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This article focuses on methods and tools to measure worker satisfaction with reference to industrial automation. Despite technological advances in automation, the role of human workers on industrial shop floors remains crucial. To promote humans' roles, production systems should be designed and organized so workers are valued and get satisfactory jobs. The article presents a novel holistic model of worker satisfaction with adaptive automation and working conditions. The model takes into account psychosocial and physical working conditions and the characteristics of the automation system the worker interacts with and its user interface. We propose a questionnaire to be used as a practical tool to assess worker satisfaction with industrial automation, considering also the case of adaptive automation. The proposed version of the questionnaire is the result of pilot testing carried out among shop floor operators and takes into account adjustments derived from end-user feedback.

In the paper the review of studies on the relationship between clinically and subjectively diagnosed depression and psychosocial working conditions has been conducted. Most of these studies include mobbing and stress at work. A large part of them also points to organizational injustice and restructuring, and single studies - long working hours, and work-life imbalance as potential causes of both depression and depressive disorders among working people. The results of these studies confirm that in particular mobbing and stress at work are associated with an increased risk of mental health problems. The greater the exposure to these factors is, the higher the risk of depression is. It has also been shown in many studies that these associations are stronger amongst women. The results of these studies clearly show the need to make every possible effort to change such working environments, and preferably - to prevent their deterioration in the short term. Med Pr 2018;69(5):573-581.W artykule dokonano przeglądu badań na temat związku między depresją diagnozowaną klinicznie oraz subiektywnie a psychospołecznymi warunkami pracy. Większość z nich dotyczy mobbingu oraz stresu w pracy. Znaczna część wskazuje także niesprawiedliwość organizacyjną oraz restrukturyzację, a pojedyncze badania długi czas pracy i zaburzenie równowagi praca–dom jako potencjalne przyczyny depresji wśród pracowników. Wyniki tych analiz potwierdzają, że szczególnie mobbing i stres w pracy zwiększają ryzyko wystąpienia depresji. Jest ono tym większe, im większe jest narażenie na te czynniki. W wielu badaniach wskazuje się, że zależności między negatywnymi psychospołecznymi warunkami pracy a obniżonym poziomem zdrowia psychicznego są silniejsze wśród kobiet. Uzyskane wyniki sugerują potrzebę podejmowania wszelkich możliwych wysiłków na rzecz zmiany takich środowisk pracy, a najlepiej – na wczesne zapobieganie pogarszaniu się warunków zawodowych. Med. Pr. 2018;69(5):573–581.

The aim of this article was to check whether mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an effective intervention in reducing work-related stress in the case of workers in a copper mine.Sixty six employees were randomized to the experimental group (32 participants) or to the control group (34 participants). Work-related stress was measured using the job content questionnaire (JCQ) and mental health was measured using the general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) Experimental manipulation was 40-h MBSR training.Multivariate repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant increase of JCQ decision latitude (F = 17.36, p 0.001) and social support (supervisor F = 9.00, p 0.004; coworker F = 5.61, p 0.020), and a significant decrease in GHQ-28 anxiety (F = 5.28, p 0.079) and depression (F = 3.95, p 0.048) due to the intervention.The study confirms that MBSR can be effective in reducing stress resulting from the external risk (and/or imagined fear) of losing one's health or life. The use of MBSR could be recommended in health and safety activities in difficult and dangerous work conditions, such as mining, to promote workers' well-being.

Stereotype threat as an example of serious interpersonal strain at workplace can lead either to impaired work engagement or it can motivate workers to strengthen their efforts to disconfirm a stereotype and can result in excessive work engagement. Thus, the basic aim of the study was to examine whether stereotype threat is related to burnout or to work engagement. The mediating role of the negative and positive emotions were also tested in the classical approach. Mediational analysis revealed a linear relation of stereotype threat and burnout, mediated by negative emotions and a quadratic relationship between stereotype threat and work engagement. In the latter analysis none of the mediators were significant. Therefore, the results showed that both burnout and work engagement are associated with stereotype threat at the workplace, probably depending on the stage of response to the stereotype threat. Further research should confirm these associations in a longitudinal study.

Objective To analyze the associations between fixed-term employment and health (work ability and mental health) and behaviors (engagement and performance). Psychological contract fulfilment (PCF) and breach (PCB) are investigated as potential mediators of these associations. Methods Seven hundred workers employed on fixed-term contracts from a broad range of organizations participated in the study. The Structural Equation Model was performed to analyze the data. Results Mediation analyses revealed that good physical and mental health and productivity are more likely to be achieved by those workers who perform non-manual work and (to some extent) accept their contracts because they experience high levels of PCF and low levels of PCB. Conclusions Apart from the lack of physical workload, psychological contract fulfilment has been revealed as yet another significant mediator between a higher socioeconomic position and good health and productivity of fixed-term workers.

The aim of this study was to assess self-perceived quality of life of people with physical disabilities from the perspective of work. The following tools were used in the study: a personal questionnaire, an SF-36v2 questionnaire, an I-E Scale at Work and a Polish adaptation of the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index. The study involved 426 disabled persons aged 18-65. It demonstrated that quality of life depends, to a large extent, on factors such as age and labour force participation. Duration of looking for work had a significant influence on the satisfaction from the psychological perspective and on the perception of general health. For the respondents who were unemployed and not looking for work, quality of life decreased with increased duration of professional inactivity.

The aim of this study was to show how authentic leadership is related to social support and exposure to workplace bullying and how these variables are related to mental health. For our sample of 820 office workers employed in different Polish organizations and sectors, social support from supervisors moderated the relationship between authentic leadership and workplace bullying. Social support from co-workers moderated the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health and authentic leadership moderated the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health.

The objective of the study was to develop and evaluate a 2-day burnout intervention program focused at enhancing coping with stresses observed in teachers' work. Karasek's job stress model was used as the theoretical framework. The aim of the intervention was to teach participants to deal better with high job demands and low job control. Some cognitive-behavioural methods of overcoming workload and enhancing a sense of self-mastery and relations with students were introduced in the workshop. 59 teachers were randomly assigned to an experimental or to a control group. Results showed that emotional exhaustion, perceived workload and somatic complaints decreased significantly in the intervention group. The greatest effect of the intervention was observed with regard to increased behavioural job control. It was concluded that teaching participants how to manage their work environment better could help them in changing their perception of stressful job characteristics, reducing emotional exhaustion and somatic complaints.

The whole world experiences progress and development, however it is the human being who pays the price in stress--an inevitable part of modern life. When encountering stress, an individual reacts at the level of both the micro- and macroenvironment. Nowadays, stress is defined as a real or interpreted threat to the physiological or psychological integrity of an individual, which results in a physiological and/or behavioral response. In the article a review of the stress conceptualization, health consequences of stress (its neurophysiology and relation to autoimmune disease) as well as ways of management (exercises and psychotherapeutic intervention) is given.

Type A is widely treated as a risk of diseases (mostly coronary heart diseases) and stress, including occupational stress. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of intervention in modifying Type A in 25 managers in comparison with 38 Type A controls, who did not participate in the intervention. Additionally, the usefulness of the intervention was analysed when reactivity, as a temperamental dimension of Type A participants, was taken into account. High reactivity of Type A persons was assumed here as the presumed cause of the negative consequences in their health and well-being. The results showed a significant reduction in stress-related emotional symptoms, like depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem, positive affects due to the intervention. These changes with the reduction in work ambiguity were greater in high reactive Type As than in low reactive ones.

In this study the effects of a worksite stress management intervention on changes in coping styles were examined. Ninety-five participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group participating in the intervention or to a control group with a delayed intervention. The stress management intervention was structured on enhancing so-called positive coping styles focused on problem solving and social diversion and on decreasing negative—emotion-focused and distraction—coping. The results showed that in the experimental group the level of positive coping styles significantly increased. The effect of decreased negative coping styles due to the intervention was observed only in the group of participants with a high level of negative affectivity.

The importance of helping an employee to better cope with occupational stress as the aim of stress management interventions is presented. It particularly concerns the employees who have the poorest temperamental and personality potential for effective coping and should be the target of primary stress intervention and prevention. According to evidence, Type A workers are at risk of occupational stress and disease, especially when some personality features of Type A are accompanied by high reactivity. The concept of pathological Type A is introduced. The already existing programs of modifying Type A and the framework of a program based on the elements that have been established to be the most therapeutic for pathological Type A are presented.

The etiology of musculoskeletal disorders is complex, with physical and psychosocial working conditions playing an important role. This study aimed to determine the relationship between psychosocial work conditions, such as psychological job demands, decision latitude, social support and job insecurity and musculoskeletal complains (MSCs) and (repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) in a 1-year prospective study. The job content questionnaire, the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire and provocation tests were used to study 725 employees aged 20–70 years. Pain in the lower back (58 % of subjects), neck (57 %), wrists/hands (47 %) and upper back (44 %) was most frequent. The carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) (33.6 %), rotator cuff tendinitis (15.4 %), Guyon’s canal syndrome (13.4 %), lateral epicondylitis (7.6 %), medial epicondylitis (5.3 %), tendinitis of forearm–wrist extensors (7.8 %) and tendinitis of forearm–wrist flexors (7.3 %) were the most frequent RSIs. Logistic analysis showed that increased psychological job demands statistically significantly increased the probability of lateral and medial epicondylitis, and increased control (decision latitude) statistically significantly decreased the risk of CTS. There was no relationship between job insecurity, social support and the studied RSIs. Psychosocial factors at work predict prevalence of MSCs and RSIs, irrespectively of demographic factors, e.g., age or gender, and organizational and physical factors.