol:61 issue:5 pages:373-381 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Emotional demands are an inevitable feature of human services, and suggested to be a defining antecedent for workers’ stress and ill health. However, previous research indicate that emotional demands can have a favorably association to certain facets of human service workers’ motivation and well-being. Furthermore, recent research report that the effect of emotional demands on workers’ health and well-being seem to be contingent on the parallel level of other job demands. Still, initial investigations of interaction effects between emotional demands and other types of job demands have primarily focused on negative outcomes in terms of stress-related concerns and absenteeism. The present study investigated interaction effects between emotional demands and other types of job demands in relation to positive outcomes. In a larger sample of human service workers (social workers, n = 725), interaction effects were investigated between emotional demands and other job demands (quantitative demands, work pressure, and role conflict) for meaning in work and quality of work. Hypotheses stated that other job demands would moderate the relationship between emotional demands and positive outcomes, so that emotional demands would have a positive relation (i.e., act as a challenge) when the level of other demands is lower, but have a negative relation (i.e., act as a hindrance) when the level of other demands is high. Overall, the results provided support for the idea that emotional demands may act as a challenge. We found small but significant interaction effects between emotional demands and work pressure – in relation to meaning of work, as well as between emotional demands and quantitative demands, work pressure, and roleconflict, respectively – in relation to quality of work. Yet, the results did not support the assumption that emotional demands act as a hindrance when the level of other types of job demands is high. In sum, the results contribute by showing that emotional demands may promote human-service workers’ job attitudes when the level of parallel job demands is lower. We discuss the contribution of the study and the potential practical implications of the results, and give some suggestions for future research.

We used and integrated the circumplex model of affect (Russell, 1980) and the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1998) to hypothesize how various types of employee well-being, which can be differentiated on theoretical grounds (i.e., work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and workaholism), may differently predict various job crafting behaviors (i.e., increasing structural and social resources and challenging demands, and decreasing hindering demands) and each other over time. At Time 1, we measured employee well-being, and 4 years later at Time 2, job crafting and well-being, using a large sample of Finnish dentists (N = 1,877). The results of structural equation modeling showed that (a) work engagement positively predicted both types of increasing resources and challenging demands and negatively predicted decreasing hindering demands; (b) workaholism positively predicted increasing structural resources and challenging demands; (c) burnout positively predicted decreasing hindering demands and negatively predicted increasing structural resources, whereas (d) job satisfaction did not relate to job crafting over time; and (e) work engagement positively influenced job satisfaction and negatively influenced burnout, whereas (f) workaholism predicted burnout after controlling for baseline levels. Thus, work engagement was a stronger predictor of future job crafting and other types of employee well-being than job satisfaction. Although workaholism was positively associated with job crafting, it also predicted burnout. We conclude that the relationship between job crafting and employee well-being may be more complex than assumed, because the way in which employees will craft their jobs in the future seems to depend on how they currently feel. (PsycINFO Database Record

Using the stability and change model, conservation of resources theory and the job demands-resources model, this study aimed to determine: (1) the extent to which work engagement and job resources can be explained by a component reflecting stability and a component reflecting change in these constructs, and (2) the strength and direction of the relationship between work engagement and job resources when their stable components are controlled for. The study was carried out among 1,964 Finnish dentists over a seven-year time period (2003–2010), using a three-wave dataset. Some of the dentists had changed jobs during the follow-up, and therefore the research questions were validated among groups of job stayers and job changers. The stability and change models were examined using structural equation modelling. The results showed that 69–77% of the variance of dentists’ work engagement, and 46–49% of the variance of job resources was explained by the component reflecting stability. However, although there was a positive relationship between job resources and work engagement, the primary direction of this relationship could not be determined. Either job resources or work engagement may be considered as the initiator of this relationship. Job change did not affect the results.

This paper tests and confirms the cross-cultural equivalence of the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) in eight countries and languages: The Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Finland. A composite sample consisting of 5201 respondents from eight countries that all filled out the SLS was used. A three-step approach was adopted to test configural invariance, measurement equivalence, and structural equivalence. For the full 30-item version of the SLS, configural invariance and partial measurement equivalence were confirmed. Implications of these results for the use of the SLS within cross-cultural studies are discussed. publishersversion published

Objectives: Dentistry is characterized by a meaningful but also stressful psychosocialworking environment. Job satisfaction varies among staff working under differentorganizational forms. The aim of this study was to identify (i) to what extentcrucial psychosocial work environment characteristics differ among occupations ingeneral public dental clinics in Sweden, and (ii) how much of the variation withineach occupation is attributable to the organizational level.Methods: All staff (N=1782) employed in four public dental organizations receivedan email with personal log-in to an electronic questionnaire based on the CopenhagenPsychosocial Questionnaire. After two reminders, a response rate of 75%was obtained. Responses from 880 nonmanagerial dentists, dental hygienists anddental nurses working in general practices were included in our analyses.Results: First, we compared the three dental occupations. We found that jobdemands, task resources (eg influence, possibilities for development and role clarity),strain symptoms and attitudes to work differed among occupations, dentists havingthe least favourable situation. Next, we compared the four organizations for eachoccupational group, separately. For dentists, a significant and relevant amount ofvariance (P.05) was explained by the organizational level for 15 of 26subscales, least pronounced for task resources. By contrast, for dental nurses andhygienists, the corresponding number was 2 subscales of 26. The psychosocialworking environment of people working at the organization with the highest levelsof strain indicators and the least positive work-related attitudes differed systematicallyfrom the organization with the most favourable profile, in particular regardingjob demands and leadership aspects.Conclusion: In conclusion, the psychosocial working environment depended to a largedegree on occupation and, for dentists in particular, also on their organizational affiliation.The findings suggest a potential for designing interventions at organizational levelfor improvements of the psychosocial working environment for dentists.

Using a two-wave 10-year longitudinal design, this study examined the motivational process proposed by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The aim was to examine whether work engagement acts as a mediator between job resources (i.e. supervisory relations, interpersonal relations and task resources) and personal resources (self-esteem) on the one hand and future work ability (i.e. a worker's functional ability to do their job) on the other. The second aim was to investigate the mediating role of engagement between past work ability and future work ability. Structural equation modelling was used to test the mediation hypotheses among Finnish firefighters (N = 403). As hypothesized, engagement at T2 fully mediated the impact of job and personal resources at T1 on work ability at T2. In addition, the effect of work ability at T1 on work ability at T2 was partially mediated by engagement at T2. These results indicate that job and personal resources may have long-term effects on engagement, and consequently on work ability, thus expanding on the propositions of the JD-R model. The results show a dual role of work ability, as a health-related resource that may foster engagement and an outcome driven by the motivational process proposed by the JD-R model.