The world of work is continuously transforming, due to innovation and global competition. This has intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which drove changes in our working lives. Many employees are now given more flexibility and autonomy to shape their own work. This can be positive for employees, as it shifts the workforce away from traditional top-down approaches, in which workers have little agency. However, it can also be a burden that is forced upon employees who have little choice but to take on this responsibility. Read More
Research Associate Fiona Niebuhr and her colleagues at the Institute of Occupational Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin recently studied the experiences, resources, and health of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Fiona Niebuhr, whether employees experience this change as positive or negative should be considered in context of their specific work design competencies (WDCs). WDCs refer to the skills needed for designing one’s working conditions, in order to effectively accomplish tasks. It consists of 3 factors:
- Planning competency
- Self-motivation competency
- Stress-avoidance competency
This concept was developed by Dettmers & Clauß, and is a focus of Fiona Niebuhr and her colleagues’ work.
It is typically assumed that employees who experience higher WDCs are able to use increased autonomy to their benefit, experiencing less stress and higher motivation. However, there are still limited studies on WDCs, and how demographic factors are associated with them.
To fill this gap in our knowledge, the team of the Institute of Occupational Medicine at Charité analysed datasets from German surveys of employees. Using a questionnaire, they assessed WDCs, as well as age, workability, and the amount of time spent working from home. Applying the statistical method of cluster analyses, Fiona Niebuhr and her colleagues identified several repeating patterns.
They found that older employees reported higher WDCs on average than younger employees. Older employees have likely acquired the skills to shape their own work from greater experience. Employees with higher WDCs also reported a higher work ability on average, which is one indicator for occupational health. Interestingly, there was no clear pattern between WDCs, and the time spent working from home.
This research highlights the importance of WDCs in employees’ ability to work and their occupational health. It might be assumed that older workers have more pronounced WDCs than younger workers, which strengthens their ability to work. This assumption should be examined in future studies. The current results suggest that WDCs can be acquired over time, and that teams of different age groups can benefit from the experience of older colleagues.
Highlighting these positive components of ageing may help to combat ageism in diverse teams. Additionally, interventions to improve WDCs could support employees who find it difficult to shape their own work.
Work will continue to adapt to a changing world; strengthening workers’ WDCs should be researched and promoted to ensure that employees can flourish.
