Active participation in preventionist professional practices: a specific ergonomics training course

in Work (2012), 41(1), 5189-5195

Currently, the different forms of corporate management methods (quality circles, lean manufacturing, etc.) are usually based on employee mobilisation. Very often, the goal of this type of approach is at ... [more ▼]

Currently, the different forms of corporate management methods (quality circles, lean manufacturing, etc.) are usually based on employee mobilisation. Very often, the goal of this type of approach is at best, to ensure that employees embrace corporate projects, or otherwise to impose changes on them without taking into account the real work and difficulties that they face daily. However, do these employee solicitation methods converge with participatory approaches as envisaged by ergonomists and more generally, preventionists? Based on the observation that the activity of institutional preventionists evolves with regulatory constraints and work related to the monitoring of indicators, the implementation and steering of the participatory approach within companies may be a major lever for prevention. After describing the foundations of a participatory approach, this paper will present a training experiment aimed at implementing and promoting employee participation in prevention efforts. The content of this training is then analysed with regard to the balance between methodology and the use of trainees’ narratives. The results of the training session are presented from the point of view of the development prospects for pedagogical tools and the organisation of the training. [less ▲]

Perceived Job-Anxiety and General Psychosomatic Symptom Load and Perceived Social Support - Is there a Relationship?

in Work (2010), (37), 29-39

Job-related distress has often been found to be related with low social support at work. The question is whether dimensions of social support outside work have a similar relation with job-anxiety or ... [more ▼]

Job-related distress has often been found to be related with low social support at work. The question is whether dimensions of social support outside work have a similar relation with job-anxiety or whether they are independent. A sample of 154 employed inpatients from a psychosomatic rehabilitation center (70% women) participated in this study. Participants completed self-rating questionnaires on perceived symptom load in the domain of work (job-anxiety) and in general life (general psychosomatic symptom load), and on perceived social support at work and outside work. Job-anxiety showed moderate correlations with the perceived level of social support through colleagues. Thereby the social support dimensions of "consolation and encouragement" and "criticism, overload, rejection" were more strongly related to job-anxiety than the dimension of "practical support". There were no significant correlations between job-anxiety and social support through household members, leisure time partners or neighbors. Social support is in a specific way important in the context of work other than concerning general mental health outside the work-context. Job-anxiety is a domain-specific clinical phenomenon and independent from perceived social support outside the workplace. [less ▲]