Safety and Health at Work

Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (산업안전보건연구원)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Is Work Group Social Capital Associated With Sickness Absence? A Study of Workplace Registered Sickness Absence at the Work Group Level

  • Clausen, Thomas (National Research Centre for the Working Environment) ;
  • Meng, Annette (National Research Centre for the Working Environment) ;
  • Borg, Vilhem (National Research Centre for the Working Environment)
  • Received : 2019.09.10
  • Accepted : 2020.04.07
  • Published : 2020.06.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Background: The concept of social capital has its focus on cooperative relations in the workplace. This study investigates the association between social capital and sickness absence among workers in 41 work groups in the Danish dairy industry and examines the possible effects of an intervention on social capital in the workplace on sickness absence. Methods: A sample of 791 dairy workers working in 41 work groups that participated in an intervention study on social capital filled in a questionnaire on four subtypes of social capital, and social capital scores from individual participants were aggregated to the level of work groups. Sickness absence was measured at the level of work groups in company registers as the two-year average percentage of working time lost to sickness absence. Group-level associations between social capital and sickness absence were analyzed using multilevel linear regression analysis. Analyses were adjusted for age, gender, group size, and random effects at the workplace level. Results: We found statistically significant associations between social capital within work groups, social capital in relation to the immediate manager, and social capital toward the workplace as a whole on the one side and sickness absence on the other side. We found no support for any effects of the intervention on sickness absence. Conclusion: The work group level of social capital is associated with the work group level of sickness absence. However, the intervention to enhance group-level social capital had no effect on reducing sickness absence in the intervention group.

Keywords

References

  1. Lund T, Kivimaki M, Labriola M, Villadsen E, Christensen KB. Using administrative sickness absence data as a marker of future disability pension: the prospective DREAM study of Danish private sector employees. Occup Environ Med 2008;65(1):28-31. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2006.031393
  2. WHO. Absenteeism from work due to illness, days per employee per year. European Health for all database; 2018 [Internet].
  3. Clausen T, Burr H, Borg V. Do psychosocial job demands and job resources predict long-term sickness absence? An analysis of register-based outcomes using pooled data on 39,408 individuals in four occupational groups. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2014;87:909-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-0936-7
  4. Head J, Kivimaki M, Martikainen P, Vahtera J, Ferrie JE, Marmot MG. Influence of change in psychosocial work characteristics on sickness absence: the Whitehall II study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2006;60(1):55-61. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.038752
  5. Almedom AM. Social capital and mental health: an interdisciplinary review of primary evidence. Soc Sci Med 2005;61(5):943-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.12.025
  6. Kawachi I, Berkman LF. Social ties and mental health. J Urban Health 2001;78(3):458-67. https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.3.458
  7. Nahapiet J, Ghoshal S. Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Acad Manag Rev 1998;23(2):242-66. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1998.533225
  8. Meng A, Clausen T, Borg V. The association between team-level social capital and individual-level work engagement: differences between subtypes of social capital and the impact of intra-team agreement. Scand J Psychol 2018;59(2):198-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12435
  9. Kouvonen A, Kivimaki M, Vahtera J, Oksanen T, Elovainio M, Cox T, et al. Psychometric evaluation of a short measure of social capital at work. BMC Public Health 2006;6:251. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-6-251
  10. Bakker AB, Demerouti E. Job demands-resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. J Occup Health Psychol 2017;22(3):273-85. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
  11. Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. J Organ Behav 2004;25(3):293-315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248
  12. Clausen T, Meng A, Borg V. Does social capital in the workplace predict job performance, work engagement and psychological well-being? A prospective analysis. J Occup Environ Med 2019;60(10):800-5. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000001672
  13. Oksanen T, Kawachi I, Jokela M, Kouvonen A, Suzuki E, Takao S, et al. Workplace social capital and risk of chronic and severe hypertension: a cohort study. J Hypertens 2012;30(6):1129-36. https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0b013e32835377ed
  14. Oksanen T, Kivimaki M, Kawachi I, Subramanian SV, Takao S, Suzuki E, et al. Workplace social capital and all-cause mortality: a prospective cohort study of 28,043 public-sector employees in Finland. Am J Public Health 2011;101(9):1742-8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300166
  15. Kouvonen A, Oksanen T, Vahtera J, Stafford M, Wilkinson R, Schneider J, et al. Low workplace social capital as a predictor of depression: the Finnish Public Sector Study. Am J Epidemiol 2008;167(10):1143-51. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwn067
  16. Oksanen T, Kouvonen A, Vahtera J, Virtanen M, Kivimaki M. Prospective study of workplace social capital and depression: are vertical and horizontal components equally important? J Epidemiol Community Health 2010;64(8):684-9. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2008.086074
  17. Sakuraya A, Imamura K, Inoue A, Tsutsumi A, Shimazu A, Takahashi M, et al. Workplace social capital and the onset of major depressive episode among workers in Japan: a 3-year prospective cohort study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2017;71(6):606-12. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2016-208561
  18. Torok E, Clark AJ, Jensen JH, Lange T, Bonde JP, Bjorner JB, et al. Work-unit social capital and long-term sickness absence: a prospective cohort study of 32 053 hospital employees. Occup Environ Med 2018;75(9):623-9. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2017-104954
  19. De Clercq B, Clays E, Janssens H, De BD, Casini A, Kittel F, et al. Health behaviours as a mechanism in the prospective relation between workplace reciprocity and absenteeism: a bridge too far? PLoS One 2015;10(11): e0141608. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141608
  20. Kiss P, De Meester M, Kristensen TS, Braeckman L. Relationships of organizational social capital with the presence of "gossip and slander," "quarrels and conflicts," sick leave, and poor work ability in nursing homes. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2014;87(8):929-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-0937-6
  21. Rugulies R, Hasle P, Pejtersen JH, Aust B, Bjorner JB. Workplace social capital and risk of long-term sickness absence. Are associations modified by occupational grade? Eur J Public Health 2016;26(2):328-33. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckv244
  22. Hansen AK, Madsen IEH, Thorsen SV, Melkevik O, Bjorner JB, Andersen I, et al. Does workplace social capital protect against long-term sickness absence? Linking workplace aggregated social capital to sickness absence registry data. Scand J Public Health 2018;46(3):290-6. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494817721672
  23. Szreter S, Woolcock M. Health by association? Social capital, social theory, and the political economy of public health. Int J Epidemiol 2004;33(4):650-67. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyh013
  24. Ashforth B, Johnson S. Which hat to wear? The relative saleince of multiple identities in organizational contexts. In: Hogg MA, Terry DJ, editors. Social identity processes in organizational contexts. Hove: Psychology Press; 2001. p. 31-48.
  25. Fujita S, Kawakami N, Ando E, Inoue A, Tsuno K, Kurioka S, et al. The association of workplace social capital with work engagement of employees in health care settings: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis. J Occup Environ Med 2016;58(3):265-71. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000605
  26. Kowalski C, Driller E, Ernstmann N, Alich S, Karbach U, Ommen O, et al. Associations between emotional exhaustion, social capital, workload, and latitude in decision-making among professionals working with people with disabilities. Res Dev Disabil 2010;31(2):470-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.10.021
  27. Meng A, Borg V, Clausen T. Enhancing the social capital in industrial workplaces: developing workplace interventions using intervention mapping. Eval Program Plann 2019;72:227-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.11.007
  28. Borg V, Cayuelas-Mateu N, Clausen T. Udvikling af en ny metode til undersogelse af social kapital pa arbejdspladsen [Development of a new method for investigating social capital in the workplace]. Copenhagen: National Research Centre for the Working Environment; 2014.
  29. van Mierlo H, Vermunt JK, Rutte CG. Composing group-level constructs from individual-level survey data. Organ Res Methods 2009;12(2):368-92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428107309322
  30. Lund T, Labriola M, Villadsen E. Who is at risk for long-term sickness absence? A prospective cohort study of Danish employees. Work 2007;28(3):225-30.
  31. Cohen A, Keren D. Individual values and social exchange variables: examining their relationship to and mutual effect on in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Group Organ Manag 2008;33(4):425-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601108321823
  32. Diez Roux AV. The study of group-level factors in epidemiology: rethinking variables, study designs, and analytic approaches. Epidemiol Rev 2004;26:104-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxh006
  33. Berthelsen H, Conway PM, Clausen T. Is organizational justice climate at the workplace associated with individual-level quality of care and organizational affective commitment? A multi-level, cross-sectional study on dentistry in Sweden. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2018;91(2):237-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1275-2
  34. Bakker AB, Demerouti E. The job demands-resources model: state of the art. J Manag Psychol 2007;22(3):309-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
  35. Demerouti E, Bakker AB. The Job Demands-Resources model: challenges for future research. SA J Ind Psychol 2011;37(2):1-9.
  36. Stromgren M, Eriksson A, Bergman D, Dellve L. Social capital among healthcare professionals: a prospective study of its importance for job satisfaction, work engagement and engagement in clinical improvements. Int J Nurs Stud 2016;53:116-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.07.012
  37. Mauno S, Kinnunen U, Ruokolainen M. Job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. J Vocat Behav 2007;70(1):149-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.09.002
  38. Clausen T, Borg V. Job demands, job resources and meaning at work. J Manag Psychol 2011;26(8):665-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111181761
  39. Podsakoff PM, MacKenzie SB, Lee JY, Podsakoff NP. Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol 2003;88(5):879-903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879

Cited by

  1. Effect of Psychological Distress on the Association of Workplace Social Capital with Presenteeism and Sickness Absence vol.43, pp.3, 2020, https://doi.org/10.7888/juoeh.43.293