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New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis

The continuous transformation process in the world of work, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, is giving employees more scope to shape their own work. This scope can be experienced as a burden or as a resource for employees. Work design competencies (WDC) describe employees’ experience of their s...

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Autores principales: Niebuhr, Fiona, Steckhan, Greta M., Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9655681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360984
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114107
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author Niebuhr, Fiona
Steckhan, Greta M.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
author_facet Niebuhr, Fiona
Steckhan, Greta M.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
author_sort Niebuhr, Fiona
collection PubMed
description The continuous transformation process in the world of work, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, is giving employees more scope to shape their own work. This scope can be experienced as a burden or as a resource for employees. Work design competencies (WDC) describe employees’ experience of their scope for design. Our study draws on existing datasets based on two Germany-wide studies. We used hierarchical cluster analyses to examine patterns between WDC, the age of employees (range: 18–71 years), the amount of weekly work time working from home (WFH), and work ability. In total, the data of N = 1232 employees were analyzed, and 735 of them participated in Study 1. To test the validity of the clusters, we analyzed data from N = 497 employees in Study 2. In addition, a split-half validation was performed with the data from Study 1. In both studies, three clusters emerged that differed in age and work ability. The cluster with the highest mean of WDC comprised employees that were on average older and reported a higher mean of work ability. Regarding WFH, no clear patterns emerged. The results and further theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Overall, WDC appear to be relevant to work ability and, in a broader sense, to occupational health, and are related to sociodemographic factors such as age.
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spelling pubmed-96556812022-11-15 New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis Niebuhr, Fiona Steckhan, Greta M. Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The continuous transformation process in the world of work, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, is giving employees more scope to shape their own work. This scope can be experienced as a burden or as a resource for employees. Work design competencies (WDC) describe employees’ experience of their scope for design. Our study draws on existing datasets based on two Germany-wide studies. We used hierarchical cluster analyses to examine patterns between WDC, the age of employees (range: 18–71 years), the amount of weekly work time working from home (WFH), and work ability. In total, the data of N = 1232 employees were analyzed, and 735 of them participated in Study 1. To test the validity of the clusters, we analyzed data from N = 497 employees in Study 2. In addition, a split-half validation was performed with the data from Study 1. In both studies, three clusters emerged that differed in age and work ability. The cluster with the highest mean of WDC comprised employees that were on average older and reported a higher mean of work ability. Regarding WFH, no clear patterns emerged. The results and further theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Overall, WDC appear to be relevant to work ability and, in a broader sense, to occupational health, and are related to sociodemographic factors such as age. MDPI 2022-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9655681/ /pubmed/36360984 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114107 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Niebuhr, Fiona
Steckhan, Greta M.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title_full New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title_fullStr New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title_full_unstemmed New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title_short New Work Poses New Challenges—The Importance of Work Design Competencies Revealed in Cluster Analysis
title_sort new work poses new challenges—the importance of work design competencies revealed in cluster analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9655681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360984
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114107
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