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Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study
BACKGROUND: A sizeable body of research has demonstrated a relationship between organizational change and increased sickness absence. However, fewer studies have investigated what factors might mitigate this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine if and how the relationship between unit-...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7414577/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32770987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09325-w |
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author | Grønstad, Anniken Kjekshus, Lars Erik Tjerbo, Trond Bernstrøm, Vilde Hoff |
author_facet | Grønstad, Anniken Kjekshus, Lars Erik Tjerbo, Trond Bernstrøm, Vilde Hoff |
author_sort | Grønstad, Anniken |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: A sizeable body of research has demonstrated a relationship between organizational change and increased sickness absence. However, fewer studies have investigated what factors might mitigate this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine if and how the relationship between unit-level downsizing and sickness absence is moderated by three salient work factors: temporary contracts at the individual-level, and control and organizational commitment at the work-unit level. METHODS: We investigated the association between unit-level downsizing, each moderator and both short- and long-term sickness absence in a large Norwegian hospital (n = 21,085) from 2011 to 2016. Data pertaining to unit-level downsizing and employee sickness absence were retrieved from objective hospital registers, and moderator variables were drawn from hospital registers (temporary contracts) and the annual work environment survey (control and organizational commitment). We conducted a longitudinal multilevel random effects regression analysis to estimate the odds of entering short- (< = 8 days) and long-term (> = 9 days) sickness absence for each individual employee. RESULTS: The results showed a decreased risk of short-term sickness absence in the quarter before and an increased risk of short-term sickness absence in the quarter after unit-level downsizing. Temporary contracts and organizational commitment significantly moderated the relationship between unit-level downsizing in the next quarter and short-term sickness absence, demonstrating a steeper decline in short-term sickness absence for employees on temporary contracts and employees in high-commitment units. Additionally, control and organizational commitment moderated the relationship between unit-level downsizing and long-term sickness absence. Whereas employees in high-control work-units had a greater increase in long-term sickness absence in the change quarter, employees in low-commitment work-units had a higher risk of long-term sickness absence in the quarter after unit-level downsizing. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that the relationship between unit-level downsizing and sickness absence varies according to the stage of change, and that work-related factors moderate this relationship, albeit in different directions. The identification of specific work-factors that moderate the adverse effects of change represents a hands-on foundation for managers and policy-makers to pursue healthy organizational change. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7414577 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74145772020-08-10 Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study Grønstad, Anniken Kjekshus, Lars Erik Tjerbo, Trond Bernstrøm, Vilde Hoff BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: A sizeable body of research has demonstrated a relationship between organizational change and increased sickness absence. However, fewer studies have investigated what factors might mitigate this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine if and how the relationship between unit-level downsizing and sickness absence is moderated by three salient work factors: temporary contracts at the individual-level, and control and organizational commitment at the work-unit level. METHODS: We investigated the association between unit-level downsizing, each moderator and both short- and long-term sickness absence in a large Norwegian hospital (n = 21,085) from 2011 to 2016. Data pertaining to unit-level downsizing and employee sickness absence were retrieved from objective hospital registers, and moderator variables were drawn from hospital registers (temporary contracts) and the annual work environment survey (control and organizational commitment). We conducted a longitudinal multilevel random effects regression analysis to estimate the odds of entering short- (< = 8 days) and long-term (> = 9 days) sickness absence for each individual employee. RESULTS: The results showed a decreased risk of short-term sickness absence in the quarter before and an increased risk of short-term sickness absence in the quarter after unit-level downsizing. Temporary contracts and organizational commitment significantly moderated the relationship between unit-level downsizing in the next quarter and short-term sickness absence, demonstrating a steeper decline in short-term sickness absence for employees on temporary contracts and employees in high-commitment units. Additionally, control and organizational commitment moderated the relationship between unit-level downsizing and long-term sickness absence. Whereas employees in high-control work-units had a greater increase in long-term sickness absence in the change quarter, employees in low-commitment work-units had a higher risk of long-term sickness absence in the quarter after unit-level downsizing. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that the relationship between unit-level downsizing and sickness absence varies according to the stage of change, and that work-related factors moderate this relationship, albeit in different directions. The identification of specific work-factors that moderate the adverse effects of change represents a hands-on foundation for managers and policy-makers to pursue healthy organizational change. BioMed Central 2020-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7414577/ /pubmed/32770987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09325-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Grønstad, Anniken Kjekshus, Lars Erik Tjerbo, Trond Bernstrøm, Vilde Hoff Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title | Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title_full | Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title_fullStr | Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title_full_unstemmed | Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title_short | Work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
title_sort | work-related moderators of the relationship between organizational change and sickness absence: a longitudinal multilevel study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7414577/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32770987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09325-w |
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