Organizational practices have changed dramatically in this new economy.

To compete more
effectively, many large companies have restructured themselves by downsizing their
workforces and outsourcing all but core functions. At the same time, nontraditional
employment practices that depend on temporary workers and contract labor have grown
steadily. Organizations are also adopting new and flatter management structures that result in
downward transfer of management responsibility and decentralized control, and they are
implementing more flexible and lean production technologies such as just-in-time
manufacturing.
The rubric high performance work systems has been used to describe and justify many of
these organizational practices.
For many workers, these trends have resulted in a variety of potentially stressful or hazardous
circumstances, such as reduced job stability and increased workload. Data suggest, for
example, that the average work year for prime-age working couples has increased by nearly
700 hours in the last two decades [Bluestone and Rose 1998; DOL 1999a] and that high levels
of emotional exhaustion at the end of the workday are the norm for 25% to 30% of the
workforce [Bond et al. 1997].
As an example of interplay between labor market and work process factors, studies imply that
increasing job demands or longer work hours may pose disproportionate risk for women
because they bear greater domestic responsibility and therefore experience greater total
workload than do men [Alfredsson et al. 1985; Heyman 2000; UNDP 1995]

Pathways between organization of work and illness and injury.