Psychosocial factors at work

The job exposure matrix of psychosocial factors provides a possibility to screen psychosocial factors in the work environment that can be associated with work disability and to plan preventive measures.

Description

The job exposure matrix of psychosocial factors at work provides information on how persons in different occupations are exposed to psychosocial work factors. The matrix offers a possibility to identify occupational groups with different exposures and to plan measures to reduce psychosocial load.

The data of the matrix are based on interviews in which persons were inquired about psychosocial factors in their work. Information was obtained for a total of 365 occupations, covering 82% of all occupational groups. Interviews were carried out among a representative sample of the Finnish population. The data were collected in 2000.

What do the measures tell?

The job exposure matrix of psychosocial factors contains two psychosocial factors. The X-axis describes job demands and the Y-axis job control. Four questions were included in job demands: "work hard", "excessive work", "not enough time" and "hectic work". Job control was composed of decision authority ("allows own decisions", "decision freedom", and "a lot of say on the job"), and skill discretion ("job requires to learn new things", "job requires creativity", "job requires high skill level", "job offers a variety of tasks", and "possibilities to develop own abilities").

All original questions were given on a five-point scale (fully agree, agree to some extent, do not agree or disagree, disagree to some extent, fully disagree), with response values ranging from 1 to 5. The value for job demands and job control was obtained by computing the average of the response values of the pertinent individual questions. A low value indicates low job demands or job control and a high value indicates high job demands or high job control.

Job strain model

Psychological strain denotes a misbalance between external demands and individual resources. In occupational health, the job strain model, introduced by Karasek, is one of the most studied occupational stress models. It is composed of two psychosocial factors related to the work environment: job demands and job control. Job demands denote the amount of work and job control denotes the decision authority and skill discretion in the job. According to the model, occupational psychological strain is induced by high job demands and low job control.

A job with low job demands and high job control is called a low strain job. In a passive job, both job demands and job control are low. In an active job, both job demands and job control are high. In a high strain job, job demands are high and job control is low.

References

Honkonen T, Lindström K, Kivimäki M. Psykososiaalinen työkuormitus mielenterveyden häiriöiden etiologiassa. Lääketieteellinen Aikakauskirja Duodecim 2003;119(14):1327-1333.

Karasek RA, Theorell T. Health workers: stress productivity and the recontruction of working life. New York: Basic Books, 1990.

Solovieva S, Pensola T, Kausto J, Shiri R, Heliövaara M, Burdorf A, Husgafvel-Pursiainen K, Viikari-Juntura E. Evaluation of the validity of job exposure matrix for psychosocial factors at work. PLoS One. 2014 Sep 30;9(9):e108987. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108987. eCollection 2014. PMID: 25268276.