Work-related Sense of Coherence as a higher-order

indicator of salutogenic working conditions

Katharina Vogt, Gregor J. Jenny, Dsire Fllemann, Alice Inauen, Georg F. Bauer

Health Promotion Research An International Forum, Trondheim, 8. August 2012

Sense of Coherence

Origin of the concept: Antonovskys Sense of Coherence

Global, non-specific life orientation

Comprehensibility, Manageability, Meaningfulness

Strong Sense of Coherence promotes health

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Work-related Sense of Coherence (Work-SoC)

Work-SoC (Bauer & Jenny, 2007)

Comprehensibility, Manageability, and Meaningfulness of an

individuals working environment

Variation in individuals lifetime, e.g. due to changes in working

environment

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 3

Work-SoC Scale (Bauer, G. F., Inauen, A., Jenny, G., Vogt, K. (in prep.))

How do you personally find your current job and work situation in general?

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 4

Work-SoC Scale

Cronbachs alpha: .83

Test-retest correlation (1 year interval) : .53

Three factor structure: Comprehensibility, Manageability,

Meaningfulness

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Research Question

How is the construct Work-related Sense of Coherence

influenced by an individuals job demands and job
resources?

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Method

Cross-sectional data from a large-scale stress

management intervention study (SWiNG) in Switzerland

3527 employees from eight companies

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Questionnaires

9-item measure of Work-related Sense of Coherence

Further questionnaires on work characteristics:

Time pressure Employee-oriented

Work interruption supervisor behavior
Qualitative overload Task identity
Uncertainty at work Job control

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 8

 Hypothesized model

Job demands

Work-SoC

+
Job resources

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Procedure

First, confirmatory factor analyses to test for the validity of

the measurement model

Second, validity test of the causal structure

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 10

 tp1

tp2

tp3
Time pressure
tp4

wi1 .87
wi2

wi3
Work interruption .77

wi4 Job demands ma1

.34 Manageability
qo1 ma2

qo2
Qualitative overload
.67 -.31 res1
.80
unc1 co1

unc2
co2
unc3
Uncertainty at work .96
-.33 Work-SoC Comprehensibility
co3
sl1

sl2 co4

sl3 .49
Supervisor behavior .55
me1
sl4 .56
sl5 Meaningfulness me2

.30 Job resources me3

Task identity

.42
jc1

jc2

jc3
Job control
jc4

jc5

jc6
2 / DF = 7.7 CFI = .93 RMSEA = .044
SMC of Work-SoC: .48

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 11

 tp1

tp2

tp3
Time pressure
tp4

wi1 .87
wi2
Work interruption .77
wi3

wi4 Job demands ma1

.34 Manageability
qo1 ma2

qo2
Qualitative overload
.67 -.31 res1
.80
unc1 co1

unc2
co2
unc3
Uncertainty at work .96
-.33 Work-SoC Comprehensibility
co3
sl1

sl2 co4

sl3 .49
Supervisor behavior .55
me1
sl4 .56
sl5 Meaningfulness me2

.30 Job resources me3

Task identity

.42
jc1

jc2

jc3
Job control
jc4

jc5

jc6
2 / DF = 7.7 CFI = .93 RMSEA = .044
SMC of Work-SoC: .48

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 12

 tp1

tp2

tp3
Time pressure
tp4

wi1 .87
wi2

wi3
Work interruption .77

wi4 Job demands ma1

.34 Manageability
qo1 ma2

qo2
Qualitative overload
.67 -.31 res1
.80
unc1 co1

unc2
co2
unc3
Uncertainty at work .96
-.33 Work-SoC Comprehensibility
co3
sl1

sl2 co4

sl3 .49
Supervisor behavior .55
me1
sl4 .56
sl5 Meaningfulness me2

.30 Job resources me3

Task identity

.42
jc1

jc2

jc3
Job control
jc4

jc5

jc6
2 / DF = 7.7 CFI = .93 RMSEA = .044
SMC of Work-SoC: .48

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 13

 tp1

tp2

tp3
Time pressure
tp4

wi1 .87
wi2

wi3
Work interruption .77

wi4 Job demands ma1

.34 Manageability
qo1 ma2

qo2
Qualitative overload
.67 -.31 res1
.80
unc1 co1

unc2
co2
unc3
Uncertainty at work .96
-.33 Work-SoC Comprehensibility
co3
sl1

sl2 co4

sl3 .49
Supervisor behavior .55
me1
sl4 .56
sl5 Meaningfulness me2

.30 Job resources me3

Task identity

.42
jc1

jc2

jc3
Job control
jc4

jc5

jc6
2 / DF = 7.7 CFI = .93 RMSEA = .044
SMC of Work-SoC: .48

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 14

Conclusions

Work-SoC does reflect job demands and job resources

Work-SoC might therefore serve as an indicator of

salutogenic working conditions

Work-SoC as an economic way of assessing the health-

promoting quality of working conditions and to detect the
need for further organizational interventions

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Outlook

Relationship between Work-SoC and health outcomes

Group comparisons

Longitudinal analyses

Meaningfulness dimension

Wednesday, 8. August 2012 Division Public and Organizational Health 16

 Thank you for your attention!

kvogt@ethz.ch

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References
Antonovsky, A. (1987). Unraveling the mistery of health: How people manage stress and stay well. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Bauer, G. F., Inauen, A., Jenny, G. J. & Vogt, K. (in prep.). Work-SoC Entwicklung und Validierung einer Skala
zur Erfassung des arbeitsbezogenen Kohrenzgefhls.

Bauer, G. & Jenny, G. (2007). Development, implementation and dissemination of occupational health
management (OHM): Putting salutogenesis into practice. In S. McIntre & J. Houdmont (Eds.), Occupational
Health Psychology. European perspectives on research, education and practice (p.119 250), Vol. 2. EA-
OHP, Castelo da Maia: ISMAI.

Bakker, A. B. & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job-Demands-Resources model: state of the art. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 22(3), p. 309-328.

Semmer, N. K., Zapf, D., & Dunckel, H. (1995). Assessing stress at work: A framework and an instrument. In O.
Svane & C. Johansen (Eds.), Work and health: Scientific basis for progress in the working environment (pp.
105-113). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Udris, I. & Rimann, M. (1999). SAA und SALSA: Zwei Fragebogen zur subjektiven Arbeitsanalyse. In Dunckel
(Hrsg.), Handbuch psychologischer Arbeitsanalyseverfahren. Ein praxisorientierter berblick (S. 397-419).
Zrich: vdf Hochschulverlag.

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